By Jennifer Ariesta.
Thanksgiving weekends have historically been Disney’s forte. From Toy Story, Frozen, Moana, to Encanto… the Mouse House always launched their biggest, most anticipated animated fares during the lucrative holiday weekend. So it makes sense that this year, they reserved the release date for a princess movie – Disney Animation’s bread and butter – meant to celebrate the company’s 100th anniversary.
In Wish, the intrepid Asha (Ariana DeBose) attempts to challenge authoritarian King Magnifico (Chris Pine), who hoards everyone’s dreams and only grants a select few that do not threaten his ruling. Thanks to the sheer force of Asha’s sincerity, a star actually descends from the sky to help fulfill her wish to liberate everyone’s dreams.
Sadly, for so many reasons, Disney’s Wish simply did not come true. On its opening weekend, Wish puttered in third place behind Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes and Napoleon. To put it into perspective: Wish lost to a movie in its second week of release and a badly reviewed war film. Factoring in its $200 million budget, things are looking rather wistful.
Despite its refreshing animation style, combining 3D with traditional hand-drawn style, and its heartfelt celebration of Disney’s history, Wish could not overcome several problems plaguing recent Disney releases.
First of all, Asha. She is, for lack of a better word, too generic. Asha’s characteristics follow a template of recent Disney princesses: quirky, clumsy, and bubbly. She’s basically another Rapunzel, Anna and Mirabel Madrigal in different skin. While it’s great that Disney features a girl of color in the lead, that’s not itself a unique character trait. Asha’s backstory never seems convincing nor her actions having well thought-out rhyme or reason.
Her only motivation in the story also offers nothing new. Like the myriad of heroines before her, she’s righteous and yearns for the world to see that. That typically works for other Disney girlies, but here, Asha’s whole motivation actually makes her seem dangerously naive.
Wish has a well meaning, but dubious message. Protagonist Asha sees injustice in the way King Magnifico refuses to grant people’s wishes. However, if you think about it, imagine if all wishes just come true. What happens if it’s malicious? What happens when two wishes contradict each other? While the concept itself is nice, what Magnifico is doing isn’t exactly the problem here. In fact, his reasoning is perfectly understandable and realistic.
The film’s theme mirrors the recent trend of “you can be ANYTHING you want” type of messaging plaguing Hollywood. In the hands of misguided writers, that trope robs a protagonist for a chance to realize their shortcomings and learn something. It’s juvenile and hollow. Imagine how much more intriguing it would be if Asha got her wish and realized the repercussion of everyone having whatever they want?
Rudimentary writing problems aside, the film also lacks something fundamental that defined Disney animations’ greatness: music. Back then, even mid Disney movies were salvaged by its entertaining songs. Thanks to talented composers like Alan Menken, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Robert and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Disney films always had hyper catchy earworms. So, it’s disappointing that for their centennial presentation, Disney went with Julia Michaels, a pop songwriter with no film musical background. The results might make for decent radio singles, but not the kind of energetic musical numbers worthy of a Disney musical.
For a celebration about Disney’s 100 years of magic, this film took the wrong values from its pantheon of magical creations. While it contains a lot of the nostalgic elements, the filmmakers forget to delve deeper into the reason those things were nostalgic. By doing so, they ultimately strip Wish of its magic.
