Unfulfilled potential is a powerful theme for a story. Making Disney’s choice to explore what might happen if an entire kingdom of subjects surrendered their chance to fulfil their destinies by entrusting their deepest wish – and every memory of it – to their king an intriguing premise. Is it better to live with the hope that one day your wish may come true or to hold that dream close to your heart and let it guide your life’s path?
We’ll never know. Because, sadly, the House of Mouse’s hundredth-anniversary offering fails to interrogate its own themes, choosing to bimble about looking pretty (it is VERY pretty), ticking off generic highs and lows in the place of real plot points and making knowing nods to animated features past instead. Leaving us to gloomily ponder what might have been.
Asha (Ariana DeBose) is a tour guide in her beloved Mediterranean home Rosas. The starry eyed 17 year old loves her family, her loyal group of friends and the beauty that surrounds her. Big of heart and overflowing with imagination, she can’t think of anything more wonderful to mark her grandfather’s (Victor Garber) 100th birthday than witnessing his long-surrendered wish finally coming true. Perhaps her interview for the role of apprentice will help tip the scales in his favour.
King Magnifico (Chris Pine) is the keeper of every resident’s wish and the only being in the kingdom who can ever grant them. Together with Queen Amaya (Angelique Cabral) he has established a sanctuary, far removed from the trauma of his past, and he takes pride in safeguarding his subjects. Even from their own desires. His mastery of sorcery makes the monthly wish ceremony a spectacle for all, even if only one wish at a time can come true.
But Magnifico’s dark history has begun to blacken his soul and, rather than the hero she expected to impress and serve, Asha is shocked to find a selfish hoarder under the glittering crown. Threatened and insulted by the girl’s innocent request for her grandfather’s wish to be chosen at last, the king lets his mask slip and irrevocably alters Asha’s destiny. Her late father raised her to believe in the power of the stars and that night – as she confides her pain to those glittering lights in the sky – one descends to offer a remarkable reply.
After a nostalgic start that throws open a storybook and twirls us back into bygone fairytales, Wish falters and never really finds its dancing feet again and a major culprit behind the stumble is its unforgivably forgettable songs. Following Encanto was always going to be a challenge but, though Dave Metzger’s score is sweet enough, Julia Michaels and Benjamin Rice fail to captivate with their jukebox musical numbers. All dissolve from memory like candyfloss in the rain as the credits close.
The star that comes to earth to help Asha enlivens the narrative and the soundtrack by enchanting the forest creatures into speech, letting Alan Tudyk unleash his compulsory comedy animal appearance as pet goat Valentino. Yet even Star fails to truly sparkle. Ironically for a feature which has worked so hard to create a whimsical watercolour world and evoke the retro handdrawn aethetic we all love, its magical element looks awfully like a Fisher Price emoji.
Somehow in building a world which pays homage to so many films from the studio’s past, Jennifer Lee and Allison Moore’s screenplay fails to create a believable place in which to anchor Wish. Most notably missing is a captivating opening song or meaningful conversation to tell us who Asha is and open up her singular world. It’s hard to care about anyone we meet because we have nothing to connect to. Instead we are given the underwhelming Welcome to Rosas, which…has some jaunty guitars.
When shadows overwhelm the king and he gleefully embraces the darkside, Star is the only hope for the fragile wishes under his control. Asha’s fractured friendship group, with one notable exception, reunites to join the fight and determine their own fates at last. They don’t actually have personalities so it feels arbitrary to name them, however, you might enjoy spotting the characteristics they allegedly share with Snow White’s seven dwarfs to pass their screentime.
Tonally inconsistent, musically meh and generally lacklustre, Wish isn’t going to ascend to the giddy heights of the classics it references. It is nice enough to look at, gifts us with some fun Chris Pine scenery chewing and leaves on a fairly heartwarming high. Ultimately though, directors Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn couldn’t extract a narrative with the cojones to gaudily celebrate a hundred years of entertainment in style from their sea of sparkly wishing balls.
Wish opens across the UK on November 24th
