Blue S

(2013-05-16 17:10:41)

Weird but entertaining

I had read the book when I was very young. So I thought the movie version may be interesting. They open with the kid and his parents playing "stare at the clouds". Then the weirdness begins. They say that a rhinocerous ate (or carried off--whatever) his parents. I got off on my fruedian slip thinking they were really killed in a car accident, but he couldn't deal with it so it was a rhino instead. Ooops. So there's a mystical rhino character running around. Ok--it's that simple. The two old nasty aunts (one from Absolutely Fabulous) were great. The makeup was incredible. She looked so evil and disgusting and acted the part perfectly. I really enjoyed Dreyfus's NYC style centipede character. There were some corny musical numbers, but the animation (stop-motion) was really cool. This was pretty good, not nearly as good or as exciting or in-depth as Coraline, but pretty good. Coraline had a much more interesting, super-natural aspect. The Peach was supposed to be magical too, but it just didn't have the same impact as the magic of the little tunnel in Coraline.

(2013-05-16 02:54:49)

weird movie

This review is from: James And The Giant Peach (DVD) I though this movie was strange compared to the book, and the bugs were creepy looking. A lot of the dialogue was hard for the kids to understand. We thought it was OK at best. (boys are ages 5 & 7)

(2013-05-15 00:57:27)

Bad DVD!

This review is from: James and the Giant Peach (DVD) DVD had no start Menue! None of my 5 Dvd players would play it!Same error message! No Start Menue!

Spleen

(2013-05-14 07:55:46)

Faltering follow-up

Not nearly as memorable - to be blunt, not as good - as "The NightmareBefore Christmas". One thing that kills the film is the strange mix ofdifferent styles. It opens in live action, but as James enters the GiantPeach he suddenly becomes a creature of stop-motion. Well, not THATsuddenly. There's a fine looking transition sequence that uses a mixtureofhand-drawn animation and computer animation - a strange mix of differentstyles, indeed.Sorry: changing horses in mid-stream just doesn't work. Either Selick istrying to tell us that James is transformed into an animated figurine bysome kind of magic spell - a ridiculous supposition - OR it's an admissionof defeat, a way of saying, "We just couldn't fit the first few scenesintoour stop-motion style, so we filmed them live action - pretend you didn'tnotice." In either case it makes the film a much smallercreation.(By the way, there's also a nice looking dream sequence that has beenanimated in the Monty Python collage style. This does NOT clash witheitherthe stop motion or the live action, partly because a fellow is free todreamin whatever fashion he chooses to. Dreams are dramaticallyirrelevant.)The stop-motion is technically perfect, and the set designs make a meal,soto speak, out of the interior of a giant peach. It's a pity the openinglive action scenes have such an inhibiting effect on Selick's attempt tocreate an autonomous world. A pity, also, that it's just akid-meets-zany-characters kind of story.

(2013-05-14 08:30:07)

James and the Giant Peach

This review is from: James and the Giant Peach (Special Edition) (DVD) The movie was cute, I had never seen it before and I purchased it because my Grandaughters are in the play at college and I wanted to see their parts, and compare the play to the movie.

DJ Zurn

(2013-05-13 16:24:47)

