Bridge to Terabithia

Bridge to Terabithia is a 1985 Canadian-American made-for-television fantasy drama film produced for the PBS series WonderWorks, starring Annette O'Toole, Julian Coutts, and Julie Beaulieu. It was shot in Edmonton, Alberta. It is based on the 1977 children's novel of the same name by Katherine Paterson. The story was inspired by the death of Lisa Hill, the best friend of Katherine Paterson's son David, who was struck and killed by lightning when she was eight years old. In a 2007 interview, David, who later co-wrote the 2007 film version, referred to this version as being "like the crazy cousin in a mental hospital that nobody talks about" and goes on to say that "no one on our side was either involved with it or happy with the final product." Plot summary 10-year-old Jess Aarons (Julian Coutts) is an aspiring yet shy fifth grader living in a financially struggling family. 10-year-old Leslie Burke (Julie Beaulieu) is the new girl at his school, just arriving on its athletics day. She enters a running event which she wins with ease, despite her classmates calling it a "boys only" race. Jess is, at first, quite sour about this and wants nothing to do with her, but her persistence in meeting him soon pays off, with them becoming friends. He shares his secret love of drawing with her; she shares with him her love of fantasy stories. Together they venture into the woods, where they go across a creek on the trunk of a partially fallen tree, and later build a "castle" (actually a small shed) on the other side. Here, they invent a whole new world, Terabithia, and it comes to life through their eyes, which they explore together. They base the Creatures of Terabithia on the people that give them a hard time at school.