So, Wish, the 100th-anniversary movie.
Let's not talk about the review in question yet. Just the initial previews that had been released to mixed responses.
People have been frustrated with Disney's adorkable female protags but Asha is the breaking point since the previews do little to show what Asha has against her contemporaries or even her predecessors.
A return to form with a traditional Disney villain after twist and complex...well 'complex' in terms on how the writing pans out can be pretty great. However, it depends on the execution.
The music unfortunately is left to be desired. From the release before the movie without the context, the music is doing two things: a poor man's Lin Manuel Miranda and trying to be pop to chart at all. Not help the songwriters were pop songwriters instead of actual Broadway talents. There is nothing memorable enough to say that they are worthy of the Disney name. Even the songs that are remotely good are just okay by comparison.
And this is all without the context of the movie!
Talking about the context of the movie made me question if the development had ever gotten off the ground after the rough draft.
Because at the end of the day, it's certainly a rough draft with massive executive meddling who think they know better.
Everything is just meh and not particularly memorable. I don't think I could recall the townsfolk or the seven dwarves expy. There just isn't that much development to them or personality at all outside of being references or so bland that if there are details added in later scenes just makes everything vague as per usual.
Valentino fulfills the animal sidekick but failed hard because he adds fuck all. It’s better that he never existed in the first place. He’s the animal sidekick people feared Perrito to be. He has no purpose but to make unfunny jokes and doesn’t move the plot forward in any way or interact with the characters meaningfully. Pocahontas’ animals are more useful than Valentino himself.
The star is literally a prop. There is nothing about this character outside of cute and mischievous. Godoka, the concept for the Star with the romance and the shapeshifting has so much potential but nope, toys!
Asha's relatives are just a plot device and nothing more. There is nothing to the mom's character.
The only reason I know about the queen at all is just that she's the wife and that's all. There is nothing about her that is interesting outside of her love of the king which was washed away in the end. The only trait is that she's holier than thou because she's on the good side and that's it.
Godoka, the concept of her being the bad guy and part of the villain couple as in Morticia and Gomez Addams but evil potential especially in a Disney film is just so good. I can't afford to think of it now else I will be sad at the loss of potential that already happened rather than the concepts that could've been.
Because everything is vague in this movie. When they do explain shit, they just made the whole execution all the more worse because they don't do anything with it. Because the awful execution of vague worldbuilding and ideas are thrown about but nothing is done about it.
The only thing conclusive is that a wish contains the person's everything in it because it's them. And even then, it's still poorly conceived because it sounds like people want the easy way out of getting their wish rather than working hard for it.
Asha is the adorkable protag but there is no depth to her character. She doesn't change because she has no actual flaws or has made mistakes in the run of the entire movie. She is in the right therefore she doesn't need to change. She isn’t a Mary Sue, just super bland and static. Her ‘flaws’ aren’t showing that she is an actual flawed character. She doesn’t stand apart at all due to her lack of personality.
Magnifico has a tragic story but somehow forgets all of that in his pursuit to keep the power to himself. However, it is said that the forbidden arts can corrupt and he did it out of desperation. There is literally no angle of bad wishes that can harm the kingdom, just the wishes that don't personally benefit him because that's all we have.
Or simple math. There is no way that every wish can be granted and there will be bad wishes that can harm the kingdom.
Is Magnifico's immortal or what hence the need to seal him away?
Yeah, we can't forget that narcissism but that narcissism clashed with the corruption deal. There is no fatal flaw or bad traits that were later magnified here.
Supposedly, the whole Magnifico and Asha thing is to be careful what you wish for. Are you kidding me with all the vagueness and poor worldbuilding and magic structure?! Asha does not change in the course of the movie. Magnifico’s development wants to have two cakes but can’t eat them because of the poor and vague everything.
Magnifico's eventual fate and everyone including his wife who thought she loved the man just dropped him after the forbidden arts can corrupt, mind you. That is overkill for a villain that is barely developed outside of being the bad guy against the protagonist.
Like, whoo, yay, happy ending. When the happy ending was not earned. It felt like going through the motions of what should be happening but with none of the finesse of previous Disney movies that is better at earning that ending.
The songs are by far the most disappointing. Because they are trying to chart rather than have songs that are actually moving the story forward in any capacity, these pop songwriters have little knowledge of how to write original songs that move the story and characters only in their bare bones.
The songwriters are talented in their own right but a terrible choice especially for the 100th anniversary no less. Disney has been known for the Sherman Bros and the Broadway numbers so of course point to the popification of Disney. While Tangled has a poppy sound, it’s still more Broadway whereas Let It Go is too poppy with the high notes the only indication that it is Broadway is the high notes. Encanto and Moana has the help of innovative Lin Manuel Miranda who at least has varied songs in his repertoire even if some of them have characters sing about their feelings though some don’t really move the plot forward if we’re counting individual songs.
These guys are poor choices and trying to mimic their predecessors without having the knowledge. At worst, the pop song's repetition is harming the story. The songs desperately need rewrites because the atrocious redundancy and the lack of reviewing lyrics so that they make sense aren’t helping the plot or the characters. The characters already said it in dialogue so why is repeating it in song going to move the story forward?! The villain song is the worst offender with all the problems exemplified because how the hell did you mess up a Disney Villain song?!
What is worse is that these songs are on their first draft. The songwriters weren’t involved in the process, only forced to churn out what the ideas they got from someone else instead of the actual writers.
The only upside is the cast who are having fun. And even then that’s not enough to be rewatchable.
The references don't even make it rewatchable in any capacity. It's not like Spiderverse where the iterations play a part or the OPLA due to the original animanga's length can foreshadow and make the world a lot bigger and tighter as a result. The references are supposed to have all the references as part of its 100th anniversary.
The movie falls apart just by the references alone. When you are making references for the sake of references and aren't adding to the story by any means, then it's harming the story instead of building it.
There is no need for the Seven Dwarves expy at all. No need to have that much especially when it contends with the story in question. Again, the side characters are forgettable.
No, Valentino didn't make Zootopia nor is Asha the Fairy Godmother or Magnifico the Magic Mirror as its origin story. They are references only but due to the overall vagueness of the story, people can still make the logical conclusion that hey, these guys are the origin stories.
Wish is not a deep story even though people try to posit that it is. Too much vagueness in a story that is told too complicated. Coco has a complicated system but it's a simple story at the end of the day. Wish had so many ideas with no structure.
It's just so aggressive in its mediocrity that it's going to fade when it hasn't carved out its own identity.
It's not even a shitshow that is The Lion King 2019 where everything about it is bad. It's bland and forgettable as a whole. Not even the cast can save a mediocre movie that is destined to fade even against the mediocrity of even its predecessors because at least their predecessors establish an identity. Wish has no identity to call its own.
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