Disney’s new animated feature Wish has been released in theaters, a fairytale musical celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the company. It serves as a tribute to traditional Disney storytelling; aiming to capture what made Disney so special in old classics like Beauty and the Beast and Snow White. It sprinkles in various references, such as the main character’s seven friends being based on the seven dwarfs; or characters representing Bambi, Little John, and Peter Pan.
This movie has a lot of elements in place to make it feel like a classic tale, with no overly complex plots or wildly dimensional characters, but it ends up falling flat in a number of places; trying too hard to attach itself to the strict definition of what a classic Disney movie is. Wish is by no means bad, with a refreshing animation style that mixes 2D elements with 3D, and a solid premise that stands out from more recent Disney projects.
The story is about the Kingdom of Rosas, created by King Magnifico and his wife Queen Amaya. Magnifico has the power to grant wishes, and the citizens of the kingdom would give up the memory of their wish when the King seals it away, promising to protect it. Each month, he holds a ceremony where he grants one person their wish. Asha, played by Ariana DeBose, realizes early on that King Magnifico never plans to give anyone the memory of their wishes back and refuses to grant some wishes as they would be a threat to his power. Later that night, Asha ends up wishing upon a star, whose power is sensed by everyone in the Kingdom. This compels Magnifico to start a manhunt for Asha, as he wants to remain the most powerful person in the Kingdom.
King Magnifico is played by Chris Pine, and is one of the stronger characters of the movie. King Magnifico is Disney’s attempt to return to the more classic villain feel, letting him be a gleefully evil character with a tragic backstory. The movie portrays him as this mass manipulator, painting himself as the good guy while he truly only cares about his own needs. Though while the first half of the movie sets him up to have a lot of depth, the second half doesn’t commit to a solid motivation. It’s almost as if he was written by two entirely different groups of people in both halves, and it does hurt the overarching story. Still, he proves to be a memorable villain with a ton of fantastic moments.
By far the most memorable parts of old Disney musicals are the songs. Tracks from Disney movies like The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin have stood the test of time and played a big role in what made those movies so special. Sadly, the songs in Wish aren’t very memorable. They aren’t bad by any means, but there’s nothing much to latch on to. They are catchy, but there wasn’t much thought put into the lyrics, with various grammar mistakes and a lack of rhymes. There were a couple of stronger songs in the tracklist, like “Knowing what I Know Now” and “At All Costs”, but overall the songs struggle to stand out from each other.
The movie also has trouble fleshing out some of its characters. It seems that a lot of focus was put on Asha and King Magnifico, but the same can’t be said for anyone else. Another old Disney element put into the movie was the talking animal character, who in this movie felt like an afterthought. The goat contributed pretty much nothing to the plot, just throwing in a couple of jokes here and there for younger audiences to enjoy. It’s cool how Asha’s friend group is based on the seven dwarves, but with all those characters, there wasn’t enough time spent on them.
If you look at the animated films Disney has released in the past five years, it’s easy to see that Disney has been in a bit of a rut. Encanto seems to be the only standout movie they’ve made in that period, while movies like Strange World and Raya and the Last Dragon didn’t hit the mark. Disney’s Wish was a promising film with many good elements but ultimately was wasted potential. Wish has decent storytelling, but lacks any real theme or message to take away from it. Not a bad movie, but not a standout one either.