In all honesty before I saw the musical theatre audition packet I hadn't even heard of this movie before, let alone the musical. I didn't think that i was going to like the musical at all. While watching the movie for the first time i was insanely confused and had little to no clue what was happening. But I watched it again, this time actually paying full and total attention to what was going on and I found that its quite an interesting film. One of the things I learned from watching the film was that communication with your family is very important. William and his father hadn't spoken for a long time before Will was told that Edward had cancer and was dying. He really didn't know who his father was and didn't really get to find out before his passing all he really knew was the stories he was told about Edwards life. Before Edward passes Will bombarded him with many questions about the past and demands the truth to the stories he'd been told instead of just being there and taking in what time he had left with his father.
The scene that stood out to me most was when Edward went to Spectre. The first time he visited the town of Spectre, everything was vibrant and everyone was happy and dressed in shimmery bright colours and everyone hangs up their shoes when they get there to stay because the ground is the softest ground ever which seems kind of “heavenly”, and the mayor welcomes him, checks his clipboard and then says that they weren't expecting him yet, which sort of alludes to Spectre being sort of like the after life but people still grow old. I found that scene rather interesting and really made me think.
The moral lesson that I personally took from the movie is that life is in the eye of the beholder. its all up to how you interpret it. William always was angry and embarrassed about his fathers stories because all he saw was lies and childishness. All Edward was really trying to do add magic and wonder to life which isn't any fun unless you do something to make it so. It was through these stories that Edward was trying to give hope and happiness to his family and friends and William never realized until it was too late.
Edward is always telling stories, crazy stories that sound exaggerated and unbelievable. I believe that the metaphor “big fish” is a representation of Edward himself. There are multiple times where he mentions his ambitions being too big for the town he's living in. When he meets the giant he tells the giant that he (Karl) isn’t too big for ashton, ashton is too big for him (Karl), but also Ashton is too big for a man with an ambition as big as his own. “You’re a big fish in a small pond” Amos tells Edward.
Understanding the storyline is always important when you're in a play or musical, it can really help with getting into the character that you play if you know how they act, speak, carry themselves, ect. Personally my only “legitimate” character was the shepherd whom was in the movie and seeing the way that the character acted kinda helped me with how to act.