Tremendously Underrated

After The Nightmare Before Christmas, both Henry Selick and Tim Burtonbegan work on another stop motion animated film, a film based on anacclaimed children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. James and TheGiant Peach brings in a lot of the same elements as Nightmare, but alsobrings in many trademarks of it's own. This film brews live actionscenes into the pot and is overall more brightly colored and sunny thanNightmare, whose scenes were mostly dark and night like. In my opinion,James and the Giant Peach is one of those films that constantly getsoverlooked. While Nightmate gets a lot of recognition and fanatics,this film has a small cult following and when it comes to ranking theworld's best stop motion classics, this one usually ranks low on thelist or doesn't rank at all. It's a pity, because I think this is oneof Selick and Burton's best accomplishments. As Roald Dahl hated theoriginal Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory from 1971, I think hewould have been quite proud of this picture, for it's one of thosefilms that truly represents the mood, the look, and the imagination ofthe original novel. This film has some of Hollywood's finest either playing live actioncharacters or stop motion characters. We have Miriam Margoyles andJoanna Lumley playing James' dreadful aunts, who are just as hilariousand silly looking as they are intimidating. Lumley's Aunt Spikercharacter can't go one scene without having her mouth hang wide open orgiving off a evil smile, revealing her crooked, filthy teeth. Thenthere is Pete Postlewaite as the Magic Man who gives James a bag ofcrocodile tongues. He can have his creepy moments as well, but heoverall plays the character as a mysterious figure. He's like thetinkerer from Willy Wonka. You just want to know more about him, butyou can't because he's gone before you can wink. Playing James is PaulTerry, who's not known that much nowadays, but has appeared on CBBC'sMicrosoap series. He's a triumphant young man and his little singingnumber towards the beginning of the film really highlights his hopesand ambitions and desire to leave his nasty aunts.Playing the stop motion characters are a wide array of actors, actorslike Simon Callow, Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon, even David Thewlisof Harry Potter fame. I think my favorite has got to be Dreyfuss'Centipede character, for he plays him as a slick, snarky, defiant HanSolo like character...with a cigar of course. My favorite scene out ofthe entire film is the scene depicting James and Centipede's adventureon a pirate ship under the sea. Many Nightmare Before Christmas fansknow that this is the scene where the Jack Skellington puppet makes acameo as the ship's deceased captain, and I think Selick and Burton dida fantastic job making him still retain his trademarks, but also lookvery different than the way him did in Nightmare.If I had to some up this film in one word, it's look. This film has alook unlike any other film. I said The Nightmare Before Christmas waslike a mix between Rankin Bass' Rudolph and the works of Edward Gory,but I think this film combines the looks of Dr. Seuss with Nancy EkholmBurkert, who illustrated Dahl's original book. Like in Nightmare, manythings are rugged, crooked and crude, even the gleaming, sky scrapingbuildings of New York City. I also think the peach has quite an appealto it. In several scenes, I just want to reach my hand into the screenand take a huge bite out of it. There is even a song about eating thepeach present in the film, and Randy Newman must be praised for hisexcellent songwriting. James and the Giant Peach is a film that deserves a little more thanwhat it gets. Sure, it's not my all time favorite, but I still hold itvery close and love it, love it, love it, love it to pieces. If youwant a film that combines stylized live action with fantastic stopmotion sequences and odd, yet thrilling wizardry, this is your pot oftea.

pixie-32

(2013-05-13 01:00:30)

I was a little disappointed, but it wasn't bad

Being a hardcore Roald Dahl fan, I had extremely high expectations for themovie. I think I would have liked it more if I had not spent so much timenoticing the differences between the movie and the book. I was entertainedby the movie anyway. I recommend watching the movie as if you have neverread the book to avoid the disappointment I had.

Rachel Repass

(2013-05-12 13:13:29)

james and the giant peach

based off of Rohald Dhal's book "James And The Giant Peach", this clay-mation movie stars a little orphan boy "mothered" by his evil aunts who finds a magic bag of boiled crocodile tongues. soon they are planted in the ground and a HUGE peach grows! AND WHEN I SAY HUGE I MEAN HUGE!he finds that wonderful things will happen when he befriends enormous insects that reside inside the collossal peach! when James was young his parents were going to take him to new york city but they were devoured by a horrific rhino. so when he boards his giant peach he guides the crew to NYC! this is a wonderful childrens movie.

(2013-05-09 06:57:07)

Fun characters with cute characters

This review is from: James and the Giant Peach (Amazon Instant Video) I thought it was altogether very cute, although a little slow getting into. I loved the story line and the picture quality looked really good even on regular definition.

jangu

(2013-05-08 19:40:18)

Utterly delightful and a must-see!!

There is sooo much I like with this movie. It has imagination, a sense ofwonder and characters you either love or hate. And the blend of live actionand stop-motion animation is a delight.The songs incorporated in this story is not very memorable but sweet and fittheir purpose. And you simply have to love to hate Margoyles and Lumley intheir parts as the aunts from hell. They treat poor James so horribly that Ithought that "Cinderella had it easy"!Compared to "nightmare before Christmas" I actually liked this movie better.It has more of a heart even if the story itself may be just a bit lessinteresting and inventive.There are so many good scenes but among the highlights is the arcticadventure and the New York sequence. But, mind you, the opening is verydeceptive and might scare younger parts of the audience.Otherwise, a must-see!!!

(2013-05-06 12:55:38)

My 4 year old daughter loves it

This review is from: James and the Giant Peach (Amazon Instant Video) My four year old thinks its a great movie, I was a bit worried she would be afraid but she's been watching the Wizard of Oz since she was almost 3, as well as the Sound of Music, Elf and Mary Poppins. She's not into the animated kids movies yet, so this movie might not be a typical one for a 4 year old.

