I have now watched both versions of BFG.
The 1989 version, with David Jason as the voice of BFG, was a film that I grew up with and therefore can't really help having fond memories of - not to say that it isn't a good film in its own right, of course it is. This week I watched the 2016 Steven Spielberg version, also based on Roald Dahl's original story, which i enjoyed very much. As you may expect, it looked great, with very impressive motion capture work. Also, the story and some details have been subtly updated and modernised.
Most interestingly I thought was the changes to the klan of cannibalistic giants who were actually humanistic with human looking faces and bodies and, importantly, were much more silly and dumb than in the original. In 1989 they had human bodies but more animal/monstrous faces with sharp fangs and red eyes, alot more scary looking, and BFG was alot more afraid of them. In 2016, they are clumsy, afraid of rain, like to frolic (although don't always understand the word) and are very easily outsmarted. They and their presence in the story reminded me more of something like e.g. Jim Henson creations from Labyrinth - not pleasant, but not particularly threatening.
Clearly this must have been a creative conscious decision by the crew, but I think it is a safe, unadventurous one. If anything the giants are a comedic presence as opposed to villians, making the film all the more light hearted rather than dramatic and dark in tone and look as in 1989. It still has the emotional core of the relationship between Sophie and BFG which is well executed, but many classic children's films have threatening, even nightmarish villians (Scar in Lion King, Ursula in Little Mermaid, Child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) As with adults, children like to be scared just a little, I think the new version slightly misses out without a serious evil presence.
Otherwise It does a good job of being nostalgic for fans of the original, but also not relying on that and finding a new audience, which is probably quite a delicate balance to find.
Note;
It's always interesting to see remakes of things you are familiar with. I am a big fan of The Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings trilogy, and have since seen the 1978 animated version (which incidentally looks similar in it's raw style to the original BFG) It was a very good watch, almost certainly better than it would have been without me being a trilogy fan first.
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