Wish - Movie Review

The Movie: Wish

The Director: Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn

The Cast: Ariana DeBose, Chris Pine, Alan Tudyk, Angelique Cabral, Victor Garber, Natasha Rothwell, Jennifer Kumiyama, Harvey Guillén, Evan Peters, Ramy Youssef, Jon Rudnitsky

The Story: Wish will follow a young girl named Asha who wishes on a star and gets a more direct answer than she bargained for when a trouble-making star comes down from the sky to join her.

The Review:

"When you wish upon a star..." now has an actual story behind it to go along with being one of the most iconic phrases in American pop cuture and entertainment history. Disney's latest animated feature is a throwback to the classic Disney style we all love and appreciate while also paying homage to just about every one of their movies that have come before it. The story is very entertaining in an extremely familiar and comfortable way which to me means Disney did everything they could to play it safe in creating a movie that can properly celebrate 100 years of magic in a very faithful way.

The story centers around Asha, voiced by Ariana DeBose who you may remember as Anita from the recent West Side Story remake, in a classic coming of age story and refreshingly does not tie everything into a love story of any kind. Asha has dreams of a better life for her and her family and, after a setback, runs off to sing a song and ultimately make that inevitable wish upon a star. The star that receives the wish turns out to be one of the cutest things you will see on a movie screen and, if the audience I saw the movie with is any indication, kids are going to absolutely fall in love with the little ball of light that could just as easily pass as a Pokemon character.

The animation style for this film is a combination of computer animation and classic watercolor which gives it a similar look and feel like Snow White or Sleeping Beauty which just adds to the nostalgia factor. I do feel like the weight of honoring 100 years of Disney animation had an impact on the quality of the storytelling. While its nice to see fun callbacks and homages, they can also be a distraction and because of that I felt like the story never really gained its true footing as a stand alone piece. It's hard to find anything glaring to say that's negative about the movie but the emotional punch just wasn't there and I'm afraid it won't have the same lasting impact as other modern era films like Frozen or Moana.

One of the highlights of the movie has to be the voice work from the primary cast members including the aforementioned Ariana DeBose who just has so much personality, even when it's just her voice. I'm a fan of everything she does at this point. Chris Pine is so good as the big bad villain, you can tell he had a great time unleashing his inner bad guy all over this character, especially with a name like King Magnifico to work off of. Another standout is Alan Tudyk who should really just have a place in everything Disney ever does at this point. I mean, the guy crushes it giving a voice to a baby goat.

The Verdict:

Wish fulfills a lot of the things Disney sets out to accomplish although I wish there had been more of a focus on creating an emotionally impactful story and less on being a blatant homage to the previous 100 years of Disney animation. Still a lot of fun and kids are sure to love this one as well. Yes, there is a post credits scene. No universe building but it is a nice touch so definitely stay to check it out.