Alright, three parts in and we’re FINALLY at the supposed realm of Terabithia! TOOK THIS FILM LONG ENOUGH! And yea, even though I know that this is more Slice of Life than Fantasy, I’m still gonna treat it as what the trailers promised, because that’s how I entered the film for the first time, and to really understand my hatred of this movie when I was little, you have to go through what I went through. Though I will break out of this perspective from time to time, just to point out some other stuff, be it good or bad. Let’s see what adventures they get into.
They spend a good minute swinging around (“get to the fantasy!” screamed my younger me) until finally they decided “Hey, we advertized a fantasy movie! Let’s give the audience what they paid money to see!” and talk of a magical kingdom. Leslie then goes “now, hypothetically speaking... what if there was a magic kingdom that only we knew about?” and I know she’s using her imagination, but like I said before, in the mindset of my younger self, it’s like she knew ahead of the- wait. Yeah that makes sense considering her “Foreshadowed Death” poem earlier. That and I could go with the idea that she’s a denizen of Terabithia that infiltrated the school as a student to get soldiers for La Résistance...
... WHY THE FUCK AM I WATCHING THIS IF I’M THINKING OF BETTER IDEAS FOR HOW THIS WOULD GO!?
So they swing across the rope once more and enter the woods. Now it starts to feel like a fantasy film... bordering on horror due to the whole “in the woods” setting. The fact that they find a rusty old car now has me thinking they’re going to be sent to a cabin in the woods with pheromones influencing their every movement. That and the whole “too bad for them, they got so close.”
Actually, this is a pretty good scene. It’s not making me want to hate anything and I can frankly say I enjoy it. So... Yeah, another Mercy Point goes to this. The only thing I would hate about it is that it didn’t come sooner, but hey, it’s here now so it’s all good. Wait did I just go Molly from The Last Unicorn on this film?
{Gratuitous cutaway gag}
Psyga: No, it can't be. Can it be? Where have you been? Where have you been? Damn you! Where have you been?
Clementine: Don't you talk to it that way!
The Fantasy: I'm here now.
Psyga: [...] It's all right, I forgive you.
And soon, our heroes go to this treetop club house and then Leslie tells Jesse that “This Is Reality” regarding the dragonfly warriors. We’re now thrust into the Mr. Imagination aspect. This is a pretty powerful scene, fantasy or no. Fantasy because it shows a new hope has shined to the imprisoned realm of Terabithia, that and it’s the call to adventure that I was talking about. Not fantasy because it shows Leslie’s free spirit. I actually find this scene funny, if only because I expect Leslie to break character any minute and tell Jesse, “Dude, I’m make believing. Jesus, drop the realism for one second and lose yourself in some fantasy.”
One or two montages later...
And we have Janice faking a trip to get the bus driver convinced that Jesse tripped her. He buys it without a second to think. No, seriously. It’s like: “Jesse tripped me!” {silence} “On purpose!” “Okay, hit the road.” And of course, he can pay attention to that, but noticing that someone, the same person who got him off the bus no less, is shooting ketchup packets over four rows of seats? Bah, forget it. Yeah, I know that he has to mind the road and all that, but there’s something amiss if he can be so easily convinced by someone who has a reputation for being one of three on-screen (because God knows how many of these guys are in this Crapsack World) school bullies. Thankfully, this moment is played off with a comedic moment, so no harm no foul. Plus if Leslie went to the parents, there’d be hell to pay according to her.
And there’s another scene I have to mention because its part of the adaptational timeline I was talking about in the first part. In the book, Jesse’s mother was concerned with his friend being female since it could mean he was becoming gay because that was the standards of the 70’s. A few decades later, when the gay community becomes generally accepted, the idea of a boy being friends with a girl didn’t exactly garner the same amount of concern, and thus she’s cool with it because hey, he has a friend now. And our part ends with a grenade ambush by monsters that are part squirrel part... Scott Hoager? They’re projecting their enemies from school into their fantasy world? Why does it remind me so much of So-
Oh fuck.
Was my liveblog of Sonichu building up to this? Oh god...
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