This forgotten stop-motion gem is one of the best Disney animated films of the 90s

Summary

• Roald Dahl did not allow
  James and the Giant Peach
  was to be made into a film during his lifetime.
• Nightmare Before Christmas – The Nightmare Before Christmas
  Director Henry Selick also directed
  James and the giant peach.
• James and the Giant Peach
  was a box office flop when it was released in 1996.

As Disney’sJames and the Giant Peach Premiering in April 1996, the film was a different kind of film from the mainstream animated film scene. Coming at the height of the Disney Renaissance, when the studio was churning out one family-friendly 2D animated musical after another, this stop-motion film stood out from the crowd. James and the Giant Peach did not have the typical features of a regular Disney film, apart from a few tunes by songwriter Randy Newman. Its darker tone was much more reminiscent of the adaptation’s source material – the children’s book of the same name by British author Roald Dahl. For this reason, Disney was even hesitant to produce the film.

After Dahl’s widow sold the film rights to the material in 1992, several parties in the industry were keen to bring the material to the screen. But it was Disney who ultimately produced the film. Although audiences weren’t quite sure what to make of it, it is nonetheless one of the most unique creative endeavors in 1990s animation.

Disney’s “James and the Giant” is based on a children’s book by Roald Dahl

• Roald Dahl wrote the original screenplay for Charlie and the Chocolate Factorybut it would undergo extensive revisions.

The film James and the Giant Peach is based on a 1961 children’s book. The film takes some liberties with the original. One of the biggest liberties is that in the book, James doesn’t undergo any transformation after taking a bite of the mythical peach. He simply crawls inside and meets his bug companions before setting off on his adventure. However, the filmmakers had to find a way to make the stop-motion element of the film make sense, and so this additional story detail was added.

The book has many similar themes and tropes to other children’s books by Dahl. A child in an often lonely or unconventional household is the protagonist (James’ parents are eaten by an escaped rhinoceros from the London Zoo), similar to Matilda, The WitchesAnd Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Like many of Dahl’s other works, it has a surreal and slightly dark undertone. Some of Dahl’s works have even been considered controversial in recent years and have been revised by publishers to suit the changing times. Nevertheless, James and the Giant Peach has been loved by so many children over the years, generation after generation, that it only received more recognition than Disney’s adaptation. Yet during his lifetime, Dahl refused to James and the Giant Peach turned into a film.

Dahl was no stranger to the film industry. He worked on the screenplay for Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang BangAnd You only live twice. He also wrote the first draft of the screenplay for what later Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Screenplay. The script was rewritten by an unnamed writer, and Dahl was not happy with the end result. Director Mel Stuart said of Dahl’s original script, “But you see, I couldn’t do the book as it was written, and that’s why Roald Dahl was always unhappy that the film didn’t look like his book.” Much of Charlie’s character development is missing from the book, but the filmmakers felt it was a narrative necessity. When the rights finally became available in 1992, Stephen Spielberg and Danny DeVito were also interested in developing the project.

The Witches (1990) was the last film Dahl saw during his lifetime. The adaptation starred the intimidating Anjelica Huston as the head witch tasked with getting other witches to capture and eat human children. It was also the last film Jim Henson worked on before his death. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop was responsible for the prosthetics and animatronic mice used in the film in addition to the real mice. Dahl liked the original version of the film, which has the same ending as the book. But Dahl disapproved of the film’s theatrical release because its hero turned back into a human after the witches turned him into a mouse.

Henry Selick directed “James and the Giant Peach” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas”

The idea of ​​turning James and the Giant Peach In a film, both Disney and Pixar were introduced. In the magazine Cinematically fantasticLawrence Frech writes about how animator, screenwriter and voice actor Joe Ranft supported the book and mentioned its impact on him as a child. However, Disney did not want to rely on such grim material and a cumbersome animation process. Henry Selick, himself an animator, had his eye on the book for several years. After Ranft recommended it to him, of course/

When the film was released, audiences may not have realized at first that Selick was also the director of another, now infamous stop-motion film. It may seem confusing that Tim Burton did not direct the hugely popular film. Nightmare Before Christmas – The Nightmare Before Christmasalthough the story is an idea of ​​his own imagination. Selick’s name appears in the title of the film. In April 1996 Weekly entertainmentwrote about the oversight:

“If Selick is not a household name, perhaps that is because he has had to endure the indignity of being perhaps the only director in history to make a film that had another director’s name in the title. Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) was sold to audiences because of the reputation of the man behind Beetlejuice and Batman.”

During production, creative disagreements also arose between Selick and Disney. For example, he wanted Elvis Costello to write the songs, but Disney considered this “too strange” and recommended Newman instead.

Selick became known as a stop-motion specialist after James and the Giant Peach. He has explained that it is something he simply enjoys doing: “I am addicted to this kind of filmmaking. I could do cel animation or computer animation, but stop motion is what I really like to do.” And it seems that it is not just stop motion that has caught Selick’s attention. His animated films also tend to have an element of foreboding. So it is with Coralline (2009) and most recently Wendell & Wild (2022), which he co-wrote with comedian Jordan Peele based on an unpublished book of his own.

“James and the Giant Peach” succeeds where newer Roald Dahl adaptations fail

• Matilda (1996) was released in the same year as James and the Giant Peach and the story will be set in the United States rather than in the United Kingdom as originally planned.
• With the publication of Wonka (2023), Timothée Chalamet is the third actor, alongside Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp, to portray Willy Wonka on the big screen.

In the same year James and the Giant Peach was released, another Dahl adaptation hit theaters. DeVito eventually produced and starred in his own version of Matilda. It’s hard to say how much Dahl would have liked this version, considering it changes the source material so much. The film is set in America, not Britain, and Matilda is outwardly much more precocious than she is in the book. Despite the obvious departures from the text, critics largely agree that the film retains the spirit of the book.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is lucky to have been adapted twice. Burton directed the 2005 musical fantasy starring Johnny Depp as Wonka and tried to stay closer to the book. Although it is burdened by excessive CGI, it certainly pays tribute to Dahl’s work. Gene Wilder, who played the famous chocolatier in the original film, thought Burton’s vision was a Hollywood money-making scheme. In truth, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory The box office receipts were significantly higher than those of Wilder’s version.

The recent interaction of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory comes in the form of another musical with Timothée Chalamet as Wonka. Although the audience Wonka (2023) 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s hard to compare the visually grim film with barely memorable songs to Wilder’s or even Burton’s version. The film makes Wonka an optimistic wizard as opposed to an eccentric, secretive candy maker. Much of the gloom and surreal atmosphere typical of Dahl has been coated with a syrupy sweet layer. As with Dahl’s dissatisfaction with the more uplifting ending of The Witches (which also had a dark remake in 2020 with Anne Hathaway in Huston’s role), there’s a chance he wouldn’t have liked a more pleasant Wonka story.

James and the Giant Peach may not have been a huge financial success for Disney, but as a creative endeavor it is a major achievement. Fans of Dahl will never know if Dahl would have enjoyed the film, but his widow (Felicity Dahl) said of the film, “I think Roald would have been delighted with what they did with James. It’s a wonderful film.” It is unknown if the film will ever be remade, but hopefully audiences will revisit this gem of 1990s stop-motion animation and appreciate Selick’s work.