THERE! I FIXED THE MOVIE! - Wish
WARNING: The following post will contain spoilers for the film. If you haven't seen the movie yet, feel free to come back later.
I don't think I'm alone in saying this, but Disney's 100th anniversary was one that went kinda poor. Granted, the company did produce some great films in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Elemental, but everything else they put out was either forgettable, bland, or most of the time, a missed opportunity. And nowhere was that more apparent in their big celebratory movie: Wish. Going in, I thought this was going to be one of Disney's best animated films in years, if not the best. But when it ultimately released, it all came crashing down hard. In fact, to this day, people almost unanimously agree that this is one of, if not Disney's weakest animated film in recent years. I didn't hate the movie, but it's a film I'd describe as an airline movie. Y'know those cheesy, saccharine fluff films that always shows on planes simply meant to keep you from being bored for a couple hours while you're waiting for the plane to land? That's this movie. And like I said a little earlier, the whole thing reeked of missed potential, meaning this could've been fantastic. How? Let's proceed.I should start by saying I may not make that many changes to the overall story, because as it is, it does its job fine. It's got a great message on the power of wishes and aside from a few dud lines from Valentino, the jokes are okay. There are a few problems I had with it, and that's what I want to go over today So, with that said, let's begin.
Let's start off with the movie's artstyle. This has been perhaps the most divisive element of the movie, with people either liking it or hating it. And for me, I'd say half the time it works, and half the time it doesn't. The backgrounds of the movie look straight up gorgeous, they have a spectacular watercolored feel to them and the effects that come with it are great. It especially stands out in the nighttime scenes - hell, the “I’m a Star” scene is perhaps the most visually dazzling scene in the movie. The problem is that in the daytime scenes, it does kinda look like a Snapchat filter. Hell, halfway through my screening I’m pretty sure they dropped the style entirely. I’m not saying the artists did a bad job with the animation, they’re all highly talented and at the very least, the animation still looks fine. It’s just that instead of the style enhancing the animation, it instead looks like it’s being held back by it. But how’d I fix it? Honestly, I’d just go all out with the style. I’ve seen a plethora of CG-animated films utilise a similar style to what Wish attempted, such as Nimona, The Bad Guys or, ironically, the Disney shorts Paperman and Feast. Those shorts looked absolutely beautiful, blending the 2D and 3D styles seamlessly. And it’s not too far off from Disney’s ballpark, so why not implement that same style here? Also, I’ve seen a lot of conflicting opinions on whether or not the film should be animated on 2s, and honestly, I’m not fussed either way. I’ll just leave this video by TikTok user @no_the_robot and let you decide.
Next, we gotta address this movie’s villain, King Magnifico. I’m sure like you, I was really excited to see that this movie would have a genuine villain after a bevvy of plot twists and generational trauma. And after weak twist villains such as Yokai and Screenslaver, this change was extremely welcome. The problem, much like the animation, is how he was executed. Before we get into the nitty-gritty, I’d like to turn your attention to the villain song: “This is The Thanks I Get?!”. I've been kind in not dedicating a whole segment to the music, because I think as a whole, the songs are…passable. They each have their own individual issues, such as “Welcome to Rosas” having a pretty weird and wordy chorus, “At All Costs” sounding more like a love song between Asha and Magnifico than a song about the collection of wishes and “I’m a Star” having ridiculous lyrics such as “watch out world, here I are”, but they’re catchy enough, with “Knowing What I Know Now” being a particular standout. But the problems are the most prevalent in “This is The Thanks I Get?!”. There’s actually a great video by Astor Rhymemaster on why the song as a whole doesn’t work. I won’t repeat what was said there, since I’m gonna leave it linked at the bottom. But to sum up, the lyrics go a little too anachronistic, particularly “and you still complain? Ungrateful much!”, it goes a bit too far with the slant rhymes and, the biggest problem of the song, it’s too upbeat. It sounds less like a Disney villain song and more like a song from Descendants (derogatory). So, what do I do? To answer your question, let’s circle back to Magnifico himself. One thing I didn’t get were his motivations. Think of characters like Scar, Hades or Jafar. Their whole motivation was getting power by overthrowing the ruler of the land. In the case of Magnifico, he’s already both the king and the most powerful person in Rosas. There’s no one to overthrow, thus no believable reason for him to go as far as he does in the film. And again, how do I fix this? I make him a king in decline. Perhaps Rosas begins doubting Magnifico’s power after he refused to grant their families’ wishes, expanding on the conflict with Sabino’s wish. People are losing their faith in him, so it’s only logical he’d want that back. As for “This is The Thanks I Get?!”, I’d split the song in two. The first half coming after the first wish ceremony, keeping the poppy tone to establish his hubris. And then the second half is when he finally unlocks that book and unleashes its power, dropping the pop in favor of a darker, more sinister vibe composed of mostly strings and horns, preferably on a minor scale, the chorus building and building until it reaches one final crescendo. That would make the song a lot more intimidating and set Magnifico up as a legitimate threat. My last fix with the song, aside from a few lyric changes, is that I’d swap out him stepping on little wooden people with him…well, there’s no better way to describe it, crushing wishes. It's also established that when a wish is destroyed, the wisher ends up in...mild discomfort, I think. I would make it so once the wish is crushed, the wisher becomes a mindless drone only living to serve Magnifico, which would not only make his plan more sinister, but it would give Asha more of a motivation considering her mother's wish was the first one crushed.
