The BFG

Plot synopsis:
As the book starts, a young girl named Sophie lies in bed in an orphanage. She can’t sleep, and sees a strange sight in the street. A giant man is walking in the street, carrying a suitcase and what looks like a trumpet. He sees Sophie, who runs to her bed and tries to hide. This doesn’t work, and the giant picks her up through the window. Then, he starts to run incredibly fast, until he reaches a large cave, which he enters.
When he sets Sophie down, she begins to plead for her life, believing that the giant will eat her. The giant laughs, and explains that most giants do eat human beings, and that the people’s origins affect their taste. For example, people from Greece taste greasy. The giant then says that he will not eat her, as he is the BFG, or the Big Friendly Giant.
The BFG then explains that he must stay with her forever, as no one can know of his existence. He warns her of the dangers of leaving his cave, as his neighbors are sure to eat her if they catch her. The BFG then explains what he was doing with the trumpet and suitcase. He catches dreams, stores them in the cave, and then gives the good ones to children all around the world. He destroys the bad ones. The BFG then explains that he only eats snozzcumbers, which are disgusting vegetables that taste of frogskins. Another giant, the Bloodbottler, then storms in. Sophie hides in a snozzcumber and is nearly eaten by the Bloodbottler.
After this, Sophie and the BFG vow to make the other giants disappear. The BFG and Sophie then partake in some frobscottle, which is a carbonated liquid that causes extreme flatulence. After this, the two go to Dream Country to catch some dreams and the BFG shows Sophie his collection of dreams. Later, Sophie has an idea on how to beat the other giants. She has the BFG give the Queen of England a dream that shows the malevolent giants. This frightens the Queen and wakes her up, at which point Sophie explains that her dream was real. The Queen then vows to help the two.
With other countries' assistance, they construct a giant pit. With the BFG’s help, they lure the other giants into the trap, where they can’t eat anyone else. Instead, they must eat snozzcumbers. At the end, it is revealed that the BFG and Sophie live in a mansion, where Sophie is teaching the BFG how to read and write, and the BFG is actually writing the book.

Tags: good versus evil, psychedelic

Review:
I had just finished reading the original Roald Dahl novel (which I thought was brilliant), and at the video store I found the DVD of an animated version.
Curious to see if it would be as good as the book, I checked it out.I can't say I wasn't a little let down with it.
The animation bothered me a little in some scenes (jerkiness, etc.), though in general it wasn't too bad (I really liked some of the backgrounds).
Thankfully there's only two, so it could have been worse.I thought the BFG was very much in character, but the Queen and Sophie were a bit more interesting in the book.
The evil Giants also had a lot more to them in the book, and were even more sinister, yet a bit funny too.
I very highly recommend the book, and once you've read it, you might want to check out this cartoon, but you may be let down (or you may not.
Nobody questions why a big creepy giant would want to hang around with a little girl.
The times we live in are so paranoid this film makes us remember why we all need a granddad figure of out own.David Jason's performance as the BFG is remarkable.
I think he gives it that extra something that really shines through.The beginning was really Richard William's like, with the cloaked giant running through the streets.
It's based on the book by Roald Dahl and the book is much better but I think you could say that about most films which are based on books!
Worth watching if you're a small child (which I very much doubt you are)(he he), otherwise i'd read the book (whatever age you are!).
The film remains faithful to the book, something most Dahl adaptations fail to do, (eg.
the witches in while being a great film has a different ending to the book) and the animation, while not being up to todays standards, doesn't interfere with the viewing of the film.
Overall I would say this was a fantastic family film, definately aimed at children but true to the book which is something any 5-12 year old Dahl fan will love..
I have two criticisms of this movie, one is that the animation sometimes is a little flat, and the second is that Sophie and the Queen while well voiced by Amanda Root and Angela Thorne are more interesting in the book(which I loved as a kid).
His BFG is somewhat charming, but especially in the whizzpopping scene where he is hilarious, and his grammatical errors are a delight to hear, as some of them are very silly.
