reading through this, i can only echo the others about emotional maturity being the key factor. ours had had the entire series read to her at 3.5, and let me tell you that was a shocker every day we were reading. the project was 100% driven by her interest, and i'd thought she would bail at some point, but she never did. she's 5.5 now, and loves all the movies, too - she's become quite interested in the different choices the film-makers have made and the technical aspects of movie-making.
it's a wonderful series - and if you have no time/interest in pre-reading... you could do a family read-aloud - it'll buy you more time because it takes longer! we had to do the read-aloud (given DD's age) but it was a lovely experience and i would recommend it to anyone.
