The Film (5/5)

         Elisa (Sally Hawkins, Happy Go Lucky) is a mute woman who lives above a movie theater, with a commercial artist and friend as a neighbor. She works as a janitor at a secret government facility in Baltimore where a sea creature (Doug Jones, Pan’s Labyrinth) is taken for observation by Colonel Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon).  The creature is off-limits to Elisa, but she begins a somewhat limited by loving relationship with the creature which seems to consist of lunches featuring hard-boiled eggs, and her teaching him about music. It comes to her attention that Strickland plans to end the creatures life by dissecting it, to find out more about it's biology.

   With the help of her neighbor, her co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer), and a Russian spy, Elisa manages to sneak the creature out and into her apartment, but not entirely to safety, as Strickland and his team begin to try and find out where the creature was taken, and are determined to get it back. Elisa, of course, has other plans to let him go at the next rain storm when the water rises in a nearby canal that leads to the ocean, she just needs to keep him hidden for that long.

    Guillermo Del Toro is another of those monster kids who made well. Following in the foot steps of Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead, Spider-Man) and Peter Jackson (Meet the Feebles, Lord of the Rings). Del Toro started his career with bizarre and unique horror cinema, but has never truly left it behind, rather he has brought his unique vision of monsters to the Hollywood mainstream.

   I would say I was surprised when Del Toro and The Shape of Water won the Oscar for best picture, but I have been keeping up with Del Toro since seeing a tape of Cronos in the 90's, and I always knew that GDT could producer such wonders.  I won't say The Shape of Water is his best film, but it is a wonderful piece of work, as it effortlessly streamlines what he has been doing for 25 years into a unique package that contains romance, musical numbers, and an expressive monster at the center (courtesy of the always reliable Doug Jones), and brings the world of the fantastique to the viewers of the world in a way that has not been seen for a very long time.

    The Shape of Water like his earlier films like Pan's Labyrinth and Devil's Backbone is quite a violent film, and the violence in the film is not the easy sort to watch, so I most warn viewers that haven't experienced full-strength Del Toro of that. However, the film is so charming that I certainly hope that the film's more extreme moments will be taken lightly in lieu of the dreamy fairy-tale esque feeling of the overall piece. 

Audio/Video (4.5/5)

    The Shape of Water comes to Blu-ray via Fox in a splendid 1:85:1 1080p AVC encoded transfer that looks fantastic, the grimy details of this film come to life, along with the occasional warm tones. Black levels are quite deep, and colors are well reproduced.

   Audio is handled by a DTS-HD MA audio track in English. Everything here sounds mostly fantastic with dialogue, score, and ambient sound coming through nicely.

Extras (3/5)

    Extras include a 4 part making of, a scene dissection, an interview with an illustrator on the film, a Q &A with Del Toro and other members of the crew and a trailer.

Overall

    The Shape of Water is another marvelous dark fairy tale from Guillermo Del Toro. The Blu-ray looks and sounds quite excellent, with a small, but solid extras slate. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.