Sunday, February 25, 2007

truth be told, it was unfair of me think it was a narnia wannabe or to even compare it to the cs lewis stories in the first place.

bridge to terabithia stands on a ground all its own. it threads the thin line between fantasy and reality then successfully reconciles both as a necessary co-existence.

i love how it starts with a fairly simple project: 2 lonely kids who create a world of their own. jess is a gifted artist while leslie is the imaginative child of writer-parents. as they tell each other stories of their adventures in terabithia, the line blurs between the two worlds.

and hell, it doesn't go as you think it would.

based on newberry award-winning novel by katherine paterson (whether the movie does the book justice is an entirely different matter), terabithia tackles a wide range of subjects not a lot of children's literature face head on.

one that particularly hit me (as i hope it would others in this 'predominantly christian' country) is a scene after leslie goes to church with jess's family. raised in a non-religious family (writers, what can i say?), leslie thinks the 'whole jesus thing' sounds pretty cool. mabel, jess's little sister, says with the conviction of an impressionable seven-year old: "you have to believe in the bible or god will damn you to hell!"

sprawled and basking in the sunlight on the back of the pick-up truck, leslie laughs and replies, "i don't think god damns anyone to hell. he's to busy taking care of all if this!" and she throws her arms open as the camera zooms out on a sun-drenched countryside.

also worth noticing is child actress annasophia robb who plays the dauntless leslie. with those huge eyes and short blond hair, she looks almost like a pixie. plus her ultra-cool wardrobe suits her personality perfectly.

zooey deschanel, my favorite quirky actress, makes an appearance as the fifth grade music teacher.

after seeing this with my lola, titas and siblings last friday nite, the first thing i did was nag my husband to pleasepleaseplease ask his parents to take the children to see it. i recommend it to everyone who's ever been a child at one point in time.

my second thought was to start collecting books like these. children's lit is hardly ever pretentious but they often say so much more than just happily-ever-after stories. as to writing them myself, well there's another thing worth exploring. i need to consult my invisible friends about that one.

we are never crushed!


*edit: a movie-version of the book was also released in 1985 starring annette o'toole and julian coutts

Labels: kids, literature, movies, plugging

isea @ 2:00 PM