Bridge to Terabithia
| Length: 95 mins. | Year: 2007 | |
| Cast: Josh Hutcherson, AnnaSophia Robb, Robert Patrick, Zooey Deschanel | ||
Description
In the fifth grade, there’s nothing worse than getting beaten by a girl, but that’s what happened to Jesse Aaron. Instead of wasting time hating her, the two become incredible friends who create a magical world full of monsters, trolls, and giants and declare themselves the king and queen.
The Bridge to Terabithia was on a sitting on a shelf in Best Buy on the day of my niece’s 6th birthday. She had heard about the film and said, “I wanna get this one!”. As promised, we purchased it and went to my house. After finally fumbling to unwrap it, we put it in the DVD player and started it up. Now, usually, when watching a Disney movie, I say to myself, “Cant wait for some more ‘believe in yourself’ crap to come out and nip me in the bud.”, but this time, it was different. It was about believing in something much bigger than myself. Here is my review of Bridge to Terabithia.
Jess (Josh Hutcherson: Zathura) is a young boy who lives in Northwestern America on a vegetable farm. He goes to a small school and is met by constant bullying by two boys. One day, while sitting in class, Jess meets a new girl, Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb: Because of Winn Dixie). Although she is met with much hostility from Jess, Leslie constantly follows him and attempts to form a friendship. In the middle of the school day, Jess competes in a race with some of the bullies as well as Leslie, who tops all of the boys, including Jess in the race. At the end of the day, Jess learns that Leslie happens to be his new neighbor as well as classmate. Leslie challenges him to a race through the pasture and Jess agrees, send his sister home to play with dolls. As they race, they come to a stop in a small forest. There, they find an abandoned rope hanging over a small crick. They swing on it to test the strength before swinging to the other side. They swing across the crick and walk into the forest. As they make their journey, Leslie decides to play a game. But what starts out as a game, turns into a magical world that’s only entered through an open mind and a creative eye. The imagination of these two is the bridge to a new world…The Bridge to Terabithia.
CONCEPT - 10/10 - A wonderful children/family film. So much of the situations that are shown in this film happen to kids everywhere, and if they watch it, they can learn that stress in life can be put behind them by keeping an open mind and having a sense of imagination.
STORY - 10/10 - A refreshing story of friendship and love. The most saddening end to a movie since My Girl when Jess loses Leslie to an accident but keeps up his strength to see that Terabithia is still alive shows that even if you lose someone, you can still produce great things.
CAST - 10/10 - AnnaSophia Robb and Josh Hutcherson together are like two peas in a pod. Josh is an amazing actor with a lot of talent, I can’t wait to see him in the movies of the future. AnnaSophia is a beautiful actress with a stunning knack for acting. Her smile really lights up the screen. She could be the next Dakota Fanning, if not better.
This movie really touched my heart and made me feel like I had been looking back at what I used to do as a kid. I hope that so many kids who have seen this film understand the message that it conveys.
From the Reviewer’s Square JP