Date: Fri 31-May-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: A-8

Quick Words:

Playing-James-Giant-Peach

Full Text:

(Now Playing col, "James & The Giant Peach," 5/31/96)

Suburban Gardener-

A Rotten "Peach"

By Trey Paul Alexander II

Did you know Seattle has the largest movie-going population in the United

States? Well it does, at least according to all the tourist information put

out by that proud west coast city. What does this gem of trivia have to do

with New Englanders? Very little, other than the small bit of news that yours

truly spent last week vacationing in the "city of seven hills" and could find

no other subtle way of introducing that fact into this week's column.

That bit of business aside, the matter now at hand is a look at James and the

Giant Peach , a wildly imaginative but slightly uneven film from Henry Selick,

the director of Nightmare Before Christmas .

Currently playing at Crown Cinema in Danbury, James and the Giant Peach is

wonderfully engaging during the animated sequence that makes up a majority of

the film, but stilted, cruel and mean-spirited during the live-action scenes

that frame the movie's flashy core.

Based on a Roald Dahl children's novel, the film tells of a browbeaten young

boy named James (Paul Terry), who is forced to live and labor under the roof

of his menacing aunts, Spiker (Joanna Lumley) and Sponge (Miriam Margolyes),

after his loving parents are tragically taken from him after a fatal run-in

with a rhino. James' dreams of escape from the oppressive clutches of his

macabre kin are fueled by a New York City travel brochure given him by his

late parents; it is symbolic of the trip he would never take with his mother

and father.

But James receives the means to secure passage to his Never Never Land, the

Big Apple, by a mysterious old man (Pete Postlehwaite) who hands him a bag of

enchanted crocodile tongues. Told to keep these powerful pawns under extreme

care, James accidentally drops them near his aunts' withered fruit tree, and

lo and behold sprouts a giant peach... the ticket to the promised land.

Via the magic of stop-motion animation (comparable to the smooth style used in

Selick's Nightmare Before Christmas ), James enters the peach and discovers a

group of charismatic, giant bugs. His cadre of companions includes a dapper

English grasshopper (voiced by Simon Callow), a seductive Russian spider

(voiced by Susan Sarandon), a plucky Brooklyn centipede (voiced by Richard

Dreyfuss), a worrisome earthworm (voiced by David Thewlis), a mannered,

matronly ladybug (voiced by Jane Leeves), and a slightly deaf glow-worm

(voiced by Miriam Margolyes). Together, they set the peach free from its

environs, allowing it to roll down the countryside until it splashes into the

ocean.

Once James and his crew decide to ride the peach all the way to New York City,

the film enters its most liberating and exciting stretch. Some of the

breathtaking visuals of this extended sequence include the motley crew's use

of spider webs to latch onto a flock of seagulls to power the peach's journey

across a sparkling blue ocean; a thrilling battle with a mechanical shark; and

a wrong turn that takes the travelers off their course and into trouble. Along

the way, James and his bug friends learn to work together and respect one

another despite their many differences.

James and the Giant Peach is so brilliant during its animated sequence one

tends to almost overlook its dark, disturbing wraparound segments. But the

fact remains: despite the film's frequent ingenuity, the beginning and

disappointing climax (which regrettably returns to live action) mar the

finished product and left me wondering whether James and the Giant Peach ,

which is rated PG, is suitable for younger children. The good news is adults

will probably enjoy themselves if they screen it first before taking their

kids.