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Daffodil 11 Returns After Crossing THE BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
If I hadn’t already seen BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA, I probably wouldn’t run this review. It's reeeeeeeeeeeally positive.
Thing is, I saw it a few weeks ago, and although I’m still under embargo on reviewing it myself, I can see how someone might write the following. I doubt I’ll be anywhere near as effusive as this reviewer is, but I think it’s generally on the mark about this film. It’s very good, and although I’m not familiar with the book it’s based on, I can say that the film handles some difficult material with some real skill and grace.
Hold on to your hyperbole... here comes Daffodil 11!
Hi Harry,
Daffodil 11 here again, with a review of the Disney/Walden Media picture 'Bridge To Terabithia'. Let me begin by saying that I was heckled as a 'plant' when I gave what could have been the first review of Batman Begins, and wrote that it would 'be remembered as one of (that) year's most exciting and best blockbuster films'. Sorry, but despite my moniker, a plant I ain't.
First off, I have to state that as I was not a big fan of the over-hyped 'Chronicles Of Narnia', this was not a picture I was overly keen to see. This could have possibly put me in the best frame of mind for seeing virtually anything, but regardless of my expectations I found this movie to be nothing short of a KNOCKOUT!
The cast of younger actors features Anna Sophia Robb (Violet Beauregarde in Tim Burton's Charlie And The Chocolate Factory), Josh Hutcherson (Zathura) and scene-stealing newcomer Bailee Madison. They are joined by an adult supporting cast including Robert Patrick and Zooey Deschanel.
Based on a well-known book for younger readers, I have to say that this film is being misrepresented in it's promotion. It features fantasy elements but is far from being completely set in the castles and creatures world suggested in the trailer. Instead, Terabithia is very-much grounded in reality.
It's the story of Jesse (Hutcherson), the middle-child from a working-class family. A budding artist, he is a bit of a loner at school who has trouble with two bullies in class as well as a female 8th grader who's built like a brick wall. When new girl Leslie (Robb) joins his class, Jesse soon becomes friends with her after they bond over a shared love of imagination. Discovering they are neighbors, Jesse and Leslie explore a nearby forest where they find an old crumbling tree house. It quickly becomes a base from which the two of them embark on a series of games and adventures that are enhanced by the creatures and beasts that their minds create.
The picture is beautifully shot, features excellent performances by it's younger costars and it's screenplay is underplayed and realistic in it's depiction of school and family life. However, full credit must be given to first-time feature director Gabor Csupo (the producer behind the Rugrats TV series and films), who manages to imbue Bridge To Terabithia with an incredible sincerity that grasps how it feels to be young. While the special effects are very good, Csupo never lets them take over the film - instead the effects enhance it and allow the viewer to be drawn into the world conceived by Leslie and Jesse. More than once I found myself re-living my own youthful enthusiasm, remembering a time when I could outrun anything, everyday things were capable of magic abilities and a world of fantastic creatures existed just behind the next tree.
Bridge To Terabithia is an incredible film for all ages. Csupo has created a movie that talks TOO kids, never down to them. It is never trying, false or anything less than truly entertaining. Those familiar with the book may remember the story's twists and turns, which are never compromised here. Csupo stays close to the text and emerges with a magical, emotional and powerful film that will take many by surprise.
Csupo's picture is certain to not only be one of the best-reviewed films of the year, but it could well become a classic. While it shares certain story elements and themes with this film (including a performance from 7 year old Madison that recalls a certain younger sister character named Gertie...), it's not overstating the case to suggest that Bridge To Terabithia is among the best, if not THE BEST film for families since E.T. The Extra Terrestrial.
Daffodil 11.
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Cool. I remember reading this book when I was a kid. Glad to see that someone did a good job with it.
Oh, and first? -
It's being represented as some kind of Disney adventure. It's a great book, but geez (peeps who've read it, you know what I'm talkin' bout). I'd say more, but, you know, spoilers and whatnot.
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Gonna take my girls to see this, it sounds like a halfway decent Fantasy like flick.
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I would read a synopsis of the book before running out with the offspring to see the movie. It's not all fairy farts and magical tomfoolery.
