In Jackson's simplified, sweetened, and CGI-besotted telling, "The Lovely Bones" is a sad-but-hopeful, dramatic-but-gentle fairy tale intentionally made less upsetting for teens. (There's no indication that Susie gets raped, as she does in the novel, and her murder occurs off screen.) "Atonement's" terrific Ronan, with her astonishing glacier-blue eyes, watches from a scenic afterlife as her father (Mark Wahlberg), mother (Rachel Weisz), younger siblings, and selected friends simultaneously heal from their loss and search for her killer.

CNN: Review: 'The Lovely Bones'

The production design and the saturated colors are close enough that this movie really does work as a prequel (albeit in 3-D), and while the CGI is unmistakably 21st century, Raimi's unironic celebration of pure artifice does suggest a continuum of sorts.

CNN: Review: 'Oz the Great and Powerful' is more than good enough

Do you think poverty, especially as the U.S. Census Bureau has come out with American poverty issues -- 1 in every 6 Americans are in poverty -- do you think he's going to address issues of global poverty at the CGI?

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing