History Literature / TheBFG

** A nightmare caught early on is used to save the day during the climax.
** The Queen gives Sophie a sapphire brooch to wear. Later, she stabs the Fleshlumpeater with it to distract him from eating a soldier.

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: All the Giants are terrified of only one human -- the legendary [[JackAndTheBeanstalk Jack]]. In the [[CulturalTranslation Hebrew translation]], it's [[DavidVersusGoliath David]].

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The Queen. For all his faults, Roald Dahl loves his Queen.
** [[ThePiratesOfPenzance Yes, yes...]]

* EldritchLocation: Giant Country is a mild example, being quite reachable by helicopter. In the movie, it looks like a barren wasteland full of weirdly-shaped rocks. The Land of Dreams is an even weirder place, but appears to be less dangerous.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: The {{Malaproper}} BFG repeatedly mispronounces Charles Dickens as ''[[Creator/RoaldDahl Dahl's]] Chickens''. This is given a ShoutOut in the film version of ''Film/{{Matilda}}''.

** In the Dutch version the BFG owns a copy of ''OliverTwist'', rather than ''NicholasNickleby''.

** In the Hebrew version the giants fear David (from David and Goliath) rather than [[Literature/JackTheGiantKiller Jack]].

* ImpossiblyGracefulGiant: The BFG gets a life-time achievement award, and all of the other Giants are very good at not being seen.

* SpeechTropes: ''The BFG'' makes use of a couple of speech tropes...
** {{Hulkspeak}} / YouNoTakeCandle: All the Giants speak in broken and mangled English, including the BFG (though he has a better grasp than the others). Also, only the bad Giants have the violent element.
** {{Malaproper}}: The BFG is a constant malaproper ("Right as snow!" {Right as rain}, "Two rights is not making a left" {Two wrongs don't make a right}). Both these cases ''aren't'' examples of the BFG being stupid, but are because (as he has no parents) he is self-taught. Quite an impressive feat all in all, given that in the original book he managed to teach himself to read and write from a single book -- Charles Dickens' ''Nicholas Nickleby''. In the book, he eventually gets tuition and doesn't do either anymore. The evil Giants, however, aren't interested in such pursuits and play the tropes pretty much straight ("I is now going to search the primroses!").

* Speech Tropes: ''The BFG'' makes use of a couple of speech tropes...

Sophie comes up with a plan to capture the other giants, she makes The Queen of England dream about the Giants and also that they can be stopped by a little girl called Sophie and a friendly Giant. Thus, when she appears on the Queen's windowsill, Sophie is instantly believed (with the additional backup of a recent ring of child massacres that the Queen also dreams about on the same night that they happen). The Queen calls on the Army and the RAF to capture the Giants, which they do with the help of the BFG and Sophie.

[[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] ''[[NamesTheSame a]]'' {{BFG}}, ''The BFG'' is a book by Creator/RoaldDahl and later an animated film by CosgroveHall (of ''DangerMouse'' and ''WesternAnimation/CountDuckula'' fame). "BFG" in this case stands for Big Friendly Giant, and is the name of one of the protagonists. He is a Giant, the magic mythological kind who lives in Giant Country and is the only member of his race who doesn't eat humans. The other protagonist is Sophie, a little orphan girl who the BFG kidnaps (and later regrets) because she catches a glimpse of him -- she's terrified at first but, once she learns he's nice, she's actually quite glad to be out of the [[OrphanageOfFear horrible orphanage]] she lived in.

** Although, as he only read one book, it's likely that he didn't know what ham actually ''was''. [[WildMassGuessing Either that, or he figured eating animals was better than eating humans.]]

* HeyItsThatVoice: In the movie, the BFG is voiced by DavidJason.

* ItsPronouncedTropay: Due to their severe lack of education, the giants frequently mispronounce words in the English language; even the BFG refers to human beings as "human beans". [[spoiler: During the climax of the film, when Fleshlumpeater refers to Sophie as a "human bean", the BFG defiantly corrects him, turning a lampshade hanging into a CMOA.]]

* ToServeMan: All the giants eat humans except for the BFG.

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: All the Giants are terrified of only one human -- the legendary [[JackAndTheBeanstalk Jack]]. In the [[{{Woolseyism}} Hebrew translation]], it's [[DavidVersusGoliath David]].
** Also, it seems that Fleshlumpeater is literally scared of snakes as well: the title character at once point scares him with "the Venomsome Vindscreen Viper". This moment was also a CrowningMomentOfFunny.

** In the Hebrew version the giants fear David (from David and Goliath) rather than [[JackTheGiantKiller Jack]].

* TheDreaded: The only human bean giants fear is the legendary [[JackTheGiantKiller Jack]].

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The villainous giants: The Childchewer, the Butcher Boy, the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Fleshlumpeater]], etc.

* InvisiblePresident: Averted; the Queen is not only seen, but is a major character ''and'' plays an important role in the story, and a fairly worshipfully-written one, too. Though admittedly she's only called The Queen of England, not Queen Elizabeth II. However, she looks exactly like Elizabeth II in the animated version, and rather like her in Quentin Blake's extremely-stylized illustrations for the book.

* ThisIsSPARTA: At the climax of the movie, when the enraged Fleshlumpeater is hunting down the titular character: "'''B! F! G!'''"

[[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] ''[[NamesTheSame a]]'' {{BFG}}, ''The BFG'' is a book by {{Roald Dahl}} and later an animated film by CosgroveHall (of ''DangerMouse'' and ''WesternAnimation/CountDuckula'' fame). "BFG" in this case stands for Big Friendly Giant, and is the name of one of the protagonists. He is a Giant, the magic mythological kind who lives in Giant Country and is the only member of his race who doesn't eat humans. The other protagonist is Sophie, a little orphan girl who the BFG kidnaps (and later regrets) because she catches a glimpse of him -- she's terrified at first but, once she learns he's nice, she's actually quite glad to be out of the [[OrphanageOfFear horrible orphanage]] she lived in.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: The {{Malaproper}} BFG repeatedly mispronounces Charles Dickens as ''[[RoaldDahl Dahl's]] Chickens''. This is given a ShoutOut in the film version of ''Film/{{Matilda}}''.

* ChekhovsGun:

** In the Dutch version the BFG owns a copy of ''OliverTwist'', rather than ''NicholasNickleby''.

* GentleGiant: The BFG himself, though he does have some {{deadpan snarker}}-ish moments. Actually, so do most of the characters.

* HumansAreBastards: The BFG is disdainful of humankind in general, but realizes by the end that not ''all'' humans are bad.

* ChekhovsGun: A nightmare caught early on is used to save the day during the climax.

* {{Expy}}/CanonImmigrant the design of the bad giants are from the Badfort Gang of ''Uncle'', another book illustrated by Quentin.

* ImAHumanitarian: With BFG being the sole exception, all giants subsist on a diet of humans.

* BathtubScene: A rather odd example from the film, not done for fanservice because...well, she's a ''kid'', yet Sophie's still seen bare-chested (though since she isn't that old, [[Pettanko there isn't much to see anyway.]])