I shall not spoil the story for those who have yet to see the movie, but I will say that, in my opinion, this movie is for a more mature audience than one would think. Bridge to Teribithia' Essay Contest Offers Big Prizes to Students and Teachers Exclusively at Hollywood's El Capitan Theatre from 2/16 – 3/29".

While Paterson focused on "bringing out the emotions of the story," he admitted to having difficulty writing about Terabithia "because it was too close". Patrick explained that he related to the story because he was "constantly creating imaginary worlds as a kid" himself, and that the film's setting reminded him of where he grew up. Weta visual effects supervisor Matt Aitken explained that process involved in interpreting the creatures was "split into two steps". It received positive reviews from critics, with praise for its visuals, cast performances, and faithfulness to the source material.Puig found the real-life portions of the movie were "derivative and simplistic", but found Jess's emotional tumult felt "powerfully authentic, and this is where the film finds its truth and soul". Soon one of the friends must draw on the strength of their imaginary kingdom to cope with a tragedy. Jessica Grose of The Village Voice commended director Csupó for omitting "cutesy tween stereotypes", and felt Jess's relationship with his father elevated Bridge to Terabithia from "a good kids movie to a classic contender.

As for the premise, two young outcasts who go to the same school befriend and find a rope that they swing on in the woods to get to a made up "kingdom" they named Terabithia. Elliot Lawless as Gary Fulcher, one of Jess's bullies who serves as the inspiration to the hairy vultures. Robb wrote Csupó "such a beautiful, heartwarming letter" that expressed her love for the book and the character.The filmmakers distanced themselves from the advertising campaign for the film, saying that it was deliberately misleading and made the film seem to be about, or occurring in, a fantasy world. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. As cheesy as this film is, someone was bound to mess up in this cast, but really, most everyone on the screen convinces in the character portrayals more so than the filmmakers do, and that especially goes for leads Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb, who share electric chemistry, bookended by individual charm and even a degree of effective dramatic layering. A preteen's life turns upside down when he befriends the new girl in school and they imagine a whole new fantasy world to escape reality.

AnnaSophia Robb was nominated for a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for "Best Young Actress". Not all reviews were as positive, Claudia Puig of USA Today wrote that "for a movie about the power of imagination, Bridge to Terabithia is not as clever as you would hope". Jess Aarons is an 11-year-old aspiring artist living with his financially struggling family in Lark Creek. The Wall Street Journal critic Joe Morgenstern felt that despite the occasional misuse of enchantment—"brief spasms of overproduced fantasy"—the novel's screen adaptation was told with "agreeable simplicity in between computer-generated monsters". As I just finished saying, there's potential to this story concept, but it's limited, offering a paper-thin conflict, and even little plays on the fantasy elements, until what you end up with is a fantasy flick and character drama that is lacking in flare, whose limitations could be easier to ignore if the execution wasn't so draggy.I understand that this is for the very young, and it's not like a sense of wonderment and dramatic depth aren't captured relatively well at times, but on the whole, what could have and should have been a more genuine and tastefully done fantasy drama with both depth and style proves to be generally obnoxious and distancing, with overbearing sentimentality that don't so much reflect ambition, as much as they reflect that classic Disney laziness.