“James and the Giant Peach” is based on a book by the same name written by Roald Dahl, of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” fame. Knowing how off the wall Dahl’s imagination is, I should have been a little more prepared for this film, and yet I wasn’t. I found myself blinking rapidly several times, trying to make sense of it all.
James is eight years old, and an orphan. His parents were eaten by a storm rhinoceros (I bet you’ve never heard of one) and he has been sent to live with his two cruel aunts, Spiker and Sponge. His life up to that point has been normal and happy, but his aunts physically and mentally abuse him.
One day, a stranger approaches James and gives him a sack with the makings for a magic potion that will make him rich. While running back to the house, James trips and the contents of the bag sink deep into the earth. James is really upset to have lost his treasure, but then something amazing happens. The magic potion has nourished the tree near which it fell, and the tree produces a huge peach – so huge, it’s twice the size of the tree itself. The aunts start charging people money to see the peach, turning their yard into a kind of carnival grounds.
One night, to escape the aunts, James crawls inside the peach to discover some insects that have been living there, all the same size he is! There’s a centipede, a spider, a grasshopper, a silkworm, an earthworm, and a ladybird and glowworm. If that’s not weird enough for you, the peach then rolls into the Atlantic Ocean. The bugs and the boy are determined to sail to New York City and start new lives. The bulk of the movie consists of the journey to New York, much of it taken in the air as they have attached the peach to a flock of birds.
The movie starts out live action, but as James crawls inside the peach, everything turns animated. When he arrives in New York, he becomes “real” again.
I know a lot of people who just love and adore this movie. My kids and I found it very strange. My eight-year-old, who usually likes things that are a little different, proclaimed it “the weirdest movie” he’s ever seen. It’s just one of those you have to see for yourself, I guess, but I did find the child abuse theme a bit much.
This movie is rated PG.
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