The BFG

Sophie lives in an orphanage and cannot sleep at night. Looking out of the window she sees a giant figure in the street. The giant sees her too, and takes her out of her bed. In the country of the giants she learns that this one is good: he does not eat people, he lives on a vegetable, and at night he blows dreams to children. The other giants are not like that and go out to eat people every night. Brian Cosgrove directs. It was made at Cosgrove Hall, one of the best known animation studios in Britain. The source is Roald Dahl's book of 1982. It is among his best selling children's novels and is known for playing with language itself; the Big Friendly Giant's speech is deliberately wrong, a language of muddled words. David Jason voices the giant and carries the whole weight of that language; the performance is the most remembered thing about it. The hand drawn animation and the palette try to stay close to Quentin Blake's illustrations for the book. The idea is that the fear moves. Sophie is frightened of the giant at first and then sees that the danger is elsewhere; the section with the queen completes the shift. It runs about ninety minutes and, although made for television, was worked at feature scale. Who it is for: viewers who like Roald Dahl adaptations and classic British animation. Who it is not for: the animation is simple by present measure, the pace is low, and the scenes with the other giants are frightening for small children.