breakdownthatfilm-blogspot-com Nowadays, the concept of stop-motion animation is quite unpopular. Thankfully it hasn't died but it is unfortunately not resorted to that often anymore. During the early 1990s, this classic and unique animation technique began getting dropped from film projects because of its "next best" replacement - CGI. With the demonstration of Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), that CGI could be controlled and used correctly, many movie studios want it to be in their upcoming projects. For that reason alone, stop-motion animation was left behind when it came to live-action films. But there were others who thought differently. Also in the early 1990s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) was released to the public and became one of the greatest holiday films of its decade. Behind the wheel of this vehicle was a small time filmmaker named Henry Selick. Since then his filmography has been quite small but to this day has made sure his films contained stop-motion in it. His second feature would be just as memorable to kids who grew up during this time and that was this.Based on a children's book by Roald Dahl, the story is about a English youth named James (Paul Terry) who looks to visit New York City but lives under the strict rule of his aunts Sponge and Spiker (Miriam Margolyes & Joanna Lumley) after the death of his parents. Then, unbeknownst to him, a stranger (Pete Postlethwaite) appears and gives him magical trinkets that'll help make his dreams come true. This arrives in the form of a giant peach that harbors future insect friends. These characters are Mr. Grasshopper (Simon Callow), Mr. Centipede (Richard Dreyfuss), Mrs. Ladybug (Jane Leeves), Ms. Spider (Susan Sarandon) and Mr. Worm (David Thewlis). The adaptation of Dahl's book was written by Karey Kirkpatrick (Chicken Run (2000)), Jonathan Roberts (The Lion King (1994)) and Steve Bloom (Jack Frost (1998)) and for the majority of the film, it's practically the same. Plus, the character development and overall message of the story is well thought out and optimistic.The character development focuses on learning to accept one's differences and understand how each individual brings unique benefits to certain situations. The overall message in the story is to never stop believing and always look on the positive side of things. These are life lessons that everyone needs to know about no matter how old you are when viewing this film. For acting, although Paul Terry quit the profession not long after this film, for a child actor he's not bad (or annoying). His appearance is innocent and feels genuine in physical form and voice work. Miriam Margolyes and Joanna Lumley as James' aunts are quite the opposite and they do it well. Being gross and greedy is their shtick. The supporting cast of voice actors who bring James' bug friends to life are enjoyable too. Simon Callow as Mr. Grasshopper plays quite the upperclassmen that isn't snooty enough to talk to someone below his level. Richard Dreyfuss as the wisecracking centipede has a number of funny lines either when it comes to himself or certain situations he's in.Jane Leeves as Mrs. Ladybug is sweet and also shows feminine strength when called for. David Thewlis as Mr. Worm plays with a Scottish accent and sometimes fears the worst but too learns to cope. Lastly Susan Sarandon as Ms. Spider uses a Russian accent and although she's a bit colder than her counterparts, she too has a charming attitude. However even with these positives the writing isn't perfect. One of the screenplays biggest blunders is its continuity. There were moments where claims are made about certain dangers and yet a minute later, the labeled danger will no longer be a threat for unexplained reasons. Another example is how James and co. weren't able to find their way to NYC without a compass, yet a map that James has clearly shows them which direction they are traveling as they move. Seems a little pointless to go find something that'll help you when you already have what you need. The other problem is that the way this story was written is the strange reality that James' lives in feels illogical.For this, there are certain things that should have an expected facial reaction but the exact opposite is portrayed. It just doesn't look right. For animation, as mentioned before stop-motion was used and it looks great. The jagged and tangible like edges to the characters give them a likable visual appeal. The live-action is also well done too. This also goes hand-in-hand with both live-action and animated cinematography provided by Hiro Narita and Pete Kozachik respectively. Narita's work efficiently shows the contrast between James' past and current life and how all the fun was sucked out of it. Kozachik on the other hand effectively conceals the illusion of various matte painting backdrops to help make the animated world feel bigger than life. Lastly Randy Newman composed the film score a year after the massive success of his work on Disney's Toy Story (1995). Here Newman's music feels like his, but also has bits that sound like Danny Elfman got in on a few areas too. Either way it is fun to listen to and with its catchy songs.The script has decent character development and has important life lessons for people to reacquaint themselves with despite it having some noticeable continuity errors. Also some characters react oddly to certain implausible situations as if they were entirely acceptable. This aside, the characters are charming, the music is enjoyable and the visuals are delightfully engaging with the help of stop-motion animation.

gavin6942 An orphan with terrible aunts for guardians, befriends human like bugs who live inside a giant peach, who take the boy on a journey to New York City.Although I am not the biggest fan of "Nightmare Before Christmas", I love the aesthetic that Tim Burton and Henry Selick have. We get another taste of that here. Selick directs, Burton produced... it may be a bit less Burtonesque because it is based on a Roald Dahl book, but I feel like some of their sensibility still got in there, especially with the aunts.Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a positive review, praising the animated part, but calling the live-action segments "crude." I would have to agree with that. I liked the live-action bits, but they seemed out of place and it might have been best to go full-animation.

