Name : Molly Eichel / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
Goosebumps fulfills its purpose, and that's what matters.

Name : Inkoo Kang / Alias : TheWrap
Goofily self-aware and wholesomely boisterous, it's a children's picture whose sense of spooky fun readily diverts from its quibble-worthy messaging.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
The film goes too wide and gets a little soft at the end, but not fatally so. It's the rare horror film - well, sort of horror - that you and your children can enjoy together.

Name : Geoff Berkshire / Alias : Variety
Turns an endearing collection of silly spooky stories into a busy, noisy, soulless eyesore.

Name : Tom Russo / Alias : Boston Globe
It's the best treat we've gotten this Halloween, and definitely not just a bigger-budgeted version of the "Goosebumps" seen on TV.

Name : Kevin P. Sullivan / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
It's a never-boring trip to a world, where stories and imagination are powerful tools, that just might inspire kids to do the scariest thing of all: pick up a book.

Name : Kate Taylor / Alias : Globe and Mail
It gently mocks the traditions of the genre - giant preying mantis rips roof off high school - while never getting too frightening.

Name : Nicolas Rapold / Alias : New York Times
"Goosebumps" would seem to yield the serial pleasures a voracious Stineophile might desire.

Name : Bruce Kirkland / Alias : Toronto Sun
This Goosebumps ride may be bumpy, but it works and it is worthwhile.

Name : A.A. Dowd / Alias : AV Club
As effects-heavy time-wasters go, Goosebumps is mostly harmless, even sporadically amusing. But it isn't likely to keep anyone up at night, out of fear or excitement.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
At a guess, I'd say that Goosebumps will satisfy its core audience - fans of R.L. Stine's popular children's books - and bore pretty much everyone else.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
A special-effects extravaganza that skips over basics like coming up with an interesting origination myth for the creepy creatures who bring havoc to a sleepy suburb.

Name : Linda Barnard / Alias : Toronto Star
Jillian Bell's brief scenes as Zach's Bedazzling-obsessed singleton aunt are fun. So is Darren Lemke's solid script, which leans heavily on groaners and bad jokes to balance scares.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
The pace is great, with the last hour being an all-out monster attack, as all of Stine's creatures - a werewolf, zombies, a mummy, murderous garden trolls and a particularly sarcastic ventriloquist's dummy - go on the rampage.

Name : Alan Scherstuhl / Alias : Village Voice
The filmmakers, to their great credit, spend more than half the running time bending their studio tentpole release to the spirit of Stine rather than cramming Goosebumps into their template.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
It's a cheerful, nasty delight.

Name : Adam Graham / Alias : Detroit News
Goosebumps isn't detached or ironic, nor does it pretend to be something it's not. It's a bonus for fans who pored over the books and it celebrates the fun side of things going bump in the night.

Name : Glenn Whipp / Alias : Los Angeles Times
I have no idea as to the extent of the actual Stine's peculiarities, but just going from his weird, wonderful work, every scene in the movie feels authentic compared with the version I carry of him in my head.

Name : Stephanie Merry / Alias : Washington Post
The production values are better suited for a television movie, and the music, by Danny Elfman, is distractingly intrusive.

Name : Bill Zwecker / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
Black gets to show us his ability to play nasty, distant and angry - all in a way we really have never seen from him before. The bottom line is: It works perfectly.

Name : Peter Hartlaub / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
Happily, the filmmakers build a reservoir of goodwill in the first hour.

Name : Michael Rechtshaffen / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
An amusing, fearlessly over-the-top screen rendering of the book franchise.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Jack Black fires up a stampede of comic terrors ready made for Halloween. Sure it's exhausting. But Goosebumps, knowing its audience, lets it rip.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
A tongue-in-cheek love note to spook stories of yesteryear, "Goosebumps" is a kid-friendly crowd pleaser adults can love, too.

Name : Britton Peele / Alias : Dallas Morning News
Goosebumps is chock full of fun moments whether they're all logical or not, and it's an adventure that should appeal to both young viewers new the series and older readers who devoured them as kids.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
A surprisingly moving tale of friendship and family, dressed up as an adorably frivolous sci-fi comedy.

Name : Maricar Estrella / Alias : Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
Tim Johnson ( Antz) has capitalized on DreamWorks' proprietary animation platform, Apollo to create a rich, intricate setting.But the technology doesn't save the film from falling flat on other levels.

