Movie Review: The BFG

This week’s movie is based on a children’s book by Roald Dahl called the BFG. I will be honest, I didn't recognize his name until I googled him. He wrote many great and slightly dark stories that I loved. Supposedly, I would watch the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory so much as a young kid that I apparently wore through a VHS tape and two DVD's. Anyways, I hope you enjoy my review on The BFG.

The movie starts with a lady walking down some stairs towards the front door where a pile of mail is waiting. She goes to lock the door, but instead picks up magazines to read, then leaves to her room. On the stairs, under a blanket is Sophie (played by Ruby Barnhill) who goes down and locks the door and takes the rest of the mail with her upstairs. You then hear narration of Sophie talking about the “witching hour” while she puts mail into a holder, then shouts out the window at four drunk men do quiet down, as there are children sleeping. She then takes her blanket to her bed where she turns on her flashlight and begins to read her book. Shortly after she begins, she hears a sound from down the hallway and immediately turns off her flashlight and acts as if she were asleep. The orphanage owner lady opens the door and looks for anyone who would be awake, but doesn’t see anyone and leaves.

Sophie turns the flashlight back on to read, but hears something outside, and turns it off again to check on it. Sophie recites the three rules of the witching hour “Don’t get out of bed”, “Don’t go to the window” and “Don’t draw back the curtains”, doing each of them in order. After drawing back the curtains, she sees three cats had knocked over a garbage can. Just before she can head inside, she sees a giant hand reach out from around the corner and pick up the garbage can. Sophie gets scared when she sees the giants head come around, and she runs back inside and hides under blanket. The giants hand reaches in and grabs Sophie, and from here the adventure gets more fun and crazy.

The acting was really enjoyable in all aspects. The animated giants were actually done through live action animation, which brought me back to my first movie review ever, The Adventures of Tintin. I was an instant fan then, but this movie took it to a whole new level. To have the interaction between the live actors and the animated ones in the way they did was brilliant. Mark Rylance as the BFG was a perfect choice, then how the animators caught the lightest movements in his facial features were amazing. The added bright spot was young actress Ruby Barnhill. She was fresh and energetic, which made for some great on screen magic when she interacted with everything.

The story plot was filled with so many things to bring you in. Not only was it a story about two misfits finding each other, but there was standing up against bullying, believing in yourself, and so much more. It really is a story with something for everyone. There are a few parts that the very youngest of audience members might find scary, however, it really is a movie for everyone to enjoy. There was one part where the movie dragged on for a little, but it does not last long.

Overall, I recommend this movie to anyone, and you will not regret watching it. The one part that they lingered on a little too long is the only reason I would rate this move 9.3/10.