Synopsis:

James is a little boy orphaned by the death of his parents. Sent to live with his two loathsome aunts, he lives out a life of drudgery and abuse. Until one day a mysterious man arrives at the hilltop home of James and his awful aunts. Armed with a bag full of magical crocodile tongues and the ability to broaden James's horizons, he gives these tongues to James, as they will provide the key to his eventual happiness! James drops the bag and loses all of the magical tongues. The tongues find their way too the tree in the backyard of the house and a giant peach sprouts on the formerly dead tree and that's where James's adventures begin! Based on a childhood story, James and the Giant Peach is a wonderful story told in the most remarkable way!

Audio:

The audio platform is a richly produced/presented 5.1 soundtrack that perfectly fits the feature. The audio textures are lush and very nicely presented. The surrounds and sub are very nicely used in the conveyance of the aural textures of the film. The movie is essentially one big special effect and the audio used truly compliments the effects on screen.

Video:

The video for the film while beautiful for the most part is not as brilliantly presented as the audio for the film. The only problems that I saw dealt with the black levels of the film. There were plenty of instances where black was the predominant color/base and it showed a fair degree of pixelation. Additionally, I found the images softer than I would have expected. On the whole the images are pleasing but nowhere near the quality I would expect from the house of Disney.

Extras:

The extras consist of a less than 5 minute look at the behind the scenes work on the film, a still gallery of concept art and puppet designs and an awful music video performed by Randy Newman entitled "Good News".

Overall:

The Nightmare Before Christmas is the undeniable benchmark to which all stop motion animation will be compared, and rightly so. The storyline, music and characters all made for an incredible story. James and the Giant Peach however falls short of that high mark. There are some rather thrilling sequences namely, the instance with the shark but on the whole, it lacks the life if you will of Nightmare! The musical sequences are nowhere near as engaging either. Randy Newman does good work, just look at toy story but here, the songs just don't seem to work or fit. I have the VHS and the DVD and can honestly say; I'll probably not watch either one again. It's a cute story but it just doesn't have the staying power I would have expected-Rent it