On set of Bridge to Terabithia
Bridge to Terabithia is not a big special effects movie. The trailers are practically showing every effect in the film to sell it that way, but the focus is really on the kids lives. The fantasy sequences only inform the real world story. Director Gabor Csupo stuck to his guns in the film, but the marketing is out of his hands.
Csupo Behind the Magic in Bridge to Terabithia
“I believe it’s a stretch and a decision on Disney’s part, but us filmmakers had nothing to do with the promotion,” said Csupo. “We don’t really think it’s an appropriate way of selling the movie, but they’re convinced that’s the way most kids will get interest, and hopefully they’ll get a positive surprise, not negative. If they’re anticipating a Harry Potter movie, than we are in trouble, but it is not a Harry Potter kind of movie.”
The film already has more fantasy sequences than the book, so enough is enough. “It was a very conscience decision from the very beginning that we’re not going to overdo the visual effects, just because of the story’s integrity and the book’s integrity. You’d know if you’ve ever read the book, originally, there’s not even that much in the book. It was just very briefly mentioning that the kids are having fights against the imaginary creatures in the forest. Obviously, you can’t do this in the movie, you have to put something up on the screen and we just tried to do the absolute minimum, which would require to put it into a movie version.”
An animation guru, Csupo makes his live-action debut with Terabithia. With his experience in children’s entertainment, he maintained a tone that respects kids’ maturity without losing any sense of fun.
“When you read the book, it’s such an amazingly, emotional, beautiful story, and I wanted to keep the real-life parts very realistic so when they get into the Terabithian adventure part, it’s going to have a big contrast to it. I think that was very important in the tone of the movie. And also, it might feel a little bit too serious for some very young children, but I think that you’re never supposed to down talk to the kids. They’re a lot more intelligent and smarter than most people would give credit to them. And I saw my four-year-old totally getting immersed in this story. It’s not very appropriate for two-year-olds, but I’m pretty much reaching to that level of where it’s supposed to be with it.”
Part of the may have been aging the leads from the novel. “They were 12 and 13 when we were shooting it, but we found we can always push the characters a little older. It’s better than when they’re younger. Kids can relate to them as well. And also, this movie deals with so many issues including friendship, and maybe first innocent love, things like that. We felt like upping it just a hair, it makes more sense.”
Bridge to Terabithia opens this Friday, February 16th.
For the trailer, poster, stills, synopsis and more movie info, go to the Bridge of Terabithia
Movie Page.
Stay tuned for updates.
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