Pandragon Dan
CONTACT ME! :)
  • Blog
  • FAQ

Welcome to my world!

My name is Dan Wright. I'm a author of Fantasy. I like to talk about writing, movies, comics, animation - or just anything else that interests me. This is my blog. Thanks for taking the time to visit. Hope you enjoy.

About me

My Review Of The BFG - Or How I Learned To Love The Snozzcumber!

8/4/2016

0 Comments

 
WARNING: This ‘ere reviewable contains trogglehumper type spoileresses that could be murderful to Human Beans!

In other words – spoilers ahead!

Picture

Roald Dahl is hands down one of my favourite authors of all time. And by the same process, The BFG is my favourite story of his; and also – you guessed it – one of my favourite all time novels and film. In fact, it was because of the original animated film that I first got into the wonderful world of Roald Dahl and his works. I even played the BFG in a stage production based on the novel! As you can tell, this story is special for me (in fact I recently rediscovered my old DVD of it) so you can imagine how excited (whilst at the same time nervous) at hearing a new film was coming out. Thankfully, I calmed down when I heard Stephen Spielberg was directing it. He’s done some amazing films in the past (E.T. being my favourite of his) so I was hoping that he would do this story justice. It’s a wonderful book and I would hate if this film ruined it.

After seeing the newer film, after having mixed reactions initially, I am pleased to say that – after much consideration – I think this was a fantastic movie. One that is respectful of the source material; whilst at the same time changing it just enough so that newer audiences can enjoy it.

The story follows Sophie, an orphan that has insomnia and sees the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) down the town. The BFG captures her and takes her back to Giant Country, worried that she will tell everyone about seeing a giant and he be put in a zoo. The two form a strong bond as the BFG shows her how he catches dreams and sends them to people. However, they also have to contend with the other giants – all of which are nowhere near as nice as the BFG and live only to eat children. It’s up to them to stop them somehow!

First thing I want to mention positively are the special effects – these are some of the best I’ve seen in a film. But then again I wouldn’t expect anything less from Spielberg! Everything looks perfect and it doesn’t detract from the film in anyway. The characters look spot on and the motion capture is on par with Lord of the Rings with how good it is. The dreams that the BFG look amazing and dart around the screen like wild insects. The landscape of Giant Country and Dream Country, whilst not as awe inspiring as it was in the animated film, they were still pretty amazing to watch. Interestingly enough, Giant Country had a few “human” objects in it, including cars, boats and ferris wheels. Whether it was hinting that Giant Country was previously a human colony, or these were brought back by the giants is never really explained. I guess that’s something you can make you mind up. But either way, from the vast landscapes to the stinky snozzcumbers, everything just looked perfectly realised.

Mark Rylance – an actor whose notable roles recently include Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall amongst other things – is just amazing as the BFG. Thanks to motion capture, he already looked the part, but the minute he spoke I believed he was the BFG. He captured the BFG’s jumbled and nervous wording perfectly and I quickly came to love him as a character. Sophie is played by newcomer Ruby Barnhill. Her Sophie is a bit more sure of herself and a bit more proactive than in the original film (although Sophie is by no means a Damsel in Distress) and that I really liked. She was a strong female lead and one the children watching this film can support. Although there was ONE bit where she tried a “Bella Swan” moment by trying to kill herself to get the BFG’s attention. That annoyed me a bit.

Other notable performances included Penelope Wilton as the Queen of England and Rafe Spall as Mr Tibbs. Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Concordes fame also stars as the Fleshlumpeater, leader of the giants. Strangely, I actually felt the giants were the weakest element of this film to an extent. Whilst in the animated film and book they were portrayed as cannibalistic beasts that ate children without any  mercy, here they were portrayed as somewhat more comedic. Not saying that’s a problem, but I never really got the same feeling of dread that I did with the giants – and considering they are supposed to be the antagonists of the story that’s a bit of a bad thing.

In fact, this adaptation kind of eschews the darker elements of this book. Anyone who has read a Roald Dahl novel will know he has some pretty dark themes, but this movie seems to stray away from that in favour of telling something more family friendly. Not a bad thing necessarily, but it would have made this movie a lot more enjoyable if it kept in some of the darkness. That being said, the movie adds in a bit of a tragic backstory for the BFG which does add some gravitas to his character. It’s something that wasn’t in the original tale, but it works pretty well and you understand his reluctance to do a lot of things.