Ginger87

(2013-05-06 06:32:46)

One Of My fav's

*CONTAINS SPOILERS*"James and the Giant Peach" is one of my favorite movies. I remember seeingit at the movie theater when it first came out in 1996. I immediately fellin love with it. The animation was so cool and I love the talking bugs,especially the earthworm.(he's so cute) I also love the songs in thismovie. My favorite is "We're Family".My favorite part of the movie is when the Centipede jumps into the icy waterto get a compass. That part of the movie was animated so well. I alsoliked the appearance by Jack the Skeleton from "The Nightmare BeforeChristmas". That was pretty funny. I also like the part of the movie whenJames has his aunts get taken away by the crane in New York. That part hadme laughing hysterically. Overall I really enjoyed this movie and suggest that everyone should see it. I give this movie 10/10 stars.

(2013-05-05 13:33:32)

Great Movie

I am really shocked that anyone could find this film "horrific"! It is far from horrific. I think the aunts are the most entertaining part of the movie. I guess you need a bit of a sense of humor to appreciate it.It wasn't incredibly entertaining for my husband or me, but we did both enjoy watching it. My five year old son, on the other hand, thinks that it is a movie masterpiece. He has watched it about eight times in the week since he first saw it. He loves to sing the songs from the movie. He is moved by James' plight for freedom from the mean aunts and sympathizes with him as much as a carefree five year old can. He finds the obstacles of James' journey with his bug friends very exciting. He really likes bugs so I guess that a movie about a journey with giant bugs is pretty appealing concept for him. I agree with a previous reviewer that the movie portrays a good lesson about facing hardships and overcoming them.

johnno74

(2013-05-05 02:43:01)

Roald Dahl's weakest to date.

A British orphan's, James Henry Trotter, dreams of emigrating to NewYork City are scuppered when his parents are killed surprisingly by arhinoceros who appears 'from nowhere'. As a result, he is forced tolive with his two spiteful aunts, Spiker & Sponge, who treat him like alabourer and feed him very bad food. One day, James receives a peachfrom a mysterious stranger. He explores the inside and enters in astrange world, which may lead to his dreams coming true again. James &The Giant Peach is based on Roald Dahl's weakest novel. Tim Burton andHenry Sellick's film adaption is a larger disappointment compared tothe book. I, of course, mean no offence to them as their other films,The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline prove a lot better thanthis garbage. Here are the reasons why James & The Giant Peach istoxic. What you, as a viewer, are analysing as you watch the film is asynopsis which is exactly the same as in the novel; completely random,lost and quite frankly, dumb. There is no reason why a rhino would eata human being (or two as shown in the film), and in England as well.I'd probably understand if it was from a zoo, but that's where thecharacters belong. This brings me onto the next bad point; the acting.It is abysmal. There are too many repeated lines i.e. the auntsstating, 'Work, work, work' and lines such as 'How dare you disagree'said over and over again. Anybody who writes a screenplay needs tothink carefully about the dialogue you use. Joanna Lumley was so muchbetter as Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous and Victoria's mother in TheCorpse Bride. But it's Paul Terry who makes a huge mess of the film. Heoveracts and quotes some of the worst lines in cinematic history. Eventhe songs cannot grow any excitement. Instead they include the mostoverrated melodies and over-repeated songs. That's The Life? It'll tireanybody sitting on a seat in a cinema and cause butt-ache. The songsare absolutely abysmal and the film is simply the worst to have beenassociated with Walt Disney Pictures (distributor), the second beingthe equally toxic Pocahontas, whose songs ain't as bad as on this. Goodanimation work though.

(2013-05-04 00:40:47)

Fantastic

This review is from: James and the Giant Peach (Walt Disney Pictures Presents) [VHS] (VHS Tape) I read the book when I was younger, and then saw the movie, which I think does a great job illustrating the book in a modern sort of way. I just love the story, and recommend this for anyone with an imagination and/or a kid at heart!

(2013-05-03 08:22:10)

I couldn't even get past the first 30 mins

This review is from: James and the Giant Peach (Amazon Instant Video) My 3 year old daughter did not like it at all, she tuned out after about 5 mins. I tried to keep going but I just couldn't follow it. Maybe I should've read the book 1st so I would've understood what was going on.

