I had high hopes for this since it is Disney and I had never read the book. This is by far the weirdest, creepiest, longest, boring KIDS movie I have ever seen. It is like a horror flick for kids. Just Terrible. Constant suspense that never really climaxes and a sudden really dumb ending. A total loss for me. And my 8 yr old kept asking me 'what's going on?" about a hundred times during the movie. Too hard for kids to follow. The set and the actors are cheesy and fake. And it was so long I just couldn't wait for it to be over. Just awful.

I was a HUGE fan of the novel as a child, and was very excited when I discovered that they made a movie version of it. I quickly ordered the DVD and even had it rushed to me. I watched it as soon as I got the DVD, but I was a bit disappointed. Perhaps if I had not read the book, I would have thought the movie was better than it was, but that was not the case. It was tragic to see what they had done to Mrs. Who, my favorite character of the novel. In the novel she was constantly quoting people, and in various languages, but in the movie was an afterthought and just seemed odd. The Happy Medium seemed like a characture of a homosexual male and not the ambiguous being that it was in the novel. I felt that they could have done a great deal more with the over 2 hours they had in the movie. I could list a million more things that they should have done better, but that would be pointless. If you have not read the books and simply want a safe for families adventure story, then this is a good choice. However, if you adored the book like I did, tread lightly as you will most surely be disappointed with what they did.

Overall, I'd say it's worth watching. I bought it used, and am glad I did because now I own it and didn't have to pay the full price for it.

The book was, of course, much better, and that may be why I was slightly disappointed. The visual effects were kind of... well... they kind of sucked. The flying horse thing was ridiculous and I think it was the worst part of the film.

The Happy Medium was pretty bad too. I did like the three Mrs. W's, they did a surprisingly good job. Meg and Calivin did awesome as well. Charles Wallace, however, was kind of creepy at times and for the most part came off as a weird kid, even around his family. In the book, he seemed more cute and just quiet, not at all weird.

Instead of just skipping over some details like most movies based on books do, they also added things that didn't belong. I really wanted to see them make the stop on the 2-dimensonal planet, and was disappointed t osee that part missing.

The Tesseract could have been better, too. They explained it well in the movie, but I had imagined it a lot different. The way they showed it in the movie just looked like someone was on shrooms or drugs. The one where they were going through "IT" was kind of cool though.

Still, it was worth watching and I'd still recommend it, if at least for the sake of having a visual of the book.

Although the characterizations and effects are well done, I never quite felt totally drawn into the movie. The story centers around three kids going to another land to find the father of two. This land is beautiful with some unusual beasts. But what is most striking about the movie is the emphasis placed on emotions like love. We are shown how love for family can save them from pitfalls they may fall victim to whether in a strange land or at home. Good quality DVD with fair replayability. I recommend renting it first. My wife and daughter have read the book, and they were slightly disappointed. If you enjoyed this catch "Into the West" and "Princess of Thieves".

CA Luster

Fairly good quality movie with an interesting presupposition by the filmmaker as to the manner of the disappearance of Mr. Murry. (Watch the deleted scenes.) Wanders from the book, but mostly recognizable as Madelyn L'Engle's tale of evil attempting to take over the universe and love conquering evil.