The BFG (2016) – 3/5

Big friendly movie

„The BFG“ is a live action film from 2016, so this one is almost as close to being ten years old now as it is to five years old and that surprises me a bit. Shows again how time flies so fast. It is a co-production between the United Kingdom, the United States of America and India and the Indian component surely surprises me a lot here. No idea where this came from. I don’t think it is represented in the cast either. Anyway, the film is of course in the English language from beginning to end pretty much, even if there is also Hindi found in here. Maybe this explains it. I watched the German dub today, so I cannot say where those are to be found. The film comes pretty close to the two-hour mark, so it is fairly long for a movie that is mostly aimed at rather young audiences. I am generally not a fan of saying this is a film for kids, but I guess the amount of children in my screening made it fairly obvious. I was the only grown-up without a child I think. The big name here is of course director Steven Spielberg and this is by far not the only occasion on which he made a film that is mostly for kids. Not exclusively of course. Just take his Tintin movie or of course E. T., even if that one is especially for all generations. I am mentioning E. T. in particular because there it was also Melissa Mathison in charge of the screenplay and she was on board again as well here with this film from seven years ago, so we have a bit of a reunion between her and Spielberg. The base material is of course by Roald Dahl who has written so many books and stories that are for kids mostly. And many of those also got turned into films. This one here is no exception. Actually, this was also not the only time the story of the Big Friendly Giant got turned into a film, but the other film I read about is much older than this one here and was also not seen by many.

Here the name Spielberg is of course enough to make sure that millions of people are going to watch. Like with some other films where the focus should be rather on the story than on individual actors, Spielberg took a direction where he avoided really big names. Sure, Rebecca Hall is easy to identify and stunning as always but she is only a factor in the second half of the film. Clement and Hader are actors from whom you have maybe seen other works, even if they played fantastic creatures here, fantastic only in the sense of fantasy as they are not kind creatures. The title character is played by Mark Rylance and he just won the Oscar for another Spielberg film before this movie, so it was a successful collaboration for sure and I would not be surprised if we see them work together again in the future. I am glad Rylance had such a breakthrough. He was also kinda perfect for the character here. The title is slightly misleading perhaps because compared to the other giants in this tale the title character is relatively small and definitely not as strong as they are. And the word „giant“ generally implies being big anyway, so I thought it would be a standout, but he is in fact a small giant, even if he does look big of course in the world of humans. The title is probably from the perspective of the child actress in here. Ruby Barnhill plays Sophie and she was not in another film before this one here, but kept acting for a few years afterwards, but now she has not appeared in new projects for a while. We will see if she returns one day. I think she played the part well and I was glad she got the role. It was also a bit sad, not just that she lost her parents and lived in an orphanage, but also how she said on one occasion that she never had a best friend. Well, now she has.

There is more to say about the title character though. The big ears were super cool, especially how he was able to move them. I also liked the sequence in which he sneakily disguises himself so nicely in the human world every time when a human was approaching, in the sequence early on when he carries the girl already with him. Very creative. The dialogue writing was fine too. The one aspect there that stays in the mind of course was the way in which the protagonist struggled with the language. This must have been a gigantic task for translators to take into consideration when working on the German dub. I think my favorite example had nothing to do with these fictitious words, but was rather towards the end when the giant talked about the girl’s future. About „hard times and soft times“. I cannot say it for sure as I watched the German version, but I just think he used these words because this is how it got translated and I really like this contrast in terms of opposites and I would love to use it in the future. Awesome inclusion. There is a lot more to mention: With Spielberg, you always know that the film reaches a high level in terms of looks too. After watching, I am even a bit surprised that the film did not manage an Oscar nomination for its visual effects. The dreamland (literally) was pretty special and mesmerizing to watch. Nicely done. The exact way the dreams are depicted was also a success, namely as pure forms of energy that have all kinds of different colors and nightmares have a threatening red as some kind of signal color for example.

I have to dig deep here for aspects that did not do too much for me. One would maybe be the huge twist that somehow involved the Queen of England and her military eventually grabbing the evil man-eating giants and taking them to a far-away island that nobody could ever find. It was not horrible, but it did come out of nowhere somehow and if you have not read the book, then you never would have expected such development. I have not read the book, so this applies for me and I can also not say anything about parallels and differences between this Hollywood movie and the book it is based on, just like I cannot talk about parallels and differences between this other movie I mentioned and this one here, except that this one here from 2016 is of course considerably longer, so there is much bigger attention to detail, but also I would say that here and there it slightly dragged a bit. The kids will have a good time for sure though and hopefully the grown-ups as well. Just look at the farting that comes from this lemonade the giant loves so much. You cannot not smile there. Also the way it was animated. Oh and the cat was cool too of course and the corgis! I love corgis. Really do. With the cat, there was not a lot of story to it, only that it followed the protagonist, but very early on there was a moment when we saw the cat sitting on a piece of clothing the girl was wearing and this way the cat got pulled without having to move which was also charming in a very playful way. I like it when they get in comedy in such a harmless fashion. Nicely done by Spielberg and Mathison. This movie actually managed a great amount of awards recognition, just not really at the biggest events and of course it also struggled, like Tintin, a bit with being stuck between animated film and live action film. I assume the animation was not enough to make it into the animated category at the Oscars. But it is not too important anyway. The much more important thing is that you enjoy the watch and this comes pretty easy.

Another thing that caught my attention was that the giants were not really courageous here, but rather cowardly bullies. I am not talking about the title character. He had a hard time as he was much smaller than the others and eventually he still stands up to them, but if we look at how they react when it starts to rain or when the title character chases them out of his home, then you can say that they were really cowards for the most part. Even with their huge size. I even thought for a moment that they actually could have eaten the title character if they wanted to. This is how much bigger they were. Towards the end, it is almost a miracle how the British planes pull these giants up effortlessly and carry them away. Forget science and physics for a moment there. I think one giant, not sure if it was the leader, got lifted by one single plane on one occasion. But it is okay. It is a fantasy film after all and a pretty enjoyable one at that. I am glad this was shown at a movie theater again and it will probably take some time until it happens again. I don’t regret one bit going and not picking Croods sequel that was shown almost at the same time today. The positive recommendation for „The BFG“ was never in doubt for me here. By the way, they also used the English pronunciation for the letters in the German dub and that was alright. No GFR. By the way, the idea that the giant loved writing surprised me a bit too. They could have included this earlier. Oh and they also changed the texts from the giant there to German language in my version. In a way, I am a BFG too then I assume. The end of my review is near and I shall finish with a few words about the end of the movie. The elaboration on how the girl finds a loving mother, maybe family even did not come unexpected, just like the explanation that the giant will keep watching out for the girl, even if she will maybe never see him again. Nice elaboration on how the giant home is so distant that humans can never find it. But it is still on Earth, so more fantasy there. Some of the more dramatic and shocking inclusions were linked to what the girl does to make sure the giant returns and takes her with him again and what happened to a boy who was in a similar position like the girl. Except this inclusion, it is a feel-good movie of course and the ending confirms it. Pretty likable too that the giant does not like coffee (from a watering can). I agree with him! Just like I agree with everybody who says this film is worth watching. It definitely is. I give it a thumbs-up while still saying that it was not an outstanding film. But a good enough one it definitely was, one with a lot of heart for sure. Movie magic.