WATCH: Bridge To Terabithia video review

From the makers of The Chronicles Of Narnia comes... something that looks the same but isn't. Yes, Bridge To Terabithia is about youngsters entering a magical realm where they meet and beat a menagerie of CG creatures. But there's no escaping the real world, in a respectful book adaptation that gets to honest grips with companionship, growing pains and even The Big D (have a hanky at the ready). Why can't more kids' films be this grown up?

Key to the pic's considerable charm are the assured, unprecocious performances from AnnaSophia Robb and Josh Hutcherson. The latter plays Jess, an unhappy farm kid who's berated at home, bullied at school and has a crush on his hippy-dippy music teacher (Zooey Deschanel). Then to top it all, he's thrashed in a foot race - by a girl! That girl would be Leslie (Robb), a funky-dressing free spirit, whose storytelling skills cement a fast friendship with the art-loving lad.

"DAZZLING SET-PIECES"

The pair dream up a woodland alterna-world (the titular Terabithia) teeming with Tolkien-esque twists on their playground foes. With FX by Weta (The Rings Trilogy), the set-pieces dazzle (pine-cone grenades!) but don't dominate. While the script trips over the odd homily ("Try to keep an open mind - you'd be surprised what finds its way in there!"), helmer Gabor Csupo's take on the agonies of adolescence is virtually sugar-free. The dark emotional developments of the second half - denial, guilt, grief - are deployed with heart-rending sensitivity. Though the setting of Katherine Paterson's novels have been updated from the 70s to now, the film has kept a firm hold on that timeless quality.

  WATCH: Bridge To Terabithia video review

Bridge To Terabithia is released in UK cinemas on Friday 4th May 2007.