Aunt Sponge is, along with her sister, Aunt Spiker, one of the antagonists of the early portion of the book James and the Giant Peach, as well as one of the main antagonists of the film adaptation.
She was portrayed by Miriam Margolyes, who also voiced The Matchmaker in Mulan.
What makes her despicable?[]
Both versions[]
- She and Aunt Spiker are mentioned to beat James.
- She and Aunt Spiker never call James by his name, always referring to him by insults such as "You disgusting little beast", "You filthy nuisance", and "You miserable creature".
- She and Aunt Spiker force James to do chores while they laze about.
- She and Aunt Spiker are never given a reason for hating James, they are just awful because they are.
- She and Aunt Spiker constantly shout at James and hypocritically accuse him of being a lazy good for nothing who needs to work more.
- She is very narcissistic about her appearance, even though she's very ugly.
- She and Aunt Spiker make it clear they aren't going to give James even a single bite of the peach.
- She and Aunt Spiker keep James locked in his room when people come to pay to see the peach, not allowing him to play with any of the children.
- She and Aunt Spiker force James to go outside and clean up the yard at night.
Book[]
- She and Aunt Spiker threaten to lock James up in the rat infested cellar for a week if he climbs over the fence.
- When she and Aunt Spiker see James crying, they yell at him to get back to work, with Aunt Sponge telling Aunt Spiker to beat James later.
- She suggests leaving James in the well overnight.
- She and Aunt Spiker refuse to give James anything to eat before sending him outside to clean the yard.
- She and Spiker don't bother to go looking for James when he fails to return throughout the night and are very apathetic about what may have happened to him, saying that hopefully he fell over and broke his leg or neck.
- When the peach begins to fall, the prose states that Spiker and Sponge each think only about saving themself, showing they don't even care about saving each other.
- Overall, she and her sister were so despicable that their nephew and his insect friends cheer when they are killed by the peach.
Film[]
- She and Spiker constantly tease James about the rhino that killed his parents, joking that it could come back for him.
- When she and Spiker see James looking at his travel book that his father gave him, she and Spiker both insult his father, with Sponge in particular tearing up the book despite knowing it's the last thing James has to remember his parents by. She and Spiker tell James that he will never leave them or go to New York City, saying that no one would tolerate a worthless little nothing like him.
- When James finishes all the chores, she jokes about her and Spiker having finished all the food before he could have any, before Spiker points out there are still raw fish heads he can eat. When James expresses disgust, Sponge orders him out of their sight. Sponge then lets out a very disgusting burp.
- While she refuses to beat James at one point, it's only because it's too early and she's too tired to beat him, not out of any sympathy.
- When a family pays admission to see the peach and a little girl asks if she can touch it, Spiker and Sponge refuse to give her and her family admission and shoo them away without giving them their money back, effectively stealing from them.
- At the end, she and Spiker try to kill James with fire axes but they get arrested as they were taken away by an crane.
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