The Messed Up Origins of James and the Giant Peach

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▼ Timestamps ▼
» 0:00 - The Power of Roald Dahl
» 1:44 - Chapters 1 - 10
» 10:06 - Chapters 11 - 26
» 21:24 - Chapters 27 - 39
» 28:30 - James and the Giant P****

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▼ Credits ▼
» Researched by: Jon Solo
» Edited by: Jon Solo
» Written & Directed by: Jon Solo

#messeduporigins #disney #roalddahl

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[danielraiber]

I grew up with all of his books and loved each and every one of them. I never took anything in any of his books to be mean, offensive, or "triggering". I was a heavy child, but the only things that these books did was to make it known that even as a child, as long as you are kind, humble, and generous, you too can make a difference in this world. And as a 39 year old man now, I still fully believe it as i have read all of these original books to my children as writen and intended.

[MachinShinful]

Giving kids a safe, fictional space to explore things like abuse and sadness and danger is SOOO important! Roald Dahl was and is a huge part of children learning to hold onto their kindness and compassion in life.

[DragonLovingGirl]

When it comes to Roald describing features that are often associated with being 'ugly', I like to reference a few lines from his book 'The Twits'. He claims that, even if you are born pretty, if you only think mean and ugly thoughts your face will start to twist to reflect that and make you look ugly. But if you think kind and gentle thoughts, even if you have a wart, crooked teeth, and two chins, that kindness will shine from your face and you'll always look lovely!

[stepinthyme]

I would ALWAYS choose to read an author’s original version. I’m soooo sick of censorship and this idea that we should be protecting our children way too much about some things, yet utterly not about others. Love your content, Jon. Keep it coming!!!

[JSTRODE]

I had two aunts who looked very similar to the aunts in the movie. However mine were awesome. The taller skinny one always wanted to take us shopping and to the toy store and McDonalds. The short round one was a kindergarten teacher for 40 years who always had awesome games to play, tons of imagination, and the best puns anyone could think of.

[darkunykorn]

The extra irony of the "fat Aunt Sponge" situation is that the other aunt is thin. So we have a fat one AND a thin one and they're BOTH terrible. It has nothing to do, inherently, with her being fat or thin, it has to do with who she is. Plus we even know she was super vain and saw herself as beautiful, from the whole "little toes" bit (which, weird, but okay). It's like Augustus Gloop; it isn't his being fat that is the issue, the other children weren't and were just as terrible.

[elizabethjennings]

I'm half Mexican and when you talked about the grasshopper saying he would rather be fried and eaten by a Mexican was hilarious to me 😂. Anyone getting offended by that line would likely not survive in a conversation with a group of Mexicans from Mexico because they would get their feelings hurt.

[crimsonemperor]

I didn't feel any Ill will or malice in that line the grasshopper said at all and I'm Hispanic. Heck, my parents who grew up in Mexico even got a small chuckle out of it. And now that some people are pushing for the eating of bugs as a "sustainable alternative" it losses the argument for malice even more.

[oentrepreneur]

"These unpaid interns majoring in gender studies are literally reading these books through the lens of how can this be taken the wrong way. Which may just be the most destructive lens that one can view life through". I really like this phrase and I 100% agree with what you said.

[Aaron]

Back in 1980, a loving elementary school teacher read these to me while we sat around her on a rug. I couldn’t wait for story time. Dahl’s books have had a significant impact on my life. I read each of my favorites 10s of times. I tried to instill the same fascination for the world into my children. I hope I did it right.

[nonosays]

The revised books have indeed "had their soul sucked out of them".
I'm 67, and when I finished reading JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH at age 11 I actually hugged the book.
It is a treasure of my childhood.
God bless you, Jon, for this video, and God bless Roald Dahl!

[snittykitty]

You explained the censorship so eloquently as if you had a window into my brain. Thank you for standing up and spotlighting what is going on. I mainly work with preschoolers as a speech therapist and one of the things I work on is giving them the respect and choices to make up their minds even at a young developing age. When you remove that choice and water things down you essentially insult their perception and intellect.

[vikkitaggart]

Dahl was one of my favorite authors as a kid. He never showed away from showing kids in scary, sad situations that they would overcome. The world is a scary place and he made that scariness something I could change. Books that were too saccharine didn't match my experiences even as a 7 year old. I saw kids overcoming things far worse than I had ever encountered. That was comforting and he did it with humor. I reveled in those books. Dahl had more faith in kids. It's wrong to take that away.

[berserkerbard]

Roald Dahl was a childhood inspiration to me, I reread his books over and over again because I found comfort and joy in the dark, grizzly themes. I had childhood trauma and I felt like his writing was wrapping me in its arms and saying ‘yes life is hard sometimes, and that’s ok’. The creativity of his writing has always inspired me and I want to write and illustrate children’s books that capture even a hint of that myself. Censorship of his books is crazy; they weren’t offensive to me as a child and they won’t be offensive to my children either.

[Choujifangirl]

Can we give the actresses who played Spiker and sponge credit please? Because the way they were portrayed was about as book accurate as you’re going to get

[neilhunter]

I remember as a kid Roald Dahl was supposed to come to our local library to do a reading of one of his books. Unfortunately he couldn't make it as he had become unwell. He passed later. Still can't get my head around the fact that I almost met my favourite childhood and adulthood author.

[victorialynnstruble]

I have lived as an abuse and trauma survivor for a long time and I have lived most of my life with anxiety and panic disorders and a rather crippling unfair and unrealistic view of the world and how much threat other people post to me on a daily basis.

With one simple quote about idiocy John solo has just done something that everyone I know and God himself hasn't been able to do, get me to realize that sometimes people are just dumb and not malicious.

On top of being informative and engaging your content is also inspiring

thank you.

[OkasiOtaku]

I would love to see more of Roald Dahl's stories on this channel. I have read a lot of his books in 5th grade (Mostly because my class and I had projects surrounding his works) and I loved every one of them. I am so angered and more disappointed that people would censor these stories for superficial and childish reasons.

[christabelle__]

I was an abused (and oft starved) child - and Roald Dahl books were a HUGE help for me as a kid! Matilda could have been about ME - a little brown haired girl with parents who didn't care about her, who sought solace in books, and whose teachers were often the only adults who could make me feel safe when I was trapped in a horrible, abusive situation...it gave me hope, when Ms. Honey adopted Matilda, and let me daydream about having a savior who might whisk me away from all the pain, hunger, and hurt that the people who were supposed to love me put me in. James and the Giant Peach didn't hit me as hard, but was equally on point about an abused child finding friends in those that society also deems as outcasts, or weirdos - someone fearful. It's the outcasts who 'save' him, and give him a home...(and I had a greedy, fat, narcissistic stepmother who made it her life's mission to make my life hell - it's not fat people who are the problem, but it's a bit ironic that she was a lot like that greedy aunt! xD)

Children need these books. I was a child who needed these stories to give me hope that I could make it out of this terrible world full of adults who only caused me harm...but that some adults could be kind, and help me navigate that darkness. Bless Roald Dahl for giving me that hope, when I needed it most. I might just be alive, today, because of his words.

[lyddie]

I’m Mexican American and the grasshopper line made me laugh out loud. I mean that literally, I was listening to you on Bluetooth and just freaked out my daughter who’s in the room with me practicing her violin.