Stories that make children use their imagination are the best and this tale based on a novel by Katherine Paterson ticks all the right boxes. It's good old-fashioned story telling, which reminds me of films like Pollyanna (1960) and Mary Poppins (1964). This is of course up-dated, but still full of magical make believe.

With four sisters Jesse Aarons (Josh Hutcherson) has a lot to cope with. In fact he would gladly "trade em all in for a dog". His family are also poor so he has to endure the indignity of wearing the girls' hand-me-down pink trainers. Unfortunately as running is his chosen sport, the pink trainers are real humiliation. Badly bullied at school, Jesse is determined to be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. He enters an important race in order to prove himself, but is beaten by a girl called Leslie Burke (AnnaSophia Robb), who has just arrived at the school.

Leslie turns out to be his new next door neighbour as well, and just as lonely as he is. An only child, whose author parents don't have much time for her, Leslie isn't popular at school either as the other girls are jealous of her creative imagination. So when she admires Jesse's drawings they become friends.

Leslie has the gift of telling a great story and Jesse is a gifted illustrator, so when they run into the woods by their homes they merge their gifts together and create the mythical Kingdom of Terabithia. They get to their kingdom by a rope swing over a stream, where they do up an old tree house. Leslie tells stories of giants, fairies and many other mythical creatures and Jesse paints them, while they let their imagination bring them all to life.

This is a wonderful story and shows the importance of exercising youngsters' little grey cells, particularly in this world of computer games and ipods, where everything is done for them. Sadly hop-scotch, kick-the-can and imaginary worlds seem to be games of the past. The screenplay is co-written and produced by David Paterson who is the son of the original book's author. As a young boy he was Katherine Paterson's inspiration for the character of Jesse, and indeed you do feel this film was made with a great deal of understanding and compassion; parents may well need their hankies.

The story isn't just one of make believe and that is what makes it so special. All the nasty things that happen to the children are addressed in the Kingdom of Terabithia, so it helps them cope with the real world. Though there is CGI, it is never intrusive: in fact it is their real lives that the story is about. Both Hutcherson and Robb are equally engaging. The other characters who make their mark are Zooey Deschanel as their music teacher and the adorable if rather precocious Bailey Madison as Jesse's six year old sister May Belle. This is a brilliant moving family film, directed by Gabor Csupo with love. 8/10