Walt Disney Animation Studios celebrated its 100th anniversary this fall, and their capstone commemoration is the new animated film Wish, meant to honour their timeless animated films of the past and entertain the new audiences of today.
Unfortunately, a soulless story, lazy songwriting and an obsession with pandering, unthoughtful screenwriting means all the beautiful technical efforts have been in vain.
Instead of taking the best elements of Disney’s famed filmography to make something heartfelt, whimsical and bright, Wish instead is slow, gloomy and insincere, making it not just one of Disney Animation’s worst movies but also the most disappointing movie of the year.
What happened? How could a studio with such a reliable track record of family entertainment make something so dull and unimaginative?
Production on the film feels rushed, left with incomplete ideas, thin morals and full-hearted hopes and intentions that were met with directionless effort. It feels like they had a promising idea of a girl meeting a wishing star and then all work was channeled into desperately finishing before the release date.
Wish is about a girl named Asha (Oscar winner Ariana DeBose) who lives in the magic city of Rosas, a vaguely Mediterranean town in the 18th century where everyone talks with the slang and humour of 2023.
Rosas is ruled by King Magnifico (a charismatic to a fault Chris Pine), who one day decides to abuse his ownership of the commoners’ wishes to seize total control in his kingdom. Only Asha can stop him, with the help of a magic star that comes from the sky and her friends who are not-so-subtlety parodies of Snow White’s seven dwarves.
The kingdom of Rosas and its woods are beautifully animated, as expected, with a comforting colour palate and timeless naturalism the screenplay fails miserably to match. The voice actors also have conviction in their thin characterizations, trying their best to make up for the humourless script.
There are two elements in particular that are at odds with the rest of the film’s parts: the first is the plot itself, and the second are the curiously catchy but unpleasant songs.
The story itself is soulful and earnest in wanting to examine the power and responsibility of wishing and aspiring for something greater. But the events don’t amount to a lesson or moral, meaning all the emotion in the actors and their characterizations feel hollow and forced instead of honest and compelling.
Second, there’s a lot of strange and mismatched elements in the original songs and music throughout Wish. Disney musicals are defined by their unmatched allure and joy in the songs that have made the studio famous, and the songs here feel…well…dumb.
There’s enough to say on the songs to justify an entire second review, but the essence is the modern pop music feels grossly inauthentic to the traditional fairytale setting and tone the rest of the movie is trying to evoke. As for the lyrics, they’re annoying or stilted at best, and they’re cringe-worthy and lazy at worst.
Lead songwriter Julia Michaels is a modern pop artist, best known for writing Justin Bieber’s 2015 hit "Sorry". Her exclusive experience in this genre adapt so poorly to a commemorative set of musical numbers for a Disney film, filled with overstuffed lines of dialogue and cheap, repetitive rhymes that feel forced in place instead of natural for someone to be singing.
How bad could the lyrics be? Here are some examples:
- In the song I'm a Star, the chorus sings multiple times: "Ooh! I’m a star! Watch out world, here I are!"
- In This is the Thanks I Get, King Magnifco tries to rhyme by whining: "See this kingdom? I built it up! And they still complain? Ungrateful much?!"
- In the penultimate scene, in Asha’s greatest moment of crisis, what’s the most profound thought she offers? "This is not what I expected, but now that it’s happened I don’t regret it"
These are three easy lines, but there are countless examples where there’s no care invested in rhyme, syllable count, stanza structure, or even writing proper endings to the songs. All of them max out at a three minute run time, like they were crafted first for the radio before being written to work effectively in the movie itself.
Michaels and her co-composer Benjamin Rice have crafted some really enjoyable melodies and orchestrations, but the lyrics are almost universally bad and that work is exclusively credited to Michaels.
This unrefined and first-draft feeling in the music permeates most elements of Wish, and maybe that’s why the final product feels so half-hearted. The story amounts to no fight scene, no climactic song, no twist, and no cathartic end to the plot.
Aside from the likeable character and background designs, the only silver lining is the adorable character Star, the literal star whom Asha befriends. Joyful, funny, and endlessly helpful, Star is steals every scene they’re in and will no doubt be a source of many toys and Christmas gifts this year.
In just the last decade, Disney has released four far superior original musicals: Frozen and Frozen II, Moana and Encanto all feature the warm tone, dramatic structure, appealing music and patient, thoughtful writing that make these stories timeless because their well-composed parts create what fans call “Disney magic”.
Sadly, the magic is missing in Wish. I’ve reviewed many Disney films positively, and it’s no fun for me to conclude this centennial movie is the birthday equivalent of opening a present and finding an empty box.
Wish
4 out of 10
G, 1hr 32mins. Animated Family Fantasy.
Directed by Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn.
Starring Ariana DeBose, Chris Pine, Jennifer Kumiyama, Angelique Cabral, Alan Tudyk and Victor Garber.
Now Playing at Film.Ca Cinemas, Cineplex Winston Churchill & VIP and Cineplex Oakville & VIP.
