Hillsdale college's monthly journal has an article with the head of Walden that explains it. Very good insight as to the company's future release plans:
http://www.hillsdale.edu/imprimis/
The director of this film is upset at the trailer and how it's being marketed. The CG fantasy world is being used to lure kids in with promises of Harry Potter-like adventures but it's decidedly *not* a fantasy film.
Terebithia is a Newberry winner, but a lot of those Newberry books are full of teenage angst and depressing plots. When my husband read this to our son many years ago, he was a bit irritated at just how depressing it was.
For at least 20 years, the Disney Corporation's vision for the young people of America has been soulless and very, very dark.
To let little kids know that no matter how bright and charismatic you are, you will die...suddenly...without warning--it could be at any moment.
Maybe because it was made from a kid's book?
And a Newberry (sp?) award winning one at that?
Probably because it is from a child's book. A librarian I work with just described it a kind of prototype Young Adult Literature book when the genre was just getting off. I just happened to read the book several weeks ago before I knew that a movie was coming out. I thought it was a dreadful book and certainly wouldn't want a child of mine reading it. The author is quite talented and I know good quality writing when I see it. But in the book, she mocks Christianity and praises paganism (although she is a former missionary and wife of a Presbyterian minister) and really makes the rural Southern family look bad.