90 Fun Facts About The BFG

Which green fizzy drink beloved of the BFG has bubbles that sink downwards instead of rising?

Frobscottle bubbles sink rather than rise, so the gas leaves the other end — a trick the BFG proudly demonstrates at the Queen's breakfast table in the 2016 film.

What does the BFG call the thunderous flatulence that his favourite fizzy drink sets off?

Whizzpopping is the BFG's word for it, and he happily lets rip in front of the Queen of England herself over a royal breakfast.

Which revolting vegetable, the BFG's only crop, tastes to Sophie of frog skin and rotten fish?

The snozzcumber looks like a knobbly cucumber and is all the BFG has to eat since he refuses to eat people; to him it tastes of cockroaches and slime wanglers.

In which misty land does the BFG catch the dreams he later blows into children's bedrooms?

Dream Country is where the BFG nets good dreams and bad ones alike, and on one trip there the other giants catch him and toss him between them like a ball.

What instrument does the BFG carry with his suitcase when Sophie first spots him in the street?

A trumpet is how the BFG delivers dreams, blowing each one through a bedroom window, and it is his sight of Sophie at her window that makes him snatch her.

How do Sophie and the BFG convince the Queen that man-eating giants are real?

A nightmare blown into her sleep shows the Queen events that then come true, down to Sophie waiting on her windowsill, so she believes the girl and talks to the giant over breakfast.

Which actor, first artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe, plays the BFG by motion capture?

Mark Rylance called the motion-capture process 'liberating', and Spielberg had offered him the giant while the two were shooting another film together in 2014.

The 2016 BFG was the first Steven Spielberg-directed film released under which studio's own brand?

Walt Disney Pictures only came aboard in April 2015, when the cameras were already rolling in Vancouver. Until then Disney was the one big studio name missing from Spielberg's directing career.

Which Only Fools and Horses star provided the voice of the BFG in the 1989 animated film?

David Jason was a regular voice for the same Manchester studio, having already played Danger Mouse and Count Duckula for its animators.

What becomes of the man-eating giants at the end of Roald Dahl's novel The BFG?

Imprisoned in a huge pit, the giants become a tourist attraction, fed only on the foul vegetable they despise. After three drunks climb the fence and are eaten, a warning sign goes up.

Which giant, the largest and leader of the BFG's man-eating neighbours, is the last to be captured?

The Fleshlumpeater wakes as the others are shackled and is only subdued by a trick, having earlier been given a bad dream by the BFG as revenge for bullying him.

Why, according to the BFG, do the man-eating giants never travel to Greece for their suppers?

Greeks taste greasy, the BFG explains, while Turks taste of turkey, the Welsh of fish and Danes of dogs — the giants choose their country by flavour.

What name is given to the BFG's jumbled invented language, full of made-up words like 'delumptious'?

Gobblefunk began as a verb: to gobblefunk is to play around with words. In 2016 Dahl's invented words were given an Oxford dictionary of their own.

Which illustrator gave the BFG and Sophie their look on the page?

Quentin Blake drew the pair for the 1982 original in simple line drawings. The 1989 animated film chose not to copy them, its director wanting a giant who looked more believable and scary.

Which composer wrote the score for Steven Spielberg's 2016 film of The BFG?

John Williams was back for his 27th Spielberg film after a health problem kept him off Bridge of Spies, one of the very few the director has made without him.

The 2016 film of The BFG reached cinemas in the same year as which Roald Dahl milestone?

The centenary of his birth fell on 13 September 2016, and that was the point of the timing: organisers of the worldwide celebrations billed Spielberg's film as one of the year's highlights.

Why does the BFG carry Sophie off to his cave?

To stop her revealing giants exist is his only motive: anyone who had seen a real giant could get him caught and put in a zoo, so Sophie can never go home.

In what does the BFG keep his caught dreams, each labelled and sorted onto shelves in his cave?

Jars hold every dream, and boys' and girls' dreams sit on separate shelves because, the BFG says, a boy given a girl's dream wakes up thinking it rotten.

Where does the BFG set Sophie down on a windowsill so the sleeping monarch finds her on waking?

