This is an accepted version of this page
| James and the Giant Peach | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Henry Selick |
| Screenplay by | Karey Kirkpatrick Jonathan Roberts Steve Bloom |
| Based on | James and the Giant Peach byRoald Dahl |
| Produced by | Denise Di Novi Tim Burton |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Pete Kozachik Hiro Narita |
| Edited by | Stan Webb |
| Music by | Randy Newman |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution (Worldwide) Guild Film Distribution[1] (United Kingdom) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 79 minutes |
| Countries | United Kingdom United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $38 million |
| Box office | $28.9 million[2] |
James and the Giant Peach is a 1996musicalfantasy film directed byHenry Selick, based on the 1961novel of the same name byRoald Dahl.[3] It was produced byTim Burton andDenise Di Novi, and starredPaul Terry as James. The film is a combination oflive-action andstop-motion animation.Joanna Lumley andMiriam Margolyes played James's self-absorbed Aunts Spiker and Sponge, respectively (in the live-action segments), withSimon Callow,Richard Dreyfuss,Jane Leeves,Susan Sarandon, andDavid Thewlis, as well as Margolyes, voicing his insect friends in the animation sequences.
Released on April 12, 1996 in theUnited States, the film received highly positive reviews, with many critics praising the story and visuals.[4] However, the film was abox office failure, grossing 28.9 million against its $38 million budget.
In the summer of 1948, English boy James Henry Trotter is a young orphan living with his sadistic and domineering aunts Spiker and Sponge after his parents were eaten alive by arhinoceros. One day, after rescuing a spider from his hysterical aunts, James obtains magic "crocodile tongues" from a mysterious old man, which have the power to grow anything they come into contact with to colossal size. James, running home, trips and spills the bag onto the ground; the neon, wormlike tongues leap away and into the ground underneath an old peach tree, thus growing a massive fruit that Spiker and Sponge exploit as a tourist attraction. At night, James eats through the peach to find a pit with several human-sizedanthropomorphic invertebrates: Mr. Grasshopper, Mr. Centipede, Ms. Spider (the spider he saved prior), Mr. Earthworm, Mrs. Ladybug, and Mrs. Glowworm. As they hear Spiker and Sponge searching for James, Centipede cuts the stem connecting the peach to the tree and the peach rolls away to theAtlantic Ocean.
The invertebrates fly the peach toNew York City with a flock ofseagulls (each tied with a string to the peach stem), as James has dreamed of visiting theEmpire State Building like his parents wanted to. Obstacles include a giant mechanical shark and undead skeletal pirates in theArctic Ocean. When the group arrives, they are suddenly attacked by the tempestuous form of the rhinoceros that killed James' parents. James, though scared, gets everyone to safety and confronts the rhino before it strikes the peach with lightning. James and the peach fall to the city below, landing on the Empire State Building. After he is rescued by firefighters, Spiker and Sponge arrive and attempt to claim James and the peach. James tells the crowd of his amazing adventure and exposes his aunts' abuses. Enraged at James, Spiker and Sponge attempt to attack him with stolen fire axes, but the insects arrive to save him, as Ms. Spider subdues the two aunts by wrapping them up in her silk.
James introduces his friends to the crowd of onlookers, and allows the children to eat the peach. The peach pit is made into a cottage in Central Park, where James lives happily with the bugs, who form his new family. They also find success and fame; Mr. Centipede runs for New York mayor, Miss Spider organizes a nightclub, Mr. Earthworm becomes a mascot for a skin-care company, Mrs. Ladybug becomes anobstetrician, Mr. Grasshopper becomes a concert violinist, Glowworm becomes the light in the torch of theStatue of Liberty and James celebrates his ninth birthday with his new family and friends.
