James and the Giant Peach

with Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon, Paul Terry
Written by Roald Dahl
Directed by Henry Selick
by Lex Marburger

This was one of my favorite books when I was growing up. I would read it at least once a week, and it soon got beaten and mangled from frantic page turning. So, can Tim (Nightmare Before Christmas) Burton live up to the task of making James and the Giant Peach fly (pun intended)? Well, yes. Even though he left out some parts that I thought were stunningly necessary when I was reading the Roald (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) Dahl book (“Bump! ‘That was Aunt Spiker!’ cried Centipede. Bump! ‘And that was Aunt Sponge!’ cried Grasshopper.” Yeah, they really should have died in the beginning), and exaggerated other parts beyond belief (the bit about a wild rhino eating James’ parents was meant to be a quick and funny way of putting James into a typical storybook scenario, and not some strange childhood trauma complete with hallucinations). Even so, the animation is superb, and the vocal characteristics are perfect. Funny, I never thought I’d find a giant animated spider with a French-accent so, well, sexy. That Susan Sarandon can really talk. The adaptation of a swarm of sharks into a giant mechanical juggernaut is perfect, as is the adaptation that brings them to the North Pole, and centipede’s battle with none other than Jack Skellington as an undead pirate captain. I could go into the Freudian ramification of James’ ascent into manhood represented by the impalement of the nurturing mother peach by the erect maleness of the Empire State Building, but that would be too p(r)eachy. Just go see it. It really is good fun.