Buckingham Palace has so many bedrooms that the BFG has to find the Queen by ear, listening at the windows until he hears a woman asleep.

What does the Queen send to Giant Country to deal with the sleeping man-eating giants in The BFG?

Helicopters are sent because the Queen will not have the giants killed: two wrongs don't make a right, she tells the commanders who want to bomb them. The giants are flown home alive.

Which giant barges uninvited into the BFG's cave and bites the vegetable Sophie is hiding inside?

The Bloodbottler's bite misses Sophie by a whisker; he spits her out unnoticed and storms off in disgust at the taste.

What official title does the Queen bestow on the BFG once the man-eating giants are safely captured?

Royal Dream-Blower becomes the BFG's official post, and rulers of every country the giants had raided send him and Sophie gifts of thanks.

Where are homes built for Sophie and the BFG by a grateful nation at the end of Dahl's novel?

Windsor Great Park gets two new homes side by side: a giant-sized house for the BFG and a small cottage for Sophie, so the friends stay neighbours for good.

Who turns out to have written the novel The BFG itself, under another's name, in its final pages?

The BFG himself, having learned to speak and write properly, pens the book under another's name — the same trick Dahl used to end James and the Giant Peach.

The BFG began as a bedtime story told by a father in which earlier Roald Dahl novel?

Danny, the Champion of the World has the hero's father describe a Big Friendly Giant who collects good dreams and blows them into bedrooms, a tale Dahl expanded seven years later.

What does the BFG call Charles Dickens, whose books he loves, in one of his muddled mispronunciations?

Dahl's Chickens is how the BFG names the author of Nicholas Nickleby, the book he taught himself to read from. He 'borrowed' it from a boy's bedroom eighty years ago.

In the BFG's invented speech, what is a 'trogglehumper'?

A very bad dream is a trogglehumper, and the BFG turns the one he catches into a weapon, blowing it at the giants' sleeping leader in revenge for being bullied.

Which earlier Spielberg film did Melissa Mathison, the 2016 BFG's screenwriter, also write?

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was Mathison's too, another story of a lonely child and an otherworldly friend. She died in November 2015, eight months before the BFG opened, and it is dedicated to her.

Sophie, the BFG's young heroine, is named after which member of Roald Dahl's own family?

His granddaughter Sophie Dahl lent the heroine her name, and the 1989 film's animators copied the round glasses she wore as a child. The book itself is dedicated to his late daughter Olivia.

At which film festival did the 2016 BFG premiere out of competition, weeks before its July release?

Cannes gave the film a red-carpet launch on 14 May 2016, but the glamour did not carry over: in American cinemas it became one of the biggest flops of Spielberg's career.

Which actress, Downton Abbey's Isobel Crawley, plays Queen Elizabeth II in the 2016 BFG?

Penelope Wilton's Queen does more than keep her composure: in the film she samples the BFG's fizzy drink at breakfast and lets rip along with the rest of her household.

Which Flight of the Conchords comedian voices the 54-foot leader of the giants in the 2016 BFG?

Jemaine Clement's giant alone dodges the guilt in the film's new ending: a remorse-inducing dream overcomes the other giants, but he intercepts it before it can affect him, and is carried off with the rest.

Which Saturday Night Live alumnus, known for his impressions, voices the cleverest giant in the 2016 BFG?

Bill Hader's giant is the brains of the pack on screen. In Dahl's book the same giant has another job, storming into the BFG's cave, a scene the film hands to the leader instead.

Which comedian famed for improvising was the producers' first choice to play the BFG in the 1990s?

Robin Williams did cast readings for the producers, but they could not yet work out how to film a 24-foot giant beside a small girl. The film finally arrived in 2016, two years after his death.

Which same-studio animated hit was still drawing families when the 2016 BFG opened in US cinemas?

Finding Dory was already the summer's family smash, and the BFG's American opening fell short of $20 million. In Britain, three weeks later, it went straight to number one.

In The BFG, what does the Queen's butler balance on four grandfather clocks to make the giant a breakfast table?

