Bridge to Terabithia Tagged Articles at Cinematical

This week, Walt Disney Pictures releases The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. To some, it's special for its literary roots, but to others, I imagine it's a blast back to a time when Disney was all about throwing real kids into amazing adventures. These days, they don't do it very often, but Disney used to rule the world of family adventures that sparked the imaginations of kids everywhere. Sure, they put out a lot of classic animation, but they also released a number of adventure stories where kids got to do the unbelievable, whether that be death-defying adventure on the high seas, or slipping inside a cartoon.

In honor of the release of Prince Caspian, I give you seven great Disney films where real kids got to have amazing adventures. Some are new, and some are quite old, but all of them are quite memorable.

Just a few more shopping days left until Christmas, and I'm just about done. We always get a couple DVDs for the kids stockings. When the sugar high from all the cookies and candy has worn off, there's nothing better than a new DVD (or two) to settle the kids down and give the grown-ups a little much-needed quiet time (or time to watch those movies Santa left in our own Christmas stockings ...). If you're looking for a few things to round out your own shopping, here are seven sure-to-please DVDs for kids of various ages:

High School Musical/High School Musical 2 -- If you have a tween girl in your house, all things High School Musical are likely at or near the top of your list. Disney knocked the ball out of the park with the resounding success of this musical for kids last year, and followed it up with High School Musical 2 (I liked the first one better, but my kids like them both). While the High School Musical films may not be that well-reviewed critically, these DVDs (trust me on this) top the Christmas lists of tweens and teens everywhere. Just be prepared to watch them over and over again, until the song "We're All in This Together" is permanently embedded in your brain and you want to claw your eyes out find yourself singing it in the shower while you practice your cool dance moves. Psst ... I hear Erik Davis knows all the lyrics and dance steps by heart, and he doesn't even have kids.

Hope your Monday was a good one (but, really, aren't all Mondays super?). So, um, moviegoers went 'Hog' wild, eh? Or were 'Wild' for 'Hogs'? How many other obvious puns are there to make with that title? Too many to count, I'm sure. Or maybe not, considering that the flick made $38 million this weekend. Shew. It's official: Critics really have no relevance on box office take. I know there have been some preliminary reports to such effect, but I'm hereby making it official. And apologizing to the critics. There is one good thing we can say about Wild Hogs, though, and it's this: William H. Macy co-stars (coincidentally, one of the stars of our staff picks celeb crush gallery). Of course, I haven't seen this movie, and judging by the comments that Erik Davis' review received, I guess it's a crowd-pleaser (Moviefone's own Tommy DiChiara did have fun with the cast in Boston). And at least it made more than Norbit when that broad comedy (heh ... we said "broad") opened a few weeks back -- $33 million if you're keeping track -- so that's something. Here's what Patric ia predicted Friday:

1. Wild Hogs
2. Zodiac
3. Ghost Rider
4. Bridge to Terabithia
5. Black Snake Moan

And here's the actual weekend top five:

1. Wild Hogs - $38 million (!)
2. Zodiac - $13.1 million
3. Ghost Rider - $11.5 million
4. Bridge to Terabithia - $8.5 million
5. The Number 23 - $7 million

Get the full box-office report here.

Welcome to President's Day Weekend, where the multiplexes are stocked with a few pounds of new product, including an FBI espionage drama, a family-friendly kidventure flick, another Tyler Perry concoction, a flashy supehero epic and a sweet 'n' sunny rom-com. Dig in!

Breach -- 80 positive / 22 negative reviews at RottenTomatoes.com.

