Big Fish / YMMV - TV Tropes

Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Don Price is incredibly possessive of Sandra, and he beats Edward to a pulp when Edward makes advances towards her. But... is he really such a Jerkass, or was he just terrified of dying alone after the Witch showed him that he would die young? In the end, is he an antagonistic Jerkass, or is he a tragic underdog who spent his whole life being overshadowed by Edward only to die at age 20 as a direct result of Edward stealing his fiancee?
- And of course, since all we know about him is how he's portrayed in Edward's self-aggrandizing stories, we have no idea how he really was or how the affair played out in real life. And that's assuming Don ever existed in the first place; given that Edward heavily exaggerated parts of his life Don could be a combination of people that got between Edward and Sandra or just made up just so there could be a someone created for the sake of the story.
- Since so much of the film is based on a man's life filtered through fantastic tall tales, many fans have different interpretations of who these characters really were. Amos's werewolfism is a notable one; what kind of secret life could he have had that Edward discovered?
Ambiguously Gay: Amos is particularly "close" to one of his clowns, and Edward discovers some sort of secret (filtered through his stories as werewolfism) when he stumbles on the two of them together. His non-judgmental attitude causes Amos to drop his jerkassery and view him as a friend. He also looks as enamored with Karl as Edward does with Sandra, though this is more likely due to the money a giant can bring to his circus.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Alison Lohman plays the younger Sandra in this movie. Years later, she would voice the titular character in Disney's uncut and unedited redub of the anime Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind; who was previously renamed Zandra in the older re-edited dub Warriors of the Wind.
Harsher in Hindsight:
- This movie about a raconteur who dies on his own terms inspired monologuist Spalding Gray (who had been suffering deep health problems after a car accident, including brain damage) to commit suicide. He reportedly cried after watching the film.
- Karl, despite his gigantism, would live a good long life in the film, outliving the comparatively younger Edward. His actor, Matthew McGrory, would die of congestive heart failure (a common cause of death for those with gigantism) just a few years later at age 32.
- In the Italian dub, Will Bloom was voiced by Vittorio De Angelis, who tragically died at the age of 52 from a heart attack making his own father Manlio De Angelis outlive him.
Narm: "You are what you always were... a very big fish." May count as Narm Charm if it still finds its emotional target on you.
Nightmare Fuel:
- When Edward brings the Price brothers The Witch's glass eye as promised, and The Witch is revealed to be standing right behind Edward promptly flashing them her magical glass eye which shows the two boys how they're going to die. Zacky is shown dying as an old man falling from the ladder trying to fix a light, and the other Don is shown dying from suffering a heart attack on the toilet but he was still a young man. Needless to say, being shown their predicted deaths has left the two boys quite shaken.
Zacky Price: I saw how I was going to die. I was old and I fell.
Don Price: I wasn't old at all.
- When Edward Bloom takes an old shortcut to another town, he gets his hat stolen by a crow, gets stung by an angry hive of bees, gets covered in large jumping spiders and upon leaving the town of Spectre, he gets captured and nearly killed by large trees that growl and come alive. It's only due the Witch's prediction of how he was really destined to die was what saved him from the trees.
Retroactive Recognition:
- Deep Roy, who plays a circus clown/attorney, would later go on to play the Oompa Loompas in Burton's version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. All of them.
- Miley Cyrus appears as one of young Edward's friends Ruthie; it was her first film role and is credited under her birth name Destiny.
- The movie was one of Marion Cotillard's rare English-language films before winning the Oscar in 2007. In fact, this even predated her French breakthrough in 2004.
- Sandra's Jerkass Disposable Fiancée is played by David Denman, who would go on to play Pam's Disposable Fiancée on The Office (US).
Squick: During the montage of Edward working at the carnival, you can see an elephant emptying its bowels behind him. This was a case of Throw It In!, as the elephant just started relieving itself moments before they started filming, and they included it in the shot because they thought it was kind of funny.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Edward's rival Don can never hope to best him at anything, not even love. Edward just helps himself to his fiancée purely because of her looks and tells the audience that Don's a Jerkass for beating him to the punch that one time. Then he dies on the toilet alone and still in his 20s. Apparently even screenwriter John August felt this way. In The Musical (the book also written by August) Don isn't told by the Witch he'll die alone, just that he'll live an unremarkable life and die "a dollar poorer" than he is now. He still loses his fiance to Edward, but he lives well past his 20s, becomes Mayor of Ashton, and even makes up with Edward when the latter credits him for saving the town.

YMMV / Big Fish

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