Roald Dahl's books are often victims of horrible screen writing and I feared the BFG would be the same kind of movie but I shouldn't have worried.
I've read The BFG several times but didn't see this movie until recently.
I heard that Roald Dahl himself even liked this adaptation and I can certainly see why.
I found this film highly enjoyable, keeping a similar tone to Dahl's writing and adapting it for the screen very well.
Like I said in the title, it's not a perfect film but it's good..
It's hard to actively dislike this adaptation but compared to the funny and grotesque novel by Roald Dahl, there's a definitely a lack of energy to the film.
It's all very well scrubbed and nicely behaved, lacking the bite that the best versions of his children's books have, such as "Matilda" or "The Witches".
The film was originally made for TV and sadly the animation has a decidedly flat look.
This is an animated film based on a Roald Dahl tale.
It's nothing too special, nevertheless a decent alternative to other more popular animated movies.The character Sophie is cute and endearing and the best drawn character of the movie.
The "BFG" of the title means "Big Friendly Giant" and refers to the movie's only good giant.
The others are vicious.The BFG is like a giant "E.T.".
Fleshlumpeater is the biggest and scariest, but somehow he doesn't gross me out as much as the other mean giants.There is some nice soundtrack and the artwork is generally very good, with some magical special effects and some more special visuals in certain scenes.The story, without being "solid as a rock", is however entertaining and involving.
A little disappointing compared to the book, with primitive animation for its time, but I still think it deserves some credit.
This cartoon adaptation of one of Roald Dahl's children's novels was released when I was only three years old, seven years after the book was published and the year before the author's death at the age of 74.
I first saw this film in the early 90's, probably when I was around six or seven years old, and remember seeing it a good number of times.
When I first watched this adaptation of "The BFG", I was totally unfamiliar with the book, but remember some of it being read to me around 1993 or '94.
I never got through the entire book until this month, and then I watched this 1989 film for the first time in maybe more than fifteen years, this time on DVD, a format which had probably not yet been introduced when I last saw the film.
At first, the girl thinks she is going to be eaten, but luckily, it turns out this giant is the Big Friendly Giant, or BFG, the only giant who doesn't eat humans.
While the other giants, all much bigger than him, go out at night to find humans to eat in different countries, he goes out to blow dreams into children's bedrooms.
Since the BFG refuses to eat people and steal food, he has no choice but to live off a repulsive vegetable called the snozzcumber, the only thing that grows in Giant Country.
Mind you, there are some nice backgrounds, such as the Dream Country one and the BFG's dream cave with all the colourful lights, and music that really fits these scenes.
The voice acting is good for the most part (even if it's not great), and the BFG is a likable character, with David Jason providing a voice that fits him.
There's another song in the film called "Sometimes, Secretly" featured in the flying scene in Dream Country.
It's like a radio-friendly pop ballad, and as such, it seemed out of place to me, but fortunately, that's just one part of the film.This piece of animation certainly isn't the most famous Roald Dahl adaptation, and it seems to be a polarizing one.
It has clearly disappointed some fans of the children's novel, and that often happens with film adaptations of books.
However, even though I now think this adaptation of "The BFG" is inferior to the book it's based on, after reading it and watching this again (I know many people would agree), and it could have been better in more than one way, I certainly don't think the film is an insult to Dahl and his novel.
Some viewers obviously wouldn't like this animated movie at all (I think it's more fun for kids than adults, judging by my latest viewing compared to the previous times I watched it, all over a decade earlier), and it might not help if they've read the book first, but even if that's the case, this adaptation still COULD be at least somewhat fun..
it is cute, however, but this isn't the perfect family film for kids under 4 because of some big scary giants.
As I said, when a movie has a song about flatulence, it is really meant for little kids..
I never saw the 1989 film adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's book The BFG when I was growing up, and I don't know whether or not that's a good thing.
I did, however, read the book as a young nipper, along with other Dahl classics such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda, so I'm familiar with just how good a word-smith Dahl was, and how he managed to forge these often creepy and macabre tales into something that children could enjoy without being too terrified.Brian Cosgrove's adaptation, for all its sporadic charm, has faded into obscurity since its 1989 release with good reason.
