If you’re not familiar with the story it revolves around a young man named James (Paul Terry) who is an orphan. His nasty aunts watch (and abuse) the poor kid, who is desperate to find a way out. He finds that out through a giant peach that is grown thanks to a mysterious old man (Pete Postlethwaite). Hopping inside the peach, James meets a curious group of individuals; all of them bugs. Their goal is to get James to New York City (mind you, he’s in England), and so their adventure begins.
The movie is very kid friendly; though the aunts are two of the scariest people I’ve seen in a while (played by Joanna Lumley (from AbFab for you curious folks out there) and Miriam Margolyes). While certainly not as memorable as Coraline or The Nightmare Before Christmas, it still brings a beautiful story about one child’s desire to be and live better (or just normal for that matter). The inclusion of the insects is interesting, as most kids find insects positively terrifying. It also sends a wonderful message that no matter who or what you might be in life you still have a place and purpose. That’s sort of the theme surrounding James and the Giant Peach. When you see how terribly bad James is treated by his aunts you can certainly understand why his confidence and self-esteem were damaged to the point where he thinks he is worthless. A lot of kids go through this on a day-to-day basis and it’s neat to see such hope onscreen for a young kid; even if he is fictional.
Selick’s talent of translating story to visuals is another reason why this movie works so well. The original story came from Roald Dahl (the painter and fantastic writer — see Fantastic Mr. Fox for more details) and was translated to a screenplay by Karey Kirkpatrick. The screenplay was translated into a visual treat by Selick. His imagination that made the peach look delicious and the waves of the ocean look scary, made this movie work so well. The leap from The Nightmare Before Christmas to these visuals was impressive.
The only real fault in the entire film is the necessity of putting real-life actors at the beginning and end of the film. Had he stayed with the stop-motion the entire time I think it would have been fine. It worked in Coraline and it could have worked here. I’m not sure if it was the faithfulness to the story or possible pressure form the studio, but the human portion of the film simply didn’t work for me; it simply slowed down the film. This is the reason I believe this is the third best film that Selick has done in the stop-motion department.
Shifting gears just slightly, I think the Blu-ray worked well. The live visuals were a bit grainy and ugly at times (mainly because there was a shortage of lights/darks and more grays — that tends to bring out the grainy look of a film). When you get to the stop-motion it actually looks really sharp. The vivid colors of the peach, the ocean, the mechanical shark in the ocean; it looked stunning. The colors seem to jump out on the screen really well, which was the case for Coraline when we reviewed it.
The audio was particularly sharp as well. It comes remastered in DTS-HD audio, which is becoming the standard these days. We were singing the damn James song all weekend; that’s how good it was and how well it stuck with us. A really beautiful soundtrack that was good enough to make a Disney compilation disc did just as well on Blu-ray.
As for the features, here’s where I was a bit disappointed. I really enjoyed the ‘Spike the Aunts’ interactive game. My kids loved it and enjoyed it, which is saying a lot since they play console games right now (and that damn Club Penguin). The rest of the features landed on the DVD and really didn’t seem as special as they should have been. You get a ‘making of’ featurette and a music video, but nothing really else. For a ‘Special Edition’ to be special I think there should have been just a bit more to it. Regretfully there wasn’t and it isn’t as magical as it could be. Give me more (Yeah, that sounds greedy, I know)!