So you're saying the goblins NEVER went to the house at nighttime? All that time and they only happened by it during the day?
What about when Red Cap was like "We'll stay here forever! As soon as you leave the circle we'll be waiting!"
Maybe I missed something?
"Weirdness was all he cared about. Weirdness and sex and plenty to drink."
How is that a problem with the plot? You can't expect the goblins to be surrounding the house 24/7. They have other things to do, as well, you know. And I wouldn't say they never went to the house at night. Just because it's not shown in the movie doesn't mean it never happened. It could have happened off the set, so to speak. That is, there could have been goblins out of camera range, and I'm sure you know what I mean when I say that. Use your imagination. Not every element has to be directly in front of the camera to be there.
ALL HAIL THE HIGH QUEEN!!!!!
Then maybe I'm confused by the enchantment. It seemed that at nightfall the shield that stopped them from getting the book wore off. If their main goal in life was to get the book, you think they would have tried at least once or twice when the sun was down.
"Weirdness was all he cared about. Weirdness and sex and plenty to drink."
The shield that stopped them from getting the book didn't wear off at night, though. The shield was up 24/7. It's just that the only opportunity to break the shield was at night. The goblins and Mulgarath didn't know that until they got that page from the book, however. If you remember correctly, the goblins did manage to get a few pages from the book earlier in the film. One of the pages happened to tell them when and how to break the barrier. They only had a limited window to break it but didn't know it until they got that page from the book. They simply had to first figure out when and how to break the barrier. They knew neither so they couldn't get the book at night at all, at least not until they got the page of the book the explained when and how to break it. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say.
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I haven't read the book the movies was based on, but what did they do to "break it". I guess I was just under the impression that the shield always went down at nightfall. Just curious what evidence in the film pointed you at that conclusion, that it was the only time to "break it"? I seem to recall as soon as it getting dark them saying "Wait for it..." and then the shield going down by itself.
Thanks.
"Weirdness was all he cared about. Weirdness and sex and plenty to drink."
Well, the film didn't exactly delve into how the barrier was broken, but in the film, in one of the goblin scenes after the goblins got a few pages from the book, Mulgarath does mention how their only chance to break the barrier was at night. That's where I got the idea that the only time to break the shield was at night, but they had to know how to break it as well, not just when. There were specific events that needed to take place in order for the barrier to fall. The film just didn't exactly go into them. If anything, I guess you could call that a problem with the plot, so maybe your first assessment was indeed correct. They just didn't completely explain the barrier and left much of it to your imagination.
As for the books it's based on, it's been a while since I read them but, if I recall, there was no barrier even surrounding the house. The books did mention the toadstool barrier in passing, if I recall, but didn't go into how to break the barrier. I could be wrong because as I said it's been a while since I read the books. The movie actually did change a lot from the books. The movie was great in getting the overall story and some of the major concepts from the books, but does some major altering of some of the major plots in order to get the story into an hour and a half. As a movie, I thought it was pretty good. As a book to movie adaptation, even I, someone who actually considers most book to movie adaptations pretty good, have to say it was pretty terrible. However, as I said, they were pretty good in getting the overall story across and actually stayed very true to the spirit of the book.
In closing, I'd have to admit that I may have been wrong to begin with. This very well could be a problem with the plot in that they didn't fully explain the barrier. They left it to your imagination, which really isn't too bad if you think about it. In the books, however, the concept of the barrier wasn't even used at all, if I remember correctly. The toadstool ring was a very small concept not even utilized in the books that they decided to put in the film to help bridge some of the other gaps they left out from the books. If you read the books, you'd probably understand what I'm talking about.
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I haven't read the books, either, so all of the following was gained simply by me watching the film yesterday:
The film shows Mulgarath finally getting ahold of some pages from the book after the goblins grabbed it from the window. Mulgarath at first says that what they snatched was useless--it was information he already knew, but then he suddenly notices that one page described everything Spiderwick knew about the protection spell. You know this because you actually see the page as Mulgarath is looking at it.
Part of what Spiderwick new was how to circumvent the spell, and the page described this--it described what the goblins needed to do to circumvent it, which is either directly mentioned or fairly clearly implied in the film, I don't remember exactly what the dialogue was there--and when they needed to do it.
Mulgarath and the goblins had no idea what they would need to do or when they'd need to do it to circumvent the spell prior to gaining possession of that page from Spiderwick's journal. The film could have maybe shown this more explicitly, could have shown explicitly what the goblins were doing to prepare to break the protection spell, but in the context of the film, it's really a bit of superfluous detail. All a viewer needs to know is that they could circumvent it, and the reason was that they finally snatched that page from the journal.
That kind of information was the whole point of why it was important to keep the book out of Mulgarath's hands.
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Right, my understanding is that teh way to circumvent it was to just show up at nighttime. Which is true doesn't make sense. Maybe it isn't stated outright, but it seems more than "superfluous" as they've been been trying to circumvent it for like 60 years and it leads to the climax of the film.
"Weirdness was all he cared about. Weirdness and sex and plenty to drink."
No, that wasn't all there was to it. I'd need to put the film on again already to give better evidence for what they had to do additionally, but I recall some "spell" or "potion" kind of actions having to be taken--either the page from the book actually showed this or it was at least implied in dialogue in that section or both.
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I've watched the movie several times and can say, without a doubt, that a spell or potion wasn't really implied explicitly, but it most definitely was implied nonetheless. The film really didn't explain how the protective circle was broken, but it did imply that something was done to break it, jut not explicitly. And to break the protective circle most definitely did require much more than just showing up at night. Night was just one part of breaking the spell.
ALL HAIL THE HIGH QUEEN!!!!!
I just watched the movie last night for the first time. I did not read the books. I remember them saying after reading the page from the book that explained how to bring down the barrier that they had to wait for nightfall ( I think they actually said for the moon to rise). Then Mulgarath said they had "a potion to make". So the film did say that it required a potion and then for them to go there at night. So it was clear to me at the time that the barrier did not come down every night, a potion had to be used for them to get through.
They did not show them using the potion, it just had Mulgarath tell the other goblins to come and make the potion. The potion may not even have actually taken the barrier down, it may simply have allowed them to get through the barrier at night.
In the page that Mulgarath got it said how to undo the toad stool enchantment, he didn't have that information before
Half-Blood Son of Poseidon, Son of Adam and Gryffindor 7th year
The script on the page that Mulgarath finds is too hard to read, but the title is clear and he says it plainly. 'CHARM FOR PROTECTIVE CIRCLE'
There are directions and a recipe that is needed for the spell to be reversed. There are pictures on the page, which show the 'circle', the necessary herbs and how to grind it up. As he is reading it, then he also says "When the moon rises, the book will be mine. Redcap we have a potion."
We do not need to actually watch the recipe being made and the incantation spoken, to understand that it must have happened, or the moon would have meant nothing like every other night.
The correct quote is: "Redcap we have a potion TO MAKE!" So they have to brew something to break the circle. And later on one of the kid yells something like: "We have to hurry with our protection measures, they are already spilling the potion." And you can see the Goblins pouring something onto the Toadstools.
And that is, btw, also the explanation why the Goblins were suddenly gone. Redcap said that they would beleaguer them all the time, yet Mal was very astonished when they returned from visiting Lucy and all Goblins have vanished. They were busy tearing the circle down.
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That is EXACTLY what happened sadly not surprised that that many people missed it.
I want freedom from unwarranted accusations of sucrose theft and I want it NOW!
Thanks everyone. Assumed this was the case, glad you were able to back it up.
"Weirdness was all he cared about. Weirdness and sex and plenty to drink."