Big Fish Blu-ray delivers great video and reference-quality audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
Throughout his life Edward Bloom has always been a man of big appetites, enormous passions and tall tales. In his later years, he remains a huge mystery to his son, William. Now, to get to know the real man, Will begins piecing together a true picture of his father from flashbacks of his amazing adventures in this marvel of a movie.
The first time I ever heard the name Tim Burton was back in 1985 when Pee Wee's Big Adventure became a surprising cut phenomenon. I was immediately drawn to his quirky and completely original visual style. Indeed, Tim Burton is a very visual storyteller. Over the years, Mr. Burton has worked within, around and outside the mainstream of contemporary film. While I tend to be drawn more to his more personal and off-beat work, even his big-budget extravaganzas have a certain quality that bears the unmistakable trademark of Tim Burton.
Edward Bloom (Albert Finney & Ewan McGregor) is dying. As his somewhat estranged son William (Billy Crudup) and daughter-in-law (Marion Cotillard) pay him what could be their final visit, we are taken on a meandering ride as William recounts the various tall tales his father has told him throughout his life. Perhaps there's more to these stories then mere exaggeration? Hostility between father and son and years of poor communication has clouded their relationship. William will have to dig deeply into his father's mysterious past to uncover the truth about who this man really is.
A big fish in a small pond
Watching Big Fish is much like watching a carnival come to life. The characters are colorful and the multiple story-lines and seemingly random editing create the sense that we are viewing a story of epic proportions. While this might not necessarily be the case, we are treated to one of the most whimsical pieces of storytelling in recent memory. I found the film to be both joyful and, at certain moments, almost haunting. There is a huge cast of characters on display in Big Fish. Danny DeVito, Steve Buschemi, Helena Bohnam Carter and Robert Guillaume all show up in relatively small parts that contribute greatly to the overall story. One word of caution: The film starts very slowly and takes about 15 minutes to really get interesting. Give Big Fish a chance and you will be rewarded with a very touching and original film.
Much like its multiple storylines, Big Fish is also all over the place regarding video quality. Presented in Mepg-2 encoded 1080p, the image from Big Fish is often-times startlingly wonderful, but frequently inconsistent. It appears that several different film stocks have been used and shots seem to switch between them at a seemingly random rate. My best guess would be that this look is absolutely intentional, but unfortunately I can't quite recall how the film looked theatrically from 2003. What I can say, is that there is a lot of beautifully rendered grain in Big Fish and at no time was I distracted by artificial picture artifacts caused by a poor encode. I think the look of Big Fish will come down to taste for a lot of people. I, personally, love the way the film looks many might feel otherwise. At any rate, if you are looking for a glossy piece of digitally smoothed out celluloid, Big Fish probably isn't for you.
Big Fish certainly isn't inconsistent from the audio standpoint! From the first flashback sequence, I was absolutely immersed into the world that this amazing piece of sound design has created. Much of the film is presented as fantasy and the soundtrack perfectly helps convey the fantastical sights we are seeing on screen. Bass is wonderfully reproduced with some outstanding subwoofer effects. Surround usage is very active and dialog is always crisp and intelligible. Sony once again serves up a reference soundtrack with the use of PCM audio. Perfection!
Well, there really isn't much here as far as extras are concerned. The Tim Burton commentary is very well done and insightful, but there really should be more on this BD-50 disc. I recall the SD DVD including a huge number of extras, so I can't understand why it was all left off of this Blu-ray presentation.
Despite a lack of extras, this Blu-ray release of Big Fish is another winner from Sony. The film really is wonderful and the technical presentation continues Sony's nearly perfect run as of late. Big Fish is one of those films that, for me, gets better with each and every viewing. If this is your first time to view the film, please give the story a chance to get past it's intially uneasy first fifteen minutes. The remainder of the film will have big payoffs for you!
