Hm. I am kind of torn by this one.

On the one hand, I'm a Librarian. At the moment I'm half Children's, half Teen so I totally get this book. And Gaiman is good. And it's a good book, if a little wierd, dark and scary. But that's not bad. Not the best thing that Gaiman ever wrote (that would be either the Sandman comics, American Gods, or Good Omens with Terry Pratchett) but a good book that most kids totally get.

On the other hand, it's kind of slow moving and builds slowly, not one that immediately grabs anyone who is not willing to go along for the ride.

On the OTHER hand, it's very filmable. And they kept the scary button eyeballs, And the stuff (like the mouse circus) that the group watching it (me, Mr. Otter, Maid-of-Awesome and She Who Sleeps Through Movies) said, wait a minute, that wasn't in the book...was actually in the book.

On the OTHER hand, and I think we're on #4 here, the stuff that was in the book was way expanded and cute-ified. We all said, HUH? On the final, other hand...we all thought that for a creepy movie, and especially an ANIMATED creepy movie...it kind of dragged.

I'm sure Gaiman said, sure, hand me the check, and ran off to the bank without looking back, as any intelligent author who has sold movie rights (among whom, God and Chris Columbus willing, Mr. Otter will someday be) does. Even Gaiman doesn't have that much say in movies, and why beat your head against a wall? sell it and let them make the movie they want. (And if Gaiman DID have a hand in this, I don't want to know, okay?)

So. This was okay, flawed but interesting. The best part was the batwing dachshunds, which made me laugh hysterically and I want one. But otherwise? it's not that great.