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aka, 2 cousins playing doctor.
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i mean, it's a fairly heavy book (in the Marty McFly sense of heavy, not the weight sense)...at least, heavy for its age range. i remember finding it kinda depressing, actually...without spoiling it.
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Sheesh. Basic spelling.
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For me this book was a real "growing up" event as it makes you face some of the more challenging things life if going to throw at you. And no, there is no "playing doctor".
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I read somewhere that the director is related to the author of the book and it's kind of a passion project for him/her so I doubt they're changing the content of the story too much. That said, I think Disney is doing a real disservice to the movie by advertising it the way they are. There are fantasy elements to the story but they all take place in the children's imagination and it's more about creativity and expression than escapism. I can see a lot of people (stupid people) coming out of this upset because it wasn't another Narnia or Lord of the Rings knock off.
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What person unaffiliated with this film would write "it's not overstating the case to suggest that Bridge To Terabithia is among the best, if not THE BEST film for families since E.T. The Extra Terrestrial?" I like this line, too: "I found this movie to be nothing short of a KNOCKOUT!" How about "Bridge To Terabithia is an incredible film for all ages?" Really, who writes like that? I'll tell you who: marketing whores.
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and in my opinion, thats enough to make this daffodil guy legit. I mean, if this was a real plant, then Batman Begins would have sucked, thus exposing his petals for all the world to see.
Maybe not the most refined writer we've seen in a while, but at least this guy (?) isn't a plant.
Neither am I. -
It talks too kids, never down to them.
I betcha it blows Narnia away. -
Terebithia isn't real and Leslie dies horribly. The End.
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he writes like one, BIG TIME. but hey, I don't care either way, I take every advance review with the same grain of salt as a planteriffic one...I think I'm one of the few people of my generation that didn't read this, although I do know the sad ending, more or less. I'll still give this one a shot if a girl will go with me. that way if I sniffle, she'll be outright bawling, and I won't look so bad.
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Where the Red Fern Grows with giant CGI werewolves?
C'mon. -
I don't really know what goes on in the psyche of a person who feels the need to ruin the movie for everybody else. Maybe your life is just that pathetic, I have no idea. If that's how you find joy in life, you should kinda do the world a favor and swallow some antifreeze. The end.
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Just because he makes ridiculous hyperbolic statements doesn't mean he's a plant, it just means he's trying to copy the style of every rave review he's ever read. I suspect a lot of people would write like that if they tried their hand at a review, for better or worse.
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...doesn't fool anyone (and claiming not to like Narnia doesn't give you any cred, dude). This movie is a total POS, something already known by the people who loved this children's book. You're not going to convince them or anyone else otherwise. When will stupid filmmakers get it that changing a beloved story so much to make it a more "commercial" (read stupid) and "accessible" (read stupid American) just ruins it for everyone? Are you listening to me, idiot makers of "The Dark Is Rising" film adaptation?
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If you are not a plant, fine... However I think you are missing your calling in marketing...
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there's that word, again, heavy. why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the earth's gravitational pull?
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(SPOILERS) Whether it was faithful to the book or not, I didn't think it was good. Maybe that wasn't the final draft, but based on what I've read I don't think it changed much. Maybe the direction and performances elevated the movie, but on the page this came off as terribly cloying. Interestingly, Terabithia has a lot in common with Pan's Labyrinth, which I loved. It will be interesting to see how they compare. (SPOILERS)
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M.Eisner suck`s balls.Bring money,poor people not allowed in DisneyWorld.That being said.Im done!SNAKES ON A TRAIN!!!!
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They aren't marketing this movie to anyone who's over 12, so well written/ directed, or not, I'm going to skip it. Also, LWaW sucked (Thanks Walden) so not expecting much--even from a rental.
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Dying of a terminal disease (AnnaSophia in this film) or dying of embarassment? (AnnaSophia in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory") I think both are pretty bad...
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I was turned off by the previews which made it look like your standard fantasy movie. I was disappointed because I really did love the book as a kid. But I have to question: is she really dying of a terminal disease in the movie? Because if so, that's going to piss me off.
