Wish Movie Review: Disney’s Inevitably Familiar Fairy Tale About the Power of Dreams
Cast: Ariana DeBose, Alan Tudyk, Chris Pine
Director: Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn
Where We Watched: At A Press Preview
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars)
Chris Buck returns to direct the 62nd Disney classic, Wish Movie, this time alongside Fawn Veerasunthorn, Wish Movie is released in the year in which the centenary of Walt Disney Animation Studios occurs. It is no coincidence that the “Wishing Star” is central to the film, the emblem of the production company, and which has already appeared in other Disney films. Wish Movie is a film that presents an innovative technique, which recalls the original graphics by linking it to new technologies. An emotional and nostalgic story, about the saving power of dreams, of the desires that we must always try to realize. Disney’s history is dotted with memorable events and films, as well as interesting and less compelling experiments. The long journey, originating from Walt Disney’s desire to demonstrate something both to the global public and to industry critics and his cinema, has generated a series of masterpieces in the field of animation.
These have not only been able to rework and build the scholastic and historical bases of a specific cinematographic approach but have also evolved hand in hand with global technological and artistic progress. Starting, therefore, from a series of narrative and artistic elements of rather classical origin, this animated feature film has no scruples in reworking its possibilities into a hybrid that is both recognizable and rather contemporary, sublimating the models of the most historical and famous Disney in an experiment with paradigmatic potential and at the same time curiously fresh. The symbolic-historical value, Wish Movie movie takes on a considerable weight in the artistic choices it brings with it, shaping its historical weight in favor of a language that speaks directly to current generations and long-standing enthusiasts.
Wish Movie Review: The Story Plot
The new Walt Disney Animation Studios film, Wish Movie, takes us to the kingdom of Rosas, where Asha, a brilliant dreamer, makes a Wish Movie so powerful that she invokes a cosmic force: a small sphere of boundless energy called Star. Together, Asha and Star face a formidable adversary – the ruler of Rosas, the Magnificent King (a bit of Orwellian memory) – to save his community and demonstrate that, when the will of a courageous human being combines with the magic of the stars, wonderful things can happen. The combination of timeless visual elements makes Wish Movie a product that celebrates hope and the community built around the fantasy world of Mickey Mouse. Production of the film, which began about five years ago, coincidentally manages to arrive in theaters in the year of the 100th anniversary.
Wish Movie celebrates dreams and who knows better than Walt Disney what all this means, but in the same way Buck’s film warns young spectators. Be careful who we entrust our dreams to because we might want them back because we have simply grown up and they no longer belong. This is what happens in Rosas: Asha wants to become the Magnificent King’s witch apprentice and once she approaches him, she discovers that in reality, the King of Rosas is not as she expected. The story of Wish Movie starts from this point and turns to tell of Asha’s tenacity not to give up and try to fulfill her greatest Wish Movie: to give her grandfather the dream in the drawer that she kept at 18 in the hands of Magnifico. A dream like all young people of that age: trying to be an inspiration, to do something good for society.
On the island of Rosas, also known as “the kingdom of desires”, the desires of all the inhabitants are safeguarded by the beloved Magnificent King. The King has the power to fulfill and transform people’s dreams into reality. Rosas has flourished over the years thanks to this magic, which has become known throughout the world, and has made the city a coveted place, where happiness, hope, and serenity fill the lives and souls of the people. Seventeen-year-old Asha is summoned to the palace in front of the King, determined to choose someone to be his apprentice and teach her magical arts. However, speaking with the King, Asha realizes a truth that she had not considered. A secret that none of the inhabitants of Rosas are aware of. Those dreams, delivered to see them one day become reality, are perhaps controlled, impossible, could be forgotten, never fulfilled and only do the good of the Magnificent King. Asha tries to confide in her family, but it is difficult to believe such a painful truth. Alone and defeated, Asha, one evening, gazing at the starry sky, makes a Wish Movie, and a star, named Star, responds to her Wish Movie.
Wish Movie Review and Analysis
All those who madly love Disney classics will have no difficulty in recognizing Wish Movie, a film that continually winks at a highly recognizable animated classic, especially from a formal point of view. There are many homages to the studio’s history, as are the best-known films referenced precisely in this sense. Since this is a feature film that wants to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Walt Disney Animation Studios, such an approach is not surprising at all; indeed, it becomes an added and almost playful value, increasing the expressive possibilities of the same story on the big screen. The narrative structure itself is to all intents and purposes derivative of Disney’s golden and silver period, presenting a fairy tale that develops from a simple story, using both the general technical refinement and the power of the musical and the soundtrack, still once an integral and fundamental part of the narrative.
At the basis of Wish Movie, however, a certain dualism remains firmly prevalent which splits the soul of the story unfolding before our eyes in two, daughter of both the past and the present, immersed in an unspecified time that inspires contrasting sensations, déjà-vu and a curiosity that perhaps, given the very nature of the film project in question, will never be able to be fully satisfied. A large number of references to the origins and path of the studio embellish the purely Disney-esque story, without ever letting it completely take off, or in any case find a path beyond the main events. Wish Movie‘s message remains clearer than ever, but the general lightness of the context blocks any in-depth analysis in this sense, unfortunately limiting the possibilities of reading it. Such an approach inevitably undermines the same background characters who, in addition to entertaining, never truly break the big screen, never communicate directly with the audience in the theater, remaining anchored to a narrative rhythm and a formal identity that does not give their way of emerging.
