Wish

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It’s often a wonder to think about the longevity of things that we have created. The passage of time is something that is both amazing and terrifying, as we can never tell what will remain celebrated throughout history and what will fade into obscurity.

I often marvel at the longevity of cinema –many of the larger studios have been celebrating centennials in the last few years and I got to thinking about the evolution of cinematic art and technique, how so many people have contributed to a medium that continues to grow and is both incredible in this respect, but also incredible when you consider how many people often lament the ‘golden days’ of it.

I was put onto this train of thought a while ago when I sat down and watched Wish – Disney’s 100^th film. The stakes were high for this one and while I can appreciate some of the animated techniques and choices, at the end of it all I found this movie to be a real disappointment and that just made me appreciate the Disney films from my childhood that little bit more.

The kingdom of Rosas is a peaceful and prosperous land, ruled by the magic and merciful King Magnifico who has the power to grant wishes. Each year he selects a single wish from his subjects to make come true. This tradition has been uninterrupted for years, making Rosas the wonderful land it is. That is until Asha, a young girl who dreams of becoming the king’s apprentice, discovers the king’s true motives. He only grants the most harmless and unambitious wishes, in order to retain his leadership and keep his people in line. Angered and betrayed by the injustice of the king, Asha wishes on an evening star for change, but gets more than she bargained for when the star literally falls into her lap stirring up mischief and sparks of rebellion.

To give credit where it is due, Wish had a lot of potential. The story is timeless, exploring the evils of tyranny, made fun and more accessible to its younger audience with the added element of magic – something that Disney is all about. The film was clearly intended to be a celebration of magic – the true magic in the world that comes in the form of love, friendship, believing in oneself and all that jazz. Good messages. And that’s kind of where the joy ends.

Wish was certainly ambitious. The art style is a fusion of the beautiful 2-dimensional watercolour backgrounds that created memorable worlds of Classic Disney – think the forests in Sleeping Beauty and Snow White- and the modern 3-dimensional character art that has since become the Disney norm a’la Tangled. While the combination of the two art styles is certainly an interesting idea, for whatever reason it just didn’t work so well and, rather than having a rich and vibrant Disney world that we can get completely enveloped in, the cinematic experience is tainted with a feeling that there is something off and it takes a good fifteen minutes to half an hour before you can actually put a finger on what’s bugging you.

The story itself is predictable, the characters aren’t particularly interesting, new, or even memorable, and even the songs are a real letdown with Chris Pine’s ‘villain’ song being the most memorable (for all the wrong reasons).

Image credit: slashfilm

And then we have the end. Up until the last 10 minutes of the film, I had been happy to be of the opinion that this movie was ambitious, quite simply Disney, and had its fun moments, but was nothing remarkable. And then someone made the decision to remind audiences of Disney's 100 classics and cram so many easter eggs and references into the last 10 minutes that I could feel my body cracking from the nostalgic whiplash. I suppose this decision was made to remind older audiences of the classics from their childhoods (yes, ok that worked) and inspire the younger ones to delve a little into some Disney animated history. But really it just felt like a greedy and smug flaunting of Disney’s golden ages. It was so heavy and saccharine, like being clubbed over the head with a hardened hunk of sugar that it completely, completely, ruined the already-mediocre opinion I had of this movie.

If you have any interest in checking out Wish, spend an afternoon with a friend with a Disney+ subscription, maybe some enjoyment can come from the conversational dissection that comes afterwards.

Director(s): Chris Buck & Fawn Veerasunthorn, 2023

Cast: Ariana Debose, Alan Tudyk, Angelique Cabral, Natasha Rothwell, Jennifer Kumiyama, Niko Vargas, Evan Peters, Harvey Guillen, Ramy Youssef, Chris Pine & Victor Garber