‘James’ a Peach of an Adventure for Some, the Pits for Others

The creatures in this live-action and stop-motion-animated version of Roald Dahl’s novel look and sound like the Anti-Barney. They possess sharp teeth, hard shells, multiple eyes and long, spindly legs. They sing Randy Newman rags.

Nevertheless, this is basic, anthropomorphic Disney, and even younger children couldn’t resist the worldly French spider (with the voice of Susan Sarandon), the street-smart centipede (Richard Dreyfuss), the grasshopper dandy (Simon Callow), the nanny ladybug (Jane Leeves) and the ditsy glowworm (Miriam Margolyes) who befriended the lonely, 7-year-old James Henry Trotter (Paul Terry) and ran away with the film.

Aubry Mineghino, 5, said she’d play with them any time if they came to her house in Irvine.

Four-year-old Nicole Nguyen of Foothill Ranch bounced up and down in her seat to their rhythmic songs even if the lyrics were beyond her.

But the adventure of James and his friends took a few dark and scary detours, during which 3-year-old Jordan Tropila of Aliso Viejo cowered and covered her eyes.

Afterward, she could only nod, wide-eyed, indicating how frightened she had been.

In one scene, for instance, the crew of the giant peach becomes lost.

James and the spider follow the centipede overboard into the ocean to search a sunken ship for a compass, and they run into its ghostly crew. (“Oh, no,” says the grasshopper fearing for the centipede, “he’s committed pesticide.” It’s one of the few jokes here for preteens.)

In another scene, a roaring rhino, said to have been responsible for the deaths of James’ kindly parents, makes a threatening appearance amid thunderclouds.

Also, James’ ugly, self-absorbed aunts, who turn the boy into a slave and feed him fish heads, are all the more impressive for being portrayed by live actors, garishly made up.

Most school-age children, however, reveled in the danger and nastiness and boasted that the movie didn’t scare them at all. Not one, tiny bit. No way. Uh-uh.

In fact, Jake Tropila, 5, said he found great satisfaction in the finale when the mean aunts get what’s coming to them.

If there is a message in the film version, it is that James is able to solve his own problems by taking his parents’ advice: Try looking at it another way.

Not many children were familiar with the book. But Albert Nguyen, 6, said he actually preferred Dahl’s novel, which his teacher had read to his class.

For one thing, it took longer to tell the story, so there was more time to enjoy it, he said.

Plus, in his opinion, there are benefits to listening instead of watching.

“It’s better to imagine it,” he said.