"Just keep wishing."
Hello everyone!
I mean, listen, we all (or mostly all) love Disney, but they don't really write crime stories that make you puzzle your head to figure out what's what, let's be real here.
So to Disney I went, and browsed a little bit to figure out which movie I hadn't yet seen.
See, as a Disney kid, I've grown up watching this stuff. It's my jam, though I'll admit that some of the recent ones don't float my boat (looking at you, the movie I won't even name but only link).
Finding one that sounded promising and which I hadn't seen prior to this past weekend, I sat down and watched it.
Jury's out on the liking bit, but I can honestly say I didn't quite get it ALL in Wish.
Wish was released during the centennial for Disney studios as a whole, so the hype going in was VERY real. People were trying to imagine all sorts of things, and the studio also promised a combination of 2D and 3D art to make it something we've never seen before.
They definitely succeeded on that last bit, but as for the story ...
In homage to how the OG Disney classics usually began, our story opens with a book on a pedestal and a voice-over narrating the story, which is that the kingdom this story features was created by the king and queen, to preserve the magic that the king had been learning all his life, and to help others: by taking their heart's deepest wishes.
See, that was the only price to pay for living in the kingdom: give the king your wish, and that's it.
The catch here is that you forget all about the wish once you've handed it over, and there's no guarantee you'll ever be granted said wish, since the king tends to make his choices based on what HE believes is good for the kingdom.
Asha, a girl just shy of turning eighteen (at which point the wishes are given) wants nothing more than her grandfather's wish be granted, as the man's turning 100 years old. For that reason, she's interviewing for the position of the king's apprentice ... which she botches rather royally, pun intended.
See, in her desire to see her grandpa's wish granted, she overplays her hand, but also learns that Magnifico (the king, although his name is hilarious) will probably never grant it, as the wish is too vague and there might be trouble out of it.
Or so he believes. He's a little paranoid, you see.
This prompts Asha to make a desperate wish herself, and it's so strong she calls down a star, with whose help she then embarks on an adventure to return the wishes of her grandfather and mother.
She manages to grab her grandfather's. but is betrayed by one of her friends before she can do much else, and Magnifico destroys her mother's wish, while also vowing to capture the star that's been helping her (and oh man some of the scenes here ... the best one being when the talking goat organizes a chicken coir in one of the pantries).
Now, he's obviously off his rocker, but the queen manages to prevent him from venturing down the path of forbidden, dark magic one time. The second time, well, he's a goner, and creates a powerful staff with which he might be able to capture Star.
Sending her family to safety, Asha returns to the city to free ALL the wishes, realizing that Magnifico's fear is what's holding him back; she's joined on her quest by various friends, as well as the queen herself, despite the fact that Asha's been branded a traitor and wanted as criminal.
They devise a plan to lure Magnifico out by using Asha as bait, while the others open up the roof of his tower and release the wishes.
This all SEEMS to be going well, until the point when Asha realizes the Magnifico chasing after her is her traitor friend in disguise, and the REAL one is at his tower, harnessing all the wishes as well as Star, locking them away into the staff.
He locks everyone down with his magic, too, but Asha recognizes that by working together, they MIGHT be able to overcome him.
So they all wish for vaguely the same thing, which is something better than just then, and the combined might of the kingdom overpowers Magnifico, locking him inside the staff's topper, while Star and the wishes go free.
The queen then sets out to help her people achieve their wishes in some practical manner or other; Asha's grandfather inspires people by playing his instrument; and Star gifts Asha with a magic wand, thus making her into a fairy godmother before she has to return to the sky - others want to wish upon a star too, after all.
And the movie ends with ole grandpa composing the Disney theme song, which is I think what the writers were going for - how the wishing star and the origins of it all came to be.
They partly succeeded in that, but not so much in telling an engaging or appealing story, mostly because there are so many loopholes! To name just one, it's mentioned at one point that 'the citizens have had generations to wait for the wishes to come true', and yet supposedly, Magnifico and his queen created the kingdom, so it hasn't been around long. What generations?
More importantly, there DOES seem to be some backstory as to the WHY for this kingdom. There's a torn/partly burnt tapestry in Magnifico's study that he alludes to often enough, saying he has to prevent something like that from happening again - but we never get to hear WHAT THE STORY IS.
Magnifico lacking background and reasoning for what he's doing is the most detrimental to the entire movie, because it reduces him to a mustache-twirling villain with no sense or purpose. And while obviously this isn't going to win an Oscar, usually Disney movies do follow the cause-effect rule, which they seem to have skipped with this one.
I don't know; I liked the Mediterranean setting, as it's close to my own heart and my own home region, in a sense. But the holes in the movie make it a bit impossible to enjoy fully, even though it IS a nice hour and a half to spend.
Not a total loss, but not a full win, either, IMO.
xx
*images and video not mine
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