Chris at Movie Marketing Madness notes that Disney has now created a new TV spot for Bridge to Terabithia — and the new spot is, if anything, even worse than the trailer. I transcribe:
From Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media: Two friends are about to find another world . . . no one has ever seen. . . . They will meet amazing creatures . . . discover incredible powers . . . and only they can solve the mystery that will reveal their destiny. . . . Bridge to Terabithia, rated PG, starts February 16.
What utterly generic boilerplate crap. In the book — and even, for the most part, in the film — the children don’t “find” or “discover” anything. Rather, the two friends create this imaginary kingdom, as a sort of escape from the travails of home and school.
And what is this nonsense about a “mystery” and a “destiny”?
Disney and Walden are only shooting themselves in the foot. The ads are going to scare off fans of the book, and people who come to the movie expecting another Chronicles of Narnia are going to be mighty disappointed when they discover that the film is actually a lot more faithful to its source material than the ads let on.
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