Book vs. Movie "The Bridge to Terabithia"

            “The Bridge to Terabithia” by Katherine Paterson was made into a Disney movie.  I was surprised at how closely the movie portrayal of the story was to the book’s portrayal especially after watching how different the movie of  “Tuck Everlasting” was from the book. 

            “The Bridge to Terabithia” is a story about a young boy who becomes best friends with the new girl at his school.  The two friends create an imaginative, ancient, magical world in the woods by their houses.  They have to swing on a rope over a creek to enter the world of Terabithia in which they reign as King and Queen.  The two friends must fight off evil creatures and protect their world. 

            Jess and Leslie also face problems at school in both the movie and the book.  There is a mean girl named Janice Avery who makes it her goal to bully all of the other students.  Jess and Leslie create a plan to get Janice back by embarrassing her about a secret crush that she has.  In the end, Leslie becomes friends with Janice because she talks with her about how her father has been beating her.

            The ending of the book and the movie both brought me to tears.  Jess goes to town with his music teacher and while he is out, Leslie decides to enter Terabithia on her own.  She ends up slipping and falls into the creek and drowns.  Jess takes the loss of his best friend hard. After being upset, he copes by building a bridge into Terabithia and inviting his younger sister May Belle to be the princess of Terabithia.

            The main difference between the book and the movie was the time period in which the story is set.  The movie is set in a more modern of time period than the book.  In the movie, the teacher talks about searching the internet and they use wireless phones.  The book is set in a time period before internet and wireless phones.

            Overall, I was very pleased with how Disney portrayed the story of “The Bridge to Terabithia.”  Although some of the animation and graphics were cheesy, the overall story of the movie was very similar to the book.  With such a powerful and timeless story, there was no need to change anything for the movie!