Roald Dahl's children's stories are usually good fun in film form and this mixture of stylised live-action and (mostly) stop-motion animation is no exception. James (Paul Terry) is an English orphan at the mercy of his slatternly aunts Sponge and Spiker, roles in which Miriam Margolyes and Joanna Lumley are both absolutely splendid. Then a huge peach grows in their wilderness garden and, while the aunts exhibit it to tourists, James escapes into its centre, swiftly encountering a group of bugs who have grown to human size, along with the magically expanding fruit. So begins a journey of wonder as James and his multi-legged crew reach the ocean, head for New York and do battle with a mechanical shark, skeleton pirates and a storm disguised as a rhino. A bit slow to start but fun all the way after that, and a miraculous encapsulation of the book's spirit.

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