|
||||||||||||||||||||||
DVD Features
- 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
- (1.33:1 Reformatted Fullscreen sold separately)
- Dolby Digital 5.1 (English, French, Spanish)
- Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
- Closed Captioned
- Release Date: June 19, 2007
- Suggested Retail Price: $29.99
Note: Some of the thematic descriptions in this review may be considered a spoiler.
The Movie
In another joint release from Walden Media and Walt Disney Pictures, Bridge to Terabithia is the story of 5th graders Jess Aarons (Josh Hutcherson) and Leslie Burke (AnnaSophia Robb), who are both outsiders in their rural town. Jess is an artist and has trouble relating to his family or classmates. Leslie takes pride in her differences and eventually forms a friendship with Jess as they create an imaginary world Leslie names Terabithia.
In their secret world, they deal with the bullies and monsters that parallel their school and family lives and always emerge victorious. Through their friendship, Jess gains self-esteem in his artistic gifts and learns there are many more possibilities in the world than the narrow life of his hometown. When tragedy strikes their friendship, Jess must find the strength to go on, honoring the world they created and learning to reach out to family in ways he never expected.
There has been a lot of discussion over the confusing marketing of Bridge to Terabithia. The trailers show all the exciting digital creatures and adventures the children find in Terabithia, with none of the sadness and serious aspects to the story. Many parents on our MousePlanet discussion boards and others expressed anger that they were misled by the marketing to expect a Chronicles of Narnia-type movie. In fact, the world of Terabithia and the creatures inhabiting it are only a very small part of the story. While I agree that the marketing of the film was very misleading, the movie itself is amazingly touching and beautiful. The young lead actors Hutcherson and Robb give emotional yet completely natural performances. They walk the fine line that 5th graders have between rivals and romance to a true, believable friendship.
Image © Walt Disney Pictures
The supporting cast is equally good. Zooey Deschanel plays the beautiful music teacher Mrs. Edmonds who is Jess’ first crush and puts her lovely singing voice to good use. Robert Patrick does a tremendous job in the difficult role of Mr. Aarons; it would be easy for the character to be portrayed as the villain in a lesser adaptation of the book, but the screenplay takes care to show all the dimensions of the flawed characters, even the bullies at school.
The Goodies
“Digital Imagination: Bringing Terabithia to Life” (5:55) – Academy Award-winning digital visual effects company Weta Digital, is the star in this short featurette that shows how the digital characters were brought to the screen. Author Katherine Paterson comments at the beginning of the segment that she was worried that any film adaptation of Bridge to Terabithia would overemphasize the fantasy world of the children and sidestep the whole point of the book. The marketing campaign aside, the film strikes a near perfect balance of showing the imagination of the kids without overshadowing the importance of the relationships of the characters. In the novel, the bullies from the school appear in different forms in the fantasy world of Terabithia. It was interesting to see how the digital artists scanned the actors features and incorporated them into the fantasy characters.
“Keep Your Eyes Wide Open” (3:40) – In the audio commentary, AnnaSophia Robb is asked by her co-star Josh Hutcherson how it came about that she sang a song for the movie. Robb sounds mystified as she answers something to the effect of, “I don’t know… all of a sudden I was doing the song and I didn’t even think I could sing!” Aspiring vocal artists all over the world must be gnashing their teeth at Robb’s casual description of her debut into pop music. It’s difficult to distinguish Robb’s voice from all the “sweetener” voices joining in on the song “Keep Your Eyes Wide Open,” but she must have carried a tune reasonably well for someone to suggest she sing the theme song to the film. Robb should keep her day job—from the little I hear of her voice, it’s obvious that she is a far better actor than vocalist. If they needed an actor to sing the theme song, why not the talented Zooey Deschanel?
Image © Walt Disney Pictures
“Behind the Book: The Themes of Bridge to Terabithia” (14:20) – This is an excellent feature about how the book has impacted kids and teachers as required literature in the classroom for over 20 years. The most interesting comments come from Katherine Paterson herself, who shares how she came to write the story in the first place—to help her young son who lost a best friend in a freak accident when they were 8 years old. David Paterson, who worked on the screenplay, gives his perspective on being known at school for several years as the ‘kid whose friend died’. Their insights give even more realism to a story that has been praised for it’s realistically flawed characters.
Audio Commentaries
There are two audio commentaries for Bridge to Terabithia. The first features director Gabor Csupo, writer Jeff Stockwell, and producer Hal Liberman. The trio does an excellent job of giving the inside scoop on the film in a way that is not too dry or overly technical. The most interesting tidbit they talk about involves the New Zealand location and how they cast New Zealand children for all the character roles save for the top four: Jess, Leslie, May Belle (Bailee Madison), and Janice (Grace Brannigan). The kids had such thick New Zealand accents that they had to go back and dub American voices after filming (and did a seamless job, by the way.) They also talked about the beautiful locations and how they tried to make the sets with universal appeal, so viewers would not be able to pinpoint exact locations.
Image © Walt Disney Pictures
The second commentary features actors Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb with producer Lauren Levine. This commentary will appeal to kids who are fans of the young actors; otherwise we don’t learn a whole lot about the making of the film other than, “that guy was soooo nice,” and “oh my gosh, that was so much fun when we did that!” etc… etc… Hutcherson’s voice has certainly changed since the film was made—he sounds about 30 years old now.
Audio, Video and Interface
The DVD is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen; a fullscreen version is also available. The widescreen version is a perfect showcase for the wonderful cinematography; the colors are perfectly true and the images crisp and clean. The sound is Dolby Digital 5.1 and excellent as well. The interface on the main menu is unusually detailed and beautiful, with Jess’ artwork for Terabithia coming to life as the backdrop while clips of the soundtrack play in a one minute loop. The secondary menus show still pictures of various characters.
The Final Evaluation
Don’t pass up this DVD out of disdain for the marketing campaign. Parents with children 8 and up should watch Bridge to Terabithia with their kids and discuss the themes of loss and friendship the film evokes. After viewing the movie with my kids at the theater (and crying our eyes out) we got into a great discussion about friendship, loyalty, spirituality, and mortality. Despite all the brouhaha about marketing, Katherine Paterson should be very happy with this film adaptation, and Walden and Disney should be glad with the profits the film has made thus far and will continue to make. Despite my disappointment with the scarcity of substantial bonus features, I wholeheartedly recommend Bridge to Terabithia to families, those who remember reading the book in grade school, and anyone who appreciates a good cry. Keep the tissue box close at hand for the last third of the film and enjoy it.
