James and the Giant Peach – After James’ parents are killed by a runaway rhino, he’s sent to live with his abusive aunts who use him as their own personal slave. A meeting with a mysterious stranger causes a peach to grow to an enormous size as well as a few creepy crawlies and, wishing to escape his miserable life, James climbs aboard the peach. Thus follows a grand adventure but will James and his new friends reach their new life in a happier place?

James and the Giant Peach (1996) – Director: Henry Selik

Is James and the Giant Peach appropriate for kids?

Rating: U

Running Length: 79 mins

Starring: Paul Terry, Simon Callow, Richard Dreyfuss

Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure

REVIEW: ‘JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH’

With stop-motion master Henry Selick directing (previously the spooky joy of ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ (1993) and latterly the excellently unsettling ‘Coraline‘ (2009), Tim Burton producing, and Roald Dhal’s trademark oddity tale of giant peaches and insects, all the right people were involved in ‘James and the Giant Peach’. Stop-motion animation bookended by live action sequences and tons of acting talent involved. How could it go wrong?

‘Wrong’ is too strong a word, but there is certainly something off about ‘James and the Giant Peach’. The over-the-top pantomime performances by Joanna Lumley and Miriam Margolyes provide the typical ‘horrible aunts’ caricatures – all greed, cackling, and verbal abuse – but this does grate after it goes on rather too long. Once the stop-motion begins we get a visual feast, for sure – but the pacing is rather off. Each character babbles out their lines at top speed and the (wonderfully detailed and stylised) insects are animated in such constant movement that it’s hard to marry up the voices to figure out who is actually saying what. It is as if the film is in such desperation to enrapture you in its world that it lacks the confidence to let you come in naturally, choosing instead to bash you over the head with its quirkiness.

Child actor Paul Terry (James) doesn’t provide the most adept performance but certainly as a scared, put-upon boy who finds his calling, he is engaging. Each insect has its own clear personality (even if group chat is hard to follow) and, indeed, when the movie takes a breather there are some genuinely affecting moments; Spider (Susan Sarandon) and her ‘dangerous’ but ‘affectionate’ persona work well. And, as ridiculous and source material breaking as it is, who can’t look at stop-motion robot mecha sharks and not smile? As much as all the elements are there, ‘James and the Giant Peach’ feels like a movie falling over itself to impress. The frenetic approach will likely enrapture children – much as it may weary the eyes of adults – and whilst it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, you certainly won’t see anything like this movie again!

CONTENT: IS ‘JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

The opening sequence explains that James’ parents were eaten by an escaped rhinoceros. Clouds in the sky form the shape of a rhino. Accompanied by lightning, the shape moves as a rhino would and slowly advances forward. This is done in a foreboding and scary way but the scene is short.

James’ aunts are greedy, cruel, and manipulative. They force James to do all the chores and barely feed him anything. He is shown to be miserable and puts up with the abuse purely because he doesn’t know what else to do. This is all done in a very exaggerated and larger than life ‘pantomime’ style. They lunge to kill a butterfly saying that they wouldn’t want it ‘nesting in [their] knickers’.

James notices a spider in his room and he tries to protect it from his aunts. They burst in and notice, flapping hard to try to kill it, although it does get away.

When James is outside being forced to tidy, a stranger approaches him saying they have a bag of magic ‘crocodile tongues, brewed in a witch’s skull’. Other such horrible ingredients as ‘eyes’ and ‘monkey fingers’ are listed. Although this character is the typical ‘turn the main character’s life into something special’ type, accepting gifts from strangers may be imitable.

Once James is inside the peach he is introduced to many insect and bug characters who are now all the same size as him. When he is introduced to the spider he is warned the she will “puncture your head and suck out your brains”.

The massive peach breaks loose from the tree and destroys all in its path as it rolls downhill. It crushes a car, but the occupants are shown to be ok. It also hits a cockerel which explodes into a cloud of feathers. We don’t see the bird again and so don’t know if it survives.

In order to get out of a situation, James and the bugs lasso dozens of seagulls. The seagulls do not seem overly affected by this.

The peach is attacked by sharks, but the sharks are very stylised mechanical robotic things with rotating teeth. Whenever they gobble up fish, fish heads on plates come flying out. Caterpillar is almost eaten. There is loud dramatic music throughout and this is a very exciting sequence that lasts several minutes.

A sequence involving ghosts in a sunken pirate ship could be scary for younger children. The characters are attacked by skulls and skeletons. Centipede spends a long time underwater. There is never any indication of drowning but at one point the other characters think he is dead. This lasts for around 5 seconds before matters resolve themselves.

The ‘rhino’ cloud returns and scares James. Lightning shoots out and it has glowing evil eyes. Lightning blasts the peach in a very dramatic moment. However, James resolves to tackle his fear.

The aunties return and attack the peach with axes. They continue being abusive but the people around quickly see through this.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?
VERDICT: IS ‘JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH FOR KIDS?

We suspect some of the elements that grated for us will be of no consequence to children and the over-the-top style of ‘James and the Giant Peach’ certainly grabs the attention. With some scary moments and instances of parent figure bullying, we would recommend ‘James and the Giant Peach’ as suitable for children aged 5 and over.

  • Violence: 1/5 (mostly abusive language and threats of violence)
  • Emotional Distress: 2/5 (James is upset by his parents’ death and his situation. However, most of the time he is either stoic or brave)
  • Fear Factor: 3/5 (the shark sequence is very exciting and the ghost pirate ship part may scare younger viewers)
  • Sexual Content: 0/5
  • Bad Language: 1/5 (one character says, ‘You, sir, are an ass.”)
  • Dialogue: 1/5 (talk of being eaten, one character says, “I’ll die if I have to go back to the way things were.”)
  • Other Notes: Deals with themes of abuse by authority figures, parental death, profiteering, greed, overcoming differences to find common good, goodness inspiring others, overcoming your fear, and kindness to living things)

Words by Mike Record

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