A ping-pong table laid across the clocks makes a table tall enough for a 24-foot guest. For the matching chair, the unflappable butler stacks a piano on top of a chest of drawers.

On which day in 1989 did ITV first show the animated film of The BFG?

Christmas Day 1989 was the premiere. The film carries a dedication to George Jackson, one of the studio's animators, who had died in 1986, three years before it reached the screen.

Which Manchester animation studio, the makers of Danger Mouse, produced the 1989 animated BFG?

Cosgrove Hall, founded by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, made the BFG as a full-length feature, with Cosgrove himself directing.

How did Dahl react at a Soho screening of the 1989 animated BFG, according to its director?

He stood up and applauded with his family from the back of the room, to the relief of a studio that knew Dahl had hated the 1971 Willy Wonka film.

What do the other giants call the BFG in the 2016 film, the only name he has besides his initials?

Runt fits: at 24 feet the BFG is by far the smallest of the giants, less than half the height of their 54-foot leader.

Who runs the orphanage the BFG plucks Sophie from, a woman Dahl describes as cruel to her charges?

Mrs Clonkers never appears in person. We only hear of her from Sophie, who tells the BFG that she locks the children in the cellar as a punishment.

How does the Meatdripper catch his human victims in The BFG?

Posing as a tree, the Meatdripper waits for a family to picnic beneath him and then grabs them. Rooftops are another giant's trick: he lies on top of a house and plucks people from the street.

The last giant still awake lets the BFG tie him up after being told what invented creature bit him?

A vindscreen viper is the BFG's quick-thinking lie. Told to grip his ankle to stop the venom spreading, the giant holds still just long enough to be tied up with the rest.

Which studio handled the visual effects for the 2016 BFG, filmed in Vancouver in spring 2015?

Weta Digital, Peter Jackson's New Zealand effects house, had introduced Spielberg to performance capture on The Adventures of Tintin. Here it carried the lead actor's smallest expressions onto a 24-foot giant.

Where does Sophie choose to ride when the BFG runs from Giant Country to London?

Inside his ear, which he can swivel round like a dish, is her seat for the run to London. She rides there again when he leads the Queen's forces back to Giant Country.

What does Sophie use to stab the one giant who wakes while the others are being tied up?

The Queen's sapphire brooch, lent to Sophie for the royal breakfast, becomes a weapon: she drives its pin into the giant, and the BFG persuades him that something has bitten him.

In the 2016 BFG, whose portrait, left by the giant's last human friend, inspires Sophie to seek royal help?

Queen Victoria's portrait hangs among the things of a child the BFG once sheltered, who was found and eaten by the other giants. That loss is why he tries to send Sophie home.

In The BFG, why does the Queen telephone the King of Sweden?

To check the giants struck there: the BFG names Sweden as their hunting ground the night before England, and its king confirms that his people have been vanishing. A second call, to Baghdad, settles the matter.

Which fairy-tale hero stars in the nightmare the BFG looses on the giants' sleeping leader?

Jack of the beanstalk is the villain of the story to giants, the one human they fear. Dreaming of him, the leader thrashes about so wildly that he starts a brawl with his neighbours.

In which country did The BFG win a 1985 youth-literature prize as 'Sophiechen und der Riese'?

Germany's translation renamed the giant GuRie, short for 'guter Riese', and the 1985 prize jury praised how playfully the book handles language.

In the title of Roald Dahl's 1982 children's novel, what do the initials BFG stand for?

Big Friendly Giant is the name he gives Sophie to show he will not eat her: he is the only one of Giant Country's ten giants who lives on vegetables instead of people.

According to the BFG, people from Panama taste of what, a flavour that puns on their country's name?

Hats is the BFG's answer, a joke on the Panama hat: he says every people's flavour depends on where they come from, so the other giants pick their hunting grounds by taste.

What did Roald Dahl post to his illustrator to show exactly what footwear he wanted for the BFG?

One of his own sandals arrived in a large, lumpy parcel with a note asking that it be adapted for the giant, and the Norwegian sandal is kept in the Roald Dahl Museum's archive.

