“James is the loneliest and saddest boy in the world! Since his parents were eaten by a rhinoceros, he has had to live with the terrible aunts Sponge and Prong – what hell!’ Such terrible things don’t actually happen in children’s books – one would think. But Roald Dahl’s stories are among the most popular of all in the genre and are not only devoured by the little ones. The (reading) adults love them too. Because their (nightmare) dreams are taken seriously.
“But one day the unbelievable happens: James finds a magical giant peach in the garden in which the strangest creatures live.” Perhaps it is above all the fascinating ability of the Briton, who died on November 23, 1990 and was often criticized for some political statements, from to create a bizarre, fantastic panorama from a starting point that is not always encouraging, in which a gigantic peach, a mysterious giant or a chocolate manufacturer who has perhaps gone mad point the way to another world. One that cannot be had without sorrow, but nevertheless reconciled with fantasy.
It is very likely that Dahl’s unique flair for macabre humor and absurd ideas makes his stories interesting for cinema. Possibly the writer, who also works as a screenwriter (who, for example, wrote the script for the Bond film “You Only Live Twice”), also had a keen eye for the big screen pictures. Directors as diverse as George Seaton, Nicolas Roeg, Tim Burton or Wes Anderson took on his witty stories and created small and large miracles from them.
ROLLING STONE has listed his best (children’s) book adaptations.
5. Matilda (1996)
Danny DeVito knows his way around with insane material, staged a poisonous marriage farce with “The War of the Roses”. So it came as a surprise when he presented an adaptation of Dahl’s “Matilda”. Despite ignorant parents and a sadistic headmistress, little Matilda Wurmwald develops into a real flash of inspiration and discovers her telekinetic abilities together with the soulful teacher Miss Honey. Sure, Mara Wilson provides a lot of icing on the cake with the title role, but Dahl’s sometimes bitter humor is woven in very pointedly – especially because DeVito himself plays the narrow-minded father and behind the camera with a lot of skill does not neglect the surrealistic nuances.
4. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1971/2005)
There are many Dahl readers who swear by the first film adaptation of 1971’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. Maybe it’s because the author himself provided the screenplay here. However, Dahl rigorously rejected the end result and would not be satisfied with any adaptation of his works during his lifetime. Mel Stuart’s tame-cute version has a lot of charm and you can see how much effort was put into the handcrafted wonderland. Unfortunately, you can completely forget the German version; a number of songs were taken from her for dramaturgical and flimsy reasons.
Tim Burton’s version, on the other hand, is an underestimated stroke of genius, in which not only the digital tricks and the songs, which have been modernized with a pinch of irony, support the plot almost perfectly, but above all Johnny Depp, who has since been eliminated, really steps on the gas as an actor. Probably based on Michael Jackson, Depp mimics the dark autistic whose melancholy is revealed bit by bit. More than once, the motley screen fantasy takes up consumer culture as a tangible satire. Of course, Burton’s “Chocolate Factory” works above all as a droll prank in which (a few really cheeky) children can get their hands on it without the censor screaming.
3. James and the Giant Peach (1996)
Henry Selick not only gave the film world the stop-motion masterpieces “Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993) and “Coraline” (2003). With “James and the Giant Peach” he also ventured into Dahl’s absurd children’s book debut from 1961, which is still little appreciated in Germany. It contains all the ingredients of his writing skills: a sad boy who is raised by his nasty aunts after the violent death of his parents, a magical setting that invites you to escape and many grotesque but loving characters.
The puppet trick technology that illustrates the fantastic part of the Odyssey across the Sea is – as Wes Anderson later recognized – almost a congenial strategy to reproduce Dahl’s humor, but also his surrealistic joy in storytelling. However, due to the low budget, the animations seem a little less fluid than, for example, in “Nightmare Before Christmas”.
A lot of space is given to the dark part of the Briton’s stories, which sometimes only reveals itself when you look at it again or read it again, and the artistic design of the characters and the scenes is always captivating.
2. Fantastic Mr Fox (2009)
The story of a fox, who is no longer satisfied with his boring life as a caring father and newspaper editor and who is endangering his animal community and family with his search for new adventures, Wes Anderson, like Henry Selick “James and the Giant Peach”, used stop-motion footage. technology into the right picture. Together with screenwriter Noah Baumbach, the crazy director turned it into a turbulent genre cocktail of coming-of-age story, gangster and war film with a neurotic face.
The unusual animations were supported by an elaborate dubbing service: the actors from George Clooney to Merryl Streep and Bill Murray recorded their text at locations that resembled the game scenes. An effect that (in the original) has an enchanting effect. As beautiful as the whole undertaking seems, it should not be forgotten that Anderson made his own story out of the material, which simply overwrites the original’s essential satirical undertones.
1. Witches Witches (1990)
After decades of banning any of his stories from being made into a film, Roald Dahl finally allowed the eccentric When the Gondolas Bear Mourning director Nicolas Roeg to adapt Hexen Hexen. A big gamble, because the story of a nine-year-old boy who messes with a child-hating witch society and is eventually turned into a mouse was technically challenging at the time (mastered by Jim Henson shortly before his death) and is at the same time a dark one dealing with death.
With the girl who disappears from one day to the next and then reappears in a painting, where she is visibly growing older and finally dies, one of the scariest scenes in recent film history has been implemented; the grimaces of the witches getting rid of all their masks (see video) must also have represented a real experience of horror for many children. Roald Dahl didn’t really want to look either, complained about the vulgar staging and would have preferred to have his name removed from the project. Also because the end was freed from that bitter punch line that was very important to Dahl for telling his story. But a heartwarming letter from Jim Henson helped him swallow his anger. However, he died of leukemia a few months later.
“Hexen Hexen” is perhaps the bravest Dahl film adaptation, because here the always visible melancholy of his prose is combined with a thoroughly biting and yet just about forgiving humor. A signature role for Anjelica Houston was the portrayal of the aristocratic chief witch, squirming hilariously at the stench of little brats. A real horror film for children.
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