Posted in: Disney, Kaitlyn Booth, Movies | Tagged: disney, Review, wish

Wish Review: Classic Disney Homage Held Back By Modern Disney Baggage

Wish feels like Disney didn't start with wanting to tell a story about wishing on a star; it feels like they started wondering how they could organically cram as many "legacy nods" to previous films.

Wish is a beautifully animated homage to classic Disney, but the film in front of us is weighed down with the baggage that all of the modern Disney movies seem to have.

Director: Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn
Summary: Wish will follow a young girl named Asha who wishes on a star and gets a more direct answer than she bargained for when a trouble-making star comes down from the sky to join her.

From the moment that Disney announced Wish on stage at the D23 Expo, it was met with a resounding "Huh?" The problem was Disney's elevator pitch for me; this movie was confusing, and the more they tried to lean into that idea, the more confusing it got. The more time went on, the more that this seemed like a Lightyear situation could be right around the corner where audiences might decide to skip the film because they don't understand what it is and Disney pulled back on the legacy aspect of the marketing. At its core, the story of Wish is pretty conventional and also very classic Disney. The studio won't stop trying to pat itself on the back for its own anniversary, and this movie is part of that. However, as the marketing on this film progressed, you were left wondering how much that was part of the actual story.

It turns out that the Disney legacy component of the film was more than we needed, and while it was sometimes distracting, it wasn't a dealbreaker. When looking at the idea of Wish, it seemed like Disney went into this with the idea of how many subtle nods to previous movies they could sneak into the film first as a "yay, we're 100!" thing and then built the story around it. That's the thing about wishes: they can be as magical as we need them to be, so referencing wishes related to Disney movies can be about as subtle as a 2×4 to the face. There is an entire musical number in the woods where Star makes all of the animals talk, and it seems to exist solely because Disney wanted to try and get as many Disney animal cameos hidden in there as possible.

This wouldn't feel so transparent if Disney wasn't selling this film as the bookend for the first 100 years that the studio has been open. The problem with so many of the modern Disney movies is that they often feel like they are one long victory lap for being Disney, and we should be giving them extra kudos simply for being Disney. In the case of Wish, we nearly got the Disney Animation version of "I'm here to talk to you about the Avengers initiative," with how many times they were winking at the camera. At some point, you're not winking anymore; you're just blinking normally, and it's clear that this is the norm for modern Disney, and that's the baggage so many of these films are forced to carry.

The various cameos in Wish might be distracting and sometimes take away from the film itself, but the core story is pretty basic, which is in no way a bad thing. King Magnifico is a nice return to form with Disney villains who really don't have a kind bone in his body, and even the kind things he did were done out of self-preservation. His songs are the most fun, and people will likely come out of this film surprised that Chris Pine can sing so well [unless they were one of the three people who watched Into The Woods]. Disney will have a hard time trying to put Asha in the princess line because she is very much not a princess in any capacity, and it is nice to see a Disney movie with a female lead who doesn't have any royal heritage again. Ariana DeBose has a killer voice, and while none of the songs in Wish are bad, they probably don't have a "Let It Go" or a "We Don't Talk About Bruno" in here, either.

In contrast to many major films of 2023, Wish could have used some more time to marinate and expand. The whole film felt a bit rushed, and while it might seem on brand to keep things around the 90-minute mark, it made large segments of the film feel like they didn't have any time to breathe. Asha has a whole group of friends with their own stories and personality traits, but there is no time to expand on them. This film could have tacked on some extra time to be an hour and forty-five minutes, and it would have been fine. It also would have given us some more time with the animation. It doesn't always work, and there are moments that it looks a bit wonky, but we'll take a bit wonky when you take an artistic chance than doing the same computer-generated stuff that we've seen since the early 2000s.

Wish is not bad, not by a long shot, and there is plenty to like there. Star is adorable. The design is the kind of ingenious work that is the hallmark of a good animator because it is distinct and easy for a kid to replicate in their own coloring book. That is how you create character magic, and they could easily sell a billion plushes of that thing if this movie hits. And while longtime fans will enjoy looking for all the references, you can't build an entire film around that. You need more, and it feels like Disney didn't start with wanting to tell a story about wishing on a star; it feels like they started with wondering how they could organically cram this many "legacy nods" to previous films. All of the whimsey in the world can't make up for that cynical feeling.

Wish

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Review by Kaitlyn Booth

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6.5/10

Wish is a beautifully animated homage to classic Disney, but the film in front of us is weighed down with the baggage that all of the modern Disney movies seem to have.

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