Which animal does the BFG confess to Sophie he would love to ride, early in their friendship?

An elephant is the BFG's lifelong wish, a secret he shares in the same chapters in which Sophie tells him about her unhappy years at the orphanage.

Which bodily noise does the BFG tell Sophie giants find rude, unlike the flatulence they enjoy?

Burping is the rude one in Giant Country, the reverse of human manners, which is why the BFG is so proud of a fizzy drink whose bubbles travel downwards.

Which kitchen tool does the BFG use to blend dreams together, a job he compares to mixing a cake?

An eggbeater whips the chosen dreams into a green foam, and the scraps of dream the BFG does not need simply float away.

Where does the BFG fear people would lock him up if he were ever caught in the human world?

In a zoo is where the BFG expects to end up, a fear so strong that he at first refuses Sophie's idea of asking the Queen of England for help.

Whose style of glasses does Sophie wear in the 1989 animated BFG, copying her real-life namesake?

John Lennon glasses were what the young Sophie Dahl wore at the time, so the film's director drew his heroine in the same frames.

How tall is the BFG, a height that makes him the smallest giant in Giant Country?

24 feet is the BFG's height, about four times that of a tall man, yet his nine neighbours stand roughly twice as high and bully him for being small.

What do people from Jersey taste of, one of the national flavours the BFG reels off for Sophie?

Cardigans is the punchline, since a jersey is also a knitted pullover; Roald Dahl drafted long lists of invented words and phrases for the BFG to speak.

What does the BFG sweep through the air to catch dreams, a scene the 2016 film stages as a dance?

A net is the BFG's dream-catcher, and the 2016 film's composer likened his sweeps with it to a Fred Astaire routine, so he scored the scene the way a musical would be.

What title does Roald Dahl give the opening chapter of The BFG, set in the dead of night?

The Witching Hour opens the story with Sophie wide awake in her orphanage bed, and by the third chapter, The Snatch, she has been plucked from that bed and carried off.

By what muddled name do the giants of The BFG know the people they gallop off to eat each night?

Human beans is the giants' garbled form of human beings; to build the BFG's tangled speech, Roald Dahl drafted long lists of invented words.

What does the BFG mean when he says his favourite fizzy drink makes him feel 'hopscotchy'?

Cheerful is the meaning: the BFG says a few gulps of the drink always pick him up when he feels low, and Roald Dahl drafted long lists of such invented words for him.

Where in London does the BFG land with Sophie, mistaking it for countryside near the Queen's home?

Hyde Park fools the BFG into thinking he has not reached the city yet, until Sophie explains that the Queen's back garden lies just across the road.

What does the BFG crash into overhead as he walks into the Queen's home for his royal breakfast?

A crystal chandelier takes the blow, and once the BFG is seated at the giant-sized table the staff have improvised, he bolts his food and asks for more.

Which member of the Queen's staff faints at his first sight of the BFG walking towards the house?

The gardener keels over on the spot, but he is later trusted with growing the BFG's foul vegetable so that the captured giants always have something to eat.

Why won't the BFG take tastier vegetables from human gardens, although he loathes his own crop?

It would be stealing, the BFG protests, a principle that sets him apart from neighbours who think nothing of snatching people from their beds.

Which actress from The Town and Iron Man 3 plays the Queen's maid in the 2016 film of The BFG?

Rebecca Hall plays Mary, and the film gives the maid a far bigger part than the book does: at the end it is she who adopts Sophie.

Which ten-year-old newcomer from Cheshire was cast as Sophie in the 2016 film of The BFG?

Ruby Barnhill had been acting for only two years and had to learn six pages of dialogue for her audition; her father Paul also turns up in the film as a footman.

To which country does the Bonecruncher, the fussiest of the BFG's neighbours, gallop for supper?

Turkey is the Bonecruncher's hunting ground because he insists that Turks taste of turkey, and he gets through two of them for dinner every single night.

How does the Gizzardgulper, the city-loving giant in The BFG, catch the people he eats?

Lying in wait on rooftops lets the Gizzardgulper pick walkers off the street below, one of several hunting tricks the BFG describes to Sophie on their way to catch dreams.

