Every Roald Dahl Movie Adaptation Ranked Worst To Best

Three years after teaming up on The Night Before Christmas, Tim Burton and master of stop motion animation Henry Selick were reunited in Disney’s adaptation of Dahl’s 1961 novel James and the Giant Peach – a quirky fable, even by Dahl’s offbeat standards, about a young orphaned lad forced to live with his wicked aunts before he escapes in a giant, magical peach populated by life-size talking bugs on a cross Atlantic adventure.

The combination of live action with Selick’s signature stop motion style and a sturdy cast including Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon and Miriam Margolyes make for an imaginative, magical little movie though it’s marred slightly by a soundtrack brimming with Randy Newman’s typically sickly-sweet, simplistic songs. Although it was the first adaptation to be released after the author’s death in 1990, Dahl’s widow Felicity gave it her stamp of approval saying he would have been delighted with the final product.

Interestingly, an entirely live action remake is rumoured to be in the works with Disney at the helm again alongside British director Sam Mendes and writer Nick Hornby. A somewhat premature remake considering it’s only been 20 years since the first James and the Giant Peach was released, but it could be interesting to see what Mendes, who directed the West End musical version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, would bring to the project … and where on earth he’d find real-life peach that size.