Wish

As the flagship film and centrepiece to Disney’s centenary celebrations, Wish has a lot of pressure riding on it.

Walking into a large cinema screen to find the auditorium completely empty, just a few days after the film’s wider release, can’t have been what Disney were expecting.

However, the mixed marketing and clear confusion Disney have caused by dropping films onto their streaming service so quickly after theatrical release is fairly indicative of Wish in general.

Wish is ostensibly an origin story for the Disney wishing star, a premise at once appropriate and wholesome but also simultaneously somewhat twee and old fashioned. Perhaps they're trying to be kind of trendy at the same time with its borderline ‘shared universe’ messaging.

I’m sure you can see where this is going at this stage: Wish perfectly tows the line between trying to be a faithful and befitting anniversary film whilst also trying to stand up to its ‘new-school’ Disney competition and this is what makes it both good and bad.

It is traditional, it does meet all of the Disney story values, it is perfectly short and sweet and tells a very classic story with a surprisingly strong soundtrack. It also contains Easter Eggs galore, almost making reference to every film in the studio’s storied history. Spotting these is enormous fun and by far the best thing about the movie for any Disney aficionado.

However, these traditions hamper it somewhat. There’s an argument that the references are rather shoe-horned in. Our heroine Asha having seven friends, each possessing a characteristic of one of the seven dwarfs, is a funny touch but rather hampers any character development they may have.

Likewise, the typically beautiful animation is presented in a sort of hybrid ‘half hand-drawn, half CGI’ style which is lovely, and draws some tentative parallels with the Spider-Verse style, but isn’t quite as attention grabbing as their Pixar counterparts.

The music is the one element of the film where the mix of old and new works particularly well. The songs follow traditional musical lines but have a distinctly modern flourish. It isn’t up to Encanto’s Miranda-standard but it feels like there’s some earworms here and a potential stage version would probably hold up well.

Disney have been on a bit of a renaissance lately and Wish therefore does suffer when compared to the Frozens, Wreck-It Ralphs and Encanto and is rather a victim of circumstance. It’s a lovely film, a loving tribute and a decent story but it is trying to be all things to all people and just doesn’t quite stack up.

Let’s keep things positive though and sign off with the fact that, 100 years later, Disney are still at the very top of the game and producing movies with heart and love. There may be tough decisions ahead in terms of the battle between the theatrical and streaming sides, not to mention what they’re going to do with their purchased franchises, but Wish is a great tribute to what this studio has always done: tell great stories and encourage everyone to dream.

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