| | | An Adventure As Big As Life Itself.
Features: Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, Dolby Digital (5.1), English, Spanish, Subtitled, French, Dubbed & Subtitled
Throughout his life, Edward Bloom (Ewan McGregor) has always been a man of big appetites, enormous passions and tall tales. In his later years, portrayed by five-time Best Actor Oscar nominee Albert Finney (Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Erin Brockovich, 2000), he remains a huge mystery to his son, William (Billy Crudup). 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.
"...enriching...heartwarming...funny...touching...breathtaking..." Clint Morris, Film Threat
"...it always takes effort to catch the big ones. This one is worth it." Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
"...brims with storytelling sorcery, and Burton makes it glitter." Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"An achievement of this magnitude is a stunning and extremely pleasant surprise." Rick Kisonak, Film Threat
"...an incredible cinematic journey that is as wonderfully magical as it is visually dazzling." Shawn Edwards, FOX-TV
Editor's Note
In Tim Burton's family film BIG FISH, a gifted storyteller named Edward Bloom (Albert Finney), who lives in a small town in Alabama, recounts tall tales of his wild worldly adventures. These are shown in flashback with Ewan McGregor playing the young Bloom. Wonderful special effects and vibrant colors that pop off the screen make this Burton film a much sunnier experience than his macabre gems EDWARD SCISSORHANDS and BEETLEJUICE. Yet his signature quirky artistry is unmistakable, and the movie benefits from crisp production values and a loveable, bizarre cast of characters.Told through a series of vignettes, Bloom's stories involve a witch, a giant, a haunted forest, and yes, a big fish. A self-described small-town hero, Bloom explains how he left home at 18 determined to experience anything and everything life could dish out. He worked for the circus, took on daring assignments as a WWII soldier, and rambled across the country as a zany traveling salesman. Utterly unbelievable yet magical and delightful, Bloom's stories just don't translate to his son Will (Billy Crudup) who wants to know his dad's "true" life story. But little by little--through increasingly outlandish tales at which Will cannot resist smirking--the two begin to understand each other, and Bloom weaves his stories into their genealogical fabric.
| Features | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, PCM 5.1 Surround Sound | | Audio: French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Dubbed: French | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Mandarin, Korean, Thai | | This Is A Blu-Ray DVD Made For Blue-Laser Format Players Which Produce Higher Quality Picture And Sound |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Sony Pictures |
| Release Date: 3/20/2007 |
| Running Time: 125 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2003 | | Catalog ID: 16220 | | UPC: 00043396162204 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English, French Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Korean, Portuguese, Thai, Mandarin | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Nominee (2004) | | | British Academy Awards, Bruce Cohen, et. al., Best Film | | | British Academy Awards, Albert Finney, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role | | | British Academy Awards, Tim Burton, David Lean Award for Direction | | | Golden Globe, Big Fish, Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy | | | Golden Globe, Danny Elfman, Best Original Score - Motion Picture | | | Golden Globe, Eddie Vedder, Best Original Song - Motion Picture | | | Golden Globe, Albert Finney, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture | | | Oscar, Danny Elfman, Best Music, Original Score |
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| | Professional Reviews | Rolling Stone
"...[BIG FISH] brims with storytelling sorcery and Burton makes it glitter....[A] marvel of a movie..." 12/11/2003 p.213Entertainment Weekly
"...BIG FISH turns into a wide-eyed Southern gothic picaresque in which each lunatic twist of a development is more enchanting than the last..." 12/12/2003 p.55-6 New York Times
"[Burton] is surely one of the most prodigiously imaginative filmmakers around....There are, true to form, some startling scenes in his new movie, BIG FISH." 12/10/2003 p.E1 Los Angeles Times
"Burton cranks up the visual comedy of the character's self-mythology and lets it rip, sometimes to joyously dizzy effect." 12/10/2003 p.C1 USA Today
"[T]he movie gets better as it goes, as Steve Buscemi and Helena Bonham Carter show up and the story works its way to a finale that can make grown men sniffle." 01/13/2004 p.4D Chicago Sun-Times
"[A] great-looking film, with a fantastical visual style that could be called Felliniesque if Burton had not by now earned the right to the adjective Burtonesque." 12/24/2003 p.48 Movieline's Hollywood Life
"The father-son confrontations are tart..." 02/01/2004 p.100-1 Sight and Sound
"[W]e get a rare Burton fantasia that evokes other American magic voyages." 02/01/2004 p.35-6 Uncut
"This one proves Tim Burton's an absolute master." 07/01/2004 p.142 Ultimate DVD
4 stars out of 5 -- "BIG FISH is a work in pictures -- and what dazzling pictures they are -- infused with a great big heart." 05/01/2007 p.85 ReelViews 8 of 10
Big Fish is one of those films that isn't likely to be a strong box office performer, but which will probably generate a more lasting impression once it is available for home viewing...With a whimsical, fairy-tale approach reminiscent of The Princess Bride and Terry Gilliam's fractured fables, the movie has the ability to enchant and amuse, but it is not a traditionally commercial property...Big Fish is a little too uneven to attain the same level as something like The Wizard of Oz or The Princess Bride, but it's in the same general vicinity. There's a sense that a few dead spots could have been eliminated and the whole project tightened up, but those are relatively minor quibbles. Big Fish is a clever, smart fantasy that targets the child inside every adult, without insulting the intelligence of either. - James Berardinelli
DVD Verdict 9 of 10
Big Fish started its life as Daniel Wallace's novel, Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions. It's a light book, both in tone and in size (my copy is only 180 pages). In it, a young man long estranged from his enigmatic father, tries to peel back the tall tales his father has told him about his early life and find the real man behind his self-created myth. It's both funny and poignant, grounded in reality yet oddly magical. In other words, it's the perfect material for a Tim Burton movie...Besides being a wonderful film and a fine entry to the Tim Burton catalog, Big Fish will likely remind you of a storyteller in your own life. It reminds me of my father, who when I was growing up would often regale me and my friends with stories from his own life. - Mike Jackson
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