I Wish (2023) they had made a better movie
Some movies don't have to be on the big screen. There is nothing wrong with direct to video/DVD/streaming, just letting that half-baked product go out there to be the background soundtrack to someone's childhood. Disney put Wish out there on the vague promise of another Frozen or Encanto with fun songs and a nice art style, but they forgot to give anything engaging like a story or characters.
Wish is the story of a magical land ruled by the wizard king Magnifico who takes his subject's wish (or heart's desire, it's not super defined) on their 18th birthday so that everyone will be docile. A young girl named Asha finds out this is actually bad, and with a wishing star and the power of magic set out to stop Magnifico and give back everyone their wishes. Along the way, Disney masturbates their canon trying to tie all their stories together as if it was some kind of goofy (adjective not dog-man) cinematic universe.
The art style of wish is very fairytale in color and texture. The hues are pale watercolors splashed across the screen with only bright spots where the magic fills in. All that is painted on nice textures that resemble bumpy plaster and pillowy toilet paper. It's really very nice to look at when the camera sits still but in motion loses all appeal and becomes generic video game cutscenes. The still images of this movie are amazing.
Another thing I am not qualified to discuss (did I mention I'm not an artist?), is the music. The villain song, an animal song with animals, and this one Stomp! inspired heavy beat revolution song all are fun in the moment, but I'll be honest, that's all I remember about them. There's no show stopper here, the songs designed to be redundant information dumps to fill the runtime. This leads to the feeling that maybe this movie was kinda thrown together, which feels very studio.
Let me get this out of the way before I start shitting on the movie: I believe all those involved did their best. Fawn Veerasunthorn and Chris Buck made good choices as directors with the art and the shots. Ariana DeBose, Chris Pine, and everyone else acted their asses off with the material they were given. The problem comes with the script and the story.
This movie, with every half-baked reference and cliche line, reeks of studio craptitude. Someone took what might have been a nice pilot episode to a cute little afternoon animated show or an irreverent pushback of the studio that's a little too Shrek and they made it a DISNEY MOVIE. That's a lot for this story, the whole princess classic story thing, and it doesn't deserve that.
Save this for a rainy afternoon when someone sits on the remote and triggers Disney+ accidentally.
Here's some random thoughts:
The magical star falls for no other reason than the plot needed it to (I wanted it to be her dad, what with all the nose touching).
The backstory for the villain who starts a little sympathetic is mentioned but given no details (what if he thought he caused the previous kingdom's downfall with a wish so that's why he's stealing them?).
The hell is it with nobody saying "evil" (forbidden magic is dumb, make that shit evil)?
Her friend goes evil and it's very compelling and then… not.
The little comic relief goat in all the trailers? Talks to like maybe one other person and mostly to himself. It feels like it was added way after to fill time. Funny, good job Tudyk, but totally useless.
I liked the Grandpa character. Very sweet.