James and the Giant Peach

***James and the Giant Peach*** is a 1996 stop-motion animated 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.

## Plot

Featuring stop-motion animation and live action, this inventive adaptation of Roald Dahl's beloved children's tale follows the adventures of James (Paul Terry), an orphaned young British boy. Forced to live with his cruel aunts (Joanna Lumley, Miriam Margolyes), James finds a way out of his bleak existence when he discovers an enormous enchanted peach. After rolling into the sea inside the buoyant fruit, James, accompanied by a crew of friendly talking insects, sets sail for New York City.

## Why It Was The Marvelous Thing That Happened

1. The film has a wonderful soundtrack by Randy Newman and has dazzling songs such as "*Good News*" by Randy himself, "*That's The Life for Me*" and "*Eating the Peach*".
2. The film has a couple of likable characters such as James, and many of the bugs such as the motherly Mrs. Ladybug, the intelligent violinist Mr. Grasshopper, and the lovely Miss Spider.
3. It stays faithfully true to Roald Dahl's book that it's based on. The only major change is that Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker are not crushed by the peach but instead follow James to New York City, giving James a perfect opportunity to confront them once and for all.
4. The film has incredible stop-motion animation that was done by Anthony Scott and Henry Selick.
	* The way in which they meshed live-action characters and setting with stop-motion characters is amazing.
5. Jack Skellington's cameo as the pirate captain is a nice Easter egg towards *The Nightmare Before Christmas*, Henry Selick's previous film. Donald Duck also makes a cameo as one of the pirates too.
6. Great special effects.
7. Most of the performances, either physical or vocal, are very well acted.
8. The comedy for the most part is pretty decent.
9. The action scenes are very intense and gripping.
10. There's also some well handled drama.
11. Similar to *The Nightmare Before Christmas*, Henry Selick did an impressive job for directing this movie.
12. Spiker and Sponge are decent villains.

## Bad Qualities

1. Spiker and Sponge's treatment of James makes them very unlikable, although this was intentional.
2. Some scary scenes, like when James dreams with the rhinoceros or when he dreams about being a worm and getting killed by Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker with insecticide.
3. Some things are left unexplained in the film with no real explanation at all. Among them:
	* How did a mechanical shark appear out of nowhere on the sea and tries to kill James and the bugs?
	* Why a sunken ship has a frightening depiction of Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker at its bow?
	* How Spiker and Sponge were able to follow James to New York with their crashed car under the sea? From England to New York City, there are 3,399 miles and they couldn't have hold their breath all that time...
4. The police are completely useless during the climax. While Spiker and Sponge try to ***outright murder*** James with fire axes, the police are just concerned that people want to come near and request them to stay behind. Really competent, do you agree?
5. Some songs are generic.

## Reception

*James and the Giant Peach* gets near-universal acclaim from critics and audiences. 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". Metacritic scores the film a 78 out of 100 based on 36 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews."