James and the Giant Peach (Walt Disney Pictures Presents)

James and the Giant Peach is based on the children’s book of the same name by Roald Dahl. This is director Henry Selick’s first film after The Nightmare Before Christmas and already an improvement in the quality of the stop motion animation is evident. The film opens with a boy named James (Paul Terry) living happily with his parents as they picnic and plan to move to New York. Unfortunately they are killed by a rhino. This occurs off-screen, but it's also the only explanation ever given about their deaths. When James lives with his Aunts, they often use the rhino as a threat, making it more of an intangible representation of fear; not unlike the boogey man. James' Aunts, Spiker (Joanna Lumley) and Sponge (Miriam Margolyes) are cruel and grotesque. They beat and starve James while obsessing over their own vanities. Actually, they are far more disturbing than anything that James encounters throughout the film. When a mysterious traveler (played very theatrically by Pete Postlethwaite) gives James some magic crocodile tongues, they create the giant peach and James himself ends up entering it and meeting the insects. Together, they all decide to journey to the wonderful land of New York and escape James’ Aunts.The characters that make up the insects are terrific. There’s the tough talking Centipede (voiced by Richard Dreyfuss), the French spider (Susan Sarandon), the wise Grasshopper (Simon Callow), the negative and depressed worm (David Thewlis), the sweet old ladybug (Jane Leeves), and the half-deaf glowworm (also voiced by Miriam Margolyes).One of the first things to notice about this film is the way it blends live action and stop motion animation in a manner that's almost completely seamless. The first part of the film, being the opening scenes and those of James and his aunts, are done entirely in live action. The environments however, are spectacularly animated and picturesque. The neighboring town and ocean seen in the distance seems so much more vivid and peaceful than the dead, lifeless hill where James’ two Aunts reside. It's only when James enters the peach that everything, including James, becomes fully animated. The animation is incredibly detailed and nuanced; the characters can display a wide variety of emotions and movements that it's even a step up from The Nightmare Before Christmas only 3 years before.I would argue that this film is much more established as a Henry Selick film than The Nightmare Before Christmas, which obviously retained a lot of influence from Tim Burton’s designs and style (though Jack Skellington does make a cameo appearance in this film). In James and the Giant Peach, there are more bright colors and surreal images. The shark that attacks them in the sea for instance is not a typical shark, but a mechanical monstrosity that grinds up fish and shoots out their heads on plates. The best example however, is the “Family” song sequence. During this sequence, the insects sing a song for James and as the song progresses, the world around them becomes filled with moving colors and objects, floating around in the sky to the point where the very peach itself becomes part of a spinning mobile, which James then plucks from the background and takes into his hands. It's a highlight and the creativity and imagination at work here makes this entire film stand out as a great movie for children and adults to see. All the music is done by Randy Newman and with the exception of the song during the credits (the only one that he sings personally) it doesn’t sound so typical of his normal musical style. Nearly every song is both catchy and memorable and all of them feel like they belong within the story.James and the Giant Peach is a wonderful film and one of Henry Selick’s best to date. There are some surrealistic qualities about this film but it always feels accessible and natural to the tone and visuals of the story. Even though this particular style of animation is more advanced and sophisticated now, as seen in more recent Henry Selick films like Coraline, this one still holds up very well in terms of sheer technical quality and great storytelling.

The media could not be loaded. Great movie, still had the packaging on (and I bought a used one so, woohoooo), and had a quick delivery timeA+

I ordered this for my students to watch after reading teh book. They enjoyed it so much that we watched it again the next day

Yeah, this was my favorite movie growing up as a kid and it was also scary At the time, but this was a favorite movie of mine. I’m glad to have it.

And yet another classic by Tim Burton added to my collection.

Got the Roald Dahl book series from Costco. My son and I read one of the books, watch the movie, and compare the differences, similarities, and favorite parts. Very cute movie. My son enjoyed it.

cute movie

All time favorite