Pro: "There are some neat, almost delirious scenes of suspense, most of which play against cliche." -- Ty Burr, Boston Globe

Con: "A movie that urgently asserts itself as a spy thriller, but can never quite escape the Bureau's true preoccupation with who is getting the window offices." -- Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News

Pro: "While Breach plays effectively as a cat-and-mouse espionage thriller, its real drama derives from the murky moral and ethical frontier it crosses." -- Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star

Con: "The big suspense sequence revolves around whether Hanssen will notice that his briefcase has been moved a smidgen, hardly on a par with Goldfinger giving 007 a laser beam vasectomy." -- Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Bonus! "Has real excitement and true craft behind it, which is just one part of the reason why it's such a pleasure to watch." -- James Rocchi, Cinematical

Bridge to Terabithia -- 66 positive / 12 negative at RT.com.

Pro: "A painfully grounded tale of the stripping away of naivete that is adolescence, and how heartbreakingly excruciating an experience that can be." -- MaryAnn Johnason, The Flick Filosopher

Con: "One wonders if the makers of Bridge to Terabithia actually have something against all the people who loved reading Katherine Paterson's award-winning book as children." -- Chris Barsanti, FilmCritic.com

Pro: "Mark my words: it is that rarified breed of masterpiece with a shelf life destined to span many generations." -- Dustin Putnam, TheMovieBoy.com

Con: "The whole affair has been unnecessarily coated in computer-generated magical kingdom fairy dust, no doubt in deference to the perceived needs of a young audience in a post-big screen "Chronicles of Narnia" environment." -- Mary F. Pols, Contra Costa Times

Bonus! "A heartfelt, respectful and remarkably well-done film." -- Kim Voynar, Cinematical

Damn, but there are a lot of movies opening wide this week -- or in the case of two of them, that opened wide on Wednesday. So I'm going to go waaaaay out on a limb and make this bold prediction: This is the weekend that Night at the Museum FINALLY falls out of the top five. You heard it here first! Or second, or third, or you know, whatever.

Ghost Rider: Nicolas Cage is the cyclist with the flaming skull and Eva Mendes is the love of his life in this adaptation of the Marvel comic book. To paraphrase the song from Grease 2, "He's a ghooooost rider ... and if he's hot enough, he will burn you through and through, whoa, whoa!" Granted, I may be the only person in history to reference Grease 2 and Ghost Rider in the same sentence ... and I'm OK with that. The film, which is about cyclist Johnny Blaze -- who sells his soul to Mephistopheles to save his father's life, and must then become the vigilante Ghost Rider -- is high-profile to say the least, and it's the only action film opening, and it's showing on a whopping 3,619 screens. You do the math.
Get showtimes & tix | Watch trailer | See Cage & Mendes chat |
Get pics, clips & more | Check out our top 20 comic book movies

Bridge to Terabithia: We swing to the other end of the moviegoing spectrum with another adaptation, this one of the Newbery (yes, that's how you spell it) Award-winning children's book. Josh Hutcherson (Zathura) is Jess, an introverted farm kid; AnnaSophia Robb (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) is Leslie, the decidedly not introverted new girl who moves in next door. They become friends and create an imaginary kingdom, Terabithia, in the woods across the river. I saw the film last week, and, having read the book, I'll admit I was nervous at the prospect of this being turned into a fantasy flick, with what was only suggested on the page -- Terabithia and its inhabitants -- being made "real." But I shouldn't have worried. The movie manages to pump up the story's visual elements while capturing what makes the book special: the strength of Jess and Leslie's friendship, the power of imagination, and the joy and pain involved in having to grow up. Move over, Museum ...
Get showtimes & tix | Watch trailer | Go behind the scenes | Read Zooey Deschanel AIM chat

When you've waited a long time for a film to be made of a book you really love, you hope with all your heart that the end result will be worth it. Bridge to Terabithia, the film adaptation of Katherine Paterson's beloved book of the same name, opens this weekend, and I'm delighted to report that this is a heartfelt, respectful, and remarkably well-done film. The film is directed by Gabor Csupo, marking the Rugrats' director's big-screen debut directing live actors. Csupo retains the sense of wonder he's brought to Rugrats for so long, but with Bridge to Terabithia, he shows he's a solid director who's able to handle more sensitive material without losing the magic. He does such a good job, I'm almost willing to forgive him for creating Rugrats obnoxious Angelica.

