Spoiler alert! If you haven't seen Bridge to Terabithia and don't want to know what happens in the movie, then stop reading now. If you know the story, then feel free to keep reading and give me your take on the marketing of the movie vs. the reality of the movie.
It's marketed like a fantasy movie, which in part it is. Although I kept thinking that the citizens of Terabithia would actually come alive and need rescuing somehow. That's how the previews play. A great childhood fantasy story, like Lavagirl from a year or so ago.
But that's not what happens and that's actually a really good part of the story. I enjoyed watching their imagination come to life, because frankly, we don't teach our kids to use their imaginations enough.
But why did they feel the need to have one of the children die in order to help the characters grow? And why do almost all movies for kids feel the need to kill someone in order to advance the story? Don't they get to see enough death in the real world, without having the need to deliver death in their entertainment? And couldn't they at least give us some indication in the previews & marketing that there's tragedy ahead?
Of course, death & kids entertainment have always gone together I guess. The last time I visited my Mom in Florida, she had rented The Yearling, since she lives near the authors home and thought it would be good to see the movie and then visit her homestead. But holy smokes, it was a sad movie and we just weren't prepared for it. And Bambi's mom died too and that's one of the best known movies for young children.
Maybe I'm just more sensitive to this issue, since my Dad passed away almost two years ago. And I remember having to explain to my then 3-year old daughter that no, Grandpa wouldn't be coming back like the father does in Lion King.
It's hard enough to explain this world to a child, with everything that happens every day. From the global tragedies of war and hate, to the local tragedies like the seven children who died in a fire in NYC this week. It never ceases to amaze me how much time you spend answering a child asking Why did that happen?
And, I guess if I would have had some inkling of what was to come in this seemingly peaceful, children's fantasy movie, maybe I wouldn't have been so thrown out of the movie experience when it happened.
But, knowing what happens, I still think it was a very good movie. Sydney, who is almost 6, really enjoyed it, although it was interesting to hear her theories on how & why Leslie died. And there were some excellent lessons to be learned in the movie as well. Lessons about friendship and bullies and family love. Maybe they just need to add a DI -- Death Involved -- to the rating system so we could be a little more prepared as parents. On the other hand, maybe both kids & parents need to learn that death, like life, is rarely planned and scheduled and learning how to handle it when it happens is an important, life lesson.
Death is a very common theme in childrens literature - nearly every central character of fairytale from Snow White to Sleeping Beauty is an orphan or has an "evil step-parent" (thus implying a kinder parent, now deceased). This image is reflected (or rooted?) in children's play, where death is also very common. I am not just referring to "bang-bang, you're dead" action-game mortality, but also to the more significant death that often takes place in childrens' make-believe games of "house" or the imprisonment-and-rescue adventure dramas they script.
Children see their imagined worlds in simple terms, and the digital states of "dead" or "alive" are attractively simple, as well as being highly dramatic. Of course, death in games or in Disney is often less permanent - and always less serious - than in real life. Nonetheless, the step-by-step acclimatisation that it affords (from temporary death in Snow White or Narnia; through permanent screen-death in Terabithia; all the way to the real demise of the first pet bunny) are invaluable preparation for the first human deaths they will inevitably encounter.
If we deprive our children of these rehearsals for real death, how will they ever be prepared for the real thing?
Adam Lawrence
workplayexperience.blogspot.com
Posted by: Adam | March 15, 2007 at 09:31 PM