The entire emotional game of Wish Movie, therefore, develops mainly through the characters of Asha and Re Magnifico, the only ones with a characterization multifaceted enough to be able to remain imprinted in some way. In the first, it is easy to see many models directly from previous Disney princesses, in the second we find ourselves faced with an antagonist who is both stereotyped (corrupted by his power) and somehow fragile. His fragility, even if not too deeply explored, comes from his difficult past and from a deep trauma that he carries with him, leading him to the choices we see. The comparison between good and evil, therefore, is once again the constant of a pseudo-political path in which some proletarian messages timidly peek out in the chaos of colors and mainly story-telling turns.
The pride of Wish Movie, however, remains the technical and visual system, capable of offering an experience capable of balancing new approaches to animation with the more classic elements in this sense. The result develops into a real creative mix in which the two-dimensional animation of Disney origins moves hand in hand with the technological and artistic progress that has occurred over the years (this was also discussed during the press conference in which the cast and directors presented Wish Movie to the press). The artistic intent behind the feature film is more evident than ever, as is the great commitment to characterizing the film by trying to shape an expressive identity that is both derivative and strongly modern toward contemporary models. All are framed by a sound and singing study that manages to leave a distinctive and diegetic imprint with the same story in progress enhancing its emotional power and general quality.
Progress is therefore a creative constant in the entire narrative, with a very careful eye on the past and its origins in this sense, capable of bewitching with detailed backdrops and a singular aesthetic study capable of bewitching as only Disney magic is capable of doing. Wish Movie starts from a rather complex and initially quite weak plot solution, which is saved with the entry of Star (a symbol of the creative magic of Walt Disney himself) and the return to very canonical and widely used tracks in the Disney tradition. Everything is fundamentally organized on the double: the double perception of desire, the double nature of the kingdom, the double identity of its king, and so on.
Once the first act is over, the coming-of-age story begins in which the dream is used as a means to find one’s path in life until arriving at a collective conclusion with a political value in a certain sense. “Dreams are desires for happiness” (how long ago did Disney tell us this?) to which everyone has the right, but for which you have to fight tooth and nail, even at one hundred years old, when your dream is to inspire others. Inspiration is the light that can change the world. The light of the Mickey Mouse House specifically. The message comes through loud and clear. In the middle there is the whole meta cinematic part, in which the film cites in a more or less explicit way (especially explicit) the classics of the past (you can have fun finding them) through characters, dialogues, plot resolutions, and shots, retracing in an almost postmodern way also of the narrative choices, especially regarding the great use made of them in the musical parts.
Yet it is what is veiled that arouses the greatest suggestion. Wish Movie is a story that is told (repetition desired) several times within itself, through literature, drawing, and traditional animation, but also the first forms of cinema (the magic lantern, Chinese shadows), tracing an evolutionary path that has marked the history of the Seventh Art and the history of Disney itself. A sign of eternity, which the production company places within a story that speaks first and foremost of creation, which wants to celebrate the past and speak to the new generations by affirming its weight on the present. Although the story is not very original and adds nothing to the filmography, Wish Movie brings characters never told before to the big screen, with a different adult awareness compared to the past. Yes, because Wish Movie does not forget its roots, and while our protagonists look at the stars entrusting them with their Wish Moviees, everything remains well anchored to the ground where the history of Walt Disney Animation is rooted.
What also makes this latest film so special are all the mentions, references, and Easter eggs to past classics that are remembered as a meta cinematic description that connects the stories all together. Wish Movie is as much a film about Disney’s 100-year legacy in animation as it is the story of a young woman trying to change the world. Like a love letter, the strength of Asha’s dreams and tenacity make her an excellent opponent for Magnifico, who has now become a dictator who destroys the dreams of her people. The appeal of Asha, who does not stop singing even in the face of Magnifico’s latest attack, generates incredible strength in all the people who finally rebel against the tyrant. Rosas is finally free to live her dreams, to shatter them and create new ones without a magician who turns everything into a competition for the most deserving. Because thanks to Asha we discover that there are no dreams more worthy than others but only opportunities that are worth living. “Forget the present and the dream will come true”.
Wish Movie Review: The Last Words
Disney returns to the cinema for the Christmas period with a new classic that looks both at the historical past of the studio and at the present and future. Starting from heartfelt praise, the film develops its potential along a path with story-telling tones very familiar to fans, trying to shape the reasons using modernity, both technical/formal and conceptual, which would have perhaps deserved a more detailed study. Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn show Disney a path, not the road, for future classics. The modernization of the fairy tale and the representation in tune with the times take the film further than Strange World, but the lesson of Encanto has not been learned: the best results are achieved when Disney’s gaze is mixed with pre-existing and external imagery. Wish Movie is too caught up in his universe and can’t look outside. Music, such a central element in stories like this, struggles to find the right key.
Wish Movie Review: Disney’s Inevitably Familiar Fairy Tale About the Power of Dreams - Filmyhype
Director: Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn
Date Created: 2023-11-24 18:14
3.5
Pros
- The style and mix of the various animation techniques create a magical experience on the big screen.
- The references to the most classic Disney cannot fail to touch the studio's historical fans.
- The attention in terms of soundtrack and songwriting.
Cons
- A greater in-depth study beyond the fairy-tale dimension of some characters wouldn't have hurt.
- The simplicity of some twists makes its development too hasty.
