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Wish - Review

Writer's picture: JamieJamie

As someone who has lived through all 100 years of The Walt Disney Company and seen their entire catalogue of films, I am the authority on what a good Disney film looks like. Wish is not their best. It is lacking a little bit in the depth and memorability, not really standing out as one to commemorate the body of work that proceeds it. The songs are a bit “poppy” in contrast to the traditional look but its also completely fine. It doesn’t do anything special, but what it does do, it does well enough, not to be offensively bad. 

The premise of the film is pretty interesting, with a good villain and good performances, even if the main character is a bit light on personality. The animal sidekick is completely irrelevant to the story but doesn’t crop up enough to become annoying or overindulgent of the out of place humour. 


Asha (Ariana DeBose) is a resident of the kingdom of Rosas, ruled by King Magnifico (Chris Pine), where everyone who lives there, gets to live rent free, for the chance for one of their wildest wishes to be granted. The king holds monthly wish granting ceremonies where he will take the wishes of anyone who turns eighteen, or moves to the kingdom and he will also grant one of the wishes which he is in possession of. One of those hopeful wishers is Asha’s grandfather, Sabino (Victor Garber), who is 100 years old. Asha applies to be the assistant of magnifico in order to get closer to him, and hopefully make the wish of her grandfather come true.  When in the interview process, she sees behind the scenes of the wish granting process, and feels as though Magnifico is hoarding wishes, and with it, ambition of his subjects. She rebels against him, wishing upon a star instead, which comes down from the sky to fight against the evil Magnifico and his wish stealing ways.


The message of the film is that you can fight for your own dreams and wishes, to not let anyone be the reason that you don’t pursue your passions. A lovely sentiment, but maybe a bit simplistic, some of the more recent Disney films like Encanto and Strange World, dealt with subjects like generational expectations and definitions of family. This one feels a bit one note with that one message being the takeaway. Disney films are pretty universally family films, in ways that can be enjoyed by the whole family, kids may laugh at the animal sidekick, enjoy the bright colours and sing along to the songs while adults can cry over an animated princess achieving her dreams and fulfilling her destiny, relating it to their own lives. Wish seems to be the only film in a long time that has felt distinctly child oriented, leaving the family behind. 


I don’t need every film to be for me for it to be good, I think there is a way to pack in a story, like they have done before, that has a universal appeal without sacrificing any of what they included already. Kids can also enjoy a backstory to a character, something to latch on to emotionally, but only the villain and Asha have any depth at all really. 

Her friend group are a reference to the seven dwarfs of Snow White, but unlike them, become more of a space filler than a fun element to the story, with only one having any sort of interesting personality, that also gets a bit annoying as it goes on.

The wishing star that comes down is very cute, just floating around doing magical magic. Although, even the magic in this film is unimaginative, only making things bigger or granting the ability to talk. It was an exciting concept that we would have some sort of Jafar style final scene between Asha and Magnifico, but unfortunately not.


The animation style doesn’t really lean far enough into the storybook style to be unique but is nice to look at, and even though a film shouldn’t be judged on its marketability, it is a harder sell for Disney to go off the wall with their art style to sacrifice an adaption to merchandise or a Disney World attraction.The landscapes worked well for me though, with vivid colour and a bit more of that storybook style than the characters. 

The songs also leave a little bit to be desired, i don’t really think they deserve as much hate as they’re getting with people saying there is no way they’re not written by AI. I think the songs are safe, if not a little bit boring at parts but the presentation of them is interesting enough and the songs themselves have a catchiness. I mentioned that they were a little too far in the pop genre before, which I think happens more often than it should, but it is balanced with some fun ensemble numbers, like in the forest with some singing animals and trees, or in the basement of the castle with Asha and her friends. 



I think that Wish will satisfy some families as a nice and easy film, put on, walk away and know that it’s going to eat up an hour and a half. I don’t imagine it will be a seminal Disney classic for most though, one that people will quote lines from or look back on as something that impacted them a lot as a child. While that’s unfortunate, there is plenty for those kids to look back on and feel the impact from in their 100 year catalogue.


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