I never saw the 1989 film adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's book The BFG when I was growing up, and I don't know whether or not that's a good thing. On one hand, I could have enjoyed the film as a nostalgic trip down memory lane, yet I could have also been horrified at just how badly the film has aged. I did, however, read the book as a young nipper, along with other Dahl classics such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda, so I'm familiar with just how good a word-smith Dahl was, and how he managed to forge these often creepy and macabre tales into something that children could enjoy without being too terrified.Brian Cosgrove's adaptation, for all its sporadic charm, has faded into obscurity since its 1989 release with good reason. Beginning at an orphanage run by the nasty Mrs. Clonkers (Myfanwy Talog), young girl Sophie (Amanda Root) sees the outline of a gigantic figure blowing a trumpet through the window of a house down the road. Before she has a chance to scream, she is grabbed by a huge fist and whisked away to another land inhabited by grotesque giants who feed on children. Lucky for her, she was taken by the Big Friendly Giant (David Jason), who is the only vegetarian giant in his world, and whose day job it is to blow happy dreams into the minds of sleeping children. But with the knowledge of the rest of the giants gobbling up scores of children, Sophie hatches a plan with the BFG to notify the Queen of England (Angela Thorne) and put a stop to the evil giants for good.The first twenty minutes or so of The BFG is actually quite delightful, as we meet the lovable lunk and learn of his diet of the disgusting snozzcumbers, and he is wonderfully voiced by national treasure David Jason. The song 'Whizzpopping' isn't particularly good or catchy, but there is a giddy delight to be had with watching the BFG and Sophie farting with glee. Yet, without Dahl's written narrative, the film quickly becomes tedious and the story grinds to a near-halt. Cosgrove Hall - set up by director Cosgrove and his friend Mark Hall - animated countless children's TV adaptations from the 1970's up until its demise is 2009, but the animation here is stodgy. There were obvious budget constraints and this shows in the backgrounds, which are often so bland ad static it drains the film visually. It has its charms, especially if you grew up in Britain, but I would stick with the beloved book.

I loved reading Roald Dahl's novels when I was younger, especially Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and I also liked the film adaptations of some of them (most notably 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' plus the 2005 remake, 'Matilda,' 'James and the Giant Peach' and this one, 'The BFG'). I had this on video as a child, rented the DVD when I was 18 and watched it on YouTube for the first time in eight years earlier today.Although the character animation was often flickery and sometimes slow, the backgrounds were well-drawn and the scenery of Dream Country was absolutely beautiful. The story was mostly faithful to the book, albeit Sophie having short red hair instead of long blonde hair as shown in the book illustrations, but I found the climax where several helicopters drop the mean human-eating giants in the pit forgettable. In spite of this, most of the scenes are memorable and the Bloodbottler entering the BFG's cave startled me today and it also scared my brother when he was 16 and watching this film with me when I rented it. The standout scenes were those involving Sophie being snatched from her orphanage by the BFG and the BFG showing her around his cave, offering her some Snozzcumber and Frobscottle (leading to the scatological yet funny Whizzpopper scene), making her a new dress and making a little boy (who has a Danger Mouse poster on his wall if you look closely) dream of becoming invisible when pressing his belly button and frightening his teacher. The music was full of charm and tension, even though some of it had late 80s written all over it, and I liked the Whizzpopper song and the dreamy 'Sometimes, Secretly.' As for the dialogue, the BFG's was the funniest due to it being grammatically incorrect and containing hybrid words. When I saw this as a child, I cried towards the end when the BFG said goodbye to Sophie and she wanted to be with him forever and always. Even though I didn't cry at that scene earlier today, I still found it a touching way to end the film.Like 'Igor (which I enjoyed even more second time around),' this is another film where I increased my rating due to finding it a nostalgic delight that was worth a re-visit after several years. 9/10.

When I first saw this film I must have been about eight and loved it! It made me laugh and due to the fantastic writing talents of Roald Dahl I can still remember the storyline. The film remains faithful to the book, something most Dahl adaptations fail to do, (eg. the witches in while being a great film has a different ending to the book) and the animation, while not being up to todays standards, doesn't interfere with the viewing of the film. David Jason's unique voice (Count Duckular) is memorable in this role as the BFG. Overall I would say this was a fantastic family film, definately aimed at children but true to the book which is something any 5-12 year old Dahl fan will love.

Well, you really can't expect much from a movie that has a song about flatulence(really!I hardly could believe it myself! Flying around because of it, geez..). it really was just okay, something kids can enjoy, but will probably annoy anyone older than 10. it is cute, however, but this isn't the perfect family film for kids under 4 because of some big scary giants. As I said, when a movie has a song about flatulence, it is really meant for little kids.