Sweet thing Zooey Deschanel will bring her incalculable adorability and mushmouth delivery to the front of the classroom for Bridge to Terabithia, Disney’s adventure flick based on author Katherine Paterson’s award-winning children’s book.
The story follows a young small-town boy who befriends the new girl in class, and together they create an imaginary realm where they battle the pretend monsters of their magical land. And then one of them dies. Spoiler!
Zathura brother Josh Hutcherson and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s gum-chomping veal chop AnnaSophia Robb play the kids, and Zooey plays the school teacher they look up to even though they probably can’t understand her endearingly slurred speech. Animation producer Gabor Csupo (today’s Jumble!) makes his feature debut on the movie, and I hope he captures her charms more competently than Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Zooey next appears in the Matthew McConaughey loser comedy Failure to Launch and Brad Pitt’s western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which has a name almost as ungainly as hers.