The result is a film that may turn away two of its biggest potential audiences, and for very different reasons. On the one hand, fans of Katherine Patersons 30-year-old novel—which emphasizes the importance of children imagining things for themselves—may be turned off by the ads, which are filled with CGI creatures as if to say that children need not worry, the imagining has been done for them. And on the other hand, people who are drawn to the movie by the special effects may be disappointed to find out that the film actually stays fairly true to the book, much of which takes place in a poor farmer's home and the school his children attend.

AnnaSophia Robb as Leslie

Those who take a chance on the film, however, may find it a reasonably mature and even poignant story about friendship, family and tragic loss. It's about a boy named Jess Aarons (Zathura's Josh Hutcherson), who has both artistic and athletic aspirations: he loves to draw, and he wants to be the fastest boy in school. Jess doesn't get along with any of the other boys, and he doesn't get along too well with the females in his life, either. Not only is the biggest bully at school a girl by the name of Janice Avery (Lauren Clinton), but Jess is surrounded by sisters: two bossy older ones, one clingy younger one named May Belle (Bailee Madison), and a baby. As Jess puts it, "I've got four [sisters], and I'd trade them all for a good dog."

No sooner has the school year begun, though, than Jess meets a fellow misfit: a girl named Leslie (Because of Winn-Dixie's AnnaSophia Robb) who is even better at running and possibly even more creative than he is. Leslie and her parents recently moved in next door to Jess and his family, so it isn't long before Jess and Leslie start hanging out together—and when they discover a rope dangling over a creek, they use it to swing across to the forest on the other side. Leslie, ever the imaginative one, suggests that she and Jess pretend this forest is a kingdom named Terabithia, and the dilapidated treehouse that they find there becomes their "fortress."

Josh Hutcherson as Jess

In the original book, the children's experiences in Terabithia are described in strictly naturalistic terms; it is often only the dialogue between the children that clues you in to their imaginary world. The author describes the children carrying "sticks," but Leslie refers to the object in Jess's hand as a "sword"; in this way, the book tickles the reader's imagination, just as Leslie awakens Jess's imagination.

The film, on the other hand, turns Terabithia into a digitally-animated spectacle that invites the viewer to do nothing more than sit back and stare. Terabithia also takes on a strange life of its own. For the most part, it is possible to imagine that the trolls, birds and other creatures that attack the children are simply the product of their fertile imaginations. But there come a few points where the children are surprised—and at one point, even saved—by the actions of these imaginary creatures.

Zooey Deschanel as the semi-hippie-ish Miss Edmunds

Scenes like these create a sense of genuine peril that doesn't fit well with the rest of the film. One of the reasons the children have an imaginary kingdom in the first place is because it allows them to face imaginary problems and resolve them easily, in a way that gives them the confidence to face problems in the real world. To an extent, the film "gets" this—the first time the kids encounter a troll in the forest, it is clearly meant to be a metaphor for one of the bullies at school—but then the film makes the metaphor far too literal, by giving the troll the face and personality (and character arc!) of that very same bully. Rather than inform our understanding of the real-world part of the story, this fleshing out of the troll distracts us from it.

Fortunately, director Gabor Csupo—working on his first live-action film, after decades as a producer on cartoons like Rugrats and The Wild Thornberrys—doesn't get too carried away with the animated effects. Instead, he mostly keeps the focus where it should be, on Jess's home and school life. Robert Patrick is reasonably gruff but not entirely insensitive as Jess's dad, and Zooey Deschanel is perfectly cast as Miss Edmunds, the semi-hippie-ish music teacher that Jess has a crush on.

The film leaves little to the imagination

The film taps into spiritual themes, too, though not as well as it could have—which becomes a bit of a liability when the story turns tragic. In the book, Leslie is a fan of the Narnia books but doesn't know anything about Jesus until she visits the Easter service at Jess's church; what's more, Leslie is moved to an almost mystical sort of awe in the forest, and so she and Jess "pray" to the "spirits" there, just as they battle giants and the like in their imaginations. There is a sense in the book that Leslie's fantasies are rooted in a deeper sort of longing. But the film leaves most of this out, and could almost give one the impression that churches and stained-glass windows are little more than nice add-ons to an already active imagination.