big fish - small return

Rating: 6/10 (13 January 2004)

One word: "cute". The movie is cute, the characters are cute, the moral is cute... damn, mr. burton, you went soft!
Visually the movie is strong, and i think it was well done all around, but as the third act started i was wondering where all this was going. While it did start to loss me, the ending grabbed me and got me back. It wrapped it all up very nicely and drove the message home in a pretty powerful way.
With that said, and while there were several enjoyable "burton" moments, i just felt like i was watching a "nice, cute" kids movie. Why did they bother with the pg-13 rating? Cut 3 swear words out and about 5 seconds of film, and this thing is PG and more directed at its target audience. I really am a fan of Mr. Burton's work, but i think "beetle juice" was edgier. And i read that someone thought the movie was violent? Did i miss something?
Its nice, its sweet, its sentimental and gets a few laughs; but i have to say that i expected more. My vote: less cute, more burton.