Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Disney brings Roald Dahl's children's novel THE BFG to the big screen

Four of my favorite children's books growing up were James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory plus its lesser know sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator written by British author Roald Dahl. During his lifetime, Dahl wrote numerous books for both young audiences and adults that have sold more than 200 million copies worldwide and additionally wrote the movie screen plays for 1967's James Bond: You Only Live Twice, 1968's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and 1971's Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory based upon his popular book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 2016 would have been the 100th birthday of the author who passed away in 1990.  In a touching tribute to the centennial anniversary of the author's life, Walt Disney Pictures is releasing on July 1, 2016 a movie adaption of a children's book Dahl wrote in 1982 titled The BFG that he had written in dedication to his daughter Olivia who had died at the age of seven from measles encephalitis.



The BFG - short for BIG FRIENDLY GIANT - tells the imaginative story of a young girl and a Giant who introduces her to the wonders and perils of Giant Country.  In this film directed by Steven Spielberg, a young orphaned girl in London named Sophie sees a mysterious figure outside her bedroom window and slips out of the orphanage to check it out.  Sophia encounters the Big Friendly Giant (BFG) who explains that he nightly travels the Earth blowing dreams into the bedrooms of children and then transports the young girl with him to Giant Country where he shows her the wonders and perils of his homeland.

While initially scared of BFG, the 10-year old girl soon realizes that the Giant is actually quite gentle and charming.  BFG refuses to eat people and primarily eats a foul-tasting vegetable known as snozzcumber to stay alive.  The same can't be said for Bloodbottler, Fleshlumpeater and the other inhabitants who reside in Giant Country that are twice as big and twice as scary as BFG and also have a particular taste for including children in their diet.  Sophie's presence in Giant Country entices these other giants to head to London to go upon a feeding frenzy.

BFG and Sophia head to London to head off the giants and warn the Queen of this precarious situation.  They must convince the Queen and her maid, Mary, that giants really do exist and come up with a plan to get rid of their threat once and for all.


I have to admit not having read The BFG before learning about the upcoming release of this new Disney film.  Based upon my fondness for Roald Dahl's other work and Steven Spielberg's great track record of creating tremendous motion pictures our family will absolutely be heading to the movie theater this summer to see The BFG.  We'll probably pick up a copy of Dahl's book after we've seen the movie to read with my kids and see how it compares to its film adaption.

For more information about Roald Dahl's children's books visit www.RoaldDahl.com which features a great "kids section" that includes a quiz on which Dahl children's character you most resemble ( I'm Willy Wonka! ), craft ideas, and interesting background information about all his books ranging from The Enormous Crocodile to Matilda.

For more information about Disney's The BFG, visit movies.disney.com/the-bfg



13 comments:

  1. I am so excited for this movie. I think it's gonna be awesome.

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  2. I seriously can not wait to see this movie. The book was so good as a kid.

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  3. Wow... That giant sounds like he's from Newfoundland!! This looks like it will be a great movie.

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  4. Yay! I love this book, and I can't wait to take my kids to the movie!

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  5. Everyone in my house will see this! Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was one of my favorites too!

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  6. I am not familiar with this story but will go look for the book. From your description it reminds me of Jack and the Beanstalk and the movie Big Fish. Very interesting sounding!

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  7. I think I read The BFG as a kid, I used to love Roald Dahl's books. The movie version should be great!

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  8. Sounds like a cute story. And directed by Spielberg I'm sure it will be a hit!

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  9. I have not read the story before hearing about this. Sounds like our family would really enjoy this movie!

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  10. I'm not so sure about this movie. The more I see, the better it looks though.

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  11. I'm sure my son would love this movie. It sounds intriguing.

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  12. That is odd I have not heard of this movie before. I will have to check it out of my kids.

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  13. I saw the trailer of this movie and it looks amazing. It's really interesting to see and for sure my kids will love this.

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