James had a happy life in the English seaside about to travel to NYC. His parents are killed by an imagined rhinoceros and he has to live with his evil Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge. He saves a spider from Spiker. A mysterious man (Pete Postlethwaite) gives him a bag of magic which holds the possibility of going to NYC. James trips and drops the magic in the garden. A peach starts to grow on a barren tree. Spiker and Sponge sell tickets to see the giant peach. That night, James takes a bit of the peach and climbs into it. As he climbs inside, it turns into stop motion animation.
I really dislike the live action start or ending of the movie. It's not only ugly but it's also tiresome. It's meant to be magical but it reminds me of the badly made Popeye. There is no arguing that the stop motion animation is something amazing. It is imaginative and filled with fun characters. It's also great to see Jack again. The movie could probably use some good catchy pop songs. The reliance on Randy Newman is something done back then and there is no breakout song from this movie. It's an obvious deficiency to do all those talky Broadway songs. It would be better to push more towards action adventures with a consistent villain chasing them. It should have kept up with the rhinoceros as a constant threat. James should have done several hand-to-hand combat with the rino more than that one magical confrontation.
I really dislike the live action start or ending of the movie. It's not only ugly but it's also tiresome. It's meant to be magical but it reminds me of the badly made Popeye. There is no arguing that the stop motion animation is something amazing. It is imaginative and filled with fun characters. It's also great to see Jack again. The movie could probably use some good catchy pop songs. The reliance on Randy Newman is something done back then and there is no breakout song from this movie. It's an obvious deficiency to do all those talky Broadway songs. It would be better to push more towards action adventures with a consistent villain chasing them. It should have kept up with the rhinoceros as a constant threat. James should have done several hand-to-hand combat with the rino more than that one magical confrontation.