You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Although Csupó had never worked on a live-action film before, it "didn't worry Granat in the least". Jess becomes angry with his father for his attitude toward him, and he loses his belief in Terabithia, refusing its existence the next day at school. We needed someone who could go from an introverted boy in an isolated world to someone who completely taps into his imagination and becomes a confident, brave leader in Terabithia. 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.

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". With that in mind, they "tried to do the absolute minimum, which would be required to put it into a movie version".Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH). Jess says Leslie is gone forever, but his father tells him she will never be as long as he keeps her memory alive. The New York Times critic Jeannette Catsoulis believed that the fantasy was kept in the background "to find magic in the everyday", and thought Csupó directed "like someone intimate with the pain of being different, allowing each personality more than a single characteristic". The story was based on his real-life best friend, Lisa Hill, who was struck by lightning and killed when they were both eight years old.

It's debatable whether or not filler holds substance, as most beats in this story reinforce coming-of-age thematic depths, but they're ultimately too repetitious to be all that engaging, and some serious incoherencies to a near-unstructured plot body are by no means helpful. I must say I did not see the second half of the film coming at all, it blew my emotional feelings in. When the bridge is cleared, you can find glimpses of decency through hauntingly well-done visuals, inspired performances and promising subject matter, but in the end, limitations within the meat of the subject matter are so intensely stressed by repetitious, incoherent and trite story structuring and cloying sentimentality that Gábor Csupó's "Bridge to Terabithia" ultimately crashes into mediocrity under the weight of laziness that is not matched by inspiration enough for me to escape the sad reality that this is nothing special. 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". The site's consensus reads: " Bridge to Terabithia is a faithful adaptation of a beloved children's novel and a powerful portrayal of love, loss, and imagination through children's eyes.Bridge to Terabithia was released in the United States on February 16, 2007, by Buena Vista Pictures. On Metacritic the film received a weighted average score of 74/100 based on 25 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Leslie's costumes in the film were designed to look as if the character "might have made some of them herself", and they were updated from those described in the book to reflect what would currently be considered eccentric.

Josh Hutcherson was not their first choice for the role of Jesse Aarons, but they settled with him because they "felt the chemistry between AnnaSophia Robb and him". Jess first denies it and runs to check on Leslie, but he notices the severed rope as well as emergency vehicles surrounding her house before eventually accepting her death. He went on to say that "she had such a charm, even before the camera, she was just like a little sweetheart.Hutcherson said that the project appealed to him because of "the real life day-to-day drama as well as the arc of the character Jesse". While Paterson focused on "bringing out the emotions of the story," he admitted to having difficulty writing about Terabithia "because it was too close". Other good performances include Robert Patrick as Jess' dad and Bailee Madison as his little sister. 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.