Movie review: The BFG by Roald Dahl directed by Steven Spielberg

The BFG

Release date: June 30, 2016 (Australia)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Screenplay: Melissa Mathison

Story by: Roald Dahl

Producers: Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall, Sam Mercer

Synopsis.

Ten-year-old Sophie is in for the adventure of a lifetime when she meets the Big Friendly Giant (Mark Rylance). Naturally scared at first, the young girl soon realizes that the 24-foot behemoth is actually quite gentle and charming. As their friendship grows, Sophie's presence attracts the unwanted attention of Bloodbottler, Fleshlumpeater and other giants. After travelling to London, Sophie and the BFG must convince Quen Victoria to help them get rid of all the bad giants once and for all. 

Review: 3 ½ stars out of 5 (Miss 9 says 5 out of 5)

We have just finished our winter school holidays here in Australia so I got to spend a bit of time at the cinema with the kids so I thought it would be a great opportunity over the next week to review a few of the movies that we watched, today it is The BFG, a book by Roald Dahl.

To be honest, I wasn’t too keen on watching this movie but the book is my nine year-old daughters current favourite; I read it many many years ago but I had completely forgotten the complete storyline

Ten-year-old Sophie is an orphan and in for the journey of a lifetime when she is kidnapped by the Big Friendly Giant and taken to Giant Country. Once there, she attracts the attention of the other giants, not as nice as the BFG and all willing to have her for their next meal.

The BFG is a creative and inventive story that takes you on an adventure through giant country and eventually lands them in London to request the Queens help. I enjoyed the dream and nightmares that the BFG controlled, we found this aspect entertaining and interesting.

We loved the kindness that The BFG showed to Sophie and the friendship and trust that they came to have for one another, he protected her and she did the same. They were very much alike despite their size difference. They shared some lovely conversations and learnt a lot from each other.

The pacing at times was very slow and the action in small doses, I was at times a tad bored but the beautiful imagery certainly made up for it. The kids (9 & 11) thoroughly enjoyed it despite some dark undertones and jumpy moments.

The characters were each interesting; as we know Sophie is very different to Dahl’s other characters, she doesn’t show much fear, she is a tad bossy and doesn’t listen despite the BFG’s warnings. The BFG has a unique jumbled language and we learn some interesting new words such as snozzcumber, scrumdidlyumptious and swashbickling. The kids loved the way he spoke.

The book to movie adaptation was done very well despite a few small issues, the ending was satisfying and had us all smiling. I would highly recommend this movie for children 7+ or even adults like me who enjoys a children’s fantasy movie.