Betsey Pickle, The Examiner
2007-02-17 08:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

WASHINGTON -

Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb created a magical world as the main characters in “Bridge to Terabithia,” but off-camera they were enchanted by their real shooting location, New Zealand, where they spent three and a half months.

“That was an amazing experience,” Hutcherson says. “It doesn’t get any prettier than that. There were beaches everywhere and all sorts of forests. We took little road trips everywhere and just had a lot of fun.”

“Oh my gosh, it was amazing,” agrees Robb. “It’s one of my favorite places in the whole world. The beaches are absolutely beautiful. The people down there, the Kiwis, they’re so funny, and they’re all really nice people.”

Making “Terabithia” was almost like stepping into Middle-Earth.

Hutcherson, 14, was disappointed that he didn’t have time to visit the Weta Digital facilities in Wellington.

“I didn’t get to ‘cause I was working,” he says, “but AnnaSophia got to go and check out their whole studio. ... She took a long weekend and went down there. My little brother betrayed me and went down there with her, too.”

Just as the “Lord of the Rings” films were inspired by literary classics with a devoted following, “Bridge to Terabithia” comes from an award-winning novel that’s a mainstay in many schools’ curricula and has been beloved by readers for nearly 30 years. Katherine Paterson’s book won the 1978 Newbery Medal. Her playwright son, David Paterson, has been trying to bring the novel to the big screen for 17 years.

Robb, 13, was a fan of the book long before she was cast as Leslie Burke, the creative newcomer who cajoles reserved Jess Aarons (Hutcherson) into exercising his imagination and bringing the fantastical land of Terabithia to life in the nearby woods.

“I read the book, and I fell totally in love with it,” she says. “It’s just such a worthwhile story to tell. It’s just really beautiful. It’s about friendship, and it’s really good.”

Hutcherson had heard of Paterson’s novel but hadn’t read it.

“When I found out it was getting turned into a movie, I went out and got the book and read it,” he says. “As I was reading it, I could clearly picture it becoming a movie and watching the scenes play out and everything.”

While the story includes fun and fantasy, it also has dramatic elements that some adults may consider too heavy for young children, but Hutcherson thinks it’s a film for all ages.

“I think it really helps open their eyes to things,” he says. “Even in Disney animated movies, there is some sort of traumatic experience where something happens. It could be traumatizing to small children, but they put it in cartoon movies anyway. So I think this is the same as any of those.”

– Scripps Howard