James and The Giant Peach
Special Edition Blu-ray
Directed by Henry Selick
Starring Paul Terry, Simon Callow, Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon, Jane Leeves, Miriam Margolyes, David Thewlis, Joanna Lumley
Walt Disney Home Entertainment
Release date: August 3, 2010

If you enjoyed The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline, but you’ve yet to discover James and The Giant Peach, then it’s time for you to delve into this 1996 often-overlooked gem.

Take The Nightmare Before Christmas and replace the garish Halloweentown residents with the insects of Disney’s A Bugs Life and have them sing Randy Newman-composed tunes while feasting on a humongous piece of floating fruit. In place of a lamenting skeleton put a downtrodden little British boy right out of Oliver Twist. Throw in a hint of live-action, and you have the second splendid Henry Selick/Tim Burton collaboration (their first being The Nightmare Before Christmas).

The film begins with live-action, as we meet young James (Paul Terry) and his parents, a happy loving family who dream of one day taking a trip from England’s shores to the city streets of New York City to the famed Empire State Building. But, of course, their dreams are trampled on in the first few minutes, because would it really be a proper children’s story if tragedy didn’t strike right away? This leaves the poor child with a bleak existence, with nothing to look forward to, in servitude to his two wicked aunts, Spiker (Joanna Lumley of Absolutely Fabulous) and Sponge (Miriam Margolyes).

Luckily, one day, a mysterious man (Pete Postlethwaite, who also serves as the film’s narrator) comes to visit James, explaining how his life should have been different. He gives James the tools he needs to turn his life around and get away from this abusive aunts. This is where the giant peach comes in, and soon after, the film transitions into stop-motion animation and really takes off.

The animated James boards the giant peach, making some new friends in a band of very interesting bugs, on a journey across the sea to New York City to fulfill his greatest dream.

Every time I watch James and The Giant Peach, which is based on the book by Roald Dahl, I wish there had been two versions: One, a full stop-motion animation movie; the other a full live-action movie, because I love both parts of this hybrid creation. The only part I feel disappointed in comes about 45 minutes into the movie when the animated James has a nightmare about fleeing from his wicked aunts. It has the heads of his aunts on animated bodies, with James’s human face on the body of a bug. Story-wise it fits, but the look of it is so different from the rest of the film, it feels out of place. Luckily, it’s quick and doesn’t harm the movie, so it’s easy to move on from.

On their fantastical sea voyage, James and his bug friends run into some difficulties, like when they have to face a big mechanical shark, but in the process they learn about friendship and cooperation, and also what it means to be from Brooklyn — something I can relate to.

A real treat in the film is the cameo by Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas, and it’s not an “easter egg” element either — Jack actually has a role! Skellington is featured in a major sequence as a pirate skeleton sunken in icy waters. No, this part isn’t in Dahl’s original tale, but it is a cool way to tie Selick’s films together.

If you don’t already own James and The Giant Peach, then definitely pick up this Blu-ray version, as the picture quality is superior to the original standard DVD release. Also, this movie deserves to be a part of your Blu-ray collection, especially if you like Nightmare Before Christmas and Pixar films. There’s so much to love about this film, especially the amazing voice cast: Simon Callow as Grasshopper and Frasier‘s Jane Leeves as Ladybug being particular stand-outs. The live-action is also fun, but the stop-motion animation, the wonderful story, and enjoyable songs and score make for a wonderful journey along with James and his friends. By the end of the film, you too will happily be singing, “That’s The Life For Me!”

Also, be sure to see what’s after the end credits for a cute little scene.

Blu-ray Features

While this is labeled as a Special Edition, the bonus features are quite lacking. This release deserved a lengthy Making-Of featurette, at least 20-30 minutes long, instead there’s one just under 5 minutes. Also, the features that aren’t exclusive to the Blu-ray release are in standard definition, and look very grainy. Luckily, the movie holds up all on its own and is reason enough to pick up this release.

“¢ Spike the Aunts Interactive Game
New Blu-ray Exclusive
This is an interactive feature where you use the rhino to ‘spike’ the aunts and get points. I typically don’t even bother with these DVD/Blu-ray games, as I find them frustrating and they never seem to work as they should. Well, this game is no different. It’s a cute premise, especially since it was modeled after the arcade-type game that is in the post-end credits scene, but it fails in execution. I guarantee if you put your kid in front of this interactive Blu-ray game, your child will throw the remote at the screen within 30 seconds. The instructions state to press the “enter” button to have the rhino try to spike the aunts with its horn, but most of the time when I hit “enter,” nothing happened. Very annoying.

“¢ Production Featurette
A very brief look at the making of the film, which again, should have been much longer. It’s only about 5 minutes and is more like one of those fillers you see on the Disney Channel between shows. Not bad, but made me really wish there was more to see.

“¢ “Good News” Music Video performed by Randy Newman
Simply, the music video for the song. If you enjoy the song and are a fan of Randy Newman, you’ll like this. Has Newman singing in the studio intercut with scenes from the film.

“¢ Still Frame Gallery
Contains concept art, and stills of the puppets used in the film, as well as behind-the-scenes and live-action photos. While the content itself is cool to see, it’s so small it’s basically not even worth looking at. It’s unfortunate.

“¢ Original Theatrical Trailer
Standard definition trailer, which does not do justice to how great this film actually looks, but it is a nice throwback to see how the film was marketed at the time of its release. Be on the look out for that Jack Skellington cameo right there in the trailer, as well as the use of a NBC song.

“¢ DVD Copy
A standard DVD copy of the film (included in the package on a separate disc).