PREMISE
A young girl named Asha wishes on a star and gets a more direct answer than she bargained for when a trouble-making star comes down from the sky to join her.
I want to do this review a bit differently than I do other reviews. I’m a big fan of Disney films admittingly, and just as much as I am going to review this film here, I do find that this film represents everything that Disney animated flicks are doing right and wrong these days, and I want to talk about everything all at once, so bear with me here.
In my humble opinion, THREE THINGS make animated family films truly great. WISH is a movie that has all three of these things with varying results…
THE GOOD STUFF
Of course, a computer-generated animation feature in 2023 must look good, and the performances must be on point. These things are basically what Disney gets right in every one of their films. It’s worth noting here because, unlike other places that do animated films, the aesthetics tend to be hit or miss (like multiple DreamWorks projects), and with Disney it’s always, always, always on point. If WISH were a film with no dialogue, it would still be wonderful to look at on a movie screen.
Ariana DeBose and Chris Pine are as good. Victor Garber, Alan Tudyk, and others also do fantastic jobs. There really isn’t a lot more to say. Still, it needs to be emphasized that even when the stories are inferior, and even when Disney may be coasting and kind of being lazy, the visuals and the performances will always reign supreme over their peers.
THE BAD STUFF
FUNNYNESS- Perhaps I’m on an island with this one, but I couldn’t help but notice that after TOY STORY 3 had so many adult human beings going over the traumatic elements of their childhoods, audiences really tend to prefer their Disney movies being funnier than they are anything else. There are exceptions to this, of course, like FROZEN, ENCANTO, AND COCO, but I do feel the reason why those movies were successful was for a different reason which I will touch on in a moment.
Whenever WISH decides to be a comedy, it accomplishes it in spades. There are some clutch one-liners sprinkled throughout this film, and there are two or three sequences that are ridiculous enough to be funny even when played straight. The problem is that WISH is trying really hard to be a dramatic film. I haven’t seen a Disney film try so hard to force dramatic elements into a story that should kind of be silly. Not entirely silly, but at least 50% of the way.
THE UGLY STUFF
THE JAMS- COCO, ENCANTO, and FROZEN were massive hits primarily because of one thing. Sure, those films all had the typical visuals and performances that Disney always comes through on. And sure, those were well-written stories. But most of all, those three flicks had what I like to call THE JAMS. You see, whether you’re making a Broadway musical or a Disney animated musical, you must have THE F****** JAMS people! If thou haveth no jams, then thine shall end upeth like the film ELEMENTAL that was released earlier this year. It is a film that is a foremost example of what it looks like when you do everything right but have NO PRESENCE of the jams.
WISH does the thing that is plaguing Disney musicals these days. There are just too many ballads. My goodness. There might be seven or eight songs that are performed in their entirety in this one-hour and 40-minute movie. Two are moderately upbeat, and one just so happens to be the worst villain song (THIS IS THE THANKS I GET?), perhaps in the history of Disney animated musicals. When you have three or four power ballads going back-to-back, they tend to blend into one another.
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The funny thing is that WISH is an okay enough movie by itself, but considering the history of the brand, and considering the recent string of Disney hits that have been far superior, it’s impossible to recommend someone to go out and see this when there’s 10 or 20 better viewing options at home that you’ve already seen, that go through the same machinations.
Sometimes, I feel as if Disney doesn’t know the high bar that they set for themselves with these animated movies that they do. It was quite bizarre to watch both ELEMENTAL and WISH this year and know that those movies seem like half-assed efforts and perhaps even cash grabs, and they don’t need to be cash grabs. Do better, Disney.
WISH is in theaters now