Wish Review: Disney’s new animated musical fantasy film features Ariana DeBose as Asha, Chris Pine as King Magnifico, Alan Tudyk as Valentino, Angelique Cabral as Queen Amaya, Victo Garber as Sabino, and others as voice actors. Directed by Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn, the story is by Jennifer Lee, Allison Moore, Chris, and Fawn.
The music is by Dave Metzger (background music score), and the songs are composed by Julia Michaels and Benjamin Rice. The runtime is 95 minutes.
Wish Trailer
Wish Review Contains No Spoilers
In the Wish movie, in the town of Rosas, a sorcerer, aka king, named Magnifico makes people’s wishes come true. He collects people’s desires and grants one wish every year. However, once the person shares their wish with Magnifico, they won’t remember it. One day, a 17-year-old Asha meets the king for a job as his apprentice. She also wants her grandfather’s wish to come true. However, Asha learns some startling truths about Magnifico, which change everything she has believed about him since childhood.
The movie is an elaboration of ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’. The first 30 minutes are spent establishing how the concept of ‘wish’ works. There are two songs in this duration, of which only one is decent. As the narrative progresses, the story gets complicated with chaotic conversations and songs. We just have to believe that the king’s motives are questionable. If that’s so, why did he spend years learning magic? But let’s not ask logical questions here.
A distraught Asha makes a strong wish, and it is granted in the form of a star. (I know, too much of wish and stars here). At first, the animals and plants start talking, and later, other big magic starts happening. I expected that at least this would accelerate the joy in the story. But there’s so much disarray happening in the town of Rosas that it becomes tiring to grasp everything. As a viewer, your only wish is to be entertained, but the makers are our Magnifico, and they didn’t let that happen.
Wish intends to cater to children. But how will the kids grasp so many dialogues and mystical terms used back-to-back, via dialogues or conversations? Why have so many subplots in a story that has no head to begin with? It’s a 20 minutes fairytale that is dragged for 90 minutes.
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The Disney film relies heavily on cuteness factors with the bubble-shaped wishes, the googly-eyed wishing star, baby-voiced animals, and plants. But their effect wears off with dull storytelling. No amount of magical spells could’ve turned this movie into something extraordinary.
Chris Pine and Ariana DeBose have done a good job voicing the characters Magnifico and Asha. But there’s little they could do with their voice acting to save this underwhelming musical saga. Valentino, Asha’s goat, is voiced by Alan Tudyk. It wasn’t a good decision to give such an adorable animal such a deep and grumpy voice. The moment the goat starts talking, it turns into a bitter being from a sweet one before.
Wish Review: Final Thoughts
Overall, Disney’s Wish is one of the weakest animated films to have been released in recent years. The story is all over the place, with very little offered to rejoice in watching the magic and madness unfold on the screen. The film and its characters fail to captivate you with their magic and charm. As a musical, it really does nothing to make you happy with its songs.
The movie releases in Indian theatres on November 24, 2023.
What’s your Wish Review? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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