Wish

It’s a nice idea: to make an animated film that celebrates 100 years of Disney animation, a film designed to appreciate the century of the longest-running animation studio in the world. If only Walt Disney Animation Studios was on top of its game these days. The studio that started with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and created epic classics such as Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King during its renaissance era seems to have been struggling as of late. Wish doesn’t evoke swelling feelings of nostalgia, but rather a longing for the pristine storytelling of the studio’s past.

Wish follows Asha (DeBose), a young girl who is eager to become the assistant of King Magnifico (Pine), ruler of the Kingdom of Rosas. She is giddy to learn about his work, particularly how he protects and grants the wishes of the people in Rosas. However, when she disagrees with the king’s practices for granting wishes, she not only loses the position but finds herself longing for something more for the people of her town.

It’s the classic Disney model: Girl feels stuck, girl wants more, and girl fights her way to her happy ending. However, it feels like the studio has lost its vision, fumbling just about every step of the way. With Wish, the story, the animation, and the songs are all a letdown, a complete misstep from beginning to end, creating a finished product that ultimately feels flat and lifeless.

Asha’s character is sweet, a genuine young girl whose biggest flaw is that she “cares too much,” but that’s all we ever learn about her (outside, of course, of her having a dead parent). The film never develops the people around her that she loves either, and perhaps that’s because she has too many: She has her grandfather and mother; her friends, who are all caricatures of the Seven Dwarfs; and her best friend, who is a baker to Magnifico. Their conversations are always quick and mostly plot-driven, with no real substance to which the audience can connect. Wish never shows why Asha so deeply wants more for her friends and family, only tells us it’s her personality trait.

Wish also has a huge villain problem: King Magnifico is as dull as they come, with seemingly no motivation for his evil turn. We’re told from the beginning that the king is honorable, a good man whose intentions are best for his people, but he’s so easily swayed to the darkness when Asha questions him one time. His wife, Queen Amaya (Cabral), doesn’t even feel pain once she sees he’s turning evil, which is an odd choice that feeds into the film’s lack of heart. There’s no motive, and even his big villain song is tonally strange – a hoppy, dance-y tune where he claims people should be nicer to him because he “pays their rent.” Gone are the days when Disney was brave enough to make villains like Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame or sinister souls like Ursula from The Little Mermaid. It’s as if Disney is afraid of making a villain that’s truly terrifying and despicable now.

Perhaps this could all be saved if the animation was in top form, something that’s expected from the studio. However, the attempt to make an homage to the hand-drawn animation of the past is a total misfire. The 3D characters look completely detached from the 2D-style backgrounds – there’s no depth to the animation in the film. It’s a nice idea that is executed poorly, and especially glaring when films like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem so effortlessly accomplish this look. Wish looks cheap, like a made-for-TV animated film, which is upsetting because Walt Disney Animation Studios in the past has done an incredible job creating glorious landscapes that feel fully formed, with colors that pop and light that burns bright.

Wish is a disappointment. What could have been a beautiful celebration of Disney’s past ends up being one big poorly designed Easter egg hunt. The heart is in the right place, but the pieces never add up to something more.