April 30th, 2021 
Michael Lyons 
James and the Giant Peach, created through the hand-crafted art of stop-motion animation, debuted just five months after Toy Story, the blockbuster computer-animated feature that signaled a shift coming for the industry.
At the time, the world was looking more toward the bright and shiny technology of computer-generated imagery on the horizon. In a 1996 interview just before the release of James and the Giant Peach, the film’s director Henry Selick, who also directed Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, discussed that, despite the world’s newfound focus on computer graphics, he was very comfortable staying in his stop motion lane.
“Even in this day of super-impressive computer effects, which are only going to get more impressive over time, stop-motion still has this hold on my imagination,” said Selick, adding, “I feel like I’m further and further out on a limb in the land of stop-motion, but the last thing I’m going to do is throw in the towel and try to compete, head-to-head, with everyone else in computers.”
Selick has continued on his stop-motion path directing the live-action/animated Monkeybone in 2001 and the Oscar-nominated Coraline in 2006, as well as the upcoming Wendell and Wild. Never once has he yielded to computer animation in the quarter-century since James and the Giant Peach came to theaters.
Released on April 12, 1996, James and the Giant Peach celebrated its 25th anniversary this month, which is the perfect time to celebrate this often-forgotten Disney film.
Based on a book by author Roald Dahl, most famous for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the tale features the author’s darker story elements. The film James and the Giant peach opens in live-action and tells the story of young James Henry Trotter (Paul Terry), a lonely orphan who lives with wicked aunts, Spiker and Sponge (Joanna Lumley and Miriam Margolyes, respectfully).
A mysterious man gives James a bag of glowing green seeds, which he drops near an old peach tree outside his aunts’ house. The next day, a peach appears on the tree and keeps growing in size. The aunts begin charging the public admission to see it while forbidding James to go near the peach.
One night James sneaks away and enters a tunnel in the giant peach (here, the film transitions to stop-motion animation). Once inside, James meets a group of large insects, who soon set the peach rolling out to sea, with James joining the insects on a magical journey to New York City, a place he has always dreamed of seeing.
The insects are brought to life through the talents of an impressive all-star voice cast. Susan Sarandon is Miss Spider, Richard Dreyfuss is the gruff Centipede, Simon Callow (Four Weddings and a Funeral) is Grasshopper and Jane Leeves (Daphne on TV’s Frasier) is Lady Bug.
Selick praised the work of the entire cast and noted that British actor David Thewlis, who provides the voice of Earthworm, brought an extra something to his performance. “He did a remarkable job of this basic coward who’s blind and always imagines things being worse than they really are,” said the director, adding, “He did this amped-up performance, a quivering voice that really fueled the animation.”
During their adventure in the peach, James and the insects run across an army of skeletal pirates. Look closely at the pirates, and you’ll notice a cameo that Lane Smith, the film’s character designer, snuck into the movie. “Lane kept putting in this tall, skinny guy against these other shapes,” remembered Selick. “I finally said, ‘Well, he keeps looking like Jack Skellington, let’s just put him in the movie.”
Like The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach was a true stretching of the wings for stop-motion animation. Unfortunately, the film was unsuccessful at the box office when it opened, grossing $28 million worldwide. Still, it received the approval of Dahl’s widow, Liccy, and has become appreciated over the past two and a half decades by audiences who may have missed it on its initial run.
Currently available on Disney+, now is the chance to revisit James and the Giant Peach and celebrate 25 years of this unique film that reveals a message that still so relevant today. As Selick noted in 1996, James and the Giant Peach is really about “…the idea that cooperation among disparate creatures is possible.”
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