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girl swing on a rope/ rope breaks/ girl dies/ boy severely fucked up emotionally/ THE END
I read this book in third grade, it mentally scarred me for life.
If your kids are loving, sweet-natured, decent types for god sake don't let them read the book (I haven't seen the movie)
I'm 37 and I didn't let mine near it. I'd rather let them read playboy and look at the pretty pictures or South Park or Scary Movie or ect.....
Books' ending is a serious mind *uck
FOR GODS SAKE HIDE YOUR CHILDREN!!!!!! -
The story starts off with a sad lonely boy with no real friends and an emotionally distant family who meets his soal mate has the "bestest of times!!" then she dies in a freak accident leaving him alone again. If your kids take medication for any kind on emo problem STAY AWAY FROM THE BOOK/MOVIE or be prepared for a late night emergency room visit when kiddo cuts his wrist or wakes up with night terrors
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I was a hardcore bookworm growing up and this book is at the top of my "OH GOD I WISH I NEVER READ THAT LIST!!!!" Looking through Time Life books with photo displays of concentration camp jews was less disturbing. The emotional impact of "The Diary of Anne Frank" was less scarring.
That's all.... I need to call my therapist now..... -
because, you know, the fairy tail is fake and the little girl dies? sadness. Del Toro is a copy cat. i call shinananiganignains!
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with something from the mind of guillermo del toro. a nice sad story about imagination and friends and a poor little girl dying at the end is NOT the same thing as a kid murdered by her stepfather and left to die in the forest. mmm-nnn. i have nothing against this book and i'm sure it's wonderful (i was the generation before the generation that reveres it), but, sorry, disney disney-fies everything it touches...except mebbe things that lasseter has a death-grip on first!
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how exactly is it worse than the other books we read when we were young -like the book where the boy has to shoot his own dog? or the book where the boy's dearest friend falls out of the tree and dies? or, as you say, the book written by the little girl who hid from people who made lampshades out of human skin? geez! it can't be THAT bad!
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...is damn cute, though.
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you ruined Pan's Labyrinth for me. bleh. oh well.
pretty sure I didn't spell Labyrinth right. too...tired...to...spell......check. -
Wasn't the basic plot co-opted into that 90's movie "My Girl"--except they swapped genders, replaced the fantasy with Mowtown songs and (glory be)KILLED OFF MacCauley Culken with Bees?
I mean--the bait-and-switch storytelling in coming-of-age stories is pretty standard...and it also really happens in life.
So, what's the problem? -
I keep hearing conflicting reports.
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delicious. i want one. for Christmas? She is Elf approved.
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I'd have to agree w/Freake. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that his overexuberence is probably evidence that he's not a plant. I think plants have developed a certain understanding by this point that an overenthusiastic review is just going to be dismissed.
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I've always been particular about what I consider sad and not sad. Pan's may have had a dying girl protaganist, but her ending was in the context of doing something brave and was also couched in a potential fantasy / reality of her transcending her death.
From my memory of Bridge to Terabithia, the girl just dies for no good reason. Nothing makes her death meaningful or transcendent -- that's what kinda kills you.
Of course, I could be wrong -- read the book ages ago. -
I read it in school, but im glad to hear that it the trailers are only a full on rape of the book. I do hope the reviewer had actually read the book before seeing this.
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...you suck.
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Unbelievably cute chick. I can watch just about anything she's in ... there's something absolutely engaging about her. Oh, and she's smoking hot ... which helps.
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how about PULL MY FUCKING FINGER!!!
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if you troll this site enough to post on it and you haven't seen 'pan's labyrinth' yet, you deserve to have it spoiled for you! unless, of course, you live in nepal or someplace, in which case i apologize. hey arguendo - thx for the clarification...
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Sorry about my rather stupid post. it was late, my head hurt and i just hate the book. it won't happen again
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Which CMS is best?...custom or ?
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...if it SUCKED! Just saw this, it's typical cloying Disney crap, don't believe the hype, go see Pan again - or A Little Princess - or My Girl.
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