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 f...
As a longtime Disney fan and someone who prefers to be on the outside looking in, the main debacle I have with “Wish” can be summed up in four words: pushed above its means. For a film meant to celebrate and pay homage to 100 years, it’s not evocative enough to work as a tribute, nor inventive enough to justify its own existence.
I can’t help but feel bad for Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn. Direction-wise, it’s strained when it isn’t forgettable and vice versa, like this was made strictly in mind for the children and it still comes across like it’s from two different movies.
Props to Ariana DeBose, Chris Pine and Alan Tudyk for being the best out of a woefully underutilized ensemble; everybody is clearly talented and do their best but they’re highly lacking in chemistry with each other.
Its use of cinematography and editing are blissfully straightforward and compliment each other at least, I can get away with saying the songs on their own make for fine lovely melodies, even if only TWO of them are really worth discussing and yes, its animation style is absolutely gorgeous between the blending of traditional 2D watercolor Renaissance drawings and 3D modern animation, almost like a 2000’s animated movie. But even that boldness has its caveats because while it’s not lacking for texture, it can still come off as cheap. The two hybrid styles cancel each other out and makes one look jarring while the other comes out looking automated.
This movie REALLY wants to be the next Frozen: another self-aware, formula-tweaking Disney Princess narrative with radio-friendly power ballads with its own undercurrent of themes meant to inspire the rebel spirit. They’re both odd setups within the trappings of a classic fable tale but at least with the first Frozen, you feel as if SOMETHING matters in that world. I don’t get that same feeling here with anything or anyone because this feels more concept than story.
I’m not gonna sit here and try to pretend nothing in this story works; a few bits and pieces do come together but first of all, the pacing of it all is just as much a drawback as it is a compliment. The breakneck speed results in a lean quick story that doesn’t drag itself out but leaves no breathing room to fully explore and flesh out the confines of the world and the fair amount of plot holes that begin popping up as a result feel like more of a cheat code so we can get to the end and they bypass the few well-acted or well-written moments. And secondly, the rest of the themes and their implications surrounding the story frustrate me. Its themes of togetherness and absolute power corrupts are so on the nose, you cannot tell me this WASN’T meant to be a scathing metaphor for capitalism. At least this movie recognizes that not all authority is positive or should be implicitly trusted, and the overarching belief that waiting for dreams to come true is passive and ineffective rings very close to home. But it’s all executed in the most superficial manner possible, especially since character development and the emotional stakes that come with it get sacrificed almost immediately. None of the characters are fleshed out enough for us to care about their struggles and Magnifico felt hastily rewritten to fit the metric of one-note insane madmen.
The irony in all this is how its whole message is about pursuing your dreams and taking the risk, yet they completely play it safe and restrict themselves. It didn’t want to be anything more complex than A HERO going up against A VILLAIN but it also wants to have these huge expanding stories with the kings backstory, the power these wishes have and the generational attachment they share thrusted into the background in order to pretend there’s something more important going on.
And that’s not even going into how severely lacking its limited use of its presentation or production design are, it’s humor leaving little to be desired and combining that with a lot of repeated expository dialogue? It doesn’t help much. Everything feels so half-assed and dated all at once.
You can’t blame me for being skeptical of “Wish” given all the boneheaded decisions Disney’s made all year; you literally cannot trust them anymore. But given it’s literally their 100th anniversary, some bets had to be off that there had to be something worthwhile with this release. Here, it’s a case of being both overstuffed and undercooked; aggressively inoffensive but frustrating nonetheless.
