<Tr> <Th> Budget </Th> <Td> $38 million </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $28.9 million (U.S.) </Td> </Tr> <P> James and the Giant Peach is a 1996 British - American musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick, based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Roald Dahl . It was produced by Tim Burton and Denise Di Novi, directed by Henry Selick, and starred Paul Terry as James . The film is a combination of live action and stop - motion animation . Co-stars Joanna Lumley and Miriam Margolyes played James's aunts in the live - action segments, and Simon Callow, Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon, Jane Leeves, David Thewlis, and Margoyles voiced his insect friends in the animation sequences . </P> <P> James Henry Trotter is a young boy who lives with his parents by the sea in England . On James' birthday, they plan to go to New York City and visit the Empire State Building, the tallest building in the world . However, his parents are killed by a ghostly rhinoceros from the sky and James finds himself living with his two ignorant and cruel aunts, Spiker and Sponge . </P>

Who played the aunts in james and the giant peach