Film Review: "Wish"
Though its reach might sometimes exceed its grasp, the 62nd animated feature from Disney is still an enchanting good time.
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Given its lackluster critical reception, I was a bit nervous going into Disney’s Wish. I’ve come to feel this way about most of the studio’s productions, to be honest, because after so many decades of investment in the feature film canon it’s become more common for Disney to have a miss as it is for them to have a hit. Fortunately, Wish is a fun little film, and while I don't think that the film achieves quite the level of greatness or brilliance to which it clearly aspired, it is a perfectly fine way to celebrate the studio’s much-ballyhooed 100th anniversary.
When the film begins young Asha is preparing to interview for the prestigious position of apprentice to King Magnifico who, along with his wife Amaya, rules over the kingdom of Rosas. Upon meeting the king, however, she finds that things are not at all what they seem–among other things, the king is afraid of anyone potentially challenging his rule–and she leaves disenchanted. Things become even more complicated when she wishes upon a star, only for said star to come to earth, where it causes all sorts of chaos and draws the king’s ever-more-avaricious gaze.
It probably goes without saying that Ariana DeBose was born to play a Disney heroine. The lightness and beauty of her voice, her innate charm, and her energy all make her ideal for Asha, a young woman who has all of the ambition and headstrong agency of her predecessors. Unlike others, however, she’s selfless from the beginning, and her desire is not for her own wishes but instead for those of her grandfather and the other residents of Rosas who have already given their wishes to the king for “safekeeping.” There is also a purity to DeBose’s vocal delivery–particularly in the musical numbers–that harkens back to the very best of the studio’s big-screen musicals.
Chris Pine, likewise, is clearly having the time of his life playing Magnifico, a handsome and dashing sorcerer king whose seeming kindness, nobility, and magnanimity hide a deep core of arrogance and cruelty, sides of his personality that Asha unwittingly unleashes when she dares to question his ruling philosophy. As Magnifico grows more and more unhinged and ultimately surrenders himself to dark magic in order to reassert his authority and domination, Pine leans into the maniacal campiness that is the hallmark of the truly great Disney villain. He even gets his own deliciously hubristic number, “This is the Thanks I Get?!”
Like so many other Disney films, there’s a utopian impulse undergirding much of the story. Asha wants more than anything else to give the people of Rosas the opportunity to live their lives free and unencumbered, blessed with a sense of wholeness that Magnifico has denied them by taking their wishes for them. In addition to being an answer to her wish, the diminutive but exuberant Star is nothing less than an agent of chaos, bringing all sorts of disruption to the kingdom and threatening the iron grip Magnifico tightens around his domains. In the world of Wish, a young woman’s desire–expressed, in typical Disney fashion, by the “I Want” song “This Wish”--literally has the power to shake a kingdom to its foundations, inciting a groundswell of rebellion against tyranny. Say what you will about the film, but this is a pretty audacious message for a Disney film to have in the Year of Our Lord 2023.
For the most part, Wish is a feast for the eyes and for the ears. I was particularly struck by the painterly beauty of the backgrounds, which render Rosas and its environs into just the type of storybook kingdom you can imagine being the setting for a Disney film. Of all of the songs, “Knowing What I Know Now” is arguably the most toe-tapping, even if its intensity is somewhat out of sync with the story beats.
Storywise the film has a few weak spots, most notably concerning Magnifico’s motivation. There’s the barest hint that his fascist tendencies come from a place of deep insecurity and trauma, but these aren’t developed or shown with enough detail for them to really land. Though there’s certainly a pleasure to be had in seeing Magnifico descend into outright madness and darkness, revealing himself to be the quasi-fascist dictator that he’s always been, someone so in love with his own genius that he has statues and paintings of himself emblazoned throughout his city, even as he also quashes those desires which he deems to be too much of a threat to the present and future stability of Rosas.
Somewhat contradictorily, the film’s greatest flaw is its aesthetic, which aims to combine the 2-D look of the studio’s heyday with its more contemporary CGI aesthetic. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really work, and this is most glaringly obvious in the background and supporting characters, who all too often look like they emerged from a (not particularly impressive) 2000s-era video game rather than from one of the world’s premier animation studios. Say what you will about such recent animated features as Raya and the Last Dragon, Strange World, and Frozen 2, they all at least looked good, even if they also were somewhat similar (as many online commentators have been quick to point out). Personally, I would have been just as happy if they’d kept the secondary characters limited to Valentino the goat and Asha’s friend disabled friend, Dahlia.
Overall, however, I did genuinely enjoy Wish. It’s the type of film that is just so earnest and so full of joy that you can’t help but fall under its spell. There are some nice Easter eggs scattered throughout for long-time fans of the genre, and you can spot traces of films like Sleeping Beauty in its visual DNA. Though others have taken the film to task for these obvious homages to the periods of the studio’s past glories, to me this is one of the things I liked best about it, devoted Disney gay that I am. Indeed, I think that time will be kind to Wish, and that in the not-too-distant future it will be seen as a fitting homage to one of animation’s great studios.