Bridge to Terabithia, the novel, was storytelling at it's best: a simple, pure plot, and compelling characters with believable arcs and obstacles to overcome, and it translates very well to the screen. The story revolves around the unlikely friendship that forms between fifth-grader Jesse Aarons (Josh Hutcherson) and new-girl-in-town Leslie Burke (AnnaSophia Robb). Jesse and Leslie live in a small, rural town, and attend a dreary small-town school where, apparently, the adults have abandoned all hope at the door, surrendering the playground to the eighth-grade bullies.

I saw Bridge to Terabithia this past weekend with my nine-year-old daughter, who is also a huge fan of the book on which the film is based. I'll have a full review and an interview with screenwriter David Paterson to come soon, but for now, suffice it to say that any concerns I had about Disney getting away from the heart of the story and focusing too much on effects have been laid to rest. If you, like me, were a fan of the book when you were growing up, you've probably been waiting to see this film for a while, and you're going to really love what they did with the film. If you've never read the book, that's okay, you don't have to have read it to see and appreciate the film -- it's good enough to stand on its own.

To keep you satisfied until the film opens this weekend, we have some goodies for you:

TRAILER: Bridge to Terabithia Trailer on Moviefone

VIDEO: Behind-the-Scenes of Bridge to Terabithia on Moviefone:

Zooey Deschanel chats in AIM with Moviefone about Bridge to Terabithia

Also, Disney has made available lots of images of really cool concept art from the Terabithia sequences. One of the images is above; you'll find a ton of other Terabithia images, after the jump.

SPOILER ALERT: If you've never read Bridge to Terabithia, and you don't want to know anything about it before seeing the movie, stop reading. Now. Then drive to the nearest bookstore, buy a copy, and read it. Laugh. Cry. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson's classic novel about two kids who form an unlikely friendship, is one of my favorite books ever, so when I heard a new movie was in the works earlier this year, I was filled with both excitement and trepidation. On the one hand, I just introduced my nine-year-old daughter to the book over the summer, and I knew she'd be excited about the film. On the other hand, though, what if "they" screwed it up? I know, I know, it's just a movie, right? I shouldn't get so worked up. But seriously, this book was one of the literary bedrocks of my childhood; I read my first copy to pieces, and have read it countless times since. I still cry every time.

A cast update on the recently annouced Bridge to Terebithia adaptation (remake?) has been announced. After the two young leads (played by Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb), one of the most significant characters is that of the the teacher whom the children admire. The team of Disney and Walden have annouced that this role will be filled by popular actress Zooey Deschanel.

I've got rather mixed feelings on Zooey as an actress- heresy, I know, for an admitted geek. I tend to think of her as hit-or-miss. I loved her performance in Elf, for instance, but thought she gave a rather half-hearted attempt at Trillian in the HHGG movie. Perhaps it was just the material she was given to work with- I don't know. I just know that the part felt flat and uninspired to me. Thoughts? Feel free to chime in and disagree with me, or remind me of other roles that Zooey has pulled off tremendously.

Despite the fact that it has already been made (although the original was rather short) Walden Media and the Walt Disney Co. are persisting in turning the novel Bridge to Terabithia into a new movie. The big news today is that they've cast young Josh Hutcherson (most recently of Zathura fame) to play the lead. Gabor Csupo will direct and he will begin filming later this month in New Zealand.

I hate this story, although not because I think it is poorly conceived or written. I just flat out dislike the utter sadness I'm left with at the ending. Which I suppose is a testament to the skill of the author. Please note, I'm not saying that my dislike means I am opposed to it being turned into a movie...it just means that I don't want to watch it.

On a more related note, did anyone out there see Zathura? What do you think of Josh being cast in Bridge?