By Christopher Kelly

McClatchy Newspapers

As “Where the Wild Things Are” illustrates, translating children’s books to the big screen is a tricky business: Adults, children and the book’s author all usually want different things from the movie. Here is our take on the good, the bad and the mezzo-mezzo of recent kiddie-lit adaptations.

THE WONDERFUL

* “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” (2005): A vivid rendering of the C.S. Lewis tale, with Tilda Swinton making one mean White Witch (Prince Caspian, not so good.)

* “Horton Hears a Who!” (2008): This lovingly animated take on the Dr. Seuss classic, featuring nifty voice work by Jim Carrey and Steve Carell, is a modest story with a giant heart.

THE DREADFUL

* “The Cat in the Hat” (2003): Mike Myers, looking more like a serial killer than a Seuss character, turns a classic into a screeching, shrill headache.

* “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events” (2004): Cobbling the first three novels of Daniel Handler’s delightful and macabre series into one movie proved incoherent.

THE HALF-COOKED

* “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” (2009): Tailor-made for animation and 3-D, the story of food falling from the sky tastes yummy at first but ultimately gets too frenetic and harrowing for our refined palette.

* “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (2005): Johnny Depp makes a terrifically sadistic Willy Wonka, but Freddie Highmore’s Charlie isn’t nearly so charming.

c. Fort Worth Star-Telegram