(2013-05-03 00:44:26)

One of my son's favorites

We watch this movie, which is really quite different from the book, and he dances around, singing the songs. It's an enjoyable movie. The special effects are amazing. This DVD has a bit about how the creatures had to be moved for every screen shot; it was really interesting to watch that part.There are quite a few scary parts to this movie. The shark that chases the peach is pretty scary for kids. The underwater scene has some scary parts (and skeletons!). The aunts are horrible people well-played by good actresses. The kid is adorable and does a good job, too.If you know the book: there are no Cloud Men in this movie.It's a good movie. My friend's daughter said it was "scary" and wouldn't watch it, though. My two don't seem to mind.

(2013-05-02 17:48:39)

zzzzzzz......

This movie is boring. This book is great...I really blame the same ole'-same ole' tunes of Randy Newman. His music is C-level...think about all of the movies he has written for...the songs are really forgettable....and they all pretty much sound like "Short People" -- his lone hit in the 70's. Not to make this a big "I hate Randy Newman" review, but music is so pervasive in movies even if we don't realize it. Man, look at what John Williams did for Star Wars and E.T. If you don't get chills when that music builds to a cresencdo, then you ain't listening! Newman on the other hand, builds to a crescendo and we don't even know it...then we blame the movie for not being great. Lokk at Monsters Inc. (Newman again..and again forgettable...) I think that another problem with the movies of this time was that they were so interested in getting "big name voices" and of course paying them and stroking their egos, that the movies suffer. Burton had a big problem with this (Jack Nickolson , et al.) in Batman and he felt the movie would suffer. He was right. I couldn't even watch Aladdin for a while because of all the Robin Williams hoopla (he was everywhere) Now, I watch it and he is pretty okay. (of course the music is great...and Rice as lyricist is STELLAR...really listen to the words sometime..) James and the Giant Peach is another movie that is mediocre at best...I don't know what exactly led to its failure...

(2013-05-01 00:37:57)

Fine Fantasy

James (Paul Terry) is a kind-hearted boy who lives with his mean Aunt Spiker (Joanna Lumley, who is actually beautiful and a veteran actor) and Aunt Sponge (Miriam Margolyes, another veteran actor). A rhinoceros, which we get to see a couple of times in this movie, took his parents away, according to his aunts. James's aunts treat him terribly, but James is kind to his only friend, a spider (Susan Sarandon).One day James is lamenting his life when an old man (Pete Postlethwaite, yet another veteran actor) appears and tells James that James has the power to change his own life, if he dares. The old man provides James with a bag containing little green critters that do seem to have amazing powers, because when one jumps down James's throat he changes into an animated character.James escapes his aunts into the peach, and it seems that no sooner does he enter the peach with its odd assortment of characters, a centipede (Richard Dreyfuss), a ladybug (Jane Leeves), a glowworm (also voiced by Miriam Margolyes), an earthworm (David Thewlis), a grasshopper (Simon Callow), and the spider, when the peach rolls over his aunts car and bumps its way to the ocean. James is on his way (he hopes) to New York City!Of course, James's journey is fraught with difficulties. The first problem is escaping a giant iron shark. Then the peach becomes lost and the companions must figure out how to determine which direction to travel to New York. The companions have a thrilling and funny encounter with a group of ghost pirates as they attempt to solve their problem.Eventually James and the others on the peach, now friends, reach New York, where they face even more challenges, and perhaps a place where they will find a new life.I rarely call stories heart-warming because the phrase is over-used. However, this story is just that. When Tim Burton finds material that matches his style (not to overlook the contributions of director Henry Selick and co-producer Denise Di Novi), the results are usually excellent, and such is the case with this movie. While there are a few tense moments that may make this PG movie unsuitable for extremely young members of the family, I think this movie is generally family friendly and will be one that most children will want to watch again and again.

(2013-04-30 01:24:50)

Appallingly Bad Video Transfer

Wow, I can't believe how bad JATGP looks on this blu-ray release. I fell in love with this film on laserdisc many years ago, and that was a rich, vibrant, and colorful experience. This blu-ray release is flat, has overly high contrast, and shifts quality quite a bit from adequate to crushingly bad. I know the live-action bookends are gauzy by design, but to have the color, contrast, and varying quality issues seen during the stop-motion sequences is just unforgivable. Disney needs to fix this disc. That said, the 5.1 audio mix is quite good and the stop-motion, if you can get past the flawed transfer, remains some of the most innovative and darkly charming work that I've ever seen. Worth picking up for ten singles or so, otherwise I'd regretfully recommend that folks give it a pass. Very hard to believe that Disney let this video transfer out the door. Look at any reputable review site, like [...] or [...], for more detail and sample images of the poor quality of the video.