The BFG (1989)

hyped garbage

From my favorite movies..

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

I loved reading Roald Dahl's novels when I was younger, especially Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and I also liked the film adaptations of some of them (most notably 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' plus the 2005 remake, 'Matilda,' 'James and the Giant Peach' and this one, 'The BFG'). I had this on video as a child, rented the DVD when I was 18 and watched it on YouTube for the first time in eight years earlier today.Although the character animation was often flickery and sometimes slow, the backgrounds were well-drawn and the scenery of Dream Country was absolutely beautiful. The story was mostly faithful to the book, albeit Sophie having short red hair instead of long blonde hair as shown in the book illustrations, but I found the climax where several helicopters drop the mean human-eating giants in the pit forgettable. In spite of this, most of the scenes are memorable and the Bloodbottler entering the BFG's cave startled me today and it also scared my brother when he was 16 and watching this film with me when I rented it. The standout scenes were those involving Sophie being snatched from her orphanage by the BFG and the BFG showing her around his cave, offering her some Snozzcumber and Frobscottle (leading to the scatological yet funny Whizzpopper scene), making her a new dress and making a little boy (who has a Danger Mouse poster on his wall if you look closely) dream of becoming invisible when pressing his belly button and frightening his teacher. The music was full of charm and tension, even though some of it had late 80s written all over it, and I liked the Whizzpopper song and the dreamy 'Sometimes, Secretly.' As for the dialogue, the BFG's was the funniest due to it being grammatically incorrect and containing hybrid words. When I saw this as a child, I cried towards the end when the BFG said goodbye to Sophie and she wanted to be with him forever and always. Even though I didn't cry at that scene earlier today, I still found it a touching way to end the film.Like 'Igor (which I enjoyed even more second time around),' this is another film where I increased my rating due to finding it a nostalgic delight that was worth a re-visit after several years. 9/10.

This is an animated film based on a Roald Dahl tale. It's nothing too special, nevertheless a decent alternative to other more popular animated movies.The character Sophie is cute and endearing and the best drawn character of the movie. Most of the characters are ugly, particularly the giants. The "BFG" of the title means "Big Friendly Giant" and refers to the movie's only good giant. The others are vicious.The BFG is like a giant "E.T.". Not that he looks any similar to E.T. but, just like E.T., his beauty is on the inside. Yes, because as for the outside...The evil giants are horrifying and gross, being Bloodbottler the most extreme on this. Fleshlumpeater is the biggest and scariest, but somehow he doesn't gross me out as much as the other mean giants.There is some nice soundtrack and the artwork is generally very good, with some magical special effects and some more special visuals in certain scenes.The story, without being "solid as a rock", is however entertaining and involving. A rather decent story, fair to say that. And it's easy to sympathize with the BFG and especially Sophie. There are some rather touching moments with Sophie and her friend giant.I rate this as a 6. I guess it's a fair rating.

I have two criticisms of this movie, one is that the animation sometimes is a little flat, and the second is that Sophie and the Queen while well voiced by Amanda Root and Angela Thorne are more interesting in the book(which I loved as a kid). The best aspect was the wonderful voice work of David Jason, one of the most talented British actors alive today. His BFG is somewhat charming, but especially in the whizzpopping scene where he is hilarious, and his grammatical errors are a delight to hear, as some of them are very silly. The child-eating giants like the Fleshlumpeater and the Bloodbottler were very well done, and I also really liked the music. Sure it isn't Oscar-worthy material, but it is still a pleasure to listen to. I do prefer the book, but this adaptation, while not perfect, is not bad at all. 8/10. Bethany Cox.

This film is a real 80's delight. I rediscovered it while watching it with my kids. It's so much of it's time. There's an innocence in the animation and story. Nobody questions why a big creepy giant would want to hang around with a little girl. Which is is great!! The times we live in are so paranoid this film makes us remember why we all need a granddad figure of out own.David Jason's performance as the BFG is remarkable. At first I didn't realise it was him. I think he gives it that extra something that really shines through.The beginning was really Richard William's like, with the cloaked giant running through the streets. It makes me realise how good Cosgrove Hall could be. It would be fun to check out more of their stuff again. Especaily Danger Mouse.