Lastly, I gotta address the tone and the abundance of Disney references. Throwing in a few nods to Disney’s work in their 100th anniversary movie is a solid idea. It’s a great way to pay tribute to the works Disney put out in the past. In fact, the end credits where the star produces little visages of characters like Snow White, Winnie the Pooh, Aladdin, Yokai, for some reason (wouldn’t it make more sense to have Baymax there? I never got that) and even Mickey himself are pretty beautiful. The problem is that half the film feels like a loving tribute to Disney’s pantheon and the other half feels more like a Disney parody. Like, some of these jokes I’d expect from a Hoodwinked movie. They’re good jokes, don’t get me wrong, but the problem is the references are extremely unsubtle. For example, one of the talking bears is named John. That’s a subtle nod to the character Little John from Robin Hood. There’s a scene where he talks to a deer named Bambi. Ya see my point? There's even a scene that just straight up has a Peter Pan cameo. If they toned down the references and made them less obvious, that would work pretty well. For example, the Peter Pan cameo? I'd make it so the model's outfit would be changed, but still be addressed as if he were Peter Pan. The Zootopia reference? I’d just cut it - there’s not really any narrative purpose for it to be there. There's even a scene in which Magnifico runs off a bunch of references, but it doesn't go all out for it, with the last one being "oh true love how sweet-so much for true love!" That's a nice callback to a line from The Little Mermaid, but here's how I'd expand on it: have Magnifico say "oh, true love from the town beauty? That is so beastly!" But lastly, I wanna address Asha's friends. I love the fact that these guys are based off the Seven Dwarves, but they don't go anywhere with them until the climax. There's a betrayal with one of them, that being Simon, which should be a great twist, but I ended up knowing nothing about him. It would work a little more if we had a scene with him being torn between getting his wish granted or protecting his friend, wanting to both get back to who he was and keep Asha safe from Magnifico. So that way, we'd know a little bit about his character before the twist.
So that's the fixes in place. So, how does the film look now? Well, we open on Asha wanting to be the apprentice to King Magnifico, who as time went on started to get more and more distrust from the public of Rosa’s due to him not granting their wishes, a trait Asha herself develops after he refuses to grant her grandfather’s wish. After the wish ceremony ends in more people questioning Magnifico and the first edition of “This is the Thanks I Get?!”, she runs out and wishes on a star and…the star comes down! With it, she devises a plan to free her grandfather’s wish as well as her mother’s. And while the plan works, she eavesdrops on Magnifico turning to a book of dark magic through a reprise of “This is the Thanks I Get?!”, desperate to have the situation contained and to get the respect he once had back. And after careful consideration, Simon rats Asha and her friends out and Magnifico begins his wish-crushing streak, starting with Sakina’s who, along with the other people who got their wish crushed, becomes a mindless sycophant. So with that in place, Asha and co. decide to finally stand up to Magnifico, free the wishes and stop Magnifico’s reign of terror, banding together the locals of Rosas to overpower Magnifico. The day is saved, the wishes are freed, Rosas is thriving and, in my opinion, I think I fixed the movie. What do you think?
About the Author: JF the LOLZOR
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