According to the BFG, humans are the only creatures that do what, which even giants never do?

Kill their own kind is the BFG's charge against humans: giants may eat people, he points out to Sophie, but they never murder one another.

Which Charles Dickens novel, borrowed from a sleeping boy, did the BFG use to teach himself to write?

Nicholas Nickleby has been on loan for some eighty years: the BFG took it from the bedroom of a boy he was visiting with a dream and never gave it back.

To which of Roald Dahl's children, who died of measles aged seven, is The BFG dedicated?

Olivia died in 1962, twenty years before the book appeared, and her loss turned Dahl into a campaigner who urged parents to have their children immunised.

Which everyday items carried the BFG and Sophie across Britain in 2012, thirty years after the novel?

Postage stamps from Royal Mail carried the pair in 2012, two years after Gibraltar's post office had put the BFG on a stamp of its own.

Which streaming company bought the Roald Dahl Story Company, owner of The BFG, in a 2021 deal?

Netflix paid more than £500 million for the company in September 2021, taking control of the BFG and every other Dahl character in a single purchase.

Where do soldiers leave the captured man-eating giants at the end of the 2016 film The BFG?

On an isolated island is where the film maroons them, with a large crate of seeds for the BFG's foul vegetable, so they must grow the only food they will ever get.

In the 2016 film of The BFG, which lost belonging of Sophie's tells the other giants a human is near?

Her blanket is found by the giants' leader after his gang has bullied the BFG, and before long all of them storm the workshop to hunt for her.

On the set of which film did Steven Spielberg hand the future BFG his script, a week into shooting?

Bridge of Spies was only a week into filming when the director passed over the screenplay, and the actor at first assumed he was just being asked for his opinion of it.

What was the orphan called in Roald Dahl's early drafts of The BFG, before the hero became Sophie?

Jody was a little boy in those drafts; Dahl rewrote the child as a girl, who went on to be one of the most resourceful heroines in all his books.

Into which language was The BFG translated in 2016 under the title The GFG?

Scots is the language of The GFG, one of dozens of translations: the Dutch edition is De GVR, the Italian one Il GGG and the Welsh one Yr CMM.

Which publisher's 2023 edition of The BFG made more than eighty changes to Roald Dahl's wording?

Puffin said the edits would keep the book enjoyable for modern readers, but after an outcry Dahl's publishers in the United States, France and the Netherlands declined to adopt them.

Which comedian and children's author narrated a 2016 audiobook of The BFG for its publisher?

David Walliams read the whole book unabridged for the 2016 recording, ten years after the actress Natasha Richardson had made an unabridged reading of her own.

In which Buckinghamshire village, Dahl's home, stands a house that inspired the orphanage in The BFG?

Great Missenden is also home to the Roald Dahl Museum, which stands just down the road from that house and keeps the author's handwritten lists of words for the BFG.

What was the trade of Wally Saunders, the very tall friend said to have partly inspired the BFG?

Builder Wally Saunders put up the garden hut where Roald Dahl wrote, so a model for the BFG helped to make the very room in which the giant was created.

In an English village churchyard, a trail of giant BFG footprints leads visitors to what?

Roald Dahl's grave is reached by following the prints up from a little tree in the graveyard, and hundreds of children have left pennies and pencils there for him.

Which actress, best known as the sitcom saleswoman Mrs Slocombe, voiced the Queen's maid in the 1989 BFG?

Mollie Sugden was reunited in the cast with Frank Thornton, the Captain Peacock to her Mrs Slocombe on television, who voiced the Queen's butler.

Keith Hopwood, co-composer of the 1989 animated BFG's score, played guitar in which 1960s pop group?

Herman's Hermits had Hopwood as their rhythm guitarist from 1963; he later moved into screen music and wrote the animated BFG's score with Malcolm Rowe.

Which animation technique, developed by Max Fleischer, did the 1989 BFG use to animate the Queen?

Rotoscoping, which traces drawings over filmed actors, was tried on Sophie too, until two of the animators found they could draw her movements without any reference footage.