AtWalt Disney Animation Studios in the early 1980s,Joe Ranft tried to convince the staff to produce a film based onRoald Dahl'sJames and the Giant Peach (1961), a book that enamored him with its "liberating" material ever since he first read it in third grade.[5] However, Disney refused for reasons of a potentially expensive and difficult animation process and the source material's weird subject matter.[5] Ranft also tried to pitch the film to Disney throughPixar although the studio settled on a different pitch instead which becameToy Story.[6] Among the animators exposed to the book by Ranft wasHenry Selick; while he enjoyed the book and thought about adapting it to screen for several years, he understood the obstacles doing so, such as the source material's dreamy nature, episodic structure, and the reputation of other Dahl books being so agitational some parts of the world banned them.[5]
Felicity Dahl, Roald's widow and executor of his estate, began offering film rights to the book in the summer in 1992; among those interested includedSteven Spielberg andDanny DeVito.[7][8]
Walt Disney Pictures acquired the film rights to the book from the Dahl estate in 1992.[9] Brian Rosen was hired as producer by Disney for his experience in animated projects likeFernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992) and live-action films such asMushrooms (1995).[10]
Dennis Potter was hired to write a draft. Rosen described it as "slightly black and bizarre", a tone Disney did not approve of, particularly with the sharks beingNazis. Once Potter died,Karey Kirkpatrick andBruce Joel Rubin came in to write separate drafts, of which Kirkpatrick's was chosen.[10] Unlike the novel, James's aunts are not killed by the rolling peach (though his parents' deaths occur as in the novel) but follow him to New York.[11] The character Silkworm was removed to not overload on the amount of characters to animate; in the book, her purpose was limited to what Miss Spider did in the film, which was to attach the peach to several seagulls during the shark chase.[12]
To write four songs for the movie, Selick approachedElvis Costello, who showed an interest in doing the film. Unfortunately, Disney's music division showed no interest in Costello. "Their alarms just went off, and they said, 'No, that's too weird'", said Selick. Disney suggestedRandy Newman as an alternative. "I didn't want to use Randy", said Selick, "only becauseJohn Lasseter was already using him forToy Story".Andy Partridge, the lead singer of the rock groupXTC, originally wrote four songs for the film, "All I Dream Of Is a Friend", "Don't Let Us Bug Ya", "Stinking Rich Song" and "Everything Will Be All Right", "one of which was very beautiful", said Selick, but was replaced by Newman due to creative differences between Selick and Disney regarding the choice of soundtrack composer and the fact that Disney wanted to own the copyright to the songs for perpetuity.[13][14]
Before the start of production, Disney and Selick debated on whether the film should be live-action or stop-motion-animated, the company skeptical of the stop-motion solution.[10] Selick had originally planned James to be a live actor through the entire film, then later considered doing the whole film in stop-motion; but ultimately settled on entirely live-action and entirely stop-motion sequences, to keep lower costs.[15] The film begins with 20 minutes of live-action,[11] but becomesstop-motion animation after James enters the peach, and then live-action again when James arrives inNew York City (although thearthropod characters remained in stop-motion).[15] LikeThe Wizard of Oz (1939), the color palette changes when James enters the Peach to indicate he has entered a magical setting, from greys and greens to vibrant colors.[10]
Filming began on November 15, 1994, with the live-action scenes wrapping on December 27 of that year, and the stop-motion scenes continuing until January 19, 1996.[16]
All tracks are written byRandy Newman.
| No. | Title | Performer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "My Name Is James" | Paul Terry | |
| 2. | "That's the Life" | Jeff Bennett,Susan Sarandon,Jane Leeves,Miriam Margolyes,Simon Callow &David Thewlis (Paul Terry; reprise) | |
| 3. | "Eating the Peach" | Jeff Bennett,Susan Sarandon,Jane Leeves,Miriam Margolyes,Simon Callow,David Thewlis &Paul Terry | |
| 4. | "Family" | Jeff Bennett,Susan Sarandon,Jane Leeves,Miriam Margolyes,Simon Callow,David Thewlis &Paul Terry | |
| 5. | "Good News" | Randy Newman |
The film was theatrically released on April 12, 1996.
