1. Limbo: At the beginning of the movie, James is in Limbo (A deficient form of heaven). That's why it is only him and his parents. James knows he will never be truly happy there, and so he kills his parents. The rhino is just a symbol of James's murderous act.
2. Lust: James is then taken to his two aunts. Two women who live together... Hmm... That's right, they are lesbians. They could not get married because it was illegal. But instead of trying to change, they moved in together and still had sexual relations. Therefore, lust.
3. Gluttony: James is then given a bag of magic tongues. He is not told what to do with them. He must decide for himself how to use them. What do you use a tongue for? Eating. Therefore, gluttony. (I know this one isn't direct, but it is a definite reference. Also, he would have to decide if he was going to use the tongues in moderation or not, the same way we need to choose if we eat in moderation).
4. Greed: His aunts then choose to make as much money as can from this giant peach that James has inadvertently created. James must choose weather he will be greedy and work with them, or try to stop them.
5. Wrath: He then takes the peach to the ocean, where he must fight off a giant robotic shark (he feels the wrath of the shark).
6. Heresy: They then become hungry, so they eat the inside of the peach. This is symbolic for one who becomes hungry for something more in his religion, so he goes to it's core and changes it completely. Therefore, heresey.
7. Violence: James has a dream in which he is murdered by his aunts. Murder tends to be a bit violent...
8. Fraud: The centipede then reveals that he lied about being a commodore, and that he knows very little about the sea.
9. Treachery: James then finally makes it to his destination, but his aunts are waiting for him. They then attempt to take back the peach for more money, and show little care about the well being of James. That's a pretty treacherous thing to do, if you ask me.James then stands up to his treacherous aunts, defeating the ninth circle of hell, and finally being happy.
Now they're in New York and it's only a matter of time before they meet their fellow mutants.
- There IS a giant horned Heartless capable of shooting lightning, after all.
- A James and the Giant Peach Peach level could be added in Kingdom Hearts III, similar to Monstro the Whale from Pinocchio.
- Seeing as his parents seem to have been pretty well off, his aunts may have killed his parents for their money. Unfortunately, they blew all the money on their own purposes and in the process lost all of it, hence why they all live in a broken down shack.
- Well, if the rumors of Lady Tremaine murdering Cinderella's father are proven, there's no doubt about this rumor as well.
- Alternatively, given that they seem to live right by the ocean, it was some sort of freak storm from the sea. When it "ate" his parents, its winds simply sucked them up or swept them away.
- Alternatively, it was the skeleton of a different Jack, and possible evidence that they're really one and the same.
In the opening song, James talks about retreating into his mind when he's scared.
The surreal tone- the mecha-shark, the bizarre cloud rhinoceros... James invented them.
The rhino that the aunts claim killed James' parents is a lie. Something far worse killed them and the aunts tell James it was a rhino.
Let's just say that the Crocodile Tongues were hardcore drugs. They made James go completely nuts. So, the Peach wasn't a peach (maybe it was a boat?). But nonetheless, he escaped his aunts and went to the "peach". On the inside, he met men and women with names that were of insects (and arachnids), and that only supported his drug-crazed theory that they weren't human. Miss Spider was French, Mr Centipede was from Brooklyn, and so on, with the Glow-worm being an elderly woman and the Earthworm being a blind, paranoid man. They all took off in the peach-boat and went through their adventures.
Halfway through, maybe the boat crashed and they had to replace it with a fallen airplane they came across (maybe it was called the "seagull").
James' hallucination never wore off, causing a few people to believe him crazy, but it made a good enough story for his new friends anyway.
- In the movie, at least, all the bugs are from various parts of the British Isles, except for Miss Spider being French and the Centipede being from the USA.
- This troper assumed it was a metaphor: Either James was young enough that he misremembered the accident - maybe they'd just gone to the zoo, or read about rhinos - or he wasn't present when his parents died, and the 'rhino' was something the adults told him, either to try and make it less harsh or (in the case of his aunts) terrorize him. A car or train accident seems most likely, especially the latter, given the sparks and sound effects that accompany the rhino's appearances in the movie, plus the way it seems to form out of black smoke while spewing it like a smokestack.
- In the original Novel, all of the Insects are suppose to be replacement relatives for James: Miss Spider acts as James's mother while Mr. Centipede acts as James's Father. The Grasshopper acts like James Grandpa. The Ladybug and Worm act like his aunt and uncle (Respectively). The Glowworm acts like his Grandma, and The Silkworm acts like a lazy cousin. Yes, they aren't his real family, but in the Novel (And to a lesser extent the Film) they do become his family.
The fact Spiker and Sponge used the rhino to scare James into obedience if there really was a killer rhino would only make the two even MORE heinous they originally thought, and any future appearances of the rhino would be James's horrifically memories and fears being projecting upon whatever life threatening thing came his way (in this case, a massive hurricane/thunderstorm).
- After making press headlines, the family would recognize the aunts that kicked them out of the peach's display just because the little girl wanted to touch the peach. They'd explain everything that happened to them, and possibly file a lawsuit for the abuse (and thus cause many others to speak against them and for James). So, if the "Spike the Aunts" epilogue was just a video game, and not what happened to them, then chances are, the aunts would suffer more than just prison and possible (but deserved) execution.
- That and the Aunts's arrest took place on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Unless that family was a tourist family from New York (which might be the case, it was never stated in the book or movie IIRC), they wouldn't even know of the Aunts' fate.
- Being mean to kids isn't illegal. Hell, it's not even a sueable offence. And execution? Where do you live, Saudi Arabia?
- Being mean to kids is illegal in Auradon. Spiker and Sponge would've been sentenced to life imprisonment on the Isle of the Lost for abusing James (and probably killing his parents and making up the rhino story) in that continuity, given that they are Disney Villains.
- Even in the 1950s, denying a kid the right to touch a peach for an unjustified reason would result in her parents spreading word that the two women displaying the peach are very nasty, giving Spiker and Sponge a negative reputation and deriving them of tourists. What also twists the knifes in their cold hearts is that right after the poor girl, a cameraman was there. He might've helped the girl by giving the peach display a negative review in the papers.
James became an overnight celebrity, so he might do a report on the origins of the peach. The girl's family finds out through a newspaper on the fate of the aunts, and sigh on their karma.
Attempted murder can warrant a long time in prison. But if one of the above WMG is correct, the aunts will get themselves hanged if convicted of murdering James' parents.- At the very least, they'll be deported from the United States, not just for attempted murder, but also for attempted terrorism, given that they would've killed everyone in New York City in their Villainous Breakdown had the bugs not appeared in time (you can't really call the police "useless", as they were given no time between getting everyone to safety and shooting the aunts dead to protect James). And to protect James even further, they'll be banned from ever leaving the UK (if they ever leave prison).
Even then, that leaves the question of which side of the family, Sponge and Spiker are on?
During the scene where Sponge and Spiker openly antagonize him for his intent to travel to New York, they say "(his) mother had his head in the clouds". This raises two possibilites:
1) If his mother was their sibling, it's likely they resented her more kindly nature and felt she'd be a bad influence on any child of hers (once again, assuming they had parents who constantly indulged them but unfairly disciplined the third child).
2) If his father was their sibling, that could mean they harboured distrust towards his wife and would thus have no problems speaking ill of them any chance they got.
Either way, it would explain why James started off with a better life before tragedy struck.