James and the Giant Peach (film)
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| James and the Giant Peach | |
|---|---|
| Image:James and the giant peach.jpg James and the Giant Peach film poster | |
| Directed by | Henry Selick |
| Produced by | Tim Burton Denise Di Novi |
| Written by | Steven Bloom Karey Kirkpatrick Jonathan Roberts (screenplay) Roald Dahl (book) |
| Starring | Paul Terry Simon Callow Richard Dreyfuss Susan Sarandon Jane Leeves Miriam Margolyes David Thewlis Joanna Lumley |
| Music by | Randy Newman |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures |
| Release date(s) | April 12, 1996 |
| Running time | 84 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $38,000,000 USD (estimated) |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
James and the Giant Peach is a 1996 fantasy film directed by Henry Selick, based on the Roald Dahl book of the same name. It was produced by Tim Burton, who also produced The Nightmare Before Christmas. The movie is a combination of live action and stop-motion.
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[edit] Plot
A magical musical fairy tale concerning a little boy, James Henry Trotter, who finds himself living with his two aunts, Spiker and Sponge, after the death of his parents. Life with his aunts is hard and he dreams of a better place, specifically New York City, a "dream like" place his parents had talked about. His dream comes true when a stranger appears with a bagful of magic which among others things, changes insects (a Grasshopper, Centipede, Lady Bug, Spider, Earthworm and Glow Worm) into real life characters and causes an ordinary peach to grow to immense proportions. It's upon this peach that James and his new insect friends travel and make their way toward his "dream land."
[edit] Awards
The movie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music, Original Musical or Comedy Score (by Randy Newman).
[edit] Trivia
- The film begins with normal live-action, but becomes stop-motion animation after James enters the peach, and then live-action when James enters New York (although the mutated insect characters remained in stop-motion).
- In the pirate ship scene, the Centipede exclaims, "A Skellington!" upon spotting a skeleton that looks like Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) with a beard and pirate gear. Upon finding a compass moments later he exclaims, "Jackpot!" Another of the skeletons has the bill, sailor's cap, sailor's jacket and voice of Donald Duck. There also is a regular looking Pirate, a Viking and an Inuit.
- Andy Partridge of the British pop group XTC was originally tapped to write the songs for this film. When Partridge backed out over the compensation he was offered, the producers called on Randy Newman instead. Partridge eventually released demo versions of the four songs he composed for the film.
- When Cartoon Network airs this, they censor the part where Grasshopper says "You sir, are an ass!" and replace "ass" with "pedant".
- At the end of the film before the making of the movie, there is a short called "Bash the Aunts" . This is a coin operated game featuring James's aunts.
[edit] Differences between the book and the film
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- In the book, the Old Green Grasshopper plays his music by rubbing his leg across his abdomen (as real grasshoppers do) - in the film he plays a real violin.
- In the book there is a Silkworm (in the movie there is only spider silk used to tether the seagulls.)
- In the book, James fails to get any of the Crocodile tongues. However, in the film, one hops inside the chunk of peach which James eats; therefore, James gets the Crocodile tongues in the film.
- In the book, Miss Ladybug is instead Miss Ladybird – the British name for this insect.
- In the book, the friends are forced to tether seagulls to the peach to escape into the air from a swarm of sharks. In the movie, they are also forced to do this, but instead of a swarm of real sharks, they get attacked by a single giant mechanical shark equipped with circular saws and a harpoon gun.
- In the film, there is a sequence where the friends rescue the centipede (who had dived down into an icy ocean to find a compass) from a crew of skeleton pirates from whom the centipede had stolen the compass. There is no such sequence in the book. Instead, the book has a sequence where the centipede falls overboard accidentally and James and Ms. Spider go overboard to rescue him.
- In the book there are 'Cloudmen' living in the sky (and painting rainbows), but in the movie there aren't any, although the 'Cloud Rhino' – representing James's fear, as his parents have been eaten by a rhino – seems to replace them. Noticeably, there are wisps of clouds in the song, We're Family, which could be taken as Cloudmen.
- In the book, a jet airplane flies between the seagulls and the peach, severing the tethers and causing the peach to fall. In the movie, lightning (caused by the 'Cloud Rhinoceros') hits a fence wrapped around the peach, and it cuts the ropes.
- In the book, James's two wicked aunts are flattened and killed by the rolling peach. In the movie, they survive this and follow James all the way to New York (apparently by driving their car across the ocean floor), but James finally stands up to them and the bugs tie them up with Miss Spider's strings so the NYPD can take them away.
- The futures of the Centipede, Miss Spider, and Miss Ladybug are different. In the book, the Centipede becomes vice-president of a boot company, Miss Spider (along with Silkworm) learn to spin nylon and starts a company to sell tightropes, and Miss Ladybug marries the chief of the fire department. In the film, the Centipede runs for mayor, Miss Spider sets up a Spider Club, and Miss Ladybug becomes a doctor.
[edit] External links
Tim Burton |
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Director:
The Island of Doctor Agor •
Stalk of the Celery •
Vincent •
Frankenweenie •
Pee-wee's Big Adventure •
Beetlejuice •
Batman •
Edward Scissorhands •
Batman Returns •
Ed Wood •
Mars Attacks! •
Sleepy Hollow •
Planet of the Apes •
Big Fish •
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory •
Corpse Bride •
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street •
Alice in Wonderland
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es:James and the Giant Peach fr:James et la pêche géante nl:De reuzenperzik (film) pl:Jakubek i brzoskwinia olbrzymka sv:James och jättepersikan (film)
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since December 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles that may contain original research since December 2007 | Films directed by Tim Burton | 1996 films | Films based on Roald Dahl works | Disney films | Fantasy-comedy films | Children's fantasy films | Stop-motion animated films | Films featuring anthropomorphic characters | British animated films | American animated films | English-language films | Live-action/animated films
