James and the Giant Peach (film)

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.[3] 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.

James and the Giant Peach
Theatrical release poster
Directed byHenry Selick
Produced byDenise Di Novi
Tim Burton
Screenplay byKarey Kirkpatrick
Jonathan Roberts
Steve Bloom
Based onJames and the Giant Peach
by Roald Dahl
Starring
Music byRandy Newman
CinematographyPete Kozachik
Hiro Narita
Edited byStan Webb
Production
company
Distributed byBuena Vista Pictures (Global)
Guild Film Distribution[1] (United Kingdom)
Release date
  • April 12, 1996 (1996-04-12) (United States)
  • August 2, 1996 (1996-08-02) (United Kingdom)
Running time
79 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$38 million
Box office$37.7 million[2]

Plot

James Henry Trotter is a young orphan whose parents were devoured by a rhinoceros, forcing him to live with his sadistic and domineering aunts Spiker and Sponge. James dreams of seeing New York City and visiting the Empire State Building, as his parents had wanted to do. One day, after rescuing a spider from his hysterical aunts, James meets a mysterious old man who gives him a bag of magical "crocodile tongues" before disappearing without a trace. On his way back inside, James stumbles and drops the crocodile tongues near an old peach tree. A colossal peach grows on the tree, and Spiker and Sponge exploit the peach as a tourist attraction. At night, as James picks up litter, he enters the peach's interior through a large tunnel that forms when he takes a chunk from a peach to eat it. Within the pit, he encounters and befriends a group of human-sized anthropomorphic insects: Mr. Grasshopper, Mr. Centipede, Ms. Spider, Mr. Earthworm, Mrs. Ladybug, and the 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.

Remembering his dream to visit New York City, James and the insects decide to go there. Centipede claims to be an experienced traveler and takes on the duty of steering the peach. Ms. Spider's silk is used to capture and tie a large flock of seagulls to the peach stem as the group fends off a giant mechanical shark. After the group staves off hunger by drawing sustenance from the peach, Ms. Spider reveals to James that she was the spider he saved from Spiker and Sponge. The next morning, James and his friends find themselves in the Arctic; Centipede had fallen asleep at the helm, and his exploratory credentials are exposed as fraudulent. After Grasshopper determines that a compass is required to escape the frozen wasteland, a remorseful Centipede plunges into the icy water below to retrieve one from one of the many sunken galleons, but is captured and taken prisoner by undead skeletal pirates. James and Ms. Spider rescue him with the compass at hand.

As the group finally arrives at New York City, they are suddenly attacked by the tempestuous form of the rhino that killed James's 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's 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. James celebrates his ninth birthday with his new family and friends.

Cast

Voices

Production

Walt Disney Pictures acquired the film rights to the book from the Dahl estate in 1992.[4] The film begins with 20 minutes of normal live action,[5] 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). 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.[6] 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.[5]

Release

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.

Home media

The film was released on VHS on October 15, 1996. A digitally restored Blu-ray/DVD combo pack was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on August 3, 2010 in the United States.[7]

Reception

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."[8]

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".[9]

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a positive review, praising the animated part, but calling the live-action segments "crude."[10] 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."[11]

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.[12][2]

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music, Original Musical or Comedy Score, by Randy Newman. It won Best Animated Feature Film at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

YearAwardCategoryNomineeResult[13]
1996Annie AwardsBest Animated FeatureNominated
Best Individual Achievement: DirectingHenry SelickNominated
Best Individual Achievement: MusicRandy NewmanNominated
Best Individual Achievement: ProducingTim Burton
Denise Di Novi
Nominated
Best Individual Achievement: StoryboardingJoe RanftNominated
Best Individual Achievement: Voice ActingRichard DreyfussNominated
Best Individual Achievement: WritingKarey Kirkpatrick
Jonathan Roberts
Steve Bloom
Nominated
Kansas City Film Critics Circle AwardsBest Animated FilmWon
1997Academy AwardsBest Music, Original Musical or Comedy ScoreRandy NewmanNominated
Annecy International Animated Film FestivalBest Animated Feature FilmHenry SelickWon [14]
Chicago Film Critics AssociationBest Original ScoreRandy NewmanNominated
Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics AssociationBest Animated FilmWon
Satellite AwardsBest Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed MediaTim Burton
Denise Di Novi
Nominated
Saturn AwardsBest Fantasy FilmNominated
Young Artist AwardsBest Family Feature – Animation or Special EffectsWon
Best Performance in a Voiceover – Young ArtistPaul TerryNominated

Music

James and the Giant Peach
Soundtrack album by
Released12 April 1996 (1996-04-12)
Length50:03
LabelWalt Disney Records

Track listing

All tracks are written by Randy Newman, except where noted.

James and the Giant Peach (An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack)
No.TitleArtistsLength
1."My Name Is James"Paul Terry2:38
2."That's the Life For Me"Jeff Bennett, Susan Sarandon, Jane Leeves, Miriam Margolyes, Simon Callow & David Thewlis1:59
3."Eating the Peach" (written by Roald Dahl)Jeff Bennett, Susan Sarandon, Jane Leeves, Miriam Margolyes, Simon Callow, David Thewlis and Paul Terry2:54
4."Family"Simon Callow, Jeff Bennett, Jane Leeves, David Thewlis, Susan Sarandon, Miriam Margolyes and Paul Terry2:43
5."Main Title: James And The Giant Peach" 0:37
6."Clouds" 1:40
7."Spiker, Sponge, And A Rhino" 3:24
8."Magic Man" 4:15
9."Giant Peach" 1:54
10."Into The Peach" 2:04
11."James Makes Some Friends" 1:08
12."The Peach Rolls" 2:37
13."All At Sea / That's The Life (Reprise)" 2:12
14."100 Seagulls And One Shark" 1:58
15."Lullaby" 1:57
16."James' Dream" 1:03
17."Way Off Course" 1:47
18."The Rhino Attacks" 2:50
19."Empire State Building" 2:17
20."New York City" 2:53
21."Spiker And Sponge Come To America" 2:15
22."A Place Where Dreams Come True" 3:58
23."Good News"Randy Newman4:20
Total length:50:03

References

  1. http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/james-and-giant-peach-film
  2. "Top 100 worldwide b.o. champs". Variety. January 20, 1997. p. 14.
  3. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 185–186. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  4. Setoodah, Ramin (July 29, 2016). "From 'The BFG' to 'Matilda': How 5 Roald Dahl Books Landed on the Big Screen". Variety. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
  5. Nichols, Peter M. (2003). The New York Times Essential Library: Children's Movies. New York: Henry Holt and Company. pp. 134–136. ISBN 0-8050-7198-9.
  6. Evans, Noah Wolfgram. "Layers: A Look at Henry Selick". Retrieved December 12, 2008.
  7. Foster, Dave (May 19, 2010). "James and the Giant Peach (US BD) in August". The Digital Fix. Archived from the original on May 20, 2010. Retrieved June 27, 2010.
  8. Roberts, Chloe; Darren Horne. "Roald Dahl: From Page to Screen". close-upfilm.com. Archived from the original on February 4, 2009. Retrieved December 9, 2008.
  9. James and the Giant Peach at Rotten Tomatoes
  10. Gleiberman, Owen (April 19, 1996). "James and the Giant Peach (1996) review". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on December 23, 2009. Retrieved December 12, 2008.
  11. Maslin review
  12. "James and the Giant Peach". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 3, 2015.
  13. "James and the Giant Peach - Awards - IMDb". Retrieved July 5, 2016.
  14. Annecy
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