Arthur Spiderwick (David Strathairn) has devoted his life to writing a catalogue of fantastic creatures in The Spiderwick Chronicles. It might be too scary for young children, but the movie satisfies even fans of the books.

The five books that make up The Spiderwick Chronicles are beloved. Mark Waters' film version of this fantastical story, which spans all five although it virtually ignores book four, is less celebrated as it debuts on DVD this week.

That seems inevitable. Hollywood seldom delivers what devoted readers conjure for themselves when they lift stories off the page and fire up their imaginations.

Conversely, Waters' fast-paced opus is absolutely good enough to entertain the family-film crowd, with the caveat that it may be scary for young children because the effects are dazzling.

A grumpy Brownie and a host of goblins, griffins, trolls, ogres and other fantasy creatures are intense, while haggard Nick Nolte, as himself, is the scariest monster of all.

Also on the plus side, there is Freddie Highmore playing twin brothers Jared and Simon Grace. In his first American role, Highmore is (as always) astonishing in the breadth and depth of his performance, helping to ground the fantasy in human reality.

In other roles, Sarah Bolger plays the sister, Mary-Louise Parker the mother and Joan Plowright the great-aunt. David Strathairn, an American treasure, is the uncle who originally penned the troubling field guide.

In the end, as a movie, The Spiderwick Chronicles may entice newbies to pick up the books and plunge in, so the movie does its job. As do the DVDs. In addition to a Blu-ray, there is a one-disc edition in separate full and widescreen versions.

But I recommend the two-disc Field Guide Edition. The filmmakers do a thorough job of taking us behind the scenes.

Listen to Parker describing the work of Highmore: He electrifies even veteran actors. Marvel at the way the filmmakers created the mythical creatures (although I have a problem with the Griffin, because birds on the wing remain a challenge).

Caramel

On the festival circuit, Nadine Labaki's Caramel beguiled audiences from Cannes to Cairo, from Stockholm to San Sebastian and from Montreal to Toronto. Labaki, a Lebanese beauty who co-wrote, directed and co-starred in this wonderful film, discovered something both shocking and delightful: Her simple yet elegant story about women in a Beirut beauty parlour could excite people everywhere.

Caramel is not about war or Middle East geopolitics. This inspirational, poignant and often amusing film is a human comedy about everyday life. It arrived this week on widescreen-only DVD. It plays in its original Arabic (recommended) or in a French dub (not). Either way, there are English or French subtitles available.

The extras are a mixed blessing, depending on your facility with language. The charming Labaki does an English-language, on-camera interview in which she describes the title -- it's the sweet concoction beauticians in Lebanon use to wax off unwanted hair -- and the metaphor. The movie explores "something sweet that burns and hurts you," Labaki says. "It is this idea of bittersweet and this eternal search for beauty that makes you suffer."

The making-of doc is in French only. Several languages are heard in the whirlwind featurette, World Festival Tour, in which we see Labaki in action, including in Canada.

Honeydripper

Famed American director John Sayles worked on The Spiderwick Chronicles. Sayles' expertise is punching up dialogue. Not surprisingly, on a pure Sayles film, there is no need for outside help. He wrote, directed and edited Honeydripper.

It came punched up.

By coincidence, Honeydripper also makes its DVD debut this week in a modest widescreen-only edition. Sadly, there are no extras, except for trailers.

I love blues, rhythm 'n' blues and early bluesy rock so I'm a sucker for the musical movie itself. Danny Glover stars as nightclub owner in Alabama in the 1950s. Desperate to save his debt-ridden Honeydripper Lounge, Glover plunks an unknown on stage, a young man with a fresh sound. Find out for yourself what happens next as Sayles highlights a transition era in contemporary music.

Looking well past 10,000 BC

Despite superbly orchestrated special effects, Roland Emmerich's fantasy 10,000 BC is pure prehistoric fantasy.

Even the animals, such as the sabre-toothed cat and the mammoths, are stylized, although they are impressive. For reality -- or as close an approximation as scientists and special-effects animators and artists can achieve today -- you should instead consult the magnificent six-disc collection, Prehistoric Earth: A Natural History.

This BBC set, recently released in widescreen-only, collects the now famous "Walking With" series made from 1999 through 2005 and arranges them in chronological order in terms of their content.

So it starts with Walking With Monsters: Life Before Dinosaurs and moves on to Walking With Dinosaurs plus its companion special Allosaurus, then on to Walking With Prehistoric Beasts and finally to Walking With Cavemen. The entire history of life on Earth is chronicled.

The collection is packed with extras, including a David Attenborough special, Living With Dinosaurs, which focuses on crocodiles as the modern legacy. In other materials, the solid science of the series is explained, with references to trouble the filmmakers encountered with some commentators and especially with creationists who ignorantly deny evolution.

There is a distinction between the core trilogy -- Monsters, Dinosaurs and Beasts -- and the Cavemen piece. Tim Haines helmed the trilogy and chose Kenneth Branagh to narrate, an inspired choice. Richard Dale served as executive producer and director of Cavemen, with Andrew Sachs as narrator. Branagh tells the stories of evolution with quiet passion and poetic simplicity. The Cavemen episodes, while visually exciting, are full of compromises as Sachs is obliged to over-explain the programs theories.

Yet, taken as a whole, Prehistoric Earth is monumental while 10,000 BC is just absurd.