Psycho's Movie Reviews #221: James And The Giant Peach (1996)

James and the Giant Peach is a 1996 musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick, based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. It was produced by Tim Burton and Denise Di Novi, and starred Paul Terry as James. The film is a combination of live action and stop-motion animation. Co-stars Joanna Lumley and Miriam Margolyes played James's aunts in the live-action segments, and Simon Callow, Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon, Jane Leeves, David Thewlis, and Margolyes voiced his insect friends in the animation sequences.

Plot

In summer 1958, James Henry Trotter is a young orphan living with his sadistic and domineering aunts Spiker and Sponge. One day, after rescuing a spider from his hysterical aunts, James obtains magical "crocodile tongues" from a mysterious old man, which grows a colossal peach on nearby old peach tree that Spiker and Sponge exploit as a tourist attraction. At night, James eats through the peach to find a pit with several human-sized anthropomorphic insects: Mr. Grasshopper, Mr. Centipede, Ms. Spider (who was actually the spider he saved from Spiker and Sponge), Mr. Earthworm, Mrs. Ladybug, and Mrs. Glowworm. As they hear Spiker and Sponge searching for James, Centipede cuts the stem connecting the peach to the tree and the peach rolls away to the Atlantic Ocean.

The insects drive on the peach to New York City, as James has dreamed of visiting the Empire State Building like his parents wanted to. Obstacles include a giant mechanical shark and undead skeletal pirates in icy water of the Artic. When the group arrive, they are suddenly attacked by the tempestuous form of the rhinoceros that killed James' parents. James, though frightened, gets his friends to safety and confronts the rhino before it strikes the peach with lightning. James and the peach fall to the city below, landing on top of the Empire State Building. After he is rescued by firefighters, Spiker and Sponge arrive and attempt to claim James and the peach. James tells the crowd of his fantastical adventure and exposes his aunts' mistreatment. Enraged at James' betrayal, Spiker and Sponge attempt to hack James with stolen fire axes, but are stopped by the insects and arrested by the police.

James introduces his friends to the New Yorkers and allows the children to eat up the peach. The peach pit is made into a cottage in Central Park, where James lives happily with the bugs, who form his new family and also find success and fame in the city. Mr. Centipede runs for New York mayor and is now James’ father, Miss Spider opens a club and is now his mother, Mr. Earthworm becomes a mascot for a skin-care company and is now James' uncle, Mrs. Ladybug becomes an obstetrician and is James' aunt, Mr. Grasshopper becomes a concert violinist and is now James' grandfather, and Mrs. Glowworm becomes the light in the torch of the Statue of Liberty and is now his grandmother. James celebrates his ninth birthday with his new family and friends.

Production

At Walt Disney Animation Studios in the early 1980s, Joe Ranft tried to convince the staff to produce a film based on Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach (1961), a book that enamoured him with its "liberating" material ever since he first read it in third grade. However, Disney refused for reasons of a potentially expensive and difficult animation process and the source material's weird subject matter. Among the animators exposed to the book by Ranft was Henry Selick; while he enjoyed the book and thought about adapting it to screen for several years, he understood the obstacles doing so, such as the source material's dreamy nature, episodic structure, and the reputation of other Dahl books being so agitational some parts of the world banned them.

Felicity Dahl, Roald's widow and executor of his estate, began offering film rights to the book in the summer in 1992; among those interested included Steven Spielberg and Danny DeVito.

Walt Disney Pictures acquired the film rights to the book from the Dahl estate in 1992. Brian Rosen was hired as producer by Disney for his experience in animated projects like FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992) and live-action films such as Mushrooms (1995).

Dennis Potter was hired to write a draft. Rosen descripted it as "slightly black and bizarre", a tone Disney didn't approve of, particularly with the sharks being Nazis. Once Potter died, Karey Kirkpatrick and Bruce Joel Rubin came in to write separate drafts, of which Kirkpatrick's was chosen. Unlike the novel, James's aunts are not killed by the rolling peach (though his parents' deaths occur as in the novel) but follow him to New York. The character Silkworm was removed to not overload on the amount of characters to animate; in the book, his purpose was limited to what Miss Spider did in the film, which was to attach the peach to several seagulls during the shark chase.

