The BFG (1989 film)


The BFG is a 1989 British animated film produced by Cosgrove Hall Films for Thames Television. Based on the 1982 novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. It was directed by Brian Cosgrove and written by John Hambley. The film was first shown on 25 December 1989 on ITV in the UK.
The film was dedicated to animator George Jackson, who had worked on numerous Cosgrove Hall productions prior to his death in 1986. This film is also the last and posthumous role of Ballard Berkeley, who died in 1988.

Plot

Sophie is a young orphaned girl living in the orphanage of the cantankerous and abusive Mrs. Clonkers. One night, Sophie wakes up and goes to look through the window but sees a cloaked giant blowing something through a trumpet into a bedroom window down the street; whereupon the giant notices her and snatches her to the realm of Giant Country.
In his cave, the giant identifies himself as the Big Friendly Giant who blows dreams into the bedrooms of children at night, while all the other 9 giants are vicious, child-eating beasts. Because the BFG refuses to eat people or steal food from humans, he subsists on a revolting vegetable known as a "Snozzcumber", which is all that grows in Giant Country. He explains that he took her so she couldn't tell anyone that she had seen him and start a giant hunt. Sophie and BFG quickly become friends; but Sophie is soon put in danger by the sudden arrival of the Bloodbottler Giant, who suspects BFG of harbouring a human after hearing him talking. BFG tricks the Bloodbottler into eating the Snozzcumber to repel him from his cave, during which Sophie is almost eaten. BFG makes her a new dress out of her blanket to replace her ruined nightgown. When Sophie announces she is thirsty, BFG treats her to a delicious fizzy drink called "Frobscottle", whose bubbles go downwards, which causes the drinker to flatulate; this is known as a "whizzpopper" to giants, and causes the drinker to soar and shoot around the place.
The next morning, BFG takes Sophie to Dream Country to catch more dreams, but they are first tormented by the other giants along the way; notably by the Fleshlumpeater Giant, who is the largest and most fearsome and hideous. In Dream Country, BFG demonstrates his dream-catching skills to Sophie and teaches her to fly; but BFG mistakenly captures the worst kind of nightmare. Upon arriving at his Dream Cave, BFG shows Sophie all the dreams he has captured already and locks away the nightmare in his cavern of lava in a tiny chest, and takes Sophie to watch him on his dream-blowing duties; but this is cut short when they spot the Fleshlumpeater about to eat a little boy whom BFG had previously given a pleasant dream. When Sophie tries to intervene, BFG flees with her and escapes to save her from the Fleshlumpeater. Afterwards, the grief-stricken Sophie tries to persuade BFG to stop the evil giants.
At first, BFG is reluctant to do so out of cowardliness and low trust in humans; but Sophie develops a plan to expose the evil giants to the Queen of the United Kingdom. Using dreams from his collection, BFG creates a nightmare, blows it into the Queen's bedroom, leaves Sophie on the Queen's windowsill to confirm the dream and retreats into the palace gardens when Sophie calls him. Because the dream included foreknowledge of Sophie's presence, the Queen believes her story, and speaks with BFG. After considerable effort by the palace staff, BFG is given a copious breakfast.
Once ready, the army and the airforce, in a fleet of RAF Chinook helicopters, follow BFG to Giant Country to the 9 giants' homeland, where the giants are tied up and taken prisoner. The only one that is not there is the Fleshlumpeater, who immediately attacks BFG for his betrayal and later pursues Sophie when she intervenes; but after a long chase he is stopped when BFG subdues him with the nightmare he had captured earlier, which he later reveals was a nightmare about Jack and the Beanstalk, both of which all giants, including BFG himself, fear.
The tethered giants are then all transported by the helicopters to London, where they are imprisoned in a deep metal pit and forced to eat Snozzcumbers for the rest of their lives. The orphanage is closed down and sold to become a teacherage so the children move into the palace and Mrs. Clonkers is given the job of feeding giants. Contrary to the book's ending, BFG stays in Giant Country instead of moving to England, and Sophie becomes his assistant at the distribution of dreams and people think they will visit Buckingham Palace sometimes.

