Wish

As a 100th anniversary celebration, this was seriously below par, given Disney's recent, dreary output, I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this was woeful.

It felt as though they'd borrowed bits of Disney classics, and bolted them together as a kind of eco friendly Frankenstein. It doesn't manage to spark into life, arguably the most forgettable Disney characters to date.

I've read several comments about the animation, and plenty seem to applaud the style, quality and colours, let me be honest, this sucks, the most basic and unimaginative animation I think I've seen, to me it looks unfinished, did they get it out in a rush, or were there budget cuts, this isn't Disney standard, let alone a Centenary special.

I genuinely fear for Disney, everything they're touching seems to be going to pot, they need a major shake up, Snow White doesn't look like a classic, where do Disney go from this?

Woeful.

4/10.

Yet another disappointment. Not a bad movie, but surely not a good one either. Even kids at the cinema were bored and almost none laughed throughout the movie, except just a handful of times. The plot was literally what you see on the trailer, there is no twist, nothing exciting to keep you interested, it was as bare bones as it could get. Nothing stood out, from the characters to the songs, it was from those movies you forget you watched after a month! It had too many references to old Disney movies, which got tiring after a while and the plot was rushed. I have no words, Disney was known for having great stories for the entire family to gather and enjoy, but now it's just generic and boring. I think it's time for Bob Iger to retire.

Disney's 100th celebration falls flat with "Wish," a film that struggles to maintain its own identity in the beloved Disney animated canon.

Unfortunately the problem with the film is the story is so underdeveloped and poorly executed. There are no stakes and the end result is a muddled theme, uneven pacing, and boring, flat characters. The film attempts to pay homage to older Disney classics and all the ingredients are there: lovable characters, a menacing, tongue-in cheek villain, cute animal sidekicks, and interesting concepts; but instead of "showing" the character beats like older films, we are "told" the story through bland dialogue and little action. Asha joins Disney's recent line of uninspiring "adorkable" female protagonists, with no defining motivations or character growth. This quirky, clumsy character archetype for Disney princesses has been recycled for the past decade with Rapunzel, Anna, Moana, and Mirabel. The animation and sound don't fair better, with bland, pop-y music that feels like filler and a combination of animation styles that look unpolished. There is no "Be Our Guest," "Part of your World," "Let it Go" or "We Don't Talk about Bruno".

It's laughable that one of the lyrics to the song "I'm a Star" in the movie is "in this universe we are all shareholders." Wish remains harmless entertainment for families but is a painful reminder of what this film sets out to do: please investors. This film is a rushed, soulless, by the numbers paint-job with no innovation in storytelling or animation. A massive disappointment to Disney's legacy and a poor excuse for their 100th animated film.

In Wish, Disney honors their tradition, and at the same time adds a new movie to their catalogue of animated films. Wish is a nice movie, but lacks what makes Disney animated movies so special.

In Wish, young Asha wishes on a star, and gets more than she bargained for when a star comes down to help her in her quest to defeat the evil king Magnifico.

The greatest advantage the movie has is its gorgeous animation, the brushstrokes painted beautifully on the screen. It is a wondrous blend of hand-drawn animation and 3d animation, a la Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse. I hope we get many more films animated in this style, as it is very relaxing and nice to look at.

If only the story matched the visuals... An overly simple story lacks anything of substance. And yes, I'm taking into account that this is a kids movie. I sympathized with the villain (who did not begin the movie evil) in the beginning of the film, only for him to suddenly turn evil out of no where. The film also suffers from a horrifying over dependence on magic. The songs are very good, but they all sound about the same, which isn't a problem in the movie, but I can't imagine the music in this movie selling many CDs. I do have to give the voice actors some credit though. They didn't do anything award worthy, but they did an excellent job.

That being said, while I watched this movie, I enjoyed it. The only reason I went to see it was to take my nephews. Disney has a rich history of making the greatest animated classics of all time. They have a proven formula that works, and I hope they either return to it in the future, or try something else besides Wish. It's a decent movie, but there's nothing memorable about it, and I don't expect it will be long before it is forgotten.

In the past few years, I haven't really been big with Disney's recent animated movies as while I did like "Soul" and "Raya and the Last Dragon", the other works like "Luca, Encanto, Lightyear, Strange World, Elemental and Turning Red" I wasn't really big on. "Wish", being the 100th Anniversary for Disney, manages to be bland and boring at its best.

Throughout, the animation is solid as there are some good colors, solid structures and designs. There are some good musical instrumental backgrounds as well. I do appreciate that the story isn't based on a sequel, remake or something that already exists and Disney tries to introduce new characters and settings. But the issue is that the narrative is way too familiar from other stories and it lacks the creativity, energy and charm of the good old Disney princess movies which makes it pretty difficult to fully engage with emotionally or to care for. The lack of energy and bland style causes the characters to not be investing as well since none of the characters were engaging or interesting at all. However, the voice performances from the cast members are pretty good. Ariana DeBose and Chris Pine both provided really good voice performances. Including Alan Tudyk as Tudyk is great as usual with his voice works.

The animation, as I mentioned, it's solid as the design models, colors, and movements are pretty good. With the animation using a mix of computer and watercolor, there are some really nice moments but admittedly, there were some animated movements or looks that felt odd, bland and slightly distracting. The dialogue is pretty clunky, the direction was boring, and the singing or musical moments, despite one or two songs being not too bad, the singing and song-writing wasn't good as some of the sound felt like it was written from AI. Like some of the voice and singing sound effects were pretty off. And as a whole, it was mostly boring.

For this being the 100th Anniversary movie for Disney, it's quite embarrassing since there could have been any other movie that could have been pretty fun and all but it seemed Disney decided to go with the bland route.

Overall, children and families will be entertained but this one is definitely one of Disney's weaker movies.