It’s been a dozen or more years since one of my kids had it as assigned reading in middle school. I don’t remember it clearly, but it struck me as a bit creepy with some controlling overtones in the teacher/child relationship. But, then again, movies and books are often quite different.
I read the book myself a couple times and I just went and saw the movie.
I liked both. I thought the movie was very well done.
It was clean and not a computer animation overload.
It stuck fairly close to the story and they did a wonderful job with the black and white vs color scenes.
It actually had a story line and plot and was something you could take your kids to.