Name : Nancy Churnin / Alias : Dallas Morning News
Maybe it's because kids sometimes feel like aliens in a grown-up world, but from E.T. and Elliott to Lilo and Stitch, pairing a child with a creature from outer space can prove to be a winning combination.

Name : Betsy Sharkey / Alias : Los Angeles Times
Tension is one of "Home's" biggest issues. There just isn't nearly enough of it. Story is another. Even a kids' movie needs more complexity and more invention.

Name : Barbara VanDenburgh / Alias : Arizona Republic
Lazy gags, and it's been done better elsewhere.

Name : Dana Rose Falcone / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
The combination of Home's layered message, fun score, and clever comedy make it a colorful choice for moviegoers of any age.

Name : Geoff Pevere / Alias : Globe and Mail
A big, fat happy meal of a movie .

Name : Peter Debruge / Alias : Variety
From a creative standpoint, this is the studio's least exciting feature yet - hardly its worst, execution-wise, but entirely lacking in the risk-taking spirit that has spawned such successful franchises as "Shrek," "Kung Fu Panda" and "Dragon."

Name : Michael Rechtshaffen / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
There may be no place like home, but there are a lot of places like Home, an animated adventure about the unlikely friendship between a lonely girl and an alien misfit that can't help but feel familiar.

Name : Jesse Hassenger / Alias : AV Club
DreamWorks movies are often about outsiders learning that they don't have to fit in, a lesson the filmmakers may not have absorbed themselves.

Name : Lindsey Bahr / Alias : Associated Press
An earnest exercise that falls flat, despite the best of intentions.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : New York Daily News
The Gummi-colored animation is imaginative, but director Tim Johnson's ho-hum 3D cartoon remains strictly 1D.

Name : James Rocchi / Alias : TheWrap
As animated sci-fi for small fry, it's a success whose modest but well-executed ambitions are no small part of its charm.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : ChristyLemire.com
Heartwarming and harmless? Sure, why not. But it's also numbing in its simplicity and often rather annoying.

Name : Tom Huddleston / Alias : Time Out
Inoffensive but flavourless, and crammed with familiar elements from better movies like Lilo and Stitch , Toy Story and Despicable Me .

Name : Tom Russo / Alias : Boston Globe
Director Tim Johnson ("Over the Hedge") and his animators can't maintain this level of freshness throughout, but that's where Parsons and his goofy charm take over.

Name : Neil Genzlinger / Alias : New York Times
A charming concoction with positive messages for younger children about conquering fears, understanding outsiders and knowing yourself.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
The film moves quickly and keeps the jokes coming, which only means that "Home" would rather keep young viewers occupied than give them something to think about.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
The bland "Home" is a crash pad at best.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
Anyone over 10 will see the plot twists a mile away. Kids will probably enjoy the goofy Boovs, the rainbows of colors and the music. Call me a traditionalist, but I still say the world was a better place before those darn Boovs invaded.

Name : Ben Sachs / Alias : Chicago Reader
Aggressive and cynical approach to children's entertainment, pummeling viewers with mechanical-looking action sequences (which suggest video game demos), unfunny one-liners, and overly loud pop songs and sound effects.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
I brought a couple of my kids, who liked it fine and found the friendship at the center rather affecting.

Name : Sandie Angulo Chen / Alias : Washington Post
This kiddie sci-fi adaptation doesn't quite live up to its evocative title.

Name : Sara Stewart / Alias : New York Post
Like the timorous Boov, "Home" has little interest in risk-taking.

Name : Soren Anderson / Alias : Seattle Times
It works moderately well thanks largely to the voice talents of Jim Parsons and, to a lesser extent, Steve Martin. Two droll dudes who put a fair share of funny into this animated picture.

Name : Linda Barnard / Alias : Toronto Star
Aside from Parsons' initially amusingly mangled Yoda-like English, which gets a tad repetitive, Home doesn't stand out as fresh or particularly funny.

Name : Claudia Puig / Alias : USA Today
Key characters are admirably diverse, but the fast-paced tale is thoroughly predictable.

Name : Joe Williams / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
When we scratch beneath the sugary surface, there's something tart inside that's difficult to digest.