"A fantasy in the tradition of The Princess Bride, Stardust leavens its mature fairy tale with elements of romance, horror, and comedy. ... Although the film may appear, at first glance, to be a family film, it contains enough content to make it a dubious choice for young children. There are sequences of mild horror, in which characters die, sometimes gruesomely. ... In the end, this is very much a fairy tale in the truest sense of the term, with plenty of the darkness left in that is often expunged from such stories. ... The darker elements are nicely modulated. They're not graphic but they convey the point."