A trip to their beach house changes everything forever. Noah and Emma find a mysterious black box that's washed up on the shore, and after bringing it inside they open the box and explore its toylike contents: a blue, blobbish snail-like thingamabob, a sea shell, a flat crystal that starts to glow, a chunky rock that breaks into pieces that magically spin in unison and an adorable old stuffed bunny rabbit that, in a language only Emma understands, introduces itself as Mimzy.

Soon, Emma and Noah begin to display remarkable powers. Noah, always an average student, shocks his science teacher, Mr. White (Wilson), not just with a remarkable project he's developed for a science fair but by doodling images of mandalas, Buddhist drawings that Mr. White has been seeing in his dreams since a trip to Tibet. Later, Noah learns to teleport objects. Emma, meanwhile, relays information from Mimzy about mankind's past and bleak future, and she uses the spinning rocks (or spinners) to form increasingly powerful vortexes.

Noah and Emma attract the attention of the feds when they accidentally cause much of Seattle to black out, and the whole Wilder family—not to mention the contents of the box—ends up at a government research facility where, big surprise, no one believes the kids' outlandish tale. Mimzy eventually reveals to Emma what's at stake (she's trying to save the world and mankind ... from itself) and tells her she must get back home. But time is running out. Mimzy is fading fast. The toys are disintegrating.

Charming and exciting, but not a classic

The Last Mimzy is a wonderful family movie that gets so much right that one is tempted to ignore its shortcomings. For starters, The Last Mimzy is that rare kids' film that parents will appreciate, and yet it's not condescending to the kids in the audience. They'll go along for the ride, ooh and aah as Emma and Noah struggle to save the day, and then ask Mom and Dad to explain some of the story's more intricate machinations and deeper scientific, environmental and New Age-y meanings.

Hutton and Richardson do what they can with underwritten roles, but Wilson and Hahn (as Mr. White's Buddhist fiancee) add generous helpings of quirkiness, heart and humor. O'Neil is OK, if perhaps too stiff, while Wryn wins everyone over with her sweet, sympathetic, understated performance. Most of the visual effects are convincing, and Howard Shore contributes a touching, low-key score. And fans of the short story will recognize it in the expanded plot and appreciate Shaye's nods to the source material.

For all that, the shortcomings are damaging. The story that Shaye and his writers aim to tell is convoluted, even for adults, and some kids may simply get lost and disconnect from the proceedings. Every story thread may be intended as part of the bigger picture, but by the end, too many threads seem to have nothing to do with one another. When the feds, not so subtly citing the Patriot Act, close in on the Wilders, it all feels a little too clichéd and predictable. It's just pure silliness when the kids escape the research facility on the way to their date with destiny, laughably using a sputtering, low-on-gas truck to do so. And there's a product placement moment that's just deadening and ill-advised.