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Has anyone seen this trailer or read the book. It looks pretty cool and have never read the book wanted to know if anyone could give me insight on to what the movie was about. The trailer gives a lot of really cool shots but not much on where and what Terabithia is.
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I read it when it was like 8 and apparently it wasn't as good as a read as everyone says because I barely remember any of it...
Posts: 1158 | Registered: Feb 2006
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Bridge to Terabithia is the story of Jess Aarons, an artistically gifted but unhappy and neglected boy in a lower income rural community.
His life changes for the better when he meets Leslie Burke, a new move-in. She's from a far different upbringing than Jess...and she has trouble adjusting to her new community and making friends.
They become swift, unlikely friends. Her vivid imagination and love of reading fantasy open up a whole new vista for his own creativity to blossom.
His friendship becomes her lifeline in an unhappy situation.
They both create Terabithia...an imaginary (Narnia & Prydain-esque) land where they reign as King and Queen.
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The trailer looks much more fanciful than the book actually is. I don't remember most of the book actually being about Terabithia but rather about the relationship between the two characters. There is an eighth grader at my school who looks EXACTLY the way I picture Leslie in the book.
Posts: 1319 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Walden Media decided to portray Jess and Leslie's dreams of Terabithia onscreen, instead of having them mostly be implied, as they were in the book.
A change that author Katherine Paterson is apparently happy with, as she's stated that the film is faithful to her book where it counts.
I take that as a good sign that Jess & Leslie will still be the focus, even with CGI trolls cavorting about in some sequences.
And yes...as others have stated, the climax of this story is -extremely- depressing. The resolution and coda are bittersweet.
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Sounds like a really cool movie with really cool special effects and a realistic ending, sort of??? Well I;m gonna go see it at least. Thanks for all the comments on the film/ book so far.
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I've always wondered if "Terebithia" was related at all to the "Terebinthia" in the Chronicles of Narnia.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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CGI looks like a cross between Lion/Witch/Wardobe and LOTR. Music sounds like it was ripped right from LOTR, to say nothing of the Ent in the beginning of the trailer.
But I'll still see it, because it was Zooey Deschenel.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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But the movie looks good enough, I didn't think that they would come up with all this CGI stuff. In short, here's what my mind and I said to each other:
Me: Wait, why do they have all this CGI stuff in there? Weren't they just imagining everything?
Mind: Duh, they're MAKING it real. Would they really make a movie if all they're going to show is two kids talking and reacting to things that aren't visible to the audience?
Posts: 3389 | Registered: Apr 2004
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One movie I'll make sure to miss. It was sad enough reading it as a kid...I sure don't want to see it on the big screen.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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I really liked the book, but the trailer makes the film look a bit... I don't know. The children at least are way too cute.
Has anyone here read a book called The Brothers Lionheart? (It's by the Swedish author Astrid Lindgren who is probably best known for her Pippi Långstrump books.) Anyway, the reason I'm asking that these two books sort of share the same subject matter and they both are targeted at children and they also deal with it through a sort of a fantasy setting. Other than that, though, they have very different takes on it. Both books are very, very good in my mind (though I'd probably rate Brothers Lionheart a little bit higher due to some of the additional philosophical points it makes). Oh, and of course both of them are equally depressing. In Scandinavia Brothers Lionheart is a book that they read at hospitals for terminally ill children.
So I was just wondering if anyone else has read both of these books as it would be interesting to discuss what they have the same and what not? (There's also a movie based on the Brothers Lionheart and it is rather good, though they didn't have much of a budget which you can see in the special effects and battle scenes.)
Posts: 247 | Registered: Dec 2006
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The book didn't make me cry at all. Women of Genesis did, when Ender died I cried, also in one of the stories in Maps in a Mirror. I know I've cried with other books too, by people other than OSC.
Posts: 3389 | Registered: Apr 2004
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I love this book! It was SO sad, oh my goodness I cried every time I read it... If the movie's at all similar I doubt I'll want to see it in theatres. lol.
Posts: 143 | Registered: Oct 2005
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The worst part was the shock, I was completely unprepared for it. That kind of thing doesn't happen in kids books.
Hell, Where the Red Fern Grows was bad enough. Children's books should not have that kind of tragedy, there is enough crap in real life that kids have to deal with.
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I think it depends of the child. For some seeing tragedies happen in fiction may help them deal with the tragedies in their own life. For others I suppose it may be counterproductive.
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quote:Originally posted by Lupus: The worst part was the shock, I was completely unprepared for it. That kind of thing doesn't happen in kids books.
Hell, Where the Red Fern Grows was bad enough. Children's books should not have that kind of tragedy, there is enough crap in real life that kids have to deal with.
I haven't read "Bridge to Terabithia," and thought the trailer looked pretty mediocre (but then, I was never really a fan of the "children in a fantastic world" subgenre), but I really disagree with the sentiment in this post. Personally, as a kid, the books I found most absorbing were those that dealt with tragedy- "Ender's Game" itself being a prime example.
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Sep 1999
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I'm going to have to watch this movie and keep reminding myself that it doesn't happen. The fantasy is all make believe, while I have no problem with it, they aren't going to a fantasy world, they're pretending it.
My class read it in 5th grade, and we pretty much all expected something to happen, but the day we finished the book was awful, a girl a grade younger than us had died of a heart attack. Our teacher was 8 months pregnant, and sat us down in a circle to read, but started crying before we even got to the sad shocking part. It is shocking, there's no illness, and you aren't there when it happens.
(oh and this is breyerchic)
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The author wrote the book at least partially as a way of dealing with feelings she herself went through after her son's best friend died in a freak accident.
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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I got "Bridge to Terebethia" as a Christmas gift when I was 8. Read it right then and there and cried my eyes out. For me, that's a good thing. I need and needed books that provide an emotional release, a safe way for me to deal with feelings I couldn't otherwise.