Before the start of production, Disney and Selick debated on whether the film should be live-action or stop-motion-animated, the company sceptical of the stop-motion solution. Selick had originally planned James to be a real actor through the entire film, then later considered doing the whole film in stop motion; but ultimately settled on entirely live-action and entirely stop-motion sequences, to keep lower costs. The film begins with 20 minutes of normal live action, but becomes stop-motion animation after James enters the peach, and then live action when James enters New York City (although the arthropod characters remained in stop motion). Like The Wizard of Oz (1939), the colour palette changes when James enters the Peach to indicate he's entered a magical setting, from greys and greens to vibrant colours.

Release/Reception/Box Office

The film was theatrically released on April 12, 1996.

Disney released the film worldwide except for a few countries in Europe including the United Kingdom, where Pathé (the owner of co-producer Allied Filmmakers) handled distribution and sold the rights to independent companies. The only countries where Disney doesn't have control over the movie are the United Kingdom and Germany, where the film was released by Guild Film Distribution and Tobis Film respectively.

Though Roald Dahl refused numerous offers to have a film version of James and the Giant Peach produced during his lifetime, his widow, Liccy, approved an offer to have a live-action version produced. She thinks Roald "would have been delighted with what they did with James. It is a wonderful film."

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 91% based on reviews from 74 critics, with an average score of 7.16/10. The website's critical consensus states: "The arresting and dynamic visuals, offbeat details and light-as-air storytelling make James and the Giant Peach solid family entertainment".

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a positive review, praising the animated part, but calling the live-action segments "crude." Writing in The New York Times, Janet Maslin called the film "a technological marvel, arch and innovative with a daringly offbeat visual conception" and "a strenuously artful film with a macabre edge."

The film grossed $28.9 million in the United States and Canada and $8.8 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $37.7 million.

The film opened at the number 2 spot at the box office, missing out on the top spot to Primal Fear. The film took in $7,539,098 that weekend, and stayed in the top 10 for the next 5 weeks before dropping to 11th place. The film went on to gross over $28,946,127 domestically bringing its worldwide total to $28,946,127, which against a budget of $38 million, made the film commercially a box office bomb.

Budget $38 million

Box office $37.7 million

My Review

James and the Giant Peach is a neat film...one I enjoyed watching. However, I strongly recommend you think twice about letting younger kids watch it...or, perhaps you should watch it with them. Why? Because the film is pure nightmare fuel, thanks to a script by the master of childhood trauma, Roald Dahl! And, if you aren't sure, see the film yourself first and then judge whether or not it's appropriate for your kids.

The story is a combination of live action and stop-motion, done, according to IMDB to cut costs as stop-motion is quite expensive. The introduction is very sweet and shows James with his loving parents. Then, out of the blue, you're told that he's now an orphan as a giant sky rhino ate them!! And, as a result, he goes to live with two aunts who make Harry Potter's family, the Dursleys, look like candidates for sainthood!

There is an escape from this hellish existence when a giant (and I am talking BIG) peach grows on the aunts' property. It turns out to be a magical one...infested with nice hugs who accompany James across the ocean to New York City!! Along the way, there are a lot of songs and brushes with death...or near-death!

So is it any good? Well, the stop-motion animation is gorgeous and it's not surprising since it was directed by Henry Selick, the guy responsible for The Nightmare Before Christmas was well as the wonderful films from Laika Studios (such as Coraline and The Box Trolls).

True, it isn't as good as the book, which is a childhood favourite of mine, but it is still a delightful and charming film. The look of the film is splendid, with bright colours in most scenes and some very memorable scenes such as the killer sharks, and the peach was stupendous. The script is very clever and funny, especially with Centipede, who has some truly hilarious lines. The performances are exceptional, Paul Terry is very appealing as James and Pete Postelthwaite delights as the mysterious man, who is responsible for changing James's life forever. There is also a terrific voice cast, including Simon Callow, Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon and David Thewlis who breathe fresh air into the screenplay, but it is certainly Miriam Margoyles and Joanna Lumley as the ghastly aunts who steal the show. I do however have two complaints of the film. I did find Randy Newman's songs forgettable, and they occasionally mar the film's pacing, and Paul Terry's singing voice just was a bit weak. Other than that, it is a delightful film, with an 8.5/10

{The key thing I remembered from this film, well that's always stuck with me from this film, is the song 'Good News' by Randy Newman}