After a Stop-Motion animation hit co-directing Tim Burton’s THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS/’93, Henry Selick took full charge adapting this enchanting Roald Dahl scary tale. (Burton on only as co-producer.) And you can see what went wrong simply by comparing film to film poster; the latter getting just about everything right. Classically composed; subtle undertow of melancholy built into perfectly calibrated scale; suggestion of quietude: traits missing in the film. An orphan’s story (of course!), young James kept in squalid workhouse conditions by a pair of ogre-like Aunties till a magic figure appears with seeds of wonder to bring a dead tree to life with an oversized peach. The aunties see commercial opportunity; young James sees a way to realize his parents’ dream of a trip to New York City. Traveling with various overgrown bugs inside the peach, James & the film now transfigured from Live-Action to Stop-Motion, sets off. Danger and excitement along the way, then unexpectedly touching at the finish. (Hint: those Aunties show up in the Big Apple to take another bite of the Big Peach.) But Selick just can’t keep still, pushing busyness for busyness’s sake, very ADHD. Holding back now & then for one of Randy Newman’s melodically starved vamps. Paul Terry, a sweet kid who has trouble pronouncing ‘R’s, isn’t much of an actor, but with the rest of the starry cast hamming things up, he is a relief. And yet, in spite of the workout, the story does click in by the end.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Selick’s next complete Stop Animation pic, CORALINE/09, more on his wave length. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/08/coraline-2009.html
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