Distributed by

Cat.no: P 8870 DVD

Cert: U

Running time: 76 minutes

Year: 1996

Pressing: 1999

Region(s): 2, PAL

Chapters: 15 plus extras

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Languages: English

Subtitles: English

Widescreen: 1.85:1

16:9-Enhanced: Yes

Macrovision: Yes

Disc Format: DVD 5

Price: £24.99

Extras : Scene index, Theatrical trailer, Featurette, Music video

Director:

Henry Selick

Producers:

Denise Di Novi and Tim Burton

Screenplay:

Karey Kirkpatrick, Jonathan Roberts and Steve Bloom (based on the book by Roald Dahl)

Music:

Randy Newman

Featuring the voices of:

Simon Callow, Richard Dreyfuss, Jane Leeves,
Susan Sarandon, David Thewlis and Miriam Margolyes.

James (Paul Terry) discovers a tree nearby the house he has to share with two old hags.. I mean his charming aunts, Spiker (Joanna Lumley and Sponge (Miriam Margolyes), after his parents were eaten by a giant rhino (don't you just hate it when that happens ?) It has no leaves but only a small peach. Before long it's grown into the giant peach that the title alights to. After Spiker and Sponge have gone back into the house, James helps himself to some of it, uncovering an entrance. After climbing inside, that's where his adventures begin.

With his insect friends, his aim is to travel to New York, the peach being flown there by the seagulls attached, although a number of hazards try to put them off along the way such as a giant, mechanical shark and, of course, that rhino. Yes, this is more a film for children, but it will hold everyone else's interest on initial viewing and there's also the occasional quip such as that from the earthworm who makes a crack about his brother being cut in half, resulting in "two half-brothers".

The film is presented in its theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 and is anamorphically-enhanced for widescreen TV's, resulting in a 33% increase in picture resolution. I haven't seen the fullscreen version, but I'd imagine the animation will suffer as a result.

Not being an animation expert, it's difficult to tell whether all the characters are CGI-based, or stop-frame animation with the wooden models they appear to be. Either way, it comes across as looking very impressive. The average bitrate is an good 6.40Mb/s, regularly peaking over 8Mb/s.

As well as the songs which sound good in surround, the film's soundtrack is peppered with SFX surrounds used to comic effect as required and in Dolby Digital 5.1.

Extras :

Chapters and Trailer :

Languages and Subtitles :

Featurette :

Music video :

Menu :

Adults won't want to watch this film more than once, but it's worth buying if your kids like it. If they've not seen it, rent it first, since £25 is a lot to fork out for something they might not want to sit through on regular occasions. I don't know about a Region 1 DVD, but a NTSC Laserdisc was released in CAV which will also allow perfect still-frame pictures.

FILM	 		: ***
PICTURE QUALITY		: *****
SOUND QUALITY		: *****
EXTRAS			: **
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OVERALL			: ****

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.