Beginning at an orphanage run by the nasty Mrs. Clonkers (Myfanwy Talog), young girl Sophie (Amanda Root) sees the outline of a gigantic figure blowing a trumpet through the window of a house down the road.
Lucky for her, she was taken by the Big Friendly Giant (David Jason), who is the only vegetarian giant in his world, and whose day job it is to blow happy dreams into the minds of sleeping children.
But with the knowledge of the rest of the giants gobbling up scores of children, Sophie hatches a plan with the BFG to notify the Queen of England (Angela Thorne) and put a stop to the evil giants for good.The first twenty minutes or so of The BFG is actually quite delightful, as we meet the lovable lunk and learn of his diet of the disgusting snozzcumbers, and he is wonderfully voiced by national treasure David Jason.
The song 'Whizzpopping' isn't particularly good or catchy, but there is a giddy delight to be had with watching the BFG and Sophie farting with glee.
Yet, without Dahl's written narrative, the film quickly becomes tedious and the story grinds to a near-halt.
The story was fun and the boys didn't seem to mind that the central character, Sophie, was a girl.
Dahl knew that himself so it was good that the film stuck to that.
All three of us agreed that the human eating giants were a lot of fun, though.All in all a good little film for little boys and girls.
But when you have Roald Dahl as the writer that generally is the way..
One of the best movie adaptations of a Roald Dahl book.
I loved reading Roald Dahl's novels when I was younger, especially Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and I also liked the film adaptations of some of them (most notably 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' plus the 2005 remake, 'Matilda,' 'James and the Giant Peach' and this one, 'The BFG').
I had this on video as a child, rented the DVD when I was 18 and watched it on YouTube for the first time in eight years earlier today.Although the character animation was often flickery and sometimes slow, the backgrounds were well-drawn and the scenery of Dream Country was absolutely beautiful.
The story was mostly faithful to the book, albeit Sophie having short red hair instead of long blonde hair as shown in the book illustrations, but I found the climax where several helicopters drop the mean human-eating giants in the pit forgettable.
In spite of this, most of the scenes are memorable and the Bloodbottler entering the BFG's cave startled me today and it also scared my brother when he was 16 and watching this film with me when I rented it.
The standout scenes were those involving Sophie being snatched from her orphanage by the BFG and the BFG showing her around his cave, offering her some Snozzcumber and Frobscottle (leading to the scatological yet funny Whizzpopper scene), making her a new dress and making a little boy (who has a Danger Mouse poster on his wall if you look closely) dream of becoming invisible when pressing his belly button and frightening his teacher.
The music was full of charm and tension, even though some of it had late 80s written all over it, and I liked the Whizzpopper song and the dreamy 'Sometimes, Secretly.' As for the dialogue, the BFG's was the funniest due to it being grammatically incorrect and containing hybrid words.
When I saw this as a child, I cried towards the end when the BFG said goodbye to Sophie and she wanted to be with him forever and always.
Even though I didn't cry at that scene earlier today, I still found it a touching way to end the film.Like 'Igor (which I enjoyed even more second time around),' this is another film where I increased my rating due to finding it a nostalgic delight that was worth a re-visit after several years.
A brilliant Roald Dahl book falls curiously flat in this animated adaptation..
The BFG is one of Roald Dahl's most cherished books, but in this animated adaptation the magic just isn't there.
This version remains pretty faithful to Dahl's original story so one can't lay the blame on John Hambley's script.
Children who are not familiar with the story should definitely read the book first!
All the film will achieve is to put them off read what is actually a children's' classic.Young orphan Sophie (voice of Amanda Root) lives in a none-too-friendly orphanage under the cruel supervision of Mrs Clonkers.
Sophie soon discovers that she has been kidnapped by a giant from Giant Country, and fears that he will eat her.
The BFG refuses to eat people, instead restricting himself to foul-tasting vegetables known as snozzcumbers.
Sophie and the BFG become great friends, and soon they come up with a plan to thwart the other giants.
