I thought the movie followed the book pretty closely,and as a movie for younger children its very good,IMO,but after the Ring trilogy,I was a little disapointed in it.The big battle at the end had its moments,but cant hold a candle to the battle of Helms Deep in the Two Towers(but in all fairness,are there many battles in ANY movie that can?)or any number of battles in the Ring series.
The film seemed a little chintzy to me,that it lacked the scope of a real epic.As far as taking small children,if I had seen those wolves when I was a little kid,I would have been scared to death,but then again,I had to hide in my mom's coat when I was 5 when I went on the Pirates of the Carribean at Disneyland
Jimmy