Jesse "Jess" Aarons (Josh Hutcherson) comes from a poor farmer family with four annoying sisters, he finds no haven at school where he's teased by everyone. The only thing Jess has is running; after training all summer for the big race on the school athletic day, he and every other boy racing are beat by new girl Leslie Burke (AnnaSophia Robb). Like Jess, Leslie is teased by her fellow students, but unlike Jess she doesn't let it bother her. After a rocky start, hilarity ensues, they find common ground and together create the imaginary world of Terabithia as a haven from their struggles at school and at home. Leslie teaches Jess to open his mind to every possibility and leave reality behind. But, after a tragedy occurs, Jess must trust in what Leslie has taught him to help over come the horrors that reality can bring.
Trivia: The role of Leslie was originally offered to Dakota Fanning. The TV show that Jess' sisters are watching is "Hannah Montana", which is also produced by Disney. In the scene where Jess and his father are playing with the set of cars, the song on the radio is "You've Got To Keep Your Mind Wide Open", which is the song featured in this movie's music video, performed by AnnaSophia Robb. The original novel's content has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000 at number nine. The name of Terabithia, the imaginary kingdom, sounds very much like Terebinthia, a Narnian island, created by C. S. Lewis for both Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Katherine Paterson acknowledges that Terabithia is likely derived from Terebinthia. "I thought I had made it up. Then, rereading The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis, I realized that I had probably gotten it from the island of Terebinthia in that book. However, Lewis probably got that name from the Terebinth tree in the Bible, so both of us pinched from somewhere else, probably unconsciously."
First off let me say that I don't think Dakota Fanning would have made a good Leslie. Second, The fantasy sequences are great, but I don't think they really fit to well in the story. Yes, a great deal of the story involves imagination and creating this fantasy world by these two children, but Terabithia is more of a catalyst then a destination. Unlike Narnia, Jess and Leslie don't cross over to another world, it is all in their imaginations and it helps them deal with the real world. What I would like to have seen more is stuff like the scene in which Leslie reads her report about SCUBA diving to the class, as she reads about the wonderful undersea world, Jess imagines bubbles coming out of her mouth and fish swimming around, it is nowhere near the hyper reality Terabithia becomes and better conveys the power of imagination to me. It is weird, but I think it would have been better with a cartoonish fantasy world, but with computer graphics these days, you can't do that it seems. This story is really about the friendship forged between Jess and Leslie, two kids that didn't seem to fit in anywhere else. It is also very touching and heartfelt and I will admit I did tear up a bit near the end. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The lovely Zooey Deschanel plays the music teacher. Ummm...music.
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Let me first say that the girl that played Leslie, AnnaSophia Robb, was really great in her role as ecentric, fearless friend. I remember her in Because of Winn Dixie and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I believe we have another adorable Dakota Fanning on our hands. I think that Dakota is too big of a name for this movie now and it gives AnnaSophia a great chance to show her own, which she did splendidly in this movie.
Now, about the movie itself. I was totally lost with the imaginary sequences. I know they were supposed to be imaginary, I know it was supposed to be to help them both cope with whatever was going on in their lives, but I agree they could have been done in a better, more imaginary way. Mabye bringing his drawings more to life and like you said, the scoba diving sequence would have been great. The scenes just seemed so out of place with real looking goblins and creatures coming at you.
OK, another thing is that Colby saw this movie with his best friend, Abbie, here at the movies and he raved about it. He said that he choked back some tears during one part. So, when I rented it, I expected to choke back a lot of tears. In fact, he sat down with me and when the part came up, he stared at me, expecting me to cry. Not one shed. I guess because maybe I expected it? Maybe because the way it was told to young Jess seemed sooooo dramatic and overdone? I don't know, but it didn't catch me for some reason.
Another thing and I'm sorry this is going on for so long...There are movies to me that just stand out as "you should have read the book" movies. I think this was one of them. It seems to me that the book would be SOOOO much better than the movie. Let me send my imagination out into the forest. Let me feel his loss when it comes. Let me understand the friendship that formed. So, that being said, I'm looking to buy the book.....Just like I bought Because of Winn Dixie, Eragon and tons others. I love to see a movie made from a book, but I love the book so much better.
Seems like alot of these type of movies are coming out...I just saw on Apple's movie trailer website two more that have little kids and some sort of fantasy world in it.
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