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June 28, 2016 By Matt Roseboom Leave a Comment

Movie Review: ‘The BFG’ is cute tale with great special effects

In Disney's fantasy-adventure "The BFG", directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Roald Dahl's classic, a precocious 10-year old named Sophie befriends the BFG, a Big Friendly Giant from Giant Country.
In Disney’s fantasy-adventure “The BFG”, directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Roald Dahl’s classic, a precocious 10-year old named Sophie befriends the BFG, a Big Friendly Giant from Giant Country.

By Matt Roseboom

Director Steven Spielberg and Disney have combined forces to bring you a big screen story of “The BFG” (Big Friendly Giant). Although it’s a cute story and very visually appealing, it stalls half-way through before picking up steam again.

The BFG movie posterThe story is based on, and closely follows, the Roald Dahl novel of the same name. (Dahl also wrote “James and the Giant Peach”, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, “Matilda”, “Fantastic Mr Fox” and more.) It’s about a 10-year-old orphan girl in London named Sophie (Ruby Barnhill), who happens to spot a 24-foot-tall giant one night outside the orphanage. Because he knows he’s been spotted, he takes her home with him to Giant Country. She quickly becomes friends with him and nicknames him the Big Friendly Giant, or BFG for short. Although he’s friendly, the other giants are not. They love to eat human beans, as they call them. She doesn’t want to go back to the orphanage, but it becomes clear that it’s too dangerous for her to stay. So she hatches a plan that involves the Queen of England.

The BFG is voiced and motion captured by Mark Rylance. He does a great job, as do the actors voicing the other giants. Newcomer Ruby also played Sophie well, but the real star of the movie are the special effects. The giants all look very realistic and totally believable, even during the close-ups on their faces. It’s so much fun seeing Sophie interact in the giant’s world with her blanket and clothes looking like doll clothes to the giants and BFG using a huge ship as his bed. It was also fun to see BFG looking small next to the other giants, who were twice as tall.

Seeing the giant for the first time and watching Sophie explore his home was fun and funny, as was their interactions with the Queen and her staff, but the parts in-between were too slow for me. Much of the middle of the movie slowed way down. They could have probably trimmed about 30 minutes from the movie without hurting anything. It bored me until the last third of the movie began. That said, overall it’s a cute tale that looks great. If you don’t see it in the theaters, I recommend seeing it in HD when it hits the home market.

“The BFG” runs about two hours long and is rated PG. I saw it in 3D, but it didn’t add much to it. There are no middle or end credit scenes to stay for.

In The Parks
There’s nothing in the Disney theme parks for “The BFG” that we’ve seen, not even merchandise. But you can take a selfie with a wax figure of Steven Spielberg at Madame Tussaud’s Orlando.

Filed Under: Disney, Movies Tagged With: Disney, Mark Rylance, movie review, Ruby Barnhill, Steven Spielberg, The BFG

January 30, 2014 By Banks Lee Leave a Comment

Theme Park Connection auctioning off iconic props from the Jurassic Park films

JURASSIC PARK Velociraptor Cage Crate

Theme Park Connection, known for selling lots of rare items from Disney’s theme parks, is offering what could be one of the most iconic pieces in Universal’s film history. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Shopping, Universal Studios Florida Tagged With: dinosaurs, featured, films, iconic, Jurassic Park, Movies, pieces, props, rv, Steven Spielberg, the lost world, Theme Park Connection, Universal, Velociraptor cage

June 27, 2013 By Banks Lee Leave a Comment

Attractions – The Show – June 27, 2013 – Universal Orlando, Transformers, Simpsons and more

Attractions Magazine the show logo

Hosts Banks Lee and JeniLynn Knopp bring you this week’s theme park and attraction news. On this week’s episode: [Read more…]

Filed Under: The Attractions Show Tagged With: attractions, battle, bumblebee, cabana bay beach resort, construction, Despicable Me, diagon alley, expansion, explosions, flaming moe, Florida, frank welker, fun, general glenn morshower, grand opening, interview, Islands of Adventure, krusty burger, megatron, Minion Mayhem, moe's tavern, nest headquarters, news, olivanders, optimus prime, Orlando, peter cullen, preview, queue, red carpet, show, simpsons, springfield, Steven Spielberg, Studios, theme park, Transformers, Travel, Universal Orlando, Video, wands, Wizarding World of Harry Potter

April 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Universal offers first peek at their upcoming nighttime lagoon show

Universal Orlando Resort just released a video featuring an interview with filmmaker Steven Spielberg and Universal Orlando Senior Vice President of Entertainment Jim Timon. A bit of their upcoming lagoon show (Universal’s Cinematic Spectacular: 100 Years of Movie Memories) can be seen behind Timon and at the end of the video.

The brand-new nighttime lagoon show will highlight some of the most fun, dramatic and awe-inspiring moments in Universal Pictures’ most iconic films. The show, along with a new daytime parade, debut on May 8, 2012 at Universal Studios.

Filed Under: Movies, Universal Orlando, Universal Studios Florida Tagged With: Jim Timon, Steven Spielberg, Universal Orlando Resort, Universal’s Cinematic Spectacular

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