In today’s Hollywood, it’s all about the franchise. With the success of Harry Potter, execs in Hollywood seem steadfastly determined to find the next set of children’s books that can be the next “cash-cow”. Given the billions that the young sorcerer has raked in over the years, who can blame them? How it all turns out in the end is a completely different story.

Last December, New Line gave us the convoluted and cumbersome The Golden Compass, which still has a long way to go to recoup its $260 million price tag. Shrek the Third certainly dominated the box office in 2007, and there’s no doubt another installment is on the way. Fans can also expect a follow-up to The Chronicles of Narnia, which will slide into theaters later this year under the moniker of Prince Caspian. Also throwing their hat into the ring is Paramount with the release of the effervescent and fantastical The Spiderwick Chronicles, based on the bestselling novels of Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black.

Spiderwick centers on the Grace family, a typical single-parent brood that’s on the move from New York to the family’s long-abandoned Spiderwick Estate in rural New England. Helen (Mary Louise Parker) and her three kids; twins Jared and Simon (both played by Freddie Highmore), and older daughter Mallory (Sarah Bolger) set out to make the journey, but conspicuously absent is dad, Richard (Andrew McCarthy) who, in a phone call, reveals he’s stuck in town and will follow shortly. In time, however, the children learn that dad won’t be joining them at all.

The monolithic Victorian Spiderwick house sets an intimate tone as it stands eerily on an abandoned plot surrounded by forest. Upon the family’s arrival, Jared, the more combative and troubled twin, gets a sense that something’s not quite right. Mom’s keys disappear, unexplained noises emanate from the walls, and mysterious sounds can be heard in the bushes outside the house. It’s the spooky and relatable stuff kids conjure up in their minds when the lights go out at night. Eventually, Jared discovers Thimbletack (Martin Short), a house "brownie", a pint-sized enchanted creature that speaks in rhymes. In fact, he’s the guardian of "the book," an antique tome entitled, "Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You."

As we soon learn, the kids’ long-lost Uncle Arthur (David Strathairn) wrote "the book", which turns out to be a guide to understanding fairies, ogres and other supernatural beings. Arthur, once written off as crazy fool who mysteriously disappeared years ago, begins to play a central role in the story and the minds of the children. Interestingly enough, Arthur’s daughter, Lucinda (Joan Plowright) was similarly diagnosed and has spent the better half of her life inside the confines a sanitarium. With his curiosity fully-piqued, Jared studies the book and the secrets of make-believe creatures, which turn out to be not so imaginary after all. What follows is an average struggle that pits the Grace children against a pack of dangerous goblins who seek to obtain the book for their leader, Mulgarath (Nick Nolte), a monstrous ogre hell-bent on using it to annihilate all that is good.

When it’s all said and done, The Spiderwick Chronicles is an average children’s film filled with common themes, several stand-up performances from its ensemble cast (including Seth Rogen as the voice of Hogsqueal), and a number of dazzling CGI sequences courtesy of ILM. Although the movie looks great, Spiderwick falters from only passable writing and adequate directing. It’s a common undercurrent with fantasy films that need CGI to create the make-believe. Spiderwick is a multicolored menagerie we’ve visited a thousand times before. Ogres, nymphs, sylphs and fairies have existed in children’s literature for centuries. It seems that with all of the great tools at the hands of filmmakers today, the only thing holding them back was their imagination.

The Spiderwick screenplay, written by Karey Kirkpatrick, David Berenbaum and John Sayles, weaves together integral parts of the book in an economical and well-paced manner, but thematic elements feel tacked on. Young Jared’s struggle with his father’s abandonment is mirrored both through conflict with the ogre Mulgarath and the divide between Uncle Arthur and his daughter, Lucinda, in the back-story. It’s a convenient narrative fit that does little to provide the emotional depth the authors intended to achieve. Worse yet, the story’s protagonist has little to do with Mulgarath’s demise, a climactic scene that plays almost as a joke; an unsatisfactory ending for a creature that embodies evil on an epic scale.

Director Mark Waters (Mean Girls) delivers a sufficient film, but fails to distinguish himself by making a truly great project. Younger fans of the books will undoubtedly love The Spiderwick Chronicles while adults will find it diverting enough to take a break from life given its 97-minute running time. However, parents of little ones be warned: the ogres and goblins might be a bit too scary for children under the age of ten.