Exhilarating and enchanting family picture. It's the best I've seen this year and highly recommended for girls and for boys, too.

It's hard to imagine kids not enjoying the good-hearted, lovingly shot fantasy of it all, and Breslin is charming, though most viewers past puberty will likely yearn to be voted off the Island.

For all its limitations, the film still looks terrific. Flawless CGI and forays into animation keep things visually lively, and Nim's enviable life is likely to hook kids into the story early and keep them entranced.

Some nice scenery, an unexpectedly funny performance by Jodie Foster and a unflaggingly spunky Abigail Breslin make for above average family entertainment.

This family comedy adventure from Walden Media is likable in a scruffy way. Its characters, especially the youngest one, are engaging, and few adults are immune to childhood fantasies about secluded tropical isles.

Even as the derivative roots of Nim's Island are clearly visible, kids will no doubt vicariously enjoy Nim's adventures and Edenic existence. And how refreshing, for once, to see a girl embark on derring-do that, in Nim's own words, makes her the hero of her own story.

Boys adventure stories are a dime (store novel) a dozen, but girls adventure tales are rare things indeed.

An entertaining, diverting adventure saga that offers excitement and a relatable heroine for children, and also will remind their parents of favorite classics from their own youth.

If you're an elementary schooler or someone who finds Gerard Butler irresistible even when fully clothed, Nim's Island may be a treat to watch. If not, it's likelier to be a chore.

Breslin, so memorable in "Little Miss Sunshine," suffers the most. Skilled and reactive with humans, she doesn't quite muster the same engagement with her finned and flippered costars here.

There's nothing especially wrong with Nim's Island, but there's not a lot right about it either.

8- to 12-year-olds will have a good time, and you'll have a good time watching them have a good time. Otherwise, the film's an oddity.

Smarter than it sounds and carried by a very funny performance by Foster, this is a kids' movie that's bearable for adults too.

Despite its formula and flaws (chief among them Foster's sitcom-campy performance), Nim's Island is a perfectly pleasant, agreeably innocuous 'tweener adventure film.