Okay, first off I've never read the book (too busy writing my own) so I can say notjhing about how faithful it might be, can only rate it for it's own entertainment value alone. That said...

From the first advertisements I saw, I knew it had the feel or those similar fantasy stories we all read as kids, those old films with their own collection of goblins, wizards, wierd names. That Dickens-style feel coupled with classic fantasy. It definitely had good vibes.

Then I actually saw the film. To say that I was not disappointed would be understating it immensely. From the very first chord of John Williams' sweeping magical score the spell was cast and didn't let up until the last ending credit went by. I was as captivated as any child there, one with the hordes of children and their few muggle parents who desended upon the theater to sell ouyt FOUR screens with noontime weekday showings (was ANYBODY in school?). By the time the opening scene started, you could almost hear a pin drop.

So what's wrong with this picture? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Between a Quidditch game that's paced more excitingly then the Phantom Menace Pod Race, to talking hats and three-headed demon dogs named fluffy, it was absolutely perfect. Even in the television advetrtisements when they would normally choose the proven tune of some past film as their background, they for once elected to use the film's own score- a sign of the faith they had in this film.

Not the action of a Star Wars picture, nor the epich quality oif other such fiolms, but in it's own sub-genre it is absolutely perfect. I've never seen a film I would rate as a perfect 10, and if this isn't it then it's about as close as you can get. Maybe a 9.99 just to cover what I might have missed but I'm more prone to stick with my 10. Calling this a children's film would be an injustice, as apparently Rollins doesn't enjage in that bad habbit of writting down to people and this film definitely reflects that. See it even if you don't even KNOW any kids, see it just for yourself and that inner child waiting to be shocked back into life.

This film, from top to bottom, is just perfect.