Check Out the Trailer

Based on the Roald Dahl’s book, director Henry Selick made this project his follow-up to the successful NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Bookended by a live-action opening and closing, this stop-motion feature is generally an episodic adventure following a classic tale of a young boy dreaming beyond his circumstances.

After the death of his parents, James Trotter (Paul Terry) becomes a virtual slave to his ghoulish aunts Spiker (Joanna Lumley, TV’s ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS) and Sponge (Miriam Margolyes, BABE). One day he meets a wandering old man (Pete Postlewaite, IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER), who gives him magic worms that he claims will help him attain his dream of getting from England to New York City. Spilling the worms on the ground, James sets off a series of events that grows a giant peach on a barren tree where human-sized bugs come to live.
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Buy It Now!

Read my review of JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH

Henry Selick’s children’s film is dark in both its tone and look. That is translated over into the new 1080p release from Disney. The color palette is muted, so one doesn’t get the pop that animation often brings to Blu-ray. The images don’t have the same depth as other animated films on Blu-ray do as well. I believe this is certainly more to do with the source than the transfer. Just looking at the standard definition trailer you can see a huge improvement. The picture is much clearer than the murky DVD transfer. There is noise throughout, especially in the live-action sequences, but no artifacting or banding. I’m not convinced this is the best the film could look, but it’s the best available for home viewing to date by far.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 provides for a nice immersive experience. The scene where the peach rolls away stood out for me. The LFE channel boomed as the giant fruit broke free and started to move. As James and the bugs are flung around inside the peach, the audio gave a good sense of forward movement as objects crash in the foreground and roll toward the back speakers. The dialogue is clear and balanced well with the Randy Newman score.

The special features, however, are no improvement over the DVD. The DVD making of doc really puts the promotional in promotional featurette. It only provides basic information about the production. Very weak sauce… and it’s too short too. Additionally from the DVD is the awful looking “Good News” music video and a standard-def trailer. The only new feature to the Blu-ray is a “Spike the Aunts” Interactive Game. It’s entertaining for about one play at best and the design looks slapped together.

At the mid-point the best of 2010

This is one awesome week for Blu-ray. The best film released in 2010 thus far arrives. Four other titles appear in the Queue Qualified section for films I highly recommend. And the Buzzed About section has three films I’ve been eagerly awaiting their arrival.
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