For a Roald Dahl book based film, this is not a bad attempt to bring a popular story to life. James Henry Trotter (Paul Terry) is a lonely boy who lost his parents who were eaten by a rhino. He is now living with his horrible guardians Aunt Sponge (Miriam Margoyles) and Aunt Spiker (Joanna Lumley). He dreams of getting away and going to New York, then one day an Old Man (Pete Postlethwaite) gives him a bag of magic "crocodile tongues". He unfortunately loses these tongues, but they go into the nearby tree and make a giant peach! Later, James goes inside this peach and meets insect friends, Centipede (Richard Dreyfuss), Grasshopper (Simon Callow), Miss Spider (Susan Sarandon), Miss Ladybug (Jane Leeves), Earthworm (David Thewlis) and Glowworm (Margoyles again). They begin the epic adventure journey to New York with the help of seagulls, and along the way encounter mechanical sharks, a northern ice place, skeleton pirates, and the rhino, but they do get there eventually. Tim Burton produced this film, with the same stop-motion animation as The Nightmare Before Christmas. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Music for Randy Newman. Very good!
Review of James and the Giant Peach
