The BFG, the film, whose screenplay was written by Melissa Mathison, shows the story of Sophie, an orphan girl, and of a giant named the big friendly giant (BFG). This film begins with the meeting of Sophie and BFG, whose relationship ends up becoming a friendship. While BFG may look like a threat since he is a giant, different aspects of his personality shine through to show that he is different from what people would expect. Throughout this film there is an important message conveyed. Through the portrayal of BFG, this films message is that everything is not what it seems to be on the surface and that in order to truly know or understand something it must be looked into further than just at the level of appearance. 

In order to portray this message the film begins by showing the appearance of BFG and then goes into aspects that contradict what someone would think of him based on his looks. While BFG’s appearance is similar to a human, he is alarmingly large with certain features that are emphasized. His mouth and hands are significant features because they display what he could do to a human that would cause fear. One of the first scenes in this movie shows a frightened Sophie looking outside of her dark window, where she witnesses a huge hand picking up a trash can and then she runs back into her bed in the orphanage. Along with suspenseful music, this frame zooms in on BFG’s face as he grabs Sophie from her window. This is significant as it reveals BFG’s face for the first time, and exhibits how his hands are important as he grabs Sophie into his hand. By grabbing a human into one hand, BFG can be seen as a threat and elicit fear. It is very evident from this scene through the details shown, that in Sophie’s eyes, she would always be afraid of BFG and could never come to be his friend. This is because this scene shows his physical appearance to be a menace to humans through how he grabs Sophie without an apparent reason. This scene is surrounded by a lot of fear as to emphasize how afraid Sophie is and to show the viewer how BFG appears to be, as he’s portrayed as being frighteningly large and roaming around at night. From the looks of this scene Sophie’s been kidnapped by a giant, however, in reality BFG is a nice giant who took Sophie to ensure that she doesn’t tell anyone about him. To further showcase that appearances can be deceiving, Sophie becomes friends with the giant to the point where she wants to stay with him rather than return to her orphanage, where she states she has no friends. Sophie did not have one friend at an orphanage with tons of girls her age, yet she became friends with BFG. However, BFG was introduced in a way that contradicts his friendship with Sophie in order to show the message that everything is not what it seems to be at the surface. Sophie could have had a friend at the orphanage, but the purpose of only having BFG as a friend is to showcase how powerful their friendship is, which is directly in conflict with what is expected of BFG based on his looks. On the surface BFG appears somewhat frightening being extremely big, however his portrayal in Sophie’s eyes changes as seen by how he is later shown in the movie to represent his true nature or his personality. After BFG and Sophie became friends, BFG is shown smiling and having a friendly demeanor, which allows for his appearance to be perceived as being less harmful than at first, before getting to know him.

Throughout the film more information is revealed about the BFG, such as that he has morals which he lives by. He’s not just a friendly giant, he actually has a certain mindset on things which develops his personality through the film to show that he is very different from his appearance or from how people could view him as Sophie did in the very beginning. There is a scene which shows BFG cooking and using a large axe to cut vegetables, as Sophie sits on a plate. This leads the viewer to believe that BFG may eat her and is significant as it exhibits how easily he could. It looks as though he will eat Sophie when instead he explains to her how he can never eat a human, as the other giants, because that is cannibalistic. This scene shows how he considers himself and the humans to be the same and that he has somewhat of a strength to follow through with this belief, as his whole diet is revealed to consist of vegetables. To be able to follow through with this belief shows that BFG has strong morals and is not just friendly but also has a good moral character.

  To further display BFG’s moral character, his caring nature is shown. BFG decides to help the humans with the giants who are eating children. However, to do this BFG must reveal himself to the Queen and her army. This scene becomes very important as it reminds the viewer of how people still view BFG as a threat, while also revealing more about BFG that contradicts his looks. Right when he reveals himself, soldiers run to him with their guns out. The scene is shown from behind the Queen who is watching from her window, which allows the viewer to see the fear in BFG’s eyes as he is standing with soldiers surrounding him. Seeing the fear in his eyes allows the viewer to see that BFG sees himself as vulnerable to the humans. He can harm them, but the fear that’s seen shows that he cannot come to think or see himself harming them. This scene depicts how people quickly jump to conclusions based on the impression of looks. BFG was actually taking a large risk to help the humans with the other giants because he revealed himself to the humans, allowing them to know he exists and the other giants could have potentially hurt him if they found out. However, the humans did not see this and their first response was to attack him, seeing him as a threat. The purpose of this scene is to allow the viewer to take notice of BFG as being helpful and caring to the humans, while they focus their attention on his appearance. Since BFG appears to be threatening, the humans decided he was and wanted to protect themselves. By basing their reaction only on how he looks, they limited themselves from seeing the truth of his intentions, since his looks are not an accurate image of himself.

This films portrayal of BFG transitions from the nature of his looks to the reality of his actual personality. It reveals that appearances are not always accurate by going deep into BFG’s life and personality as a giant. BFG’s friendship to Sophie and morals are in direct conflict with the typical personality expected based solely on how he looks or appears to be. Through this conflict this film is able to emphasize the message that everything is not as it seems to be. It even goes on to encourage further exploration to be able to see the true nature of something and not just go by appearances, as Sophie began to do through the film. By looking past appearances, the film also shows many positive outcomes that came about, such as Sophie and BFG’s friendship and the banishing of the human eating giants. This can lead the viewer to the point that looking past appearances can cause a significant difference in how things are in the world.

  