In its desperate search for recognizable things that might work to keep subscribers hooked, Netflix bet big on the rights to Roald Dahl’s work, with ‘Roald Dahl’s Matilda: The Musical’ being the latest big case in point. A difference compared to decades ago where you had to do a major effort to convince that there was potential in adapting works of literature or intellectual property.
fantastic and unexpected trip
and we talked about one of the most popular authors of children’s literature of all times. But even so, the great adaptations fell little by little, as is the case with the other ‘Matilda’ or ‘The Curse of the Witches’. It took a lot of work to convince Disney (Disney!) to make an ambitious children’s fantasy with one of his most recognizable works, told in stop-motion animation format.
But Henry Selick got away with it thanks again to the support of Tim Burton and directed ‘James and giant peach‘, his great project after ‘Nightmare before Christmas’ that can also be enjoyed through Disney +. An adaptation that did not seek to cut itself off from the nightmarish aspects of Dahl’s story, which over time makes its twisted and chilling aesthetic that many of us would see as a source of childhood trauma surprise.
Perhaps it is because of the feeling that children’s terror is no longer so in vogue, opting for more harmless and white productions. However, Selick also offers room for contrast, which differs from his great debut. At the dark and gloomy beginning where we are shown the terrible situation of James, or the threat that floats all the time in the film to add a more constant source of conflict, the friendly tones of the world of the magical peach take precedence, both in the part of the trip through the clouds as inside the transport.
Despite the fact that stop-motion and its operation are the director’s trademark, the designs of ‘James and the Giant Peach’ have a texture and tones that differentiates them, showing that his style book had the capacity for exploration (the recent ‘Wendell and Wild’ also shows a differentiable aesthetic, just like ‘The worlds of Coraline’). All of his films look like Selick films, but none of them is copied from the other.
That gives a special character to James and the Giant Peach’ which proves the claim that it is one of the best adaptations of Roald Dahl. It is true that, until very recently, making an adaptation of yours was not common. Selick demonstrates untapped potential with a beautiful fable about discovery, friendship, and the pursuit of one’s defining dreams.