Every Roald Dahl Movie Adaptation Ranked Worst To Best

Dahl’s 1982 novel about the adventures of young orphan child Sophie and her oversized sidekick in Dream Country was first adapted in a comparably low key British made-for-TV movie in 1989, but this latest retelling brings big bucks to the table with a budget of $140 million and blockbuster magnet Steven Spielberg at the helm.

Unfortunately for Spielberg, The BFG fell kind of flat. Eclipsed during its opening weekend by fellow new release The Legend of Tarzan, the film has managed to gross only $20 million in profits thus far and was outshone by Finding Dory which remains the summer’s best performing movie.

It wasn’t just down to bad timing either: apparently modern families not so au fait with Dahl’s works were a tad confused by the title (perhaps not surprising since ‘BFG’ apparently stands for ‘big f*cking gun’ in internet slang) and while the CGI is undeniably impressive, there’s something incredibly uncanny valley about star Mark Rylance as the titular giant and the transitions between the movie’s live action and computer generated characters aren’t all that seamless.

Add to that an overly saccharine tone that doesn’t sit so well with Dahl’s quirkier, darker spirit and it seems that Spielberg doesn’t have quite a good enough grasp on what the author was all about to bring a truly great adaptation to the big screen.