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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Big Fish (2003)

Big Fish (2003)

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Released 16-Jun-2004

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Drama Main Menu Audio & Animation
Menu Audio
Dolby Digital Trailer
Audio Commentary-Tim Burton (Director)
Featurette-Edward Bloom At Large
Featurette-Amos At The Circus
Featurette-Fathers And Sons
Featurette-Tim Burton: Storyteller
Featurette-A Fairytale World
Featurette-Creature Features
Featurette-The Author's Journey
Featurette-Fish Tales
Quiz-The Finer Points
Theatrical Trailer
Trailer-Radio, Mona Lisa Smile
Rating Rated PG
Year Of Production 2003
Running Time 120:01
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Tim Burton
Studio
Distributor

Sony Pictures Home Entertain
Starring Ewan McGregor
Albert Finney
Billy Crudup
Jessica Lange
Alison Lohman
Helena Bonham Carter
Robert Guillaume
Marion Cotillard
Matthew McGrory
David Denman
Missi Pyle
Loudon Wainwright III
Ada Tai
Case ?
RPI $39.95 Music Danny Elfman
Eddie Vedder


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Czech Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
Spanish
Czech
Portuguese
Spanish Audio Commentary
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Can there be any other director who has carved such a perfect niche for himself as Tim Burton? The undoubted master of the "adult fairytale" tackles the issue of the relationship between Father and Son in the film Big Fish. With an impressive cast including Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup and Jessica Lange - oh, and not forgetting "Mrs Burton" (Helena Bonham Carter) - Big Fish is set up to succeed from the get-go. What Burton has created is a humorous and yet moving journey through the fantastic life of one Edward Bloom as retold through a series of flashbacks. The film strongly evokes memories of the equally surreal Edward Scissorhands and the gently comedic fictional biopic Forrest Gump.

    In Big Fish, Finney plays Edward Bloom, an indefatigably gregarious man who is soon confined to bed, suffering from a fatal illness. His estranged son Will (Crudup) returns from Paris with his pregnant wife, to visit with his father before his imminent death. Will has grown tired of his father's artful, yet endless retelling of the fantastic anecdotes from his early life and this has resulted in the pair refusing to talk to each other for the past three years. Determined to get beneath the surface of his father's "lies", Will implores Edward to "be himself" and tell him the truth about his life.

    The plot unfolds as Edward re-tells his tall tales to Will or his wife Josephine (Marion Cotillard). McGregor portrays the younger Edward and we get to experience the rich tapestry of Edward's (literally) fantastic life journey through his eyes. It is a fairytale woven from almost mythical characters and places - circuses, giants, Chinese ventriloquists, undying love, secret villages, Siamese twins and of course...a Big Fish. I will not summarise the plot further, as the joy of this film is the fabulous journey on which it leads the viewer - as Will discovers more about the truth of his father's life, so too does the viewer.

    This film is a heart-warming, funny and quite mesmerising tale. There is something strangely homely about Burton's Big Fish - it is one of those films that makes you reassess some of your own relationships. The acting is of a high calibre throughout - I thought Lange's performance as the loving wife of Bloom was wonderfully understated in particular. The supporting actors include the superb Steve Buscemi and Burton's old mate Danny De Vito. I did have a couple of minor gripes in this regard however - Finney's delivery is sometimes mumbled or slurred to an extent that I could not make out what he was saying (this could have been intentional, but was irritating nonetheless) and McGregor's Alabama accent was jarring. It's not that he didn't carry it off, but for an actor who has such a characteristic accent of his own (Sean Connery anyone?), the fake southern drawl did take a little while for me to feel comfortable with it.

    This story will make you laugh and will warm the cockles of all but the most hard-hearted viewer. Highly recommended as a film for those prepared to sit back, suspend disbelief, relax and enjoy the ride. If you have seen some of Burton's other work (Sleepy Hollow, Beetlejuice or Edward Scissorhands for instance), you may be one of those people who feel they are just a little too weird...possibly a little too contrived. Have no fear if that is the case. Whilst this bears the undeniable Burton stamp, it is probably his most accessible - dare I say mainstream - film. Very nice work indeed.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The overall video transfer of this film is excellent - pretty much a reference quality effort.

    The movie is presented in an anamorphic aspect ratio of 1.85:1 which is the original theatrical aspect ratio.

    Image sharpness does lapse slightly on a couple of middle distance shots, with a level of softness creeping in from time to time that is only noticeable when compared against the generally razor sharp footage. There is a very small amount of grain evident only occasionally, if you look closely (for example in the sky at 19:50 or 20:02), but this does not detract from what is pretty well the filmic equivalent of looking out a window.

    Black levels are excellent, being inky, deep and rock solid throughout. Shadow detail is just fine and never gave me any cause for concern. Colours are very cleanly rendered and can often be very highly saturated, providing a vivid and colourful image - the red of Edward's Charger, the lush green of the lawns of Spectre and the vivid colours of the circus contrast wonderfully with the dank forests and creepy old houses seen elsewhere in the film. Skin tones look natural throughout - although I thought the witch make-up somewhat less than impressive.

