Bridge to Terabithia is a 2007 American fantasy drama film directed by Gábor Csupó (in his directorial debut) from a screenplay by David L. Paterson and Jeff Stockwell.

It is based on the 1977 novel of the same name by Katherine Paterson and stars Josh Hutcherson, AnnaSophia Robb, Bailee Madison, Zooey Deschanel, and Robert Patrick.

In the film, adolescent children Jesse Aarons (Hutcherson) and Leslie Burke (Robb) create "Terabithia", a fantasy world, which they use to cope with their troubled reality and spend their free time together.

The original novel was based on events from the childhood of Paterson's son, who went on to write the film's screenplay; Csupó was hired in late 2005, and the rest of the main cast was rounded out soon after.

It received positive reviews from critics, with praise for its visuals, cast performances, and faithfulness to the source material.

Jesse and Leslie take P.T to Terabithia, where they fight off several creatures resembling their bullies, this time with the troll as their ally.

The next morning, Ms. Edmunds, the music teacher who Jesse has a crush on, calls to invite him on a one-on-one field trip to an art museum.

When Jesse returns home, his father reveals that Leslie died after hitting her head and drowning in the creek when the rope she used snapped.

Jesse 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.

The film was directed by Nickelodeon's Rugrats co-creator and ex-Hanna-Barbera animator Gábor Csupó, who was first recommended for the job by Walden Media President Cary Granat.

[11] The most important thing for Paterson was to keep the spirit of the book alive while finding a way to transform it from "a novel that takes place mostly in the characters' heads to a dynamic visual medium".

Csupó reasons that the movie "deals with so many issues including friendship, and maybe first innocent love, things like that", so it "made more sense" to make the characters older.

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.

Patrick explained that he related to the story because he was "constantly creating imaginary worlds as a kid" himself, and that the film's setting reminded him of where he grew up.

[7] Csupó chose to have Weta Digital render the 3D animation because he "was impressed with their artistic integrity, the teamwork, the [fact that] people were really nice, and also they responded to our designs very positively".

Weta visual effects supervisor Matt Aitken explained that process involved in interpreting the creatures was "split into two steps".

First, natural-looking creatures were created based on pencil sketches by Csupó and Malanitchev, and this was done mostly through Photoshop collages done by special effects art director Michael Pangrazio.

[16] Music from and Inspired by Bridge to Terabithia is the soundtrack album to the film, released by Hollywood Records on February 13, 2007.

[20] David Paterson was surprised by the trailer, but understood the marketing reasoning behind it, saying: Although there is a generation that is very familiar with the book, if you are over 40, then you probably haven't, and we need to reach them.

The DVD and high-definition Blu-ray version shared the same special features; including: "Digital Imagination: Bringing Terabithia to Life", "Behind the Book: The Themes of Bridge to Terabithia", "Keep Your Mind Wide Open" music video by Robb, and two audio commentaries, the first with director Gábor Csupó, writer Jeff Stockwell, and producer Hal Lieberman, and the second with producer Lauren Levine and actors Hutcherson and Robb.

[34] Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post praised the script for being "utterly recognizable and authentic", and thought Robb and Hutcherson were "perfectly cast".

Hornaday wrote that although the final five minutes succumbed to "oversweet sentiment", viewers would remember the film's "warmth and respect with which it pays homage to first love".

[35] Jessica Grose of The Village Voice commended director Csupó for omitting "cutesy tween stereotypes", and felt Jess's relationship with his father elevated Bridge to Terabithia from "a good kids movie to a classic contender.

"[22] 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".

Catsoulis found the film was able to handle adult topics "with nuance and sensitivity", and being consistently smart and "delicate as a spider web", it was the kind of children's movie "rarely seen nowadays".

[21] Miriam di Nunzio of the Chicago Sun-Times praised Hutcherson and Robb's performances, saying that "the film's heart and soul rests on the abilities of its young lead characters to make us really see the world through children's eyes.

"[36] 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".

[29] The Wall Street Journal critic Joe Morgenstern felt that despite the occasional misuse of enchantment—"brief spasms of overproduced fantasy"—the novel's screen adaptation was told with "agreeable simplicity in between computer-generated monsters".

[37] Entertainment Weekly's Gregory Kirschling was confused by the main characters' lack of excitement towards Terabithia, and felt the film could not decide if it was "a fantasy or a coming-of-age story".