Review of The BFG (2016) by Kyle M — 25 Jul 2016

It seems that Disney goes for the ambitious height when it comes to storytelling at the fullest. What makes this method considered ambitious is that it also requires the budget to be at that height, and that those stories are original property; freshness coming from Disney presenting and introducing a newly accomplished project rather than being utterly familiar with it. The latest under that visual scale is "The BFG", another of Disney's adventurous visually-scaled project with the magic being used by the particular brand's first collaboration with Steven Spielberg, into another adaptation of Roald Dahl's ("Fantastic Mr. Fox", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory") works.

"The BFG" stands for Big Friendly Giant, which is a gigantic character who got caught by a little orphan Sophie during his evening routine run through the city. He takes the orphan with him to Giant Country since she's seen him. As their tale of friendship begins there, Sophie helps her giant friend to face his other kind that are man-eating giants, and stop their invading nightly runs into the human world.

As expected from Disney at their usual presentation, it's enjoyably entertaining and fun with heartening warmth to the gentle approach that was handled by the experienced Spielberg. He helmed the project that blends a few of his different experienced fields: mainly an imaginative tale, under the categorization of a family film, between a child and a fantasy figure that grows into involving the non-believing characters towards the plot's goal; and his sense of production design as a visual replica. The infamous Disney magic gets blend into the Spielbergian elemental trademark at a crafty, imaginative level of storytelling.

Probably the most surprising trait of the film is the casting of the titular giant being handed to the Academy Award winning Best Supporting Actor Mark Rylance from Spielberg's previous masterpiece "Bridge of Spies." His performance resulted to be perfect and recognizable when you're aware of his acting after witnessing his performance in the aforementioned film (if you've seen it); especially when nailing the character's way of words.

As this is one of Spielberg's trademark in terms of casting, the casting of a child actor to interact with the perspective soul of understanding is common, with a bonus of the acting opportunity being the child's feature debut. Ruby Barnhill, the child opposite of Rylance, done a nice performance as well, especially when it comes to narrating indirectly throughout and directly at the bookends.

Alongside with the casting collaboration, another collaboration to Spielberg's mastery is score composer John Williams at another run of expressing the director's vision soulfully.

I approached "The BFG" the same way I'd approached "The Martian" almost a year ago without reading the material in time. Adapting literature onto the silver screen is the film's own individual test if it'd remained in touch with its source material's story without being potentially loose from the intentional texts. But that's towards the readers' approach to an adaptation of a literature they'd read. To filmgoers, it's perhaps based on where it stands as a form of entertainment while delivering what the book delivered. I treated "The Martian" as a charismatic, intelligent sci-fi flick upon seeing it.

Thankfully there was a sampler of the book's first quarter that'd explained enough for me to understand the characters and the probable complicating action. I went on to see the compelling fantasy as another Disney's fare, and let the film unveils the story itself without knowing the direction the book went for. Now in rare cases if a moviegoer went to see an adaptation without meeting the source material OR knowing the basic, it's an alienated experience. However, it's not the case if it's similarly-flavored. Although, experiencing "The BFG" would probably be an alienated experience if it wasn't for the collaboration of Disney and Spielberg.

Attractive by the compelling collaboration of Disney and Spielberg, deemed as the top two in the film industry some time ago, as another Disney's fare that's a visual spectacle, I came to the film with enough knowledge of its own small mythology and let the rest of the picture take me into surprising creative turns in the wondrous adventure without expecting the rest of the story's structure. Speaking of surprising, "The BFG" falls under Disney's magical touch seen in their method of minimizing the darker elements when adapting tales that are enjoyably family-friendly.

Another faithful adaptation to Roald Dahl's uniquely written world as the usual Disney's fare that delivers with an ambitious level of storytelling towards the visual height, handled by Spielberg's craftsmanship creates a fun family ride. (B+).