Disney released the film worldwide except for a few countries in Europe, including the United Kingdom, wherePathé (the owner of co-producerAllied Filmmakers) handled distribution and sold the rights to independent companies. The only countries where Disney does not have control over the movie are the United Kingdom and Germany, where the film was released byGuild Film Distribution andTobis Film respectively.
The film opened at the number 2 spot at the box office, missing out on the top spot toPrimal Fear.[17][18] The film took in $7,539,098 that weekend,[19] and stayed in the top 10 for the next 5 weeks before dropping to 11th place.[20] The film went on to gross $28,946,127 in the United States and Canada and $37.7 million worldwide,[2][21][22] which against a budget of $38 million, made the film commercially abox office bomb.[23]
The film was released onVHS on October 15, 1996.[24] A digitally restoredBlu-ray/DVD combo pack was released byWalt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on August 3, 2010, in the United States.[25]
The film received positive reviews during its initial release.
Though Roald Dahl refused numerous offers to have afilm version ofJames and the Giant Peach produced during his lifetime, his widow, Liccy, approved an offer to produce a live-action version. She thought Roald "would have been delighted with what they did withJames. It is a wonderful film."[26]
Review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 91% based on reviews from 74 critics, with an average score of 7.2/10. The website's critical consensus states: "The arresting and dynamic visuals, offbeat details and light-as-air storytelling makeJames and the Giant Peach solid family entertainment."[4]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, lists the film with a weighted average score of 78 out of 100 based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[27] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.[28]
Owen Gleiberman ofEntertainment Weekly gave the film a positive review, praising the animated part, but calling the live-action segments "crude".[29] Writing inThe New York Times,Janet Maslin called the film "a technological marvel, arch and innovative with a daringly offbeat visual conception" and "a strenuously artful film with a macabre edge."[30]
The film was nominated for anAcademy Award forBest Music, Original Musical or Comedy Score, composed byRandy Newman. It won Best Animated Feature Film at theAnnecy International Animated Film Festival.
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Annie Awards | Best Animated Feature | Nominated | |
| Best Individual Achievement: Directing | Henry Selick | Nominated | ||
| Best Individual Achievement: Music | Randy Newman | Nominated | ||
| Best Individual Achievement: Producing | Tim Burton Denise Di Novi | Nominated | ||
| Best Individual Achievement: Storyboarding | Joe Ranft | Nominated | ||
| Best Individual Achievement: Voice Acting | Richard Dreyfuss | Nominated | ||
| Best Individual Achievement: Writing | Karey Kirkpatrick Jonathan Roberts Steve Bloom | Nominated | ||
| Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Animated Film | Won | ||
| 1997 | Academy Awards | Best Music, Original Musical or Comedy Score | Randy Newman | Nominated |
| Annecy International Animated Film Festival | Best Animated Feature Film | Henry Selick | Won[31] | |
| Chicago Film Critics Association | Best Original Score | Randy Newman | Nominated | |
| Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association | Best Animated Film | Won | ||
| Satellite Awards | Best Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media | Tim Burton Denise Di Novi | Nominated | |
| Saturn Awards | Best Fantasy Film | Nominated | ||
| Young Artist Awards | Best Family Feature – Animation or Special Effects | Won | ||
| Best Performance in a Voiceover – Young Artist | Paul Terry | Nominated |
In August 2016,Sam Mendes was revealed to be in negotiations with Disney to direct another live action adaptation of the novel,[32] withNick Hornby in talks for the script.[33] In May 2017, however, Mendes was no longer attached to the project due to his entering talks with Disney about directing alive-action film adaptation ofPinocchio, which he would also drop out on withRobert Zemeckis taking his place.[34]
Mendes will no longer direct theJames and the Giant Peach remake for Disney, which he was attached to less than a year ago.