Raul Faust From all the movies made for children I've seen in the last years, "James and The Giant Peach" seems to be the weakest of them all. You know, from the get go the characters proved to be very formulaic, and so did the story, given that the "mad uncles" versus "innocent nephew" has been already used a thousand times before. Not only that, but the "trip" inside the peach has nothing interesting to offer, besides a bad animation with non-sense characters. I know it was made in 1995, but we had great animations in the nineties, and such low quality doesn't have an excuse to be that way. The whole thing felt so boring and shiftless that I turned it off before the movie completed one hour, and it's a very hard thing for me to do. All in all, "James and the Giant Peach" is just a clumsy film out there, and no wonder why it has basically no recognition.

Chris Mizerak There seems to be a split reaction from critics and audiences alike when talking about Henry Selick's 1996 stop-motion animated feature "James and the Giant Peach". While the critics (particularly Gene Siskel) highly praise this picture and call it a wonderful children's fantasy, the audiences don't seem to care much for it. Maybe it's because this picture may be too weird for them like many of the films made by Tim Burton, who's one of the film's producers. Personally, I don't know what to make of this film even after seeing it plenty of times except that I can see where both sides are coming from. We follow a young British boy named James (Paul Terry) whose parents were killed by a rhinoceros (don't ask how or why since the picture never explains that). He's forced to live with his two despicable aunts (Miriam Margolyes, Joanna Lumley) where he has to do all kinds of chores (he practically does more work than those two ever seem to do in five seconds), and be humiliated in more ways than one. One day, a mysterious man (Pete Postlethwaite) who "knows more than just his name" gives James a bag of magical "crocodile tongues", which he claims will help put some happiness into his sad life. But when James accidentally lets these magical tongues loose, James and his aunts soon discover a peach on a dead tree that grows so gigantic that it's even bigger than the tree from which it grew on. The aunts plan on using their giant peach as a tourist attraction so they can make good profits off of their discovery, while James still has to continue doing chores. One night, James crawls inside a large hole in the peach and discovers a group of human-sized bugs including a grasshopper (Simon Callow), a centipede (Richard Dreyfuss), an earthworm (David Thewlis), a spider (Susan Sarandon), a ladybug (Jane Leeves), and a glowworm (Miriam Margolyes). Like James, they dream of getting out of his aunt's place in England and heading to New York City where his parents always dreamed of going. And that's exactly what they do through a series of elaborate, fanciful scenarios such as rolling away into the Atlantic Ocean, using Miss Spider's silk to capture and tie a hundred seagulls to the peach stem so the peach can fly, and battling a mechanical shark and skeleton pirates under the icy seas of the Arctic Ocean. Whether you like this children's fantasy or not, there are certain things about the film that you got to give it credit for. For one thing, regardless of how implausible the story can be most of the time, I do respect the creativity and the imagination that was incorporated into this story. I admire how this film had the courage to simply let its imagination run wild regardless of our skepticism and our knowledge that no such scenarios could take place in real life. The stop-motion animation is impressive in its own right particularly with the highly detailed and imaginative character designs. The voice-over work from the likes of Simon Callow, Richard Dreyfuss, and Susan Sarandon are very well done and truly bring these characters to life. The songs by Randy Newman, with the exception of "My Name is James" which I thought had embarrassing lyrics, are pretty solid with the standouts being "Family" and "Good News". Like much of the best films made by the Disney Company, the strength of the film lies in the visuals and the audio. Now, I will say that the storytelling in this film isn't very consistent and is filled with major plot flaws that can't be glossed over. For example, I think that the film's writers made the aunt characters way too evil. If any parents of a child knew they had relatives who treated children the way these two aunts did, they shouldn't have even allowed custody of the child to these people in the first place. Let me put this in another way. Anyone who has relatives who taunt a child over the death of their parents or starve the child to death by feeding them non-food shouldn't just simply pretend they don't exist. They need to have an intervention with them immediately for the benefit of the child. There are also some scenes that don't really go anywhere story wise. For example, the dream sequence with James as a caterpillar being chased by his aunts and the rhino that killed his parents is pretty pointless. To be fair though, there have been dream sequences in other films that are much worse than this, and they at least prepare us ahead of time for that type of scene. While the battles between the shark as well as the underwater skeleton pirates are decent, they both go by a little too quickly and don't leave much of an impact. As long as you leave your common sense and logic out the door, "James and the Giant Peach" will fill the bill just fine as far as family entertainment goes. Kids and adults can admire the creativity of the story, the unique animation in the vein of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993), the colorful characters including the centipede and the grasshopper, and maybe find one or two good tunes out of it as well.