    The transfer has no MPEG artefacts. Aliasing is totally absent on my set-up, and whilst back lighting can be mistaken for edge enhancement on a couple of occasions, there is generally no issue from either halos or shimmering in this image.

    The transfer is spotless, with no significant film artefacts noticed.

    The English subtitles are well timed, easy to read and rarely stray from the dialogue.

    This is a single sided, dual layer (RSDL) formatted disc, with the very brief layer change only noticeable at 87:17 if you look very closely (just as Will walks through the door into Alice's house). It is not disruptive in the slightest.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio transfer is very good, and although approaching reference quality, it could perhaps have exploited the surround channels just a tad more.

    There is a single English audio track for the film, presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 encoded at a healthy 448 kbps. It is totally free from significant problems in the way of hiss, clicks or dropouts. The dialogue is always crisp and clear (with the exception of a couple of Finney's lines) and audio sync was spot on throughout.

    Original music is credited to the phenomenally accomplished Danny Elfman whose seemingly endless list of other work includes Spider-Man, Men in Black, Army Of Darkness, Hulk and Red Dragon. He is undoubtedly up there with the best in the business. The music provides a most satisfying orchestral backdrop to the slightly surreal, almost dreamlike visuals at all times, with melancholy and grand sweeping choral passages cropping up at just the right moments.

    The dialogue is soundly anchored in the main channels - predominantly the centre speaker, but with some nice relocation around 64:10 as Will listens in to Edward's discussions with Josephine, and is crisp and natural at all times. The front speakers carry much of the sound activity and provide some quite nice front soundstage pans (for example when the cats run across the screen).

    Whilst much of the film is dialogue-driven, perhaps requiring little more than a frontal soundstage, there is a significant surround presence from time to time (for example in the church singing at 18:23 or the Big Top scenes around 44:50) which can become quite enveloping. There is some evidence of locational surround effects and occasional front-to-rear panning. The orchestral score makes the greatest use of the surround channels by and large, and I felt there was a little wasted potential in the way of localised spot effects from the surrounds.

    There is a reasonable degree of subwoofer bass activity throughout the movie, with the soundtrack occasionally displaying some visceral LFE presence. The most substantial low frequency effects crop up when Edward is talking to the giant around 22:32, where the sheer force of his booming voice and heavy footsteps can literally be felt by the viewer.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

    The extras are rather substantial, particularly given such a high quality video transfer on a single disc, and make a worthwhile addition to the film.

Menu

    The animated main menu is an intriguing and stylish affair which just begs you to explore the disc. It allows the options of playing the feature, selecting one of a healthy twenty-eight chapter stops, audio language and subtitle selection, plus access to the following features:

Audio Commentary

    Burton is prompted by an unnamed questioner through this generally scene-specific commentary, which serves to illicit the maximum input from the director. The commentary is revealing and entertaining, without too much gushiness and back-slapping. It is encoded in Dolby Digital 2.0 at 192 kbps and is well worth a listen for fans of the director.

Featurettes

    These often substantial sequences can be accessed via menu, or interactively during the film via "Matrix White Rabbit" style branching called Fish Tales. They are divided into two paths, each with an icon which allows you to branch off to your heart's content:

    The Characters' Journey

    The Filmmaker's Path

The Finer Points: A Trivia Quiz

    This nice little feature can be accessed in a couple of ways. Firstly, as a straight series of questions, or secondly as an interactive component of the movie. In the latter, when an icon pops up on screen you can interrupt the film to answer a question (all Burton related). In either case, once all questions have been correctly answered, you are treated to a two minute clip explaining one of the special effects (the freeze motion sequence at the circus) shots.

Trailers

    Promotional trailers for the following:

Easter Egg

    This short (1:11) and seemingly pointless video clip can be accessed by (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) clicking on the hat on the main menu. I'm not quite sure why it is there...but it is nevertheless.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 1 release of this film appears to be substantially the same as our own - minor differences exist in the way of theatrical trailers, but little else.

    The Region 4 release misses out on trailers for the following films:

    It looks like you will be perfectly happy with a purchase of the Region 4 release, with its superior PAL transfer.

Summary

    Big Fish is possibly the most easily accessible of Tim Burton's more recent (post Batman) films. Whilst it does evoke occasional memories of Forrest Gump or The World According to Garp, it bears the unmistakable personal stamp of the somewhat offbeat director. The tale of one man trying to come to terms with the larger-than-life exploits of his father is a warm, funny and touching piece of work which comes highly recommended for fans of adult fairytales - and particularly for fans of the eccentric Burton. Well worth (almost exactly) two hours of your life.

    The 1.85:1 video transfer is of reference quality.

    The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio transfer is very good indeed.

    Extra features are numerous and include a very informative commentary from the director himself.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Daniel O'Donoghue (You think my bio is funny? Funny how?)
Friday, June 11, 2004
Review Equipment
DVDMomitsu V880 upconverting DVI player, using DVI output
DisplaySanyo PLV-Z2 WXGA projector. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 720p.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials.
AmplificationOnkyo TX-SR600 with DD-EX and DTS-ES
SpeakersJensenSPX-9 fronts, Jensen SPX-13 Centre, Jensen SPX-5 surrounds, Jensen SPX-17 subwoofer

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