One thing I was surprised about was the lack of feels I got. The ending of the animated The BFG always leaves a lump in my throat. It’s not a bad ending, it’s just highly emotional. Strangely enough, I didn’t get many feels (if any) whilst watching this, which is surprising for a Spielberg film. There were a couple of “awww” moments in there, but nothing too special. Also, I thought the ending was a bit rushed and lacked the confrontation that the previous film did so well, meaning that any emotion it could have had was somewhat lost.

But I will say this. The breakfast scene at Buckingham Palace was hilarious! Actually had me in stitches for most of it – as did the rest of the audience!

It actually breaks my heart that this film did so poorly at the box office – because it actually is one of the most underrated films I’ve seen so far this year. Whilst I’m somewhat biased towards the original story, I do think that Spielberg did a great attempt at adapting the story. He stayed faithful to the original, whilst only changing and updating what needed to be updated. It would have been nice to keep in some of the darker storylines, what we have in the film is great.

Whether you know the source material or not, it’s still a fun little film for all the family to enjoy. Mixing a perfect cast with some top quality effects, The BFG is worth checking out.

I give The BFG a giant 4.5 out of 5!
Picture
ALTERNATIVES

The original The BFG animated movie (1989) is a classic of British animation – made by classic animation company Cosgrove Hall. It features David Jason (Del Boy from Only Fools and Horses), Amanda Root as Sophie – and even appearances by Mollie Sugden (Are You Being Served) and Ballard Berkley (Fawlty Towers, his last role before his death). Whilst it also takes some liberties with the source material, it is a wonderful, timeless story that has a lot of love put into it. And you’ll probably well up a couple of times as well.

0 Comments

    Blog

    Find out the latest news and goings on in the world of Pandragon Dan

    Archives

    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015

    Categories

    All
    2016
    2017
    2018
    Age Of Sigmar
    Amanda Moonstone
    Animation
    Anime
    Anthology
    April Fools
    Arrow
    Arrowverse
    Art
    Artwork
    Ask The Author
    #AskThePanDragon
    A Song Of Ice And Fire
    Author
    Avengers
    Batman
    Battle
    Beauty And The Beast
    Blog
    Blog Tour
    Books
    Brackets
    Cancer
    Canterbury Comic Con
    Cartoon
    Character
    Charity
    Christmas
    Cinema
    Comedy
    Comic
    Comics
    Coming Soon
    Competition
    Convention
    Countdown To Final Ragnarok
    Cover
    Crossover
    DC
    Disney
    Disney Companions
    Disney Couple's Reshuffled
    Disney Couples Reshuffled
    Doctor Strange
    Doctor Who
    Draconica
    Dunkirk
    Easter
    Excerpt
    Fall Of Draconica
    Fantasy
    FAQ
    Feels
    Fiction
    Fighting
    Film
    Final Ragnarok
    First Round
    Franz Chan
    Game Of Thrones
    Gifts
    Giveaway
    Guest Post
    Halloween
    Historical
    Horror
    Illumination
    Interview
    Journey Into Chaos
    Just For Fun
    Kickstarter
    Kindle
    King Kong
    Legends Of Tomorrow
    Lego
    Leroy Jenkins
    Logan
    Magic
    Manga
    March Madness
    Marvel
    MCU
    Moon Panda Power
    Morgan Straughan Comnick
    Movies
    Music
    NaNoWriMo
    Netflix
    New Release
    Noir
    Novel
    Novels
    NXT
    Opinion
    Opinions
    Pandragon Dan
    Paperback
    Paper Crane Books
    Perry Winkle
    Pirates
    Pixar
    Podcast
    Poll
    Power Rangers
    PPV
    Reboot
    Red Dwarf
    Review
    Reynard City
    Roald Dahl
    Sales
    Sample Chapter
    Sci Fi
    Sci-Fi
    Short Stories
    Short Story
    Shout Out
    Smashwords
    Song
    Spielberg
    Spotlight
    Star Wars
    Summerslam
    Supergirl
    Superhero
    Susie Gander
    Takeover
    The Darkbane Sorceress
    The Flash
    The Gothon Campaign
    Tim Burton
    Top 15
    Top Five
    Top Six
    Top Ten
    Totalitarian Warlord And Termination Squadron
    Tournament
    TV
    Update
    Updates
    Video Games
    Vote
    Warcraft
    Wargaming
    War Gaming
    Websites
    Wonder Woman
    World Of Draconica
    Wrestlemania
    Wrestling
    Writing
    WW2
    WWE
    X-Men
    Year In Review
    Young Adult
    YouTube

    RSS Feed

    Tweets by @PandaDanWright
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.