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Order this DVD from Amazon.com
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Big Fish
(Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment)
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| DVD Release Date:
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April 27, 2004
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| Length:
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125 mins.
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| Rated:
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PG
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| Format:
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Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
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| Audio:
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English 5.1 (Dolby Digital), French (Dolby Surround)
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| Subtitles:
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English, French, Closed Captioned
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| Extras:
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Tim Burton Audio Commentary, Featurettes: The Character's Journey ("Edward Bloom at Large", "Amos at the Circus", "Fathers and Sons"), The Filmmakers' Path ("Tim Burton: Storyteller", "A Fairytale World", "Creature Features", The Author's Journey"), The Finer Points - A Tim Burton Trivia Quiz, Trailers
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Everybody has tall tales. I have mine about the time I fought a torrential rain storm and shot a 7 under par at the mini-putt. Or about the time I built an immense fortune playing the stock market and then managed to lose it all through a series of bizarre circumstances. Or about how I conquered my high school and the countless number of women I slept with along the way. Wait - that's not a tall tale - that's more like a legend. If you like tall tales, then you're going to enjoy Big Fish, the latest movie from Tim Burton. But if tall tales aren't your thing, and you're looking for a great family flick, a story about fathers and sons and redemption, this might not be your cup of tea.
Big Fish is the story of Edward Bloom, played by an older Albert Finney and a younger Ewan McGregor. Bloom is a man who has lived a larger than life existence. He's had encounters with witches, giants and one very big fish. But now, he's dying. In the wake of his illness, his son William (Billy Crudup) returns home to try and come to terms with who his father is and to try and separate the fact from the fiction. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn about these tall tales and slowly, we begin to learn who the real Edward Bloom is. I had high hopes for Big Fish, and it was okay, but it wasn't nearly as good as I expected it to be. In the end, it was almost as though it were a bunch of short stories tied together by a bigger plot, and although the short stories were entertaining, the overall story didn't really pay off emotionally. When it ended, I was left asking myself, "Was that all?".
Big Fish is now available on DVD, packed with special features. What kind of features? First, we get a pretty good audio commentary from director Tim Burton. What made this commentary good was that it was conducted like an interview, with somebody sitting through the commentary with Burton, asking questions specific to the film. Here, we learn some great behind-the-scenes stuff, like how the man playing the banjo as we're introduced to the town of Spectre is the boy who played the banjo in the classic, Deliverance. Of course, we get the odd little bits of information about Burton that make him the unique Hollywood character that he is. Quotes like: "It's always been a dream of mine to drive in a Shriner's car." Who admits to that?
Next, we get "The Character's Journey" which is a series of three featurettes. The first is titled "Edward Bloom at Large" which is an in-depth look at Bloom, mostly dealing with Ewan McGregor talking about how fun it was to play the character. Second is "Amos at the Circus", which is a brief look at the role played by Danny DeVito in the film. Finally, we get "Fathers and Sons" which obviously looks at the roles of Billy Crudup and Albert Finney. Here, we learn a bit more about the emotional side of the story. Seeing this helped me to appreciate that aspect of the movie a little bit more.
The next series of featurettes deals with Tim Burton and is titled "The Filmmakers' Path". The first is called "Tim Burton: Storyteller". It starts where we hear from the cast about what Tim Burton films they best remember and we segue into hearing from Burton about the making of the Big Fish. We finish by hearing from the cast again about how great Burton is to work with. Standard fare - good for Burton fans. Second, we get "The Fairytale World" which looks at the fantasy elements of the movie and what Burton brought to the table to bring them to life. We also learn about some of the film's makeup (Helena Bonham Carter as the witch) and effects (Matthew McGrory as Karl the Giant). Third is "Creature Features" which looks at what creature guru Stan Winston brought to the film as well as the film's wolves, spiders etc. Finally, we get "The Author's Journey" which is an in-depth look at the book's journey to the big screen, featuring author Daniel Wallace and screenwriter John August.
The two remaining extras are interactive features. The first, called "Fish Tales" can be found in the featurettes section of the DVD. With this feature activated, when watching the movie you'll be presented with icons that, when selected, will take you behind the scenes to the appropriate part of the film's featurettes. The second is a Tim Burton Trivia Quiz. When you watch the featurettes in "The Filmmakers Path" with this activated, you get quizzed on different aspects of Burton's filmmaking career. If you answer the questions correctly, you get a reward - a bonus featurette about the making of the scene where young Edward Bloom meets his would-be wife, played by Alison Lohman. You also have the option of taking the quiz by itself.
Finally, the DVD contains trailers for Big Fish and a number of other Sony Pictures titles.
I'm not going to say that I didn't enjoy Big Fish, because I did. It's just that I expected more. The tall tales were fantastic, and were everything I could've expected from Tim Burton. And for special features, we get a great look behind the scenes at the making of the movie. But in the end, I found that the family drama that tied the movie together failed to reel this fish in.
| The Movie: |
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6/10 |
| The Extras: |
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7/10 |
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Liam Cullin - Editor
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