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WISH
Directors: Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn Cast: The voices of Ariana DeBosse, Chris Pine, Alan Tudyk, Angelique Cabral, Victor Garber, Natasha Rothwell, Jennifer Kumiyama, Harvey Guillén, Niko Vargas, Evan Peters MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:32 Release Date: 11/22/23 |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 20, 2023 Less a fully developed movie and more a reminder that Disney Animation has made some very memorable ones in the past, Wish barely possesses a story, characters of note, or a theme that goes beyond the famous music that plays under the studio's introductory logo. It looks great, more or less giving us a seamless blending of computer animation with the look of the hand-drawn form that gave so many of those early and later classics a distinct sense of artistry and personality. Like the foundations of the movie's narrative, though, the style here comes across as a copy of a copy. The story takes place in a magical kingdom, although not a too-faraway or fantastical one. Giving us a literal storybook prologue, Jennifer Lee and Allison Moore's screenplay establishes that a man who lost everything important to him fled to an island in the Mediterranean Sea, where he spent his time learning magic in the hopes of being able to protect people's dreams and grant their wishes. Life and the world are cruel to hopes and dreams, and as more and more people learn of this sorcerer's abilities, his domain grows larger and into a kingdom over which he rules with seeming benevolence. Most of this introduction is intriguing, not because of a gimmick that feels undefined even as it's explained with a little more detail, but because our first look at that kingdom brings back some warm nostalgia for the apparently bygone days when traditional animation techniques gave us simple wonders such as an island kingdom. However this team of artists might have pulled off the early backdrops of that setting, either by digital means or with by-hand ink and paint, the effect of it is somewhat stunning. Yes, much of that is a yearning for some significant return to the hand-crafted nature of animated filmmaking, and the vague resemblance of this king's castle to the one that has long served as the entryway to the world of these animated movies must be intentional. From the very start, directors Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn want us to be conscious of this history, and they have filled their movie with so many indirect references to those previous movies, characters who remind us of ones from those works, and direct appearances from animated figures whose existence has been etched into the culture that nostalgia becomes a defining characteristic of this movie. Look closely—but not too closely, because the movie makes it obvious with some dialogue, too—to spot Bambi, and Peter Pan gets a pair of cameos, because even the well of self-reference runs dry here. By the way, there's also a cameo from a well, if the appearance of such an object can be called that. Spotting those little details is fun at first, until it becomes predictable and because the story itself is a broad idea, a collection of archetypical characters and creatures, and a musical in search of a purpose beyond making us feel good about all of the stories this studio has told in the past. It centers on Asha (voice of Ariana DeBose), a resident of the kingdom ruled by the sorcerer king Magnifico (voice of Chris Pine). On the event of every resident's 18th birthday, the king offers the chance for his subjects to give him their dream, which he will protect in a floating bubble and they will forget, so as never to experience the pain of not having it fulfilled. It doesn't seem like a great system, and as a plot device, it's not particularly compelling, either, even after it becomes clear that the generous ruler isn't so generous. Upon discovering that herself (by way of a song with lyrics that come across as if the writers took the big love song from a different movie and awkwardly shoved it into the most plausible place here), Asha wishes upon a star, which flies down to her in the form of a cute emoji that will certainly provide for a lot of kid-friendly products. At this point, all that's left of the plot is the routine, as Magnifico becomes more dastardly, Asha and her friends (including a talking goat, voiced by Alan Tudyk, and some other speaking forest animals, because that's the expectation) try to foil his nefarious scheme, and everything builds toward a climactic showdown atop a very tall tower. The directors and screenwriters know that we know all of these beats, but instead of subverting or even doing much in a traditional way with them, the filmmakers simply seem to think that awareness and familiarity are enough to compensate for what's lacking. The major issue, of course, is that what's lacking in Wish is everything else. The plot's a rushed, half-baked notion. The characters, while voiced well enough (Pine is having a blast, and DeBose's vocal talents go beyond her incredible singing voice), fit squarely into this formula, and the limited musical numbers are only memorable in how eclectically disparate in style the collection of them is. The movie might look like a return to some old-fashioned form, by way of a clever technical update, but beyond the appearance, it most certainly isn't. Copyright © 2023 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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(for thematic elements and mild action)
