Wish (2023)
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Wish Movie Review
Wish is a 2023 animated musical fantasy film directed by Chris Buck. It is Disney’s 62nd feature film and not one of their best efforts.
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“You can never trust a handsome face.
That’s why I hang out with you guys“
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It follows a 17-year-old girl named Asha in the Kingdom of Rosas, who makes a passionate plea to the stars in a moment of need, leading her to meet a living, magic star which has fallen from the sky, and together they face up to the kingdom’s evil ruler, Magnifico. Much has been made of the purpose of this movie, which is to bring back the magic of Disney classics as the studio celebrates their centenary. Although I admired the effort, I found the eventual production immensely flawed.
First off, the references to famous Disney films of yesteryear ranged from pretty great (everything surrounding the villain was superb) to downright cringe-worthy in its overt nature (there is for example a ‘Peter Pan’ reference that was too unsubtle and unnecessary). The filmmakers focused so heavily on appealing to the nostalgia factor while failing to make a genuinely great new story that can stand on its own. When it comes to nostalgia, the short film ‘Once Upon a Studio’ fared much better.
Let’s talk about the villain as he is by far the best part about this entire film. One of my main gripes with most Disney Revival films has been the absence of a pure villain as the misunderstood arc or twist villain trope have become quite tiresome by now. Thankfully, here we have a real Disney villain in the form of King Magnifico. He isn’t humanized, but he still felt quite realistic in his personality as he wants not just to rule his country, but to be respected.
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Chris Pine was excellent both in his vocal and singing performance. Magnifico also looks cool with great wardrobe and when he gained full power, I loved every second of it. That display of majestic dark force was pleasantly reminiscent to a similar Jafar scene in ‘Aladdin’. His song, his personality and his powers – all are great. I really love this villain.
What bothered me, though, is how he was beaten at the end. How everybody fought him back was basically through singing a song. Yes, they actually sang him into imprisonment somehow. Not only did this not make much sense, but it was too Disney even for me, and this is saying a lot as I am a huge Disneyphile. It’s a moving scene for sure, but one that was way too silly.
The ending, thus, felt very rushed. Wish suffered from a lack of intricate plotting and world building. The basic premise of this kingdom where their king is guarding the wishes, but only granting some of them was superb. So many of the older Disney classics focused on making a wish with ‘Snow White’ and ‘Pinocchio’ being the most potent examples. So, it was only apt for this movie to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the studio by focusing on this trope, but of course subverting it and making a more modern take on it. In a deconstruction of the fairy tale format, the movie states that wish-making should not substitute your own pursuing of your dreams. The message was great, but it should have been more accentuated.
The film still felt old-fashioned in its traditional approach at telling its story, which I definitely admired, but again the script is quite problematic as the second half was incredibly rushed and the movie failed to properly develop most of its characters. Asha getting powers wasn’t properly explained and it wasn’t utilized well at all. I wished for a better conclusion to this story as the first half was quite enchanting, but they failed to properly execute the idea to the fullest.
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Asha is fine. Ariana DeBose is very good in the role and her singing was expectedly terrific. She’s a solid Disney heroine that is more of a Fairy Godmother type than a Disney Princess interestingly enough, but Disney still has that adorable dork issue as Asha in that regard felt too similar to every other heroine in the last ten years of the studio’s output.
Star is a wonderful animal sidekick, so adorable and fun. He was very well conceptualized and instantly memorable, though a bit too reminiscent in design to the Lumas from ‘Super Mario Galaxy’. Valentino the goat is amusingly voiced by Alan Tudyk and he had a couple of lines that were genuinely hilarious, but some were also too goofy and childish. He’s a standard modern animal sidekick character, but at least some of his lines did make me chuckle.
Of the other characters, Queen Amaya was the highlight. Her character was so well handled as she changed sides believably so. But Asha’s family was forgettable and her friends fared the worst. They obviously stood for the seven dwarfs from ‘Snow White’, but individually speaking they were underdeveloped. Dahlia got the most to do as Asha’s best friend, but the other six were totally disregarded.
Wish is a musical and in that area it’s solid, but far from great. Similarly to ‘Encanto’, there are two songs that I loved, but others ranged from solid to just serviceable. At All Costs is a solid ballad-type song sung by the protagonist and the villain in an odd duo that wasn’t really necessary plotwise. I’m a Star is fun and catchy, but overly contemporary in its feel and far from memorable. Knowing What I Know Now seemed unnecessary at first, but then it served its purpose in terms of messaging and it was a genuinely solid number with a strong beat. Welcome to Rosas is among the catchiest numbers, a typical song to get us to know the city, but it’s fun.
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The only two songs that achieved true greatness are of course This Wish and This Is the Thanks I Get?! The latter is undeniably too upbeat for what is supposed to be a dark villain song, but I did eventually warm up to it. The imagery throughout is funny and showcasing the egoism of Magnifico well, but eventually it became more sinister as he stepped into the dark side. The song is incredibly catchy in its refrain and impossible to resist singing along to. But the standout is obviously This Wish – a beautifully sung, wonderful number that has solid lyrics (though the rhyming can be clunky), a superb accompanying scene and a phenomenal singing voice of the main actress. It’s a terrific I Wish-type song that is a great throwback to the studio’s history while still feeling fresh and modern.
Wish was first supposed to be entirely 2D animated, but eventually a mix of the two mediums was utilized. While I didn’t find the animation as artistic as I wished it would have been as the details are quite lacking, the color palette was quite soothing and the movie looked polished and pretty timeless. The character designs are very familiar and lazy by now, but overall the film’s traditional style was quite charming.
There are so many issues in this film that prevented it from being great. The pacing is all off, the structure is quite poor and the sense of adventure and magic was simply absent throughout. The movie also failed to make me feel, which was the biggest problem. It tried to replicate that Disney fairy tale formula, but it only sporadically succeeded at that.
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Wish is nowhere near as bad as critics would make you believe, but it’s certainly not great either. This movie was supposed to celebrate Disney’s centenary, but they littered the film with way too many references to their previous classics, making it too nostalgic and unsubtle. The basic concept of the wishes I loved, but the world building and overall storytelling were never as intricate or as well thought out as they were in the movies that it tried to replicate. The sense of magic and excitement was mostly lacking here. With that being said, the more traditional animation style was lovely and the soundtrack is pretty good – This Wish and This Is the Thanks I Get?! are the obvious standouts. The pacing and structure are off and the characters range from underdeveloped to excellent, the highlight being King Magnifico, who finally represents Disney returning to their true villains, ones who aren’t humanized or misunderstood. Whenever he was on screen, I had a blast. The third act where he gained full power was fantastic, but then they defeated him by singing at him?! That moment was too Disney even for me.
My Rating – 3.5
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