Review: Disney’s ‘The BFG’ stands tall in animation but falls short on storytelling
Posted in: AnimationIt reminds me of the simple analogy that I learned in school – If a thread is stretched too much from either sides, it may end up breaking. Anything prolongated may fail to grip your attention. Moreover, in the current lifestyle where sometimes even a five minute short film on YouTube seems long despite of its decent content; grabbing eyeballs and keeping the audience hooked to a dragged content on the big screen is highly doubtful.
Fictional tales gives a boost to your imagination, such that you expand your horizon, think like the character and enter the world created by the story. Disney’s feature film ‘The BFG’ which released today in India too creates a fantasy world with both good and evil, or rather good and evil giants interacting with a tiny orphan girl.
An orphanage with its disciplined aura grips you at the start of the movie as the protagonist Sophie played by Ruby Barnhill is seen strolling with an instilled fear. Expectations keep dangling in her mind as she fears the encounter with a dreadful creature.
Hiding under the blanket out of fear Sophie just cannot sleep. Soon the much awaited Big Friendly Giant played by Mark Rylance is revealed in a subtle way. The visually thrilling journey begins as the girl is transported in a fast chase from England to the so called ‘Giant world’.
The basic concept of where there is good there has to be some sort of evil is prevalent in the storyline. As the name suggests, the BFG is congenial to the girl but not every giant is, hostility prevails everywhere.
The most intriguing factor of fiction lies when the character build up takes place and the backstory is unravelled as if various ends of a bunch of strings are unfolded one by one. However, in this movie the backstory does not grip you because may be there is no actual effective backstory. Therefore, the plot moves in a progressive way ahead in one direction with minute touch points on the road behind.
‘If you can understand and figure it out completely then it is not a dream’. Dreams emerge out as a captivating characteristic in this movie for anyone is bound to be fascinated if you suddenly encounter someone who can fabricate or rather create dreams from scratch. So, dreams work as a major catalyst to create miniscule tremors in the plot.
Creating giants can work best in the animation world but when you see such a movie where the live action giant looks impeccable, definitely your thought process needs an upgrade. The CGI giants look quite impressive and flawless. They are huge and don’t seem out of place in the whole plot of the movie.
The sequences where the BFG hides himself from any sudden human encounter, the transcend into the dreamland, the return to the giant world, the Frobscottle fizzing in the opposite direction and the breakfast with the Queen of England played by Penelope Wilton are commendable. Just a few glitches like the last sequence when the giants come out of the sea look a bit artificial, however that is negligible.
Not only CGI, but visual effects provided by Weta Digital help to enhance the entire feel of a fictional tale throughout the movie. By combining live-action, performance capture, and real-life sets with Simulcam, all the ten giants resemble the voice actors quite well.
It’s a fictional tale and throughout the movie the fact that it is fiction is quite vividly felt. The background score also creates a typical storytelling feel. But somehow, you don’t feel one with the story, somehow you don’t travel with Sophie; somehow you end up as a viewer watching a hypothetical tale told to you.
Based on the 1982 novel by Roald Dahl, The BFG is directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison. Coming back to what I started with, this movie is elongated and the storyline is stretched therefore it fails to grip the audience. Much anticipated developments in the plot that you eagerly await are either too quick or may be loose ended for example the climax of the giants scene. It just get’s over so quickly. On the contrary, it is prolonged in terms of those sequences which could have been probably avoided.
Let’s not forget the fact that it is based on a book and showcasing all the information of the novel on a big screen in a limited period of time is quite challenging. And above all, may be the mastermind Spielberg wanted the movie to turn out this way where the fictional tale is conveyed on a linear graph without a spur of emotions and unexpected occurrences.
Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and co-produced by Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, the movie was released today by Reliance Entertainment. Just a parting note – the movie is voiced by veterans like Amitabh Bachchan, Parineeti Chopra and Gulshan Grover in Hindi but undoubtedly such a creation in Hindi is not at all enthralling.
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