I borrowed this DVD from our Family Video outlet and was quite underwhelmed as far as other recent treatments of the same kind of set-up. After this production company (Walden) had succeeded in adapting C.S. Lewis' CHRONICLES_OF_NARNIA:LION_WITCH_WARDROBE, I presumed that this would be rather given the narrative framework of what's more like a look back at childhood with an adult narrator telling about the significant year from grade school (previously done in a classic way in the adaptation of TO_KILL_A_MOCKINGBIRD). My expectations of there being an anchor and solid correspondence with the book failed terribly. I had read the book 20 or so years ago; since many plot developments seem so scrambled and incomprehensible (key is the one where the main character has gone away for a day without parental permission) As well as the dearth of supervisory figures during the recess and lunch periods. The Studio's Budgeted money thrown at some of the special visual effects and animation should have been better allocated as a shift into a animation-graphic representation type presentation and not a blend of live-action and blue screen fantastic creatures that are essentially unexplained from the plot. All of you who love the book and who read and re-read it for imagination's sake - - go ahead and share good reviews here. As for me, though, I would send the adult audience out in search at your video outlet for PAN'S_LABRYINTH or the early 80's MY_GIRL with Macauley Calkin. Rank this one as a 7 in my evaluation!
Review of Bridge to Terabithia
