THE BFG REVIEW

*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*

In 1982, Roald Dahl published his classic children's story, The BFG and it was widely popular. Since then, it has sold over 37 million copies in the UK. It's no surprise that one of Hollywood's most creative directors, Steven Spielberg, wanted to create a live action adaptation of the book. As a fan of the book and Spielberg's previous films, my expectations were high. Fortunately, this motion picture meets those expectations. It's as good as I hoped it to be.

Ten-year-old Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) is in for the adventure of a lifetime when she meets the Big Friendly Giant (Mark Rylance). Naturally scared at first, the young girl soon realizes that the 24-foot behemoth is actually quite gentle and charming. As their friendship grows, Sophie's presence attracts the unwanted attention of Bloodbottler (Bill Hader), Fleshlumpeater (Jermaine Clement) and other giants. After traveling to London, Sophie and the BFG must convince the Queen (Penelope Wilton) to help them get rid of all the evil giants once and for all

The screenplay was written by Melissa Mathison who sadly passed away last year. This is a script her family should be proud of as it's an faithful adaptation of the classic book it's based on. It captures the feel of Dahl's story. Of course, there are a few things that have been changed but they're only minor. Spielberg wanted this film to focus on the BFG and his relationship with Sophie and he has succeeded. Not only that, it's really entertaining and has a lot of funny moments. I think that this will appeal to family members of all ages, including parents who read the book when they were younger and children will especially enjoy watching the BFG in action.

The film uses CGI to bring the story to life and it's amazing. Rylance is unrecognisable in his performance as the title character and that includes the evil giants too including the leader of the pack, the Bloodbottler who is portrayed by comedic actor, Bill Hader. 12 year old Ruby Barnhill gives a strong performance as Sophie. She is brave, feisty and isn't afraid to stand up for herself which makes her instantly likable. 

The BFG's job is that he collects dreams and he blows them into people's windows and the dreams themselves look stunning. The colours all stand out and it creates a really beautiful effect.

This is definitely up there alongside Matilda, James And The Giant Peach and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory as one of the best films based on a Dahl book. 

So far, this is one of the most entertaining films I've seen this summer. I'd recommend it to fans of the book and young children.

7/10

MATILDA REVIEW

*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*

In my opinion, Matilda is one of my favourite adaptations of a Roald Dahl book. It's full of comedy and there's something for everyone in the family to enjoy. 

Matilda Wormwood (Mara Wilson) is a unique young girl but her parents, Harry (Danny DeVito) and Zinnia Wormwood (Rhea Perlman) fail to realise her potential and mistreat her until, at the age of 6, they send her to school. Matilda soon befriends the kind-hearted teacher, Miss Honey (Embeth Davidtz). Unfortunately, the school's headmistress, known as the 'Trunchbull' (Pam Ferris), is very cruel to her students. However, Matilda bravely uses her recently discovered telekinetic powers to bring revenge on the evil headteacher. 

The performances are one of the best things about this film. Wilson, who was only 9 at the time of filming, is brilliant as Matilda, she stands out from the high-profile actors in the film. Many young children will be able to relate to her character and how isolated she feels but I doubt many will able to relate to having telekinetic powers. DeVito does a great job as Matilda's father, we despise him from the beginning because of the way he treats Matilda. However, she does a great job of standing up to him and pranks him several times (which is where the comedic elements come in). However, there's no one we hate more in this film than the Trunchbull. When we meet her, the first thing she does is swing a young girl by her pigtails and throws her in the air. Not to worry though, Matilda secretly saves her by having her fall in a flower garden. Ferris is incredibly scary as the Trunchbull and it's because of her performance that makes the inner child in us glad that we never had a teacher like her. Davidtz is incredibly sweet as the Miss Honey, who is the complete opposite of Trunchbull. It isn't until she befriends Matilda that she finally starts becoming a bit braver and standing up to the evil headmistress. DeVito not only performed as Matilda's father but also directed this film as well. I couldn't imagine any other director doing half as good a job as him, he clearly wanted to connect with audiences of all ages and made sure that the majority of Dahl's novel made it to the screen. 

Many people will argue that Matilda is dark for a family film but the majority of Dahl's book featured children in scary situations but what made his books popular with children was how they overcame these situations. Matilda, for instance, uses her new found powers to give the Trunchball the comeuppance.

This film features many themes: friendship, family and love and they're all clearly shown how important they are in the film especially between Matilda and Miss Honey who, by the end of the film, become their own family despite not being related. 

This has been one of my favourite films ever since I was a child and it's still one I enjoy watching at the age of 18. Out of all the film adaptations of Dahl's books, this is one of my favourites. 

7/10

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY REVIEW

*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*

The first adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic book, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, was released in 1971 and was renamed 'Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory'. Gene Wilder played the title character who was a chocolate tier and had his own factory. The film's main focus, however, was a young boy named Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) who is poor but wins one of five tickets to visit the famous factory. This version was good but it wasn't an accurate adaptation of the book it was based on.

In 2005, however, director Tim Burton remade it with Johnny Depp (who else?) playing Wonka and, in my opinion, it's better than the 1971 version. It's faithful to Dahl's book and is entertaining throughout. The performances are better. Depp is unrecognisable in his pale make-up and gives a funny yet sympathetic performance as Wonka. Throughout the factory tour, he has flashbacks to his childhood and we find out that his father (Christopher Lee) was a dentist and banned him from eating chocolate. This gives him more background than Wilder's version of the character. 

In this remake, Charlie is played by Freddie Highmore who got the part after Depp recommended him for the part after they worked together in Finding Neverland. I enjoyed Highmore's performance as he is more sympathetic. However, we can see that he is thankful for what he has which is a loving family that includes his mother (Helena Bonham Carter), father (Noah Taylor) and Grandpa Joe (David Kelly). We know how much he would love to go the chocolate factory as he looks out of his window longingly at it. Fortunately, he wins one of the five tickets to visit the factory and this is where his adventure begins.

The other four child actors give strong performances despite playing one dimensional characters. These include: Philip Wiegratz as Augustus Gloop, an overweight boy who is addicted to chocolate, especially Wonka bars; Julia Winter as Veruca Salt, a brat who is spoilt by her rich parents and won her ticket after his father forced his workers to unwrap thousands of bars to find a ticket; AnnaSophia Robb as Violet Beauregarde, a competitive girl who is constantly chewing gum and Jordan Fry as Mike Teavee, a boy who actually hates chocolate but won by checking the manufacturer dates. They all come off as unlikable characters but, fortunately, like in Dahl's book, they get what's coming to them.

The 1971 film was also classed as a musical for the many original song it featured. The only memorable songs from that film are the ones that the Oompa Loompas sing after a character's demise as they were catchy. This film doesn't feature as many songs but they're all sung by the Oompa Loompas who are all portrayed by Deep Roy, thanks to CGI. In my opinion, these songs are better as they're all different, instead of just singing 'Oompa Loompa, doopety dee' several times.

Many people will disagree with me for favouring the 2005 version and that's fine. I can understand why people enjoy the 1971 version but, for me personally, I've always loved the former version ever since I watched it in cinema at the age of 8. It was my favourite film at that age and, even now, over a decade later, it's still one of my favourites. It's funny, entertaining and is a better adaptation of Dahl's book.

8/10