Year: 1996
Running Time: 79 Minutes
Rated: PG
SRP: $ 39.99
Studio(s): Disney Studios
Release Date: August 3, 2010

Film/Feature: C+

With Disney’s big push to get most if not all of its animated films on blu-ray, James and the Giant Peach was next to get the digital treatment, a hybrid film that was part animation, and part live-action. It’s also the second collaboration between directors Henry Selick and Tim Burton, the first being Nightmare Before Christmas. Burton acts as a producer on this 1996 film that used similar stop-motion animation techniques that was used on Nightmare. It’s a beautiful technique that immediately casts an antique, nostalgic feel to the film. The style has this haunting, almost hollow eeriness, resembling something that would come out of the crooked minds of Selick and Burton.

The story is based on a Roald Dahl novel, VERY loosely I might add, and swirls around an orphan boy named James (Paul Terry) who has been forced to live with his evil aunts, Spiker and Sponge (Joanna Lumley and Miriam Margolyes). He is approached by an old man who offers him a way out, gives him a sack of crocodile tongues that have been brewed all sorts of nasty ways to become the key to his escape. On his way home, James spills the tongues onto the ground by an old peach tree, which suddenly bears one fruit, one large, and continuously growing peach.

It’s as if Jack and the Beanstalk grew through the ears and mind of Dahl and Burton alike. You can see the similar arc though in Dahl’s stories, a sense of wonder overcoming a poor boy, down on his luck. And in this wonderland askew, the boy realizes lessons in life.

Here, the Peach stops swelling, and James’ aunts pounce on the peach for a money-scam but James visits the Peach at night and takes a bite of it, while one of the magical tongues enter the piece he’s eating. The enchanted piece transforms the large peach through which James crawls into where he meets a handful of insects: Grasshopper (Simon Callow), Centipede (Richard Dreyfuss), Earthworm (David Thewlis), Miss Spider (Susan Darandon), and Ladybug (Jame Leeves) and they are set forth to an adventure over the Atlantic Ocean from London to New York, the place his parents told him they’d visit one day. Tying some of Miss Spider’s webbing to seagulls, they lift off above the ocean on what they hope is a one-way flight to the Big Apple, but it doesn’t work out that way.

It’s a tale of dreaming, and believing, but never limiting yourself to your surroundings. If someone made this film today, perhaps it would have been named King James and his Giant Ego. Burton and Selick unfortunately can’t work the magic they created in Nightmare Before Christmas. Two things hold the film from pushing the boundaries of what could have been.

First, Randy Newman’s music, which is appropriate most of the time, really grates in this film. It just takes you out of the creepy and dark mood the production design worked so hard to establish. Instead when the film breaks into musical numbers, it gets this “gee golly, aww shucks” piano bar feel to it. Secondly, the live action beginning and end to the film were just unnecessary. The aunts looked scary but could have been scarier had they been animated. The film went far, but not far enough and the ending felt like every clichéd Disney movie almost derailing the wickedly fun middle section of the film.

James and the Giant Peach has this strange mixture of animation and live action that places it alongside other older films that haven’t aged particularly well. It could have been better had the live segments worked, but they were too over-the-top, and too corny. It doesn’t know what it wants to be. Selick wanted there to be this separation of the “magic” world and the real world, which is noted, but when the two come together at the end, it’s to put it lightly, rough. The aunts catch up to the James in New York, setting up for a finale that tries too hard to remind you the magic’s gone.

What the film does manage to do is recharge the curiosity in Dahl’s children’s novel, and his work in particular which has gone on to other mediums such as film and TV, like Gremlins, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Fantastic Mr. Fox. Where those succeeded and this falls short lies in the dark, insidious fun that can be read in Dahl’s work can be felt in those other adaptations. The Giant Peach is almost like wax fruit; looks right, feels right, but you know the difference once you bite into it.

Video: C+

James and the Giant Peach is an imperfect 1080p AVC-encoded transfer in 1.66:1 aspect ratio. As a fan of film grain, I’m glad Disney didn’t scrub it clean of all of its original integrity since there’s plenty of grain, a comfortable level to my eye, but consumers who think everything in high definition needs to look like a 2010 film, is misguided as to what blu-ray is supposed to provide. To those who want to generalize what blu-rays are supposed to look like, the colors will probably leave those uneducated disappointed at the films intended subtle color palette. It’s supposed to be on the de-saturated side.

Now what isn’t acceptable is the inconsistency in the picture like the wavering contrast throughout. Black crush is also rampant too; sometimes the picture is way too dark to see any of the intricate detail of the set designs. It’s a real shame. Details are much more noticeable in the live action sequences from the glittery costumes of the aunts, to the pores on actors’ faces can all be seen, however the pink-orange skintones in nearly everyone’s faces shows that this is not Disney’s best effort. In the live action ending, on the streets of New York, again, too much information is lost in darkness.

Audio: B

Even though the video needed a lot more work, the 5.1 English DTS-HD audio track is remarkable when it needs to be. Dialogue is stable and clear in every scene, while the large action scenes like when things get rough on the water in Chapter 16, burst through your living room with plenty of thunder and crashes for your subwoofer. Sound in the front, left to right is fabulous, though rear channels don’t get much I’m afraid. Don’t get too down on the blu-ray, for its visual shortcomings; it’s not all bad. Other audio selections include: French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby TrueHD DTS Digital tracks and subtitles are available in English SDH, French, and Spanish.

Extras:D
The only new and exclusive extras to the blu-ray are the Games and Activities

Spike the Aunts Game is a lame interactive game that I think even kids would get bored of quickly.

Production Featurette SD (4:34) is a very basic ‘making of’ that fares in comparison to the behind the scene extras we see in today’s films.

Good News Music Video by Randy Newman HD (2:29) I’m a fan of Randy Newman but his music just seems like a mismatch with this film. The music video here is a blend of standard definition footage of Newman but all of the film clips are now in high def.

Still Frame Gallery SD a gallery of the concept art, puppets, behind the scenes and live action stills.

Original Theatrical Trailer SD (1:27) SD I’m really let down the lack of effort to give us a high definition trailer. It’s doubtful anyone will revisit this after one viewing.

James and the Giant Peach DVD the film and its original extras are on this DVD which is a great win for parents with players in their vehicles or who have portable players for traveling.

Overall Shock Value: C–

In its time James and the Giant Peach was a great trip back to when there were more stop-motion animated films. Since then we’ve seen Coraline, the Fantastic Mr. Fox, and all of the great Wallace and Gromitt shorts which have raised the bar and have since made James and the Giant Peach look somewhat outdated. The blu-ray release could have shown some more consistency in the video transfer/mastering, but the new audio soundtrack makes the film come alive. Subpar extras and a lack of effort to provide anything new or imaginative makes this Peach lacking in lasting flavor.