It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

The first thing I should mention about BIG FISH AND BEGONIA is that it is visually stunning. I do not recall seeing many Chinese animated productions (although I wouldn't be surprised if I had inadvertently stumbled upon one without realizing it), but this is one of the most visually impressive I've seen from the country. Like a magnet, it seduces you from the first frame and keeps you entranced for all 100 minutes. In a way, this film reminded me a bit of Laika's recent KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS. That film, while not a tightly plotted story, was nonetheless so visually stimulating that one could not help but be glued to their seats throughout. BIG FISH is the same way.Describing the plot, it's sort of a mixing pot of THE LITTLE MERMAID with shades of SPIRITED AWAY and Chinese mythology. Basically, this film imagines an "alternate world" way beneath the ocean -- a sort of mythological Chinese flavored kingdom whose inhabitants are some sort of humanoid "spirits" with powers who are responsible for guarding the balance of nature. One of its residents, 16-year-old Chun, participates in a sort of "coming of age" ceremony, in which she is transformed into a crimson colored dolphin and swims to the surface world. Here she comes face to face with a human boy and his little sister. But the visit turns tragic when she is trapped in a fisherman's net. The boy courageously rescues her, only to drown. Feeling responsible, Chun travels beyond the boundaries of her village to some sort of one-eyed demon (Lengpo, the Lady of Souls), where she strikes a Faustian bargain. The boy will be reborn as a dolphin, whom she will have to tame and grow until he is old enough to return to hid world. But the price is two-fold. First, she must give up half of her life force to revive the boy in question (whom she names Kun), and whatever pain he receives, she'll receive too. The second and more dangerous outcome involves unnatural disasters such as rainstorms, maelstroms, and even snow which threaten to destroy her world's existence. Only her closest friend Qiu, who secretly harbors a crush on her, might be able to set things right.As mentioned, BIG FISH AND BEGONIA is absolutely breathtaking to look at. The film is also rich with metaphorical imagery, particularly when talking about matters such as life and death. In one scene, for instance, when an old man dies, he is reborn as a tree. His similarly deceased wife, incidentally, is some sort of peacock who comes to rest on the tree in question. In terms of character development, BIG FISH AND BEGONIA isn't very heavy on it, but Qiu, oddly enough, emerges as the most interesting of the characters. When we first meet him he appears to be somewhat mischievous and playful. But he also has a very serious dedicated side to him, and ultimately goes to great lengths to help the person dearest to him. The rest of the cast don't stand out as much, but with the possible exception of one fairly negligible potential baddie (who lives in a rat-infested sewer), nobody comes across as truly unsympathetic. Only issue is that there are a plethora of minor characters who only have about five minutes of screentime, to the point where we don't get to know them as well, but that's my only issue.The dub by Studiopolis is well done for the most part, with no noticeably bad performances, although I DID detect some mistimed lines at least in the first half hour -- I do find it jarring to see a character's mouth start flapping only for no sound to come out until the second one, and this unfortunately sometimes happens in the beginning. Thankfully, this problem disappears in the second half, and other than that, as mentioned, everyone plays their roles well. Stephanie Sheh and Johnny Yong Bosch, in particular, do great turns as the lead characters, Chun and Qiu, respectively.Perhaps the best way to describe this film is that it is more visual poetry rather than a cohesive plot, but it also offers a sincere heart that somehow manages to win the viewer over. The ending is also bittersweet and will surely wrench tears. (I know I was crying toward the end!) Directors Lian Xuan and Zhang Chun spent more than 12 years(!) working on this film, most of it being a series of starts and stops. According to the making-of-featurette, this film started off as a wildly successful 7 minute short made in Flash, but acquiring funds for expanding it into a feature proved problematic, and nearly disbanded the animation studio B & J. So what saved the day? Crowdfunding, that's what. The amount of interest from said crowdfunds prompted a Chinese distributor to take a chance and fund the film. Xuan and Chun's lengthy labor of love was greatly rewarded: the film was a smash hit in China, the second most successful animated film over thereI wouldn't say this movie reaches the echelons of say, Studio Ghibil, but it doesn't have to. If you're an animation fan and want to see something this breathtaking and emotional, you can't go wrong with this one. Every second of it will have you nailed to your seat.

Coming to this with very low expectations I was pleased to be surprised by the astounding quality of production in this animated film. The artwork is beautiful and the environments created are imaginative and vibrant. Attention to detail has really helped to make the experience breathtaking and immersive. Aside from various plot holes and areas lacking adequate explanation, the story is powerful and moving. Overall a very enjoyable family friendly film.The only aspect that Big Fish and Begonia falls flat is the voice acting. The voices acting is still the typical Chinese children's program voices that sound very awkward in its more mature setting.

The standard for animated excellence is usually boiled down to how well it compares to a Ghibli film. No other studio makes animated films with such vision, creativity and originality. I was shocked to find a similar work ethic in this Chinese film, and I have to say, if they keep it up, we actually might have another contender to the throne. This movie does so many things right, that I could go on and on taking up valuable site space, so I'll just condense my review to as simple a review as possible; Watch this movie by any means necessary. The animation is beautiful the story is touching, the music is transcendent. It is a marvel of modern storytelling, and it deserves to be seen by everyone with a pulse. SEE THIS MOVIE.Seriously.

I had the chance to see "Big Fish and Begonia" in the cinema yesterday. I was a little bit disappointed. Liang created a beautiful fantasy world and quite an original story background. Also the animations look fantastic. There are indeed many things to like about this movie. So it's all the more of a shame that the story is not very well told. Cuts between scenes always seems to come at the wrong moment and a lot of the characters and dialogues are redundant in regard to the main story. A lot of the movie is just a chain of depictions of cute little details in Liang's fantasy world. It feels a little bit like he tries so hard to be Miyazaki that he forgets all about the plot. Because of this, it's hard to get a feel for the movie. Which is a shame because it had a lot of potential. I hope that Liang's future works will try less to be Miyazaki and dare to be more Chinese. Although this movie may not be great, it might well be the start of a new age in Chinese animation cinema. I recommend this movie to people who are hugely into Chinese cinema and/or animation films. Otherwise, wait for something more worthwhile.