Josh | September 15, 2016 | News
WELCOME BACK! Last week’s Animals In The Movies was Ratatouille at number 5, no shame in being at the bottom as it is still a fantastic film. This week we look at number 4. This is one of my personal favourites and if I had my way it would be at number 1. Number 4 is…
James and the Giant Peach
Now this film has it all, a lonely orphan boy raised by two wicked aunts and finds a magical peach in his back garden that grows to the size of a blimp where he befriends a group of bugs, or if you want me to be technical invertebrates. Little James is full of hopes and dreams, escapes from his nightmare and embarks on an epic adventure to New York City with his new found friends. This beloved and well known fairy-tale was created by the late Roald Dahl, and to this day is my favourite novelist. The imagination this man had went above and beyond, creating others classics such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Twits, Matilda and most recently brought to the big screen The Big Friendly Giant the BFG. Tim burton was the well known director who bought this colourful story to life and I’m so glad he did. I mean how many movies do you get where they portray the bugs as the good guys?! Not many I can tell you. Below we are going to meet James’ brand new family and get to know them a little better.
The bugs brought to life
Grasshopper – Grasshoppers are not everyone’s favourite insect, purely because they jump, not many people like an insect that can jump 20 times the length of its body especially if they think it will jump at their face. Well newsflash they are not aiming for you face, its just bad luck they sometimes end up there when they are trying to get away from the human that is massice in comparison to themselves. For the record even if it did land on you, its completely harmless and if it did manage to bite I doubt you would feel anything.
Amazing Facts
Centipede – These animals have a horrific reputation mainly due to the fact they are venomous. But I will always keep repeating this. IT WILL ONLY BITE IF THREATENED. If you see one do not attempt to pick it up, that’s the smartest thing to do. Even though they are portrayed as highly aggressive I personally love the fact that Roald Dahl thinks highly enough of them to make him a good guy and if you’ve seen the film, a hopeless romantic as well as he boldly voices his feelings and emotions to Miss Spider.
Amazing Facts
Ladybug – This small insect is a favourite to many different people. I go to so many schools and ask ‘what’s your favourite type of bug?’ and quite often it unanimously is ‘LADYBUGS’ because let’s face they are one of the more attractive species with their vibrant, beautiful and bold colours. So let’s learn a little about the little bug that would like to fly away home…
Amazing facts
Spider – Miss Spider and also James’ mother figure in the movie is the best of all. Miss spider is seen at the very beginning of the movie as a lonesome little creature in the corner of his window. Since James is lonely and caring he befriends the arachnid, saving her from his two evil aunts and forms an unbreakable bond. A spider being one of the world’s most feared animals (for reasons I still can’t understand) is beautifully portrayed in this film as caring, loyal, graceful and fearless. Everything I would always expect a spider the size of a person to be. Of course it would never happen but I can dream right? Let’s learn some amazing facts about our eight legged friends.
Amazing facts
Earthworm
Where do I start with earthworms? Let’s see disgusting, slimy, gross horrible animals. Let’s see what happens when we chop them in half. Yes, believe it or not I hear these statements all the time. Well let me put it to you this way for all you green fingered people out there, half your plants would not be there if it was not for earthworms. Yes some species of earthworm are an invasive species but a large part of the population is extremely helpful to the planet. In James and the Giant Peach, the earthworm is the kind hearted, slightly fearful one of the family but still steps up when it means helping James.
There you have the members of James family. The fearless protectors of James and his Giant Peach. For those of you who did not see the movie, did he make it to New York and live happily ever after? You’ll have to watch and find
Thank you so much for reading today. What did you think about this being at number 4? Until next week everyone when I show you what we have at number 3.