Wish
Wish
Starring Ariana DeBose, Chris Pine, Alan Tudyk, Angelique Cabral
Directed by Chris Buck & Fawn Veerasunthorn
In the land of Rosas, King Magnifico (Chris Pine) holds the citizens' wishes in special orbs that encircle his castle - wishes that were given to him by the people who immediately forgot what their wishes were when they handed them over. He's seen as a benevolent ruler who grants a wish a year, and the town seems happy and prosperous mostly because they don't remember their wishes in the first place. Seventeen year old Asha (Ariana DeBose) applies to work for Magnifico and during the interview she's shown the wishes of the people, including her hundred-year-old grandfather Sabino (Victor Garber). She asks the King to grant his wish, and is told that most of those wishes won't even come true because he holds them tight to protect the citizens from their own desires. He grants wishes that he feels would benefit the town - but in reality they're ones that would better himself. Disgruntled and shocked by the King's evil nature, Asha runs to the forest and makes a wish of her own, and is visited by a Star who aids in her quest to get her family's wishes back as well as the wishes of the people so they can make their own dreams come true. This causes Magnifico to feel threatened and incites a quest to find and stop Asha from freeing the town from his tyrannical rule.
The Good:
Disney's bread and butter is its animation, and "Wish" is a visual wonder to behold indeed. It's unique in that it mixes CGI and hand-drawn animation that serves a whimsical feel to the narrative that's unfortunately lacking from its visual wonder.
Ariana DeBose shines as Asha, putting her heart and soul into the product and capturing the essence of the character extremely well. She's a young girl who's burdened with glorious purpose, and has enough spunk, luck, and friends to make it happen. She's also a vocal powerhouse that she proved when she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for the remake of "West Side Story" and gives the best songs of the film like "This Wish" and "Knowing What I Know Now."
The overall theme is an admirable one, if conflicted since it's told through the soulless multi-billion dollar company that only sees dollar signs and not actual wishes. The theme is that we can make our own wishes come true if we work hard at them and not just give them to someone else in hopes that they'll make it happen for us, and I wish this was something more driven home than being on the backburner in favor of numerous Disney callbacks and cameos that totally take you out of the story.
The Bad:
Speaking of, "Wish" is something of an odd-kilter film. On one end it's supposed to re-ignite the classic Disney feel with wishing upon stars, evil kings and young nobodies who become somebodies, but it also wants to gloat on its accomplishments and supply cameos and callbacks to its extensive cinematic library. Asha's friends are clearly the Seven Dwarfs, and it took me awhile to figure out who was who, although some were apparent. Asha's grandfather is a hundred years old and his wish is to inspire people - a not-so-obvious nod to Walt Disney himself.
These take away from the story, but even the story itself takes away from itself. King Magnifico is supposed to be this overarching villain who's got a cold heart and only serves himself, but in reality he doesn't really come across that way until Asha makes her wish and he resorts to dark magic to sell his soul to find her. Sure, he keeps peoples' wishes essentially hostage, but he feels that if he grants everyone their wish it would result in catastrophe - something that's plausible yet also sinister in the fact that most wishes wouldn't come true, but some wishes shouldn't, in reality. It's conflicting and it gives him a different feel, and Chris Pine does his best but fails to deliver.
In the failure to deliver part, while a few songs were amazing, the majority of them were terrible, especially Pine's "This is The Thanks I Get?" There's memes on TikTok that highlight this, with posters wondering how Disney went from the likes of "Moana" and "Frozen" to this - and it's something I'm inclined to agree with. For a film that centers on the magic, there's very little magic to be had, and it does something almost unforgivable: it becomes invisible.
The Summary:
While trying to capture the magic that made Disney what it is today, "Wish" fails to encapsulate those feelings and instead feels like a wannabe Disney greatest hits package wrapped in a unique story that fails to deliver the wishes the company had for it.
The Score: C+
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