A touching tale of a son who sets out to find the truth about his adventurous father, Tim Burton's Big Fish arrives on DVD with an abundance of features that will no doubt have Burton devotees flocking. Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, the image is near perfect -- with bright, vibrant colors, even skin tones, and no sign of edge-enhancement. Burton has always been known as a flamboyantly visual filmmaker, and this disc offers a truly fantastic view of his skills behind the camera. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio mix is bold without being overwhelming, saving directional effects for just the right moments and offering a great showcase for the film's wonderful sound design. An alternate French Dolby Digital Surround mix is also included, along with optional English and French subtitles. Though it's not being touted as a "special edition" of any sort, the features presented on this disc put most so-called comprehensive releases to shame. Beginning with an insightful commentary track that is co-hosted by Burton on Burton author Mark Salisbury, Burton truly opens up while discussing the film. If at first the inclusion of Salisbury seems somewhat intrusive to fans, as the film progresses, the probing interviewer draws details from the director that may have otherwise been left unexplored. From childhood inspiration to technical information, the commentary track reveals a Burton that the casual viewer as well as the dedicated fan will surely find compelling. "The Character's Journey," separated into three parts -- "Edward Bloom at Large," "Amos at the Circus," and "Fathers and Sons" -- expounds on each eponymous subject with insight and clarity while never ceasing to entertain, with "Fathers and Sons" offering a touching look at the familial bond that drives the film. Fans of Burton will get plenty of insight from "The Filmmaker's Path," which is divided into four parts: "Tim Burton: Storyteller," "A Fairytale World," "Creature Features," and "The Author's Journey." From discussing the origins of Burton's career in "Tim Burton: Storyteller" to offering a revealing look at how fairy tales and mythology influenced the film in "A Fairytale World," this segment explores the foundations of the film in a way that will capture viewers' imagination as well as their attention. "The Author's Journey" talks with Big Fish author Daniel Wallace and screenwriter John August, exploring the roots of Wallace's career as a writer while addressing the difficulties of adapting such an imaginative tale for the screen. The adventurous viewer can explore the film itself by opting to enable a pop-up feature that offers revealing facts about the characters and filmmakers, and for viewers who wish to test their knowledge about the director, a Tim Burton trivia quiz offers an opportunity to flex their brains with the promise of a hearty reward.

Sam Mendes' multi-award-winning movie has become a superb DVD, with upwards of six hours of good viewing for anyone who cares to look beyond the movie itself. The bonus materials run almost twice as long as the feature itself, and give a massive amount of value. The movie elicited all kinds of profound analyses from writers who feel most secure when they're showing off how many big words they know -- in fact, it's well crafted and acted, and beautifully shot by Conrad Hall. This is one of the most beautifully transferred movies to show up yet on DVD, and shows signs of having been painstakingly mastered to the most minute specification. There's not a shot here that isn't a delight to the eye, and the audio is its match, a mix of very carefully mastered realistic onscreen sound coupled with a lyrical score by Thomas Newman. The film is broken up into 28 chapters that break the movie up handily, all accessible through a multi-layered menu. The disc offers a choice of DTS or Dolby 5.1 before a single frame has run, and then the menu set-up pops up. The most rewarding of the special features is the audio commentary track by director Sam Mendes and writer Alan Ball -- Mendes has a good enough sense of history to acknowledge Sunset Boulevard as part of his inspiration for the film, and he freely acknowledges making major modifications in the content and structure of the movie and the story right up through the final edit. The discussion would be a good jumping-off point for any would-be filmmaker at the high school or college level, and more than a few professionals could learn a thing or two from the director's free-ranging narrative. Alan Ball doesn't do much more than amplify what Mendes is saying most of the time, but his little interjections add enough variety to keep Mendes' remarks from ever even seeming monotonous (which they're not). The 21-minute "American Beauty: Look Closer . . ." incorporates much of the same information contained within the commentary track in a more superficial manner, intercut with remarks by Ball and the various actors. Much more rewarding on its own terms is the hour-long "Storyboard Presentation," in which each sketch is presented with the resulting shot and all are accompanied by Mendes and cinematographer Conrad Hall. In the midst of all of this bonus material, the inclusion of the two trailers seems like an afterthought. The "Cast & Crew" material is an onscreen version of the kind of raw publicity copy that used to go exclusively to editors and feature writers -- it's difficult to imagine too many fans of the movie taking the time to go through it all, especially as it's the only part of the supplement that is awkward to manipulate and the most overtly self-serving in its content.

This internationally acclaimed story of a group of young criminals in Brazil has been given a simple presentation for its release on North American DVD. City of God (aka Cidade de Deus) has been given a letterboxed transfer to disc in the widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1, which has been enhanced for anamorphic playback on 16 x 9 monitors. The audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Stereo; the dialogue is in Portuguese, with optional English subtitles. No additional bonus materials have been included in this edition.