Posted in: Disney, Movies | Tagged: disney, wish

Do The "Legacy Nods" In Wish Hint At A Disney Multiverse?

Wish co-writer and Walt Disney Animation Studios chief creative officer Jennifer Lee on whether or not this film teases a "Disney Multiverse."

Wish is not exactly having a very good time at the box office or critically, which is a shame because there are some elements of the film that work. However, Wish, and its love for previous Disney movies and its desire to get as many "legacy nods" in there as possible, make the film feel like it was created for the sole concept of Disney Animation taking a victory lap rather than telling a good story. The things that people will be talking about when it comes to this film aren't the songs or the animation but how long it took them to piece together every hidden detail in this film. In a way, it feels like the Disney Animation version of "I'd like to tell you about the Avengers Initiative," it seems we weren't the only ones who thought so. Total Film got to speak to Wish co-writer and Walt Disney Animation Studios chief creative officer Jennifer Lee about the idea of a Disney multiverse. She does acknowledge that it is something people have discussed because they hinted at it in the past.

"I think the concept of a Disney multiverse has come up so many times from people, just all the little hints, [like] Rapunzel in Frozen and things like that," says Lee. "And we always love to play with that amongst ourselves, too. We talk about things like that. So this, we said, 'Look, let's just have some fun.'… The logic – I'm sure someone's going to do a map, and the logic doesn't pan out in terms of when things were; I totally get that. But at the same time, it was just really fun to almost not take yourself too seriously and acknowledge that this is really all of us."

Lee explained that, as we thought, the Easter eggs or legacy nods were less about establishing a multiverse and more about how Disney Animation is incredibly unifying. It's something that so many people grew up on no matter where you were in the world, and these little hints in Wish are pretty much what we thought, Disney patting itself on the back for its own back catalog in an attempt to bring audiences together through collective nostalgia.

"With the Easter eggs, to me, it was more about, not even like a multi-universe, but more about what we all share," she says. "Because that's the part that I love most about Disney, is it's all of ours, and we all grew up on it. It's 100 years old, which means it's older than most of us. But it's something that we share that is positive, and it brings us together. And so to just have those nods – I'm traveling the world, and I'm sitting in audiences where we're connecting with the same things, and we didn't grow up anywhere near each other, and in completely different lives. And that's something that, in this world right now, feels more rare than maybe it could. So I think we really wanted to say, 'Let's celebrate the multiverse of us actually carrying these memories.' So we could start there, and the rest, I'm sure everyone will tell us what we got right or wrong."

Well, if the box office or reviews are anything to go by, Wish has yet to bring us all together through collective nostalgia for 100 years of Disney animation. The truth is, nothing could be more of a homage to classic Disney than just sitting down and telling a good story with beautiful animation and memorable songs. These references should not be the selling point or even any point of the film, and the fact that they have come up so many times shows that Disney's focus was in the wrong place. That would be like trying to convince someone to go to Disney Parks to find all of the hidden Mickey's. This is the third misfire for Disney animation at the box office, even if Encanto managed to turn things around in streaming, even though the strikes likely did play a part as well. So, much like Marvel Studios, we can only imagine meetings will be taking place on Monday morning to try and course correct. If you had asked anyone during the opening weekend of Elemental if they would be the ones who walk out of 2023 sitting pretty, no one would have believed you, but here we are.

Wish: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

Walt Disney Animation Studios' Wish is an all-new 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 most 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.

Featuring the voices of Academy Award®-winning actor Ariana DeBose as Asha, Chris Pine as Magnifico, and Alan Tudyk as Asha's favorite goat, Valentino, the film is helmed by Oscar®-winning director Chris Buck (Frozen, Frozen 2) and Fawn Veerasunthorn (Raya and the Last Dragon), and produced by Peter Del Vecho (Frozen, Frozen 2) and Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster Jones (Encanto). Jennifer Lee (Frozen, Frozen 2) executive produces—Lee and Allison Moore (Night Sky, Manhunt) are writers on the project. With original songs by Grammy®-nominated singer/songwriter Julia Michaels and Grammy-winning producer/songwriter/musician Benjamin Rice, plus score by composer Dave Metzger, Wish opens only in theaters on November 22, 2023.

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