Freddie Highmore

Never stops doling out demented treats....Dahl's morality play of bad parenting and bad-egg kids is evergreen....a genuinely amazing movie.

For a movie about magical beasts, The Spiderwick Chronicles does an awfully good job of pegging childhood emotional realities, particularly in a context of divorce.

What Astro Boy has in spades are energy, good humor, and the demolition-derby action of a superhero smash-up, reasons enough to recommend it to grade-school boys.