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I read it in fourth grade, and remember really liking it. I'll probably see the movie at some point.
Posts: 413 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I sort of see the CGI in there serving the same purpose that the fantasy scenes in Finding Neverland did (which I *loved*, by the by). I hope they do it the same as in FN.
Posts: 193 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Looks like the previews ARE misleading to what the actual film is about. This is from Scifiwire.com
"The filmmakers behind Disney's upcoming fantasy film Bridge to Terabithia disavowed any connection with the movie's ad campaign, which they told SCI FI Wire was deliberately misleading. The ads show a boy and girl entering a fantasy world; the scene actually takes place at the end of the movie.
"I believe it's a stretch, and it's a very difficult decision on Disney's part, but we the filmmakers had nothing to do with that promotion," said director Gabor Csupo (The Wild Thornberrys). "We don't really think that it's an appropriate way of selling the movie, but they're convinced that that's the way to get kids interested, and hopefully they will be positively surprised. If they are anticipating a Harry Potter movie, then we are in trouble. It is not a Harry Potter kind of a movie."
The film is based on a book by Katherine Paterson, which tells the story of a friendship of a boy and girl who are bullied at school and escape into their own fantasy world of Terabithia. The book was published 30 years ago, and it took 17 years for Paterson's son, David, to co-write the screenplay and produce the project. Director Csupo said the novelist was happy with his vision: "She was very pleased from the beginning, because we did not want to turn the movie around or do a movie like the ad campaign is suggesting. We didn't want to do a movie like that."
David Paterson, who also serves as one of four producers credited for the film, said: "As a producer I can explain it in simple monetary terms: If you need honey, get a bear. And I can tell you if everyone who read the book brought three friends, then it would still lose money."
David Paterson added: "Although there is a generation that is very familiar with book, if you are over 40, then you probably haven't, and we need to reach them. ... Everyone who read the book and sees the trailer says, 'What is this? This is nothing like the book. What are you doing, Dave?' And I say, 'You know what you're seeing is 15 seconds of a 90-minute film. Give me a little leeway and respect. Go see it, and then tell me what you think.'"
When the younger Paterson first saw the trailer, he wasn't thrilled. "The lights came up, and all these suits were very happy, and I said, 'Well, my mom is going to hate it.' And they said, 'What do you mean?' And I said, 'I don't remember that from the book.'"
Katherine Paterson then accompanied her son to another meeting. "When they brought the lights up after showing me the trailer, I said, 'Well, I'm glad I had a talk with David beforehand,'" she said.
The writers do say they are happy with the outcome of the overall film, starring Josh Hutcherson (Zathura), AnnaSophia Robb (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Zooey Deschanel (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgment Day). It opens nationwide on Feb. 16."
Posts: 128 | Registered: Aug 2006
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I think they're making a mistake. If the ads are really nothing like the movie, they're going to turn off both segments of the audience. The ones who have read and loved the book will think the movie's not going to be anything like the book, and might avoid it. The ones who haven't read it will expect something like Narnia, and be disappointed.
Posts: 1522 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Yep. I discussed it with my students, and their overall reaction was, "We loved the book and the preview looks nothing like the book. We think that's stupid and cheesy and the book isn't about Terebithia anyway really and we're not going to see it so there ." Which was my reaction, too.
It's a great book, and though it's sad, it's ultimately hopeful--and thus appropriate for kids, in my opinion.
Posts: 834 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Having never read the book, I really thought the movie was well done. All of the children actors were great. I even thought the two older sisters were awesome in the limited amount of screen time they got. I can't wait to expose my own children to a movie like this but that will have to wait till they are a bit older.
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I didn't cry (nor was I particularly brokenhearted) when Ender died. It's like when someone old dies after a lengthy period of senescence. Ender had ceased to be a relevant part of the plotline well before he died, and he had also ceased to be particularly compelling, as a character. I could pretty much see his death coming, also.
-o-
This doesn't sound like something I'd enjoy watching in a theater. Maybe when it comes to video I'll watch it. I don't particularly like things that end sadly; it's not a selling point for me.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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quote:Originally posted by SoaPiNuReYe: I read it when it was like 8 and apparently it wasn't as good as a read as everyone says because I barely remember any of it...
Ditto. I know I read it, I remember the sad part, and some other very very vague notions, but almost nothing about the book as a whole. The trailers looked cheesy as all get out though, and I probably won't see this until it comes on ABC Saturday night. If the trailers are misleading, then someone needs to fire that guy.
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Bridge to Terabithia? Ender's Game? Where the Red Fern Groes? Sure, they're sad. But you want really sad? A Light In the Forest is the sadest YA novel, ever. (IMO, of course) Anybody read it?
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
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Well, I didn't know anything about this movie, it looked from the previews like a lighthearted fantasy kids movie. So me and my wife, devastated at the unexpected death of our cat (under general anasthesia for a simple operation), tried going out to the movies to take our mind off of it...
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I only went to see the movie because the fantasy element looked like it would appeal to my son. The trailers did not make it look like it would stay true to the book, so I was not expecting much.
Boy was I wrong. It WAS quite faithful to the book. I really liked it. So did my son, even though he cried the whole rest of the night. It started some good talks between us about death about friendship, fairness, about standing up for what is right, and about how so many "mean" people are pitiable and are usually mean for a reason.
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quote:Originally posted by Olivet: Katherine Patterson went to my Alma Mater (though well before my time), which is kind of cool. She comes to Alumni Weekends and stuff.
The only book of hers I actually own is Jacob I Have Loved.
Oh, man, love that one, too. I really love all her stuff. I did a report on her in grade school. (Madeline L'Engle was taken by one of my friends. )
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