FUNimation has gifted US audiences with a showing of Big Fish & Begonia, in select theaters across the country. The tale follows the adventures of a magical being, Chun, who wishes to explore and experience the human world. Like many of us, she soon discovers that our realm is as dangerous as it is wonderous.
Sounds amazing! Where can I see it? (Runs quick Google search). REALLY?!
Unfortunately for me, there is a Great Lake between myself and the closest available screening. Therefore, I will be relying on reviews from around the web to help me decide if it's worth the trouble. Of course, FUNimation reported a 90% Rotten Tomatoes rating within the first days of Big Fish & Begonia's showing, but that was with just a mere 20 reviews submitted. Though I do credit them for their lightening-speed screen-capture-trigger-pulling capabilities.
In actual fact, the ratings haven't gone down that much since the debut and even as I wrote this article, it gained a percentage in approval from 84 percent to 85 percent, which means it's only suffered a 5 percent drop overall. If only certain other nameless films of even greater fanbases could claim the same.
Critics have been overwhelmingly supportive of the film as well. CNET editor, Richard Trenholm Knightwell, recently tweeted, "Just saw Big Fish & Begonia. Fantasy in the truest sense - intoxicatingly dreamlike, beguilingly strange and achingly lovely[.]"
Teo Bugbee of The New York Times also reviewed the film, writing: "The directors of this mythological maelstrom, Liang Xuan and Zhang Chun, use the flexibility of animation to create visual metaphors that represent the beauty and the terror of passing from one realm to the next."
Average viewers who don't make a living writing reviews are a little more divided, however. User reviews of Big Fish & Begonia on Rotten Tomatoes, for example, range from Lich-King-Level-Cold like this one: "Trite, boring and self important. An undending stream of platitudes trying to disguise itself as meaningful..." to five star reviews, just a few reviews down, touting the film as, "The best movie I've seen in a while...This is a movie that takes some serious thinking and reasoning, not cheap entertainment."
Sadly, as I haven't seen the movie myself, I can't offer any kind of personal, tie-breaking opinion. I can say that with this much positive critical acclaim combined with the few dissenting opinions of the fans...I'm definitely going to find a way to view it. If you're like me, and you want to form your own opinion on Big Fish & Begonia, FUNimation has a list of theaters where it can viewed.
If you've already seen the film, I'd love to hear your (please, spoiler-free) review! So, give us your opinions in the comments!