If you like Star Wars and/or theatre, you will like this film. As someone who loves both, I definitely enjoyed this movie, but it definitely is not beyond criticism. For starters, we spend way too much time focused on getting to know some of the individual children- and not just talking with them, but we see their houses, meet their parents, and on and on. I am not opposed to that level of character development in a documentary, but it came at the expense of what I think most people in the audience came for- the production itself. It seemed they really only hit the high points, and I felt like we really didn't get to see everything that goes into putting on a production of that level. Then, I don't know if some parents opted their kids out of being a part of the documentary or if it was some kind of creative choice on the part of the filmmakers, but there were the half dozen or so kids that we "got to know", and then everyone else was just kind of in the background doing their thing. We didn't really see a lot from the rehearsals- for example, one thing that happens in almost every production I've ever been in is that an actor will have one or two lines that they just struggle with for practice after practice, and then, it may not be until opening night, but after weeks of struggle, they finally nail the line and it's a big deal for them and a big deal for everyone in the cast who has been watching them struggle. That's the sort of thing I was hoping to see, but it just wasn't there. We heard a little about the sound production, and saw a little bit of how the set was created, but all of the costumes and props just magically appeared with no explanation. Those may seem like minor complaints, but it all comes back to the underlying issue, and that is simply that this documentary doesn't appear to have a point- or if it did, it did not succeed in making that point. At the end of the movie, I was left wondering what the purpose of the documentary actually was. If it was to showcase the growth and learning of children and/or actors over the course of a production, we didn't see much of that. If it was to show the effort that goes into putting on a major stage production, there was a lot that was left out. The "story" or focus of the documentary was very unbalanced, and there are gaping holes no matter which angle you try to look at it from.
All that said, there was lots of theatre stuff and lots of Star Wars stuff, so even though it had a lot of shortcomings, I still REALLY enjoyed this movie and I would definitely watch it again.