Cast

The BFG was one of Cosgrove Hall Films' only feature-length films, which was directed by Brian Cosgrove, along with The Wind in the Willows. Cosgrove also produced the film along with Mark Hall, while John Hambley, who also executive produced the film, scripted the film after Brian Trueman's initial draft was rejected.
Development of the film can be traced as far back as 1984, when only 5 people, including Cosgrove, were working on the film before being joined by other crew members.
According to Brian Cosgrove, the director and producer of the film, Roald Dahl was very supportive to the studio in production.
During production of the film, which took over 3 years, 750,000 cels were used against watercolour backgrounds designed by a team led by DC Thomson cartoonist John Geering.
The film also used the rotoscoping technique for some of the characters, particularly for Queen Elizabeth II and her servants. Initially, the technique was used while animating Sophie, but it was soon discovered that Jean Flynn and Meryl Edge could animate Sophie's movements without a reference.

Possible deleted scene

Following its release, various children's books based on the film were published, one being a short narrative that featured printed still-shots of scenes from the film. However, two pages consisted of some from a scene which was not featured in the final cut.
Taking place before the BFG and Sophie arrive at his Dream Cave, the two are on their way back from Dream Country when they again approach the other giant's domain. Sophie is somehow separated and placed in peril when she accidentally sits upon a giant Dragonfly that flies off and drops her amongst the sleeping giants, who begin to stir from her scent. The BFG rescues her before they awake and begin scouring the land, convinced there is a human present.
The shot of the giants departing is later reused in the film as part of the Queen's nightmare of them and their heinous acts. A still from this scene can also be seen during the end credits of the film, and the scene's soundtrack is featured on the official soundtrack release. As of yet though, no media release has ever featured this supposed deleted scene.

Reception

The film currently has a 65% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 3.3 out of 5.
Writing in The Sunday Times before its broadcast, Patrick Stoddart called it a "delight", and wrote that it "puts its already celebrated British animators, Cosgrove Hall, into the Disney class". It has since gone on to be a cult classic.
In 2016, Louisa Mellor, of the Den of Geek website, warmly appraised the film in comparison to Steven Spielberg's then just-released adaptation, saying, "Cosgrove Hall's twenty-seven year old animated feature may be less of a technical feat than the latter and was certainly made for a fraction of the budget, but that doesn't make it any less a whoppsy-whiffling, razztwizzling tribute to a terrific story."

Roald Dahl's reaction

This film was one of the few adaptations of Dahl's works to get praise from the author himself. Cosgrove said that after Dahl sat through a screening of the film, he stood up and applauded in delight.

Media releases

The film was first released on VHS by Video Collection International in the United Kingdom on 17 September 1990, in collaboration with Thorn EMI's Thames Video Collection. It was released again by the same company on 25 September 1995 and 13 October 1997.
Roadshow Home Video and ABC Video released the film on VHS in Australia on 12 February 1992, while its first video release in the United States was by Celebrity Home Entertainment on 2 April 1996.
Pearson Television International Ltd re-released the film on VHS on 1 June 2001, and on DVD for the first time on 8 April 2002. The DVD features 3 interactive games, an interview with Brian Cosgrove, a photo gallery and storyboards. Another release followed on 1 January 2008 by Pearson's successor, Fremantle Home Entertainment.
The film's first DVD release in the United States was distributed by Celebrity Home Entertainment on 28 September 1999. It was re-released by A&E Home Video on 27 June 2006.
On 10 September 2012, Fremantle Home Entertainment released a digitally restored DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
On 11 July 2016, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment UK re-released the film on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

Soundtrack

's and Malcolm Rowe's original score to The BFG was completed by Pluto Music Limited and released on 11 July 2016 by Pluto Music Limited and FremantleMedia. The album contains the entire score as heard in the film in chronological order. Keith Hopwood gave an interview in June 2016 in which he told the story on how the score was composed and stylized:
"Early in 1986 Malcolm Rowe and I were asked by Cosgrove Hall to compose the score for Roald Dahl’s The BFG, which they were about to produce as an animated feature. We had a good relationship with Mark Hall and Brian Cosgrove, having just completed the feature and several series of The Wind in the Willows. This was an exciting, 2 year project, scoring the world of Giant Country, home of frobscottle, snozzcumbers and whizzpoppers, with of course the Big Friendly Giant and his new friend Sophie. The score production was an intentional mix of very synthesized pieces, and large orchestral sections for the action sequences."
Track listing

Awards and nominations