Wish

Release Date: November 22, 2023

Watch Date: July 22, 2024

“Walt Disney Animation Studios’ ‘Wish’ is an animated musical-comedy welcoming audiences to the magical kingdom of Rosas, where Asha, a sharp-witted idealist, makes a wish so powerful that it is answered by a cosmic force – a little ball of boundless energy called Star. Together, Asha and Star confront a formidable foe – the ruler of Rosas, King Magnifico – to save her community and prove that when the will of one courageous human connects with the magic of the stars, wondrous things can happen.”

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   We tried really, really, really hard to come at this film with an open mind. Because it’s hard to, even only a few months after it’s release, it’s been trashed so much. The songs. The writing. The characters. The animation style. And it’s hard to not be tainted by other people’s opinions, because you want to believe the best in Disney, especially it’s 100 year anniversary film.

   But people, the masses, they’re not wrong. And I really wish they were.

   There’s lots of songs, but none of them are Disney classics. I can’t remember a single one. There’s not a song I felt I could imagine my kids requesting the car, one that I could imagine them belting out years later while they clean their house.

   There’s characters, but there’s too many. I don’t know the names of any of Asha’s friends, or her grandfather, or her mom. I don’t know the personalities of any of them, except that some of them are meant to be the seven dwarves, and so their basic personality traits makes sense. Valentino the goat isn’t consistently funny. Star isn’t consistently cute. Magnifico’s descent into evil doesn’t feel completely natural, and I want to know more of his and Amaya’s backstory, and that never got fulfilled.

   Comedy lines consistently fall flat, as does the writing in general. It’s so rushed, things progress so quickly that it feels forced. Within five minutes, it feels like, Asha has become disillusioned and angry, and a King who for decades has been considered kind is immediately turning to evil forces to thwart one teenager?

   What this movie does succeed it, the mental shift that Bob and I had to make to actually start enjoying it, was to look for the Disney movie references. Cinderella, Snow White, Zootopia, Mary Poppins, Bambi, Sleeping Beauty. Classics. And I’m sure there’s more I’m forgetting or that I would notice if I watched the film again. We watched the entire credits just so that we could see outlines of movies that we’ve watched before, and that we look forward to watching again – though even that disappointed as they left out several films.

   So watch this film without the expectation to enjoy it for itself, watch it as a tribute to all those films that have come before it, that have made Disney what Disney is, and you’re going to have a much better time.

   And then wait til after the credits, because if Disney is as important to you as it’s become to Bob and I, you’ll cry.