History YMMV / JamesAndTheGiantPeach

** "My Name is James," in which James expresses his hopes of finally leaving his miserable life behind and getting to New York as he had hoped to do with his parents, is probably the most wonderful IWantSong in any live action Disney musical.

*** When James and Miss Spider go underwater to search for the Centipide, they swim near a figurehead of James' aunts. There is no explanation for this and it is completely ignored.
*** [[spoiler:TheStinger totally qualifies. An arcade game called "Spike the Aunts" is shown, where James' aunts are bashed by the rhino. It's bizarre and has no connection to the plot, [[FridgeHorror although it may give the implication that the aunts were killed by the rhino]]]].

* TearJerker: In the book, James's heroic rescue of the Centipede when he falls off the airborne peach. James orders the Silkworm to spin a rope which he ties around his waist, and jumps off the peach. Before he returns, the insects presume him dead, and the Old-Green-Grasshopper plays a funeral march on his violin. However, James succeeds in the rescue.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The concept of turning the ordinary rhino that killed James' parents in the book into a Chernabog-esque EldritchAbomination itself was not a bad idea and could have worked perfectly. The trouble was that the writers were far too lazy with executing it, not giving it any backstory or apparent motive, making the concept confusing. Why did it attack James parents in the first place? Were the aunts aware that it was a cloud monster in the beginning, or just taunting him? Why did the rhino wait until the group reached New York to attack them as opposed to earlier? Was it even real or just James' imagination?

* ArtisticLicense: Both the original book and TheFilmOfTheBook explicitly say that the rhinoceros ''ate'' James' parents. While rhinoceri are certainly capable of ''killing'', they are actually herbivores and very gentle creatures unless they or their babies are threatened. This error is more forgivable in the film, where the rhinoceros is a fantastical EldritchAbomination that may or may not be a figment of James' imagination.

* CriticalResearchFailure: Both the original book and TheFilmOfTheBook explicitly say that the rhinoceros ''ate'' James' parents. While rhinoceri are certainly capable of ''killing'', they are actually herbivores and very gentle creatures unless they or their babies are threatened. This error is more forgivable in the film, where the rhinoceros is a fantastical EldritchAbomination that may or may not be a figment of James' imagination.

* WhatAnIdiot:
** Centipede [[BullyingTheDragon insulting the Cloud People in the book]].
** In the movie, the aunts try to escape in their car when the peach rolls free instead of simply ''stepping out of the way''. Needless to say, they're lucky their stupidity didn't get them killed.
*** Worth noting that [[SparedBytheAdaptation it did in the book]].

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: When James defies the aunts for the first time during the climax, he claims that he isn't anything like they said and lists all the feats he and the insects performed upon leaving their house with the peach. Among them, he says that he landed on top of the tallest building in the world, that being the Empire State. Upon completion (but without the famous antenna) in 1970, One World Trader became the World's Tallest Building. Over the years, more new tallest buildings have followed. As of 2019, the tallest building in the world is Burj Khalifa and the Empire State Building ranks as the 48th. [[InJoke So perhaps Sponge and Spiker now have a new argument to prove to James that he's nothing...]]

** The undead pirate scene, which is led by [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Jack Skellington]], has an expy of WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck among his crew. Six years later, ''VideoGame/{{Kingdom Hearts|I}}'' was released, with Donald as one of the main characters and Halloween Town being a playable world, with Jack serving as its GuestStarPartyMember. Likewise, the main party become undead there, though Donald is turned into a {{Mummy}} instead. Even more hilarious in the French dub of the film; Sora and James have the same voice actor!

** Mr. Centipede, at least in the movie, could be seen as a JerkassWoobie if you read his boisterous attitude as mostly bravado; it's hard not to feel for him after he accidentally steers the ship off-course and the other bugs shun him.

** At one point [[Creator/DavidThewlis the earthworm]] says [[Film/WonderWoman2017 "I'm Wonder-Worm!"]].

** A giant mechanical shark tried to take down the peach? No wonder [[VideoGame/BanjoKazooie Grunty imprisoned him in her lair]]. [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation That monster is dangerous!]].
*** What will the shark attack next, [[VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies2ItsAboutTime a garden?]].

** At one point, a giant bat flies past the peach, spooking the passengers. This is never brought up again.
** When James and Miss Spider go underwater to search for the Centipide, they swim near a figurehead of James' aunts. There is no explanation for this and it is completely ignored.
** [[spoiler:TheStinger totally qualifies. An arcade game called "Spike the Aunts" is shown, where James' aunts are bashed by the rhino. It's bizarre and has no connection to the plot, [[FridgeHorror although it may give the implication that the aunts were killed by the rhino]]]].

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: At one point, a giant bat flies past the peach, spooking the passengers. This is never brought up again.

** A giant mechanical shark tried to take down the peach? No wonder [[VideoGame/BanjoKazooie Grunty imprisoned him in her lair]]. [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation That monster is dangerous!]]

** James has a ''very'' thick accent that causes him to replace some of his "r"s with "w" sounds. For American viewers, this can make him sound like a very young child and give his lines a certain level of Narm.

** A few of the special effects are [[SpecialEffectFailure quite unconvincing]], such as the clearly wooden seagull puppets, the clearly cgi-mechanical shark and ocean water, and the clearly painted backdrops used for NYC.
* NarmCharm: The robotic shark being obvious cgi manages to make it [[UncannyValley look even more creepy and unnatural.]]

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zydg6V7pnmA opening theme]] is absolutely ''beautiful''. Even more so when it turns out that it was [[spoiler: Mr. Grasshopper playing it on the violin.]]

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: "Good News" and "We're Family" by Randy Newman.

* DirectorDisplacement: To a lesseer extent than ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'', but still... Creator/TimBurton was one of the producers, and that's enough for some people to believe he directed it, while it was actually Creator/HenrySelick.

** The undead pirate scene, which is led by [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Jack Skellington]], has an expy of DonaldDuck among his crew. Six years later, ''VideoGame/{{Kingdom Hearts|I}}'' was released, with Donald as one of the main characters and Halloween Town being a playable world, with Jack serving as its GuestStarPartyMember. Likewise, the main party become undead there, though Donald is turned into a {{Mummy}} instead. Even more hilarious in the French dub of the film; Sora and James have the same voice actor!

** James. Poor, poor James. He had such GoodParents, until they died and his evil aunts took him in. You can guess how well THAT went for him. Worse, while watching his aunts publicize the giant peach, kids are present there. However, James is forbidden to leave the house, and he sheds a tear as the only possible friends he would make just come and go.

* UnexpectedCharacter: [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Jack Skellington]] lends his likeness to the captain of the skeleton pirates. Henry Selick and Creator/TimBurton worked on both films and the model for Jack was reused for the pirate captain.

* Applicability: The story can be seen as a metaphor for illegally immigrating for a better life.

* FamilyUnfriendlyAesop: Don't like your own lot in life? Want a better quality of life? Become an illegal immigrant, according to James and friends.

* {{Narm}}: James has a ''very'' thick accent that causes him to replace some of his "r"s with "w" sounds. For American viewers, this can make him sound like a very young child and give his lines a certain level of Narm.

** The undead pirate scene, which is led by [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Jack Skellington]], has an expy of DonaldDuck among his crew. Six years later, ''VideoGame/{{Kingdom Hearts|I}}'' was released, with Donald as one of the main characters and Halloween Town being a playable world, with Jack serving as its GuestStarPartyMember. Likewise, the main party become undead there, though Donald is turned into a {{Mummy}} instead. Even more hilarious in the French dub of the film; Sora and James share [[Creator/DonaldReignoux a voice actor]]!