IMAGINATIVE 'TERABITHIA' KEEPS IT REAL.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski

Staff Writer

Terabithia is a fantasy land born of the joined imaginations of Jess and Leslie, a couple of young teens who bond in self-defense against the bullies at their school.

Set in a lush forest with awesome mountains and breathtaking waterfalls in the distance, Terabithia sounds like an idyllic escape, but actually it is a perilous place, home to all sorts of aggressive creatures attacking at will.

One might wonder, then, why Jess (Josh Hutcherson) and Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb) dash off their school bus every afternoon and sprint toward this otherworldly realm in "The Bridge to Terabithia." It turns out to be less a refuge than a training ground where they learn how to stand up to their schoolyard oppressors.

"We can do anything here," Leslie tells Jess, well before threatening creatures such as hairy vultures, "squogres" and a giant troll -- each inspired by a tormenting classmate -- show themselves.

"The Bridge to Terabithia," adapted from the book by Katherine Paterson, marks the live-action directing debut of Gabor Csupo, creator of the Rugrats. He succeeds in keeping his main characters well-rooted in their daily lives, and his restraint in creating Terabithia is commendable. With no gratuitous rainbows, elves or unicorns, it somehow is believable.

The actors' nuanced performances are spot on. Robb ("Charlie and the Chocolate Factory") is utterly charming as Leslie Burke, the only child of a pair of fiction writers, ridiculed at school as the new kid who has no TV and invents strange stories in English class. Hutcherson ("Zathura") beautifully captures the pensive, artistic loner that Jess Aarons is as the story begins, and gently transforms him as he gains strength and a sense of worth.

Zooey Deschanel is appealing as Ms. Edmonds, the music teacher who provides a bright spot in a school day and perhaps the only adult Jess and Leslie relate to. Robert Patrick is Jess' overworked, inattentive father, who has more practical hopes for a son who spends hours sketching imaginary creatures and places.

Credit New Zealand for providing Terabithia's lovely backdrop, but credit Weta Digital of "The Lord of the Rings" fame with transforming it and giving life to the strange beings that Paterson left largely to her readers' imaginations.

Valerie Kuklenski, [phone]

[e-mail]

THE BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA - Three and one half stars

(PG: bullying, children in peril, mild language)

Starring: AnnaSophia Robb, Josh Hutcherson, Zooey Deschanel, Robert Patrick.

Director: Gabor Csupo.

Running time: 1 hr. 35 min.

Playing: In wide release.

In a nutshell: Based on Katherine Paterson's acclaimed children's book, the story of two young teens who learn to cope with real-world troubles by meeting challenges in the fantasy forest is kept believable.

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Josh Hutcherson as Jess and AnnaSophia Robb as Leslie travel through an otherworldly realm in "The Bridge to Terabithia," a land that is both a refuge and a training ground.