Plot Summary - James and the Giant Peach

Plot

Dahl wrote it in 1961, and centers around a young (seven to be precise) English boy who, having lost his parents in a freak accident involving a rhino, goes to live with his cruel Aunts Sponge and Spiker. He is regularly beaten, and appears to be kept in almost slave like mistreatment.
James meets a strange and unexplained magical old man, who seems to know James plight. The old man gives James a bag of "1000 slimy crocodile tongues" which possess magical properties. James is told to keep them safe, but being in a rush to get back to his home he drops the bag right under an old peach tree.
By the next morning, James Aunt's discover that not only has the previously fruitless tree produced a peach, but the peach wont stop growing! They quickly monopolize the peach, and the paying public come to view the peach.

Meanwhile, James appears not to have returned home, but instead climbs inside the now enormous Peach through a mysterious passage right into the Peach stone. Once there he meets a Grasshopper, Centipede, Spider, Ladybird, Glowworm and Silkworm. All these insects have become enormous and appear to have been given human intellect and power of speech from the magical crocodile tongues James dropped the previous night. The Insects and James cut the giant peach loose and roll down the steep slope from the Aunts house to the sea.  Meanwhile, both aunts get squished. Yay!
James is introduced to all the inhabitants, and quickly learns that the insects are far kinder than any humans James had met since his parents died.
Sadly, sharks approach the peach, so James decides to attach the Spiders and Silkworms threads to the necks of seagulls and flies the peach onwards!

Whilst airbourne, the Peach strays into some clouds. In these clouds, the crew of the Peach discover sinister creatures James calls "Cloudmen", who create all sorts of scary meteorological phenomina which the throw down to Earth. James and the crew are pelted with hail stones, but the seagulls drag the peach onwards through the Cloudmen city and right across the Atlantic.

James realises that the peach has been transported all the way to America. The crew all celebrate, but quickly realise the strings attached to the seagulls necks have been slashed by a passing airplane. The peach hurtles downwards, and the all the inhabitants of the Peach believe they are going to die. Luckly though, the Peach lands right atop a building.

The Empire State Building! The crew are brought down and presented to the Mayor of New York, who welcomes them with open arms. All the inhabitants find new jobs, and James lives happily ever after inside the Peach stone, where it has been placed in Central Park. It is revealed that James has in fact written the very story the reader has read.

Reception

Because of the books scary and macabre images it is  "a regular target of the censors and is No. 56 on the American Library Association's top 100 list of most frequently challenged books" (1)
This is not without reason, and as a company we must remember that our audience is potentially quite young. Some of the aspects which I believe may need to be tackled carefully are as follows:

• The Rhino eats James' parents  - An utterly terrifying idea even to an adult
• The Aunts - James is frequently beaten, verbally abused, overworked and rarely fed. This could be very upsetting to children who will identify with James as he is a young child too. The Aunts are also potentially  fear inducing, as they are grotesque and self indulgent to an extreme. This should be treated carefully, and to diffuse the fear factor make them comical not fearful. Personally I think this is one of the problems with the film.
• The Cloudmen - Scary weather controlling people in the sky - Whats not to be afraid of? To make them less scary, they should be magical rather than scary, and perhaps even comedic?
• The Peach freefalling - this is deadly situation, but hopefully the funny responses of the characters will make it less scary and its short period