As big fans of the Road Dahl story, as well as the 1989 animated TV movie, The BFG (2016) was always going to have its work cut out for it to win us over, but that’s exactly what it did. Despite not being particularly impressed with the trailer, the film itself does everything right to live up to the brilliance of its predecessors.
Having Steven Spielberg in the directors chair and Mark Rylance in the main role as the Big Friendly Giant, the movie always had the potential to deliver something at least marginally positive, but the end result is genuinely stunning with a lot of magic, whimsy and adventure. It didn’t do terribly well in terms of box office numbers, but with glowing reviews, including our own, the recent arrival on DVD provides a good opportunity to catch it.
The story is the same as it ever was, which is faultless at its core, but the tough job is the delivery of it all in live action with the addition of CGI wizardry to create The BFG and his bone crunching brethren. However, it all comes together brilliantly as it follows the original blueprint while adding in its own little touches to make it feel familiar, but also a little bit new.
Mark Rylance (Bridge Of Spies) is remarkably good as the large eared dream catcher, creating a solid tone for the voice role and great movement and mannerisms as part of the motion capture process that went into creating the large pally gargantuan. Newcomer Ruby Barnhill works out well as orphan Sophie, who is taken away to giant country when she sees The BFG on one of his sandman trips to Britain.
Jermaine Clement and Bill Hader do a lot to bring the menace of the man-eating giants, Fleshlumpeater and Bloodbottler, to life in all their gruesome form. As with Rylance, they’re helped by a lot of impressive CGI animation, which goes into giving the film a lot of its visual impact, but their unique portrayals of the characters is pretty strong nonetheless.
Overall, The BFG (2016) is a lot of fun to watch with great characterisation, enchanting visuals, a good sense of humour and more than enough the wordsmith magic of Roald Dahl’s fantastical story to make it one of the year’s best family films. It’s got a lot of re-watch potential with so much creativity wrapped up in its out-sized confines, and it’s sure to put a smile on a fair few faces this Christmas.
The BFG (2016) DVD review: 4/5
