The BFG (1987 film)/Triva

Trivia

 * According to Brian Cosgrove, when Roald Dahl saw his first screening of the film in Soho, when it ended and the lights went up, Dahl stood up and clapped.
 * When Roald Dahl wrote "The BFG", he named the lead child character Sophie, after his granddaughter, actress and model Sophie Dahl.
 * The film was first shown on television on Christmas Day 1989 on ITV in the UK, 2 years after it was released in cinemas.
 * David Jason considered the film brilliant. He named his daughter Sophie Mae because the name has extra resonance for him after doing the film, and the two sounded nice when put together.
 * The BFG's likeness was modeled after actor Richard Wilson.
 * The mouse with the red fur, yellow eyes and a green and black tail in the film was not in the book, and was added into the film to provide comic relief.
 * The boy who dreams that he becomes invisible has a Danger Mouse (1981) poster above his bed, which also starred David Jason and animated by Cosgrove Hall Films.
 * Mollie Sugden and Frank Thornton both starred in the BBC sitcom Are You Being Served? (1972).
 * In the original storyboards, the newspapers the Queen held were named after real English newspapers, The Times and The Sun. While the names were changed, the two newspapers could still be seen as the type of newspaper that they were based upon. i.e. a serious broadsheet and a red top tabloid.
 * Doctor Who (1963) is considered to be an possible influence behind the opening credits sequence.
 * Final film of Ballard Berkeley.
 * Although the film is a children's film and is rated U in the United Kingdom, the film does have some nudity. Sophie is briefly seen topless while having a bath, but nothing explicit is seen, and the boy in the dream sequence is seen naked, but his genitals are not seen.
 * The book, which the film is based on, was published in 1982.
 * The vortex effect was done by Ben Turner, who bought a fish tank from a local pet shop and then bled paint in it while filming with an over cranked 35mm film camera.
 * This was Cosgrove Hall Films' first and only feature-length animated film.
 * The version of the film released in cinemas, aired on ITV and released on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray omits a scene that takes place after Sophie and The BFG leave Dream Country, but before they get to his Dream Cave. They approach the other giant's domain again, and Sophie is somehow separated and placed in peril when she accidentally sits upon a giant dragonfly that flies off and drops her among the sleeping giants, who begin to stir from her scent. The BFG rescues her before they awake and begin scouring the land, convinced there is a human present. The shot of the giants departing is later reused in the film as part of the Queen's nightmare of them and their heinous acts.
 * Pre-production work on the film began in 1984, with Andy Roper, Brian Cosgrove and three others working in a Portakabin on a plot of land which is now the Cosgrove Hall Films car park.
 * When production began on the film, the key animators used rotoscoped images on all the characters, including Sophie. But it was then discovered that Jean Flynn and Meryl Edge could draw realistic movements without a reference.
 * Before appearing in this adaption of Roald Dahl's most popular children's classic for Cosgrove Hall, Mollie Sugden had lent her voice to a previous Cosgrove Hall production, The Talking Parcel (1978), where she voiced Hortense the Flying Train.
 * This was the second animated movie to use the APT (Animation Photo Transfer) process, the first one being The Black Cauldron (1985).
 * The film premiered on ITV in the UK on 25 December 1989.
 * David Jason was not considered for a BAFTA nomination for his voice work and performance on the film.
 * Completed in 1987.