For all his talent, the plot has never been a big worry for Tim Burton. While the likes of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Batman, Batman Returns and Mars Attacks! look stunning, the storylines often leave something to be desired.
That said, at times Burton combines his vivid imagination and an involving narrative with impressive results. With this movie, Big Fish stands proudly alongside Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood as a compassionate piece of modern cinematic whimsy.
While the story and performances take centre-stage it still showcases Burton's visual flourishes, and it's a pleasure to see them get the lavish 1080p hi-def treatment with this dual-layer Blu-ray disc. While the modern sequences get a natural and realistic look, the fantastical flashbacks burst with colour and vibrancy. The excessive stylisation of some of these visuals sometimes results in a lack of detail, but this looks like post-production tinkering rather than any encoding issues.
The sound mix is just as rewarding. It brims with ambient sound and offers a host of audio highlights. The only place where this otherwise excellent disc trips up is with the extras, which are limited to one subdued commentary. Sadly, all of the excellent featurettes, interviews and other extras from the DVD are absent.
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