Danny, le champion du monde

I saw "Danny the Champion of the World" in fifth grade right after we read Roald Dahl's novel. Portraying a widowed father and son resisting a developer's plan to expand his estate onto their property in rural England in 1955, the movie does a worthy job although it did change some things from the book. It made sense to have Jeremy Irons and his son play Samuel play father and son in the movie; as it was, I'd never heard of Jeremy Irons before watching this movie (and anyone who knows his movies knows that this was probably his most unusual role). It's also interesting now that I know that Victor Hazell was played by Robbie Coltrane, who more recently played Hagrid in the Harry Potter movies. All in all, a pretty good movie.

A charming movie set in rural England after the war. Widowed Father Jeremy Irons is bringing up his son in a caravan on a small piece of land where he also runs his own garage. Unfortunately this small piece of land is crucial to the plans of the local, much disliked, Nouveau Riche squire played by Robbie Coltrane. A real smarmy cove. He wants their land and will call in all favours to get rid of them. He is also currying up to the local gentry with a pheasant shoot, but what if there were no pheasants for anyone to shoot?. What they need is a champion pheasant catcher..

This is another winner from Roald Dahl the peerless childrens writer. Real-life father and son Jeremy and Samuel Irons play the leads in this with Grandad Cusack as the local doctor. Just a bit of a whimsical romp for the two elder actors whereas young Samuel had to put a noticable effort into it. All the same it is a thoroughly heartwarming story. There are quite a few well known faces in it, Jean Marsh doing a caricature of a spinsterish do gooder, Michael Hordern as a slightly dotty Lord, Jimmy Nail as a disgruntled gamekeeper, and Lionel Jeffries as the tippling but exceedingly fair Headmaster. It's almost as if they thought "What shall we do this summer? I know lets do a movie together." They are all perfectly natural and comfortable. A joy to watch.

Watch it with your children you wont regret it.

It is 1955 and Danny and his father William live in a caravan beside their garage in the middle of an estate being bought up by Victor Hazell so that he can turn the woods into housing estates. When William refuses to sell his property to Hazell, the latter starts to put other pressures on William to get off the land and let him have it to complete his dream development – a conflict not helped by the fact that William poaches off Hazell's land. Hazell's plan is to weasel up to the local gentry with a great pheasant shoot – an event that he obviously needs lots of pheasants for, a fact that Danny and his father are keen to exploit to get their own back on the unscrupulous fellow.

Although I have read the book as a child, it hasn't stuck in my mind the way that other, more imaginative Roald Dahl stories have. Watching the film decades later it is clear to me why I enjoyed it but also why it failed to make a lasting impression on me because, although it is a solid family film, it is far too slight and unremarkable to make for a great tale. The film does struggle with this and as a result it rarely engaged or interested me in the way it could have done but it did still manage to be an entertaining little family film. The story is quite ordinary and the rather ordinary delivery doesn't help; I suspect it is this that modern audiences will have problems with – certainly it isn't as smart and flashy as children raised on Toy Story et al will be used to. However despite that it is still quite an enjoyable little tale.

The cast match the natural and wholesome feel of the film. The father/son chemistry between the two Irons is unsurprisingly easy and I quite enjoyed both their performances. Irons senior is gentle and enjoyable and, although his son is not a great actor, he isn't stretched here and fits the role well. Coltrane is enjoyable despite having a fairly simple role to play with and Cusack completes the family set-up with his performance. Nail, Jeffries and a few others all help to add a sense of fun to the film by virtue of their presence in the films.

Overall this is a wholesome and quite old-fashioned family film that will provide a cosy evening in front of the telly despite being a bit too simple to please demanding children. It is all a bit slight and unspectacular but it is fun nonetheless and is worth seeing if you are in the mood and can cope with the rather coying touch of old fashioned sentiment that runs through it.

This is a really decent film and quite true to the book. Robbie Coltrane is a highlight and great as the villain. What i am not overly fond of is the subplot about Danny's strict teacher. It's done as if we're supposed to hate the teacher and be on Danny's side but Danny misbehaves in his class so he had every right to punish him For example Danny is late for school, after being warned previously that he'd be punished for it, so his teacher gives him 1000 lines as punishment. I thought this was a fair punishment but the way its written its like we're supposed to feel bad for Danny. He was late for school the teacher gave him the punishment for it. I didn't see anything wrong with the teacher being strict and punishing Danny for his behaviour.

It's a great adaption, at least from what I've read and remember from the book. But this is one of his most boring books to adapt it feels like all of the classic real Dahl tropes in one movie. Mainly the evil teacher and genius child trope. I think the evil teacher in this is actually pretty fun to watch however, the genius child side of the things is incredibly boring. The child's idea isn't exactly smart or witty and the big plan for the climax is incredibly basic and not even that fantastical or interesting. The story itself is actually pretty nice and cute, but I feel the plot points are pretty boring and basic. The child and father relationship is definitely the best part of this film and practically carries it, the actors were father and son in real life and you can very much tell in this. Their chemistry is so so cute and they're the most enjoyable part of the film. The actors as a whole also do a pretty great job, Lord claybury, captain Lancaster and the headmaster are standouts. And I love the way they handle how abusive schools were back then and the characters actually take it seriously, it's really interesting thing to see. Overall though this is a pretty boring film and that's mostly due to it sadly being based on one of real dahls most boring books.