Absolutely Fantastic

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Blistering performances.

A Tim Burton-produced Roald Dahl adaptation that does its best to capitalize on the success of The Nightmare Before Christmas via eccentric stop-motion animation. The love that seeped from every pore of Nightmare isn't here, however, and no amount of curious character design can account for that. It doesn't help that the Dahl story itself has been altered to suit a more typical film structure, stripping away much of the free-wheeling zaniness that made the book so unpredictable and entertaining. That can't have been for a lack of time, as the film is already dreadfully short: barely more than an hour, with some serious padding at both ends. The awkward blend of animation and live-action doesn't work especially well, either. Despite one great casting decision (AbFab's Joanna Lumley as the bone-thin, witchy Aunt Spiker), the flesh-and-blood scenes feel under-produced and B-grade, a sharp contrast to the more lush, professional efforts on the other side of the coin. At a glance, the quirky stylings that typify Burton's work seem a great match for Dahl's oddball stories. As a promo slick or movie poster, it's thumbs up all the way, but too much is missing to consider the whole effort as much more than a well-intentioned miss.

An orphan with terrible aunts for guardians, befriends human like bugs who live inside a giant peach, who take the boy on a journey to New York City.Although I am not the biggest fan of "Nightmare Before Christmas", I love the aesthetic that Tim Burton and Henry Selick have. We get another taste of that here. Selick directs, Burton produced... it may be a bit less Burtonesque because it is based on a Roald Dahl book, but I feel like some of their sensibility still got in there, especially with the aunts.Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a positive review, praising the animated part, but calling the live-action segments "crude." I would have to agree with that. I liked the live-action bits, but they seemed out of place and it might have been best to go full-animation.

I registered this account just want to say something about this film.I know it's stupid to concentrate on logic in a fantasy movie, especially when it's a kid's movie, but it just seem to be odd for me. Does the RHINO actually mean anything? Rhinos definitely do not eat meat in reality, then how could a rhino be able to eat this child's parents? If the rhino is just a symbol of devil or nightmare, then the animal must be supposed to be dangerous and aggressive. Imagine elephants as villains in the movie (no, not Dumbo!)... Maybe a dragon or a snake will make more sense. I'm going to consider it's just a bad excuse to "dump your Disney parent", XD. The peach is kind of confusing too. I mean, in a fantasy movie, it's not quite impossible to make a peach big enough and strong enough to travel around world, like UP. However, in the part when they try to eat the peach, I just find it very gross. That color looks like only the rotten fruit has. Does that mean the peach is a metaphor of APPLE OF SODOM?The man who sell green magic powder seems not very positive... Something that can realize all your dream... Just my opinion.All the things in arctic are just misleading. If all of that take place in Amazon, it can be so much funnier and reasonable! The way that two bad aunts end is scary... Maybe young kids won't realize how much pain there is to suffocate. Since the boy just like Cinderella, why can't the story ends like forgiving? The original versions of this fairytale are cruel too, but in a kid's movie it should ends more warm and spiring.The songs didn't have much to show. Therefore maybe a few songs would be better?In a word, this film has it's own adventures and... It has great idea, amazing creation and good animation. Ignoring these logical problems, this film is very funny. It may not be an amazing kid's movie, but it's a regular movie. The details just need to get better!

What a creative and imaginative film, though it's really weird, so prepare yourself if you watch this. I was surprised by how much I actually liked this movie. I mean, I expected it to be good, maybe around a 6/10, but after watching it I'd probably give it a 8/10. The stop motion animation looks really awesome, especially for the time. What I think really makes it stand out though is just how wacky and creative it gets. It serves as an outlet for anything absurd and over the top, while being grounded by a simple story and simple, relatable characters. It does have issues though. There's this song at the beginning of the movie sung by the main kid actor, and I'm not going to lie, it sucked really bad. The kid just couldn't sing and I certainly could have gone without it. Also I don't like the ending. The way it ended left me believing that magic actually did exist in the movie's universe and I thought it would have been a better film if the kid had made it up all in his head to cope with the loss of his parents. Maybe that's a little dark, but it would have been really interesting for a kid's movie to have that underlying tone. Still, it's a pretty great film and it's perfect for the family (except my family, as they all hated it, yet they'll watch The Nut Job and laugh all the way through. Why?).