he Spiderwick Chronicles" is an imaginative, inventive and wholly delightful children's fantasy, filled with ogres, brownies and boggarts and sylphs and goblins. But its best perk is young Freddie Highmore in the dual lead roles of Jared and Simon Grace.

Based on the books by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, finds twin brothers Jared and Simon moving, along with their older sister Mallory (Sarah Bolger) and mother Helen (Mary-Louise Parker), into their newly inherited New England estate.

The place was once the home of Arthur Spiderwick (played in flashbacks by David Strathairn), an eccentric who devoted his life to studying magical creatures. Helen Grace (Mary Louise Parker) has just split from her husband (Andrew McCarthy), and arrived at the house of her Aunt Lucinda (Joan Plowright).

Lucinda's been carted off to a sanitarium, claiming that strange things happened there and was put away for her troubles. For some reason she has stocked up on honey, salt and tomato sauce. So now the Spiderwick mansion is home to Helen and her three children. And there's a lot of life in the Spiderwick mansion.

Simon, the bookish twin, isn't any more curious about this than Mom or sister Mallory (Sarah Bolger). But Jared, the twin with anger issues, is intrigued. The Graces are in the house for a hot minute when a tiny, elflike creature named Thimbletack, who lives in the mansion's walls and guards Spiderwick's book, reveals himself to Jared.

This vengeful "boggart" (the voice of Martin Short) turns into rat-size, foppish ``brownie''. For the last 80 years, Thimbletack has protected a field guide to magical creatures assembled by the Grace kids' Great Uncle Arthur Spiderwick (David Strathairn), who unlocked every secret before a silken cloud of fairies whisked him away forever. This book will Bring About the End of the World if it falls into the hands of Mulgarath, a truly evil ogre (voiced by Nick Nolte).

Then things go really sideways.

Director Mark Waters ("Mean Girls") creates an air of portent but also of adventure, which frees it from the overblown quality that bogs down some of the fantasy stories of late. There's no deep symbolism or hidden meaning in "Spiderwick"; just a truckload of scares and a couple of thrills, but as a swashbuckler for youngsters it’s colorful, and, every now and then, genuinely magical.