Together they go to the Queen of England (voice of Angela Thorne) with their remarkable story and beg her to send the army and the air force to fight the man-eating giants.
The Queen agrees and so begins a dangerous operation to capture the bad giants before they can harm anyone else.Jason voices the BFG quite well (one of the few pluses in the film) but his good work is almost ruined by somewhat poor sound quality.
The rest of the voice work is decidedly uninspired, with very little to bring the characters to life.
Similarly, the BFG is the only character that is imaginatively animated - Sophie lacks appeal, and the giants are boringly designed (and look almost indistinguishable from each other).
One chapter in the book deals with the BFG's love of "whizzpopping" (farting) and is laugh-out-loud hilarious.
Following from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Danny the Champion of the World, this was the third feature length adaptation of one of the works of the great Roald Dahl, and the first to be a cartoon, from the creators of Danger Mouse and Count Duckula.
Basically young orphan girl Sophie (Amanda Root) is taken from the orphanage, run by cantankerous and abusive Mrs. Clonkers (Myfanwy Talog) by a cloaked giant she sees blowing a trumpet into a bedroom window across the street.
Sophie is taken to Giant Country, and into the cave of the giant (Sir David Jason), he tells that all other giants are eating children, but he is a nice giant, he is the Big Friendly Giant, the BFG, he will only eat the disgusting tasting "Snozzcumber".
The BFG explains that he took Sophie to stop her telling others that she saw a giant, they are suddenly interrupted by the Bloodbottler Giant (Don Henderson) who overheard talking, he is eventually repelled from the cave by being tricked into eating Snozzcumber, Sophie hiding in it is almost swallowed before he spat her out.
While cleaning herself, the BFG tells Sophie about his job of blowing dreams into the bedrooms of children, when she asks for a drink he treats her to a taste of fizzy drink "Frobscottle", its bubbles go downwards, causing the drinker flatulation, or "whizzpopping" as BFG says, and to soar.
The next morning, the BFG takes Sophie to Dream Country to catch more dreams, on the way the other giants torment him, notably by the Fleshlumpeater Giant (Don Henderson), the largest and most fearsome.
In Dream Country, the BFG shows his skill for dream-catching, Sophie joins him floating, but they are forced to go back to his Dream Cave when he catches a nightmare, or a "Trogglehumper", his cave is surrounded by hundreds of colourful dreams, all labelled to be mixed together to make stories for children.
The BFG demonstrates his dream-blowing duties, Sophie watches with joy as children are made happy with their dreams, but they are interrupted and hide when the Fleshlumpeater has come to eat children, the BFG runs, leaving the giant to devour a child.
Hearing that the giants have been talking about eating children in a school, Sophie comes up with a plan for the BFG to make a dream to blow into the bedroom of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (Angela Thorne), following the nightmare the Queen meets Sophie, meets the BFG, and believes their story.
In the end the giants are dropped into a large metal pit, and will be forced to eat Snozzcumbers from now on, Sophie has the opportunity to live in Buckingham Palace where they will create a new home for orphaned children, while the BFG must return to blow dreams, but Sophie wishes to remain with the BFG, and they go back to Giant Country together.
Jason gives a great light-hearted voice with plenty of "gobblefunk" (his language with mixed and muddled words) to the lovable gigantic friend to the sweet little girl voiced by Root, and it is animated well enough, it does have it's slightly slow spots, but for the songs "Whizzpopping" and "Sometimes, Secretly", the adorable friendship and the nice simple story, it is good fun for all the family, a very pleasant animated fantasy.
THE BFG is the first adaptation of the famous Roald Dahl novel of 1982.
The rest is fun, a bit childish in places, but good for Dahl fans..
It seems that Roald Dahl's books are never going to be faithfully made into films.
The book has the BFG stay in England (living in a large house next to Buckingham Palace) and with a pet elephant for him to ride.
I'm a huge fan of Dahl's books and would prefer his genius to remain untampered.
Next time a Dahl book is picked for filming, have someone who respects the book.