I’ve been seeing the trailers for the new Bridge to Terabithia movie. It looks to me like they’re trying to make another Narnia out of it. Admittedly, it’s been a few years since I read the book, but I don’t remember quite so much fantasy world stuff visualized in it.
Anybody got additional info on it?
From what I remember of the book, since I haven’t read it in several years, they’re completely wrecking it. Bridge to Terabithia is not about monsters, or war, or destiny; it’s about two kids who share a fantasy world.
I’m not sure that Terabithia itself was ever particular described beyond things like the names of some of the kingdoms. It was pretty much just a story about the two of them as friends. An accurate telling of the book would probably be closer to the movie My Girl than Narnia, I think.
I haven’t read the book in almost 20 years though so who knows.
That’s what I was thinking, based on the trailers…
unless those are really, really misleading trailers (to be hoped), they’re destroying the book.
Ooh, if I was the type to subscribe to a thread, I’d TOTALLY subscribe to this one. I want to know (in advance, if possible) if Leslie is likely to be a character in Bridge to Terabithia II.
Not surprising, seeing as both films were produced by the pro-positive-message studio Walden Media for Disney. I’ve never read the book, but the synopsis on the official site appears to jibe with what the book was about: Two children become friends and create a magical world in which they solve problems.
When the trailer started, I said, “Hey, it’s Bridge to Terabithia.” As the trailer progressed, I said, “Oh, it must not be. That’s not in the book.” And then at the end of the trailer, they said the name of the movie and I got confused again. I even went and found my copy and skimmed in to see if I was forgetting something.
I wasn’t.
As a 10-year-old, I was devastated by this book. I can’t imagine having gone to the movie at that age. I just don’t know.
All I have to say is the producers were evidently not reading the same “Bridge to Terabithia” that I read. It looks like all the two have in common is the title and maybe the main characters’ names.
And they gave Jess’s hairstyle to Leslie (Michaela brought the illustrated book home from school a couple of weeks ago, and the one with the Sandy Duncan hairstyle was Jess, not Leslie. She looked like Elliot Gould in Whiffs).
My 5th grade teacher read Bridge to Terabithia out loud for 10 minutes a day or so. I remember, when she got to the end, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. I don’t remember all the flying fairies and wierd creatures I saw in the trailer though… :rolleyes:
Nothing wrong with your memory, kid. The Teacher’s Read-Aloud edition[sup]TM[/sup] specifically instructs the reader to skip over those parts…
The trailer was full of monsters, gadgets, and high-tech adventure. I was thinking, “this is all wrong!” The whole point of the book was that this was an old-fashioned fantasy world, where kids were playing together in the woods and most of the fantasy stuff was based around them being a king and queen, whereas IRL their lives weren’t so great. It was about a sweet relationship between two tweeners with a very sad ending.
I can’t imagine why they need to tart it up with a bunch of crap. It’s a great story without cybertronic hand robotics or whatever the hell I saw in that trailer. I think it’s going to suck. Maybe I’m wrong, but I doubt it.
Either this is the least faithful adaptation since I, Robot, or else this trailer is seriously misrepresenting the film.
I mean, I suppose it’s possible that they’re keeping the core of the novel but just expanding and visualizing the fantasy bits a little. If that’s the case, people are going to be really disappointed. Really, really disappointed.
I haven’t seen the trailer and now I don’t want to see even that much. I agree with the other posters: the whole fantasy thing is imagined; if it’s shown in all the gaudy glory that CGI effects can allow, it will overwhelm the real magic at work, that they’re enlivening their lives with a rather low-key bit of shared fantasy in spite of the more drab reality of their lives.
And I betcha dollars to donuts that all the unflattering references to religious belief (Jess’ younger sister’s shouting that Leslie went to hell, and Jess’ father saying that no God ain’t gonna send no little ten-year-old girl to hell) won’t make it into the first draft of the screenplay.
And will they include the special trip to the museum that the teacher makes with Jess (and only Jess), and successfully communicate just how wonderful this was for Jess and all the reasons why? I seriously doubt it, given the immediate backdrop of a series of lurid teacher-student sex scandals of recent years.
I saw the trailer a couple of weeks ago, and I got frothing mad. Bridge to Terabithia was one of my favourite books when I was about ten. It’s not fantasy! It’s about two kids, and growing up, and all the difficulties that being different in a small town brings!
It’s about the small town farmer/big city liberal culture clash, and bullies, and child abuse, and a boy’s imagination being awakened by books! And poverty, and parental struggle! And they’ve made Leslie pretty!
One of the big points for me, in the books, was that both the kids are young enough to still want to play, and feel mystery, but old enough to know that they’re just making it all up, and that that’s the point. No flashy animation. If the actors and script were good enough, in a proper movie, they could make us see the monsters they’re fighting, and understand the parallels between their monsters and the real ones at school.
I’m going to pretend they’re not making the movie.
That’s the spirit! I’m going to pretend that the filmmakers are taking a long arcing swing off a short, frayed rope…
Pardon my ignorance, but
doesn’t a kid die in that story?
Doesn’t sound too Modern Disney to me…
Like I said upthread, this book traumatized me in 5th grade. The teacher was reading it aloud and I missed a day, the last day. When I came back, my friend Matt Baker told me the end. It was awful.
I was a wimpy kid. Now I’m a wimpy adult. I wouldn’t see this movie if you paid me.
I don’t think the movie they’re making (which doesn’t exist) can possibly have the book ending. It’s too sad.
Doesn’t matter. It’s not real.
Apparently it’s the latter. There’s a review at Aint-It-Cool that says it covers the ground of the book and is not how the trailer has portrayed it. No real spoilers in the review that I could see.