Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Wish’ on Disney+, an Exercise in Corporate Self-Congratulations

You know the star that streaks above Cinderella’s castle in the intro to every Disney movie? Well, in Wish (now streaming on Disney+), the star is an actual character, apt for an animated musical released in acknowledgment of Disney 100, the brand title assigned to the entity’s celebration of a century in business. And so we get a classic-style Disney tale of magic and castles and anthropomorphic animals, led by a plucky princess-type voiced by Ariana DeBose (who won an Oscar for 2021’s West Side Story). Mediocre word of mouth led to reluctance to venture to theaters led to disappointing box office returns (about $250 million worldwide, a mini-flop by Big Disney Movie standards) – and perhaps growing ennui for Disney product that feels so calculatedly on-brand. Suffice to say, where you land on the spectrum of Disney fandom is likely to dictate how much you enjoy an overly familiar story with all the usual genre trappings, albeit with one new element: Bountiful references to Disney animated musicals past. Some of you just read that sentence and wrinkled your nose. I did too. But maybe it won’t be TOO annoying, right? 

WISH: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: The kingdom of Rosas was a perfect utopia – and then growing resentment for the ruler who only wants to control his subjects hit! King Magnifico (Chris Pine) founded Rosas as a safe place for all who wish to live there, but that security doesn’t come without a cost. Once residents settle down in Rosas, they have to give Magnifico a wish. Those wishes manifest as floating bubbles that the king keeps safe in his castle, and once a month, using benevolent sorcery that’s about to become not so benevolent, he uses his magic powers to grant one person their wish. This doesn’t make much sense if you think about it even a little bit, but we should just try to enjoy the song that explains it all and move on.

Our protagonist is Asha (DeBose), a 17-year-old Rosasite (Rosasanian?) who works as a tour guide for prospective residents. She has a 100-year-old grandfather and a mother who has near zero defining characteristics and a kind father who used to sit in a tree with her and wish upon stars before he died. That’s sad. You may cry now. Here, have a tissue. Go ahead and blow. Asha is so dedicated to her beloved homeland, she scored a plum job interview to be Magnifico’s apprentice – but during that interview she learns that the king is a vain j-hole who probably loves smelling his own farts, and a control freak who will never grant her 100-year-old grandfather’s wish. Why? Magnifico thinks a simple wish to inspire other people might prompt things like independent thought, peasant revolt or even – gasp – the ability to poke holes in the convoluted premise of this movie, and therefore see through his scheme to maintain rule over the land. Asha isn’t a fan of this. She pushes back a little. She doesn’t get the job.

Crestfallen, Asha and her pet goat Valentino, who wears what I can only describe as a custom goat onesie, venture out to wish upon a star. And when she wishes upon a star, does everything her heart desires come to her? No! Gotcha there! You weren’t expecting THAT answer, were you? Rather, what happens is, the star comes down to her. The physics of this occurrence are, of course, affected by Disney magic; surely, this isn’t a movie in which a massive ball of broiling, unfathomably hot gas obliterates the planet with the nigh-incomprehensible force of its gravity. No, the star is alive, and about the size of a baseball, and it has a little emoji face. She names it not Harold or Jane or Carmichael, but Star. It can hear and respond to her and even perform feats of magic, e.g., rendering anthropomorphic all animals within magicshot, which means Valentino now has the voice of Alan Tudyk, and that bunny over there and that deer over there now very much resemble beloved Disney characters from other movies. Drink!

Asha’s first order of business is to bust into Magnifico’s castle and steal her grandpa’s wish back. But Magnifico saw the star fall, and is enraged by the thought of a magical occurrence happening that he didn’t perpetrate himself, so Asha’s staring down the barrel of a tricky endeavor. Meanwhile, the queen, Amaya (Angelique Cabral) exists, and becomes a plot device. Asha wonders if Star can help her enact real change around this joint. Magnifico senses the growing unrest, so he descends into his secret Plummet Hole to become super-extra-evil. And everyone involved in this plot eventually stumbles over half-hearted references to Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Snow White and all your all-time favorite Disney films. Hooray for Disney! Happy birthday! If your wish was for this movie to make a billion dollars, I’m sorry! Better luck next time!

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Wish is sub-Encanto. Actually, Encanto was pretty good, so Wish is more sub-Tangled. That one isn’t as good. It’s fine, though, where Wish is aggressively OK, and nothing more.

Performance Worth Watching: Normally with an animated feature, I get cute and rejigger this to be “performance worth hearing,” but, DeBose’s spirited singing aside, I remained uninspired. And so this acknowledgment goes to Star himself, being a purely visual being who communicates with action over words, a boon to those of us who think too many characters in animated movies gibber on and on and on and on. Also, Star is symbolic of Disney Wonder And Greatness, and therefore deserves all the praise. Hooray for Star! Hooray for Disney! Can I be acclimated into the Disney Borg now?

Memorable Dialogue: Shout out to the one self-aware moment in which a Disney movie dares to poke fun at itself and the corporate behemoth that birthed it:

Asha: Last night, after everything happened, I made a wish. On a star.

Gobo (Harvey Guillen): What are you, five?

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Anyone else grasp the irony that Wish is essentially a cautionary tale about the danger of belonging to a cult led by someone who appears benevolent but is actually quite sinister? (Bob Iger’s ears might be feeling warm right now, or maybe Walt himself just rolled over in his cryogenic death-box.) Now, speaking as someone who absolutely enjoyed a recent incredibly expensive trip to Disney World, and who appreciates many of the entity’s films as both art and entertainment, and might marry Donald Duck if given the chance, and doesn’t believe in Disney magic but sometimes finds it very persuasive, but doesn’t go home to bask in a shrine full of Disney paraphernalia (Star Wars doesn’t count – I collected mostly all that crap before the big buyout), I can say that Wish is a bit much, but also not enough. 

Allow me to clarify: A collection of references does not a movie make, and this one comes rather close to being that; it’s a bit much. And the story is a two-thirds realized conglomeration of familiarities that could use more narrative beef and less barely disguised self-congratulation; it’s not enough. The only way Wish departs from formula is by back-end feeding itself to itself. Where some Disney films are objectively derivative, this one is the narrative equivalent of exiting the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train through the gift shop and loading up on obscenely overpriced souvenirs. 

Now, the animation is first-rate. The star is cute. The goat is almost funny. DeBose’s performance is notable. I chuckled two, maybe three times. At a little over 90 minutes, it moves quickly. The number “Knowing What I Know Now” roused a little bit of passion. I wasn’t necessarily bored, nor was I enthralled. I was vaguely engaged in the story. Is that good enough to commemorate an entire century of multimedia domination? Most definitely not. Wish looks back when it should push forward. Maybe Disney 101 will give us something more vital, instead of something merely watchable.

Our Call: Disney 100 turns up a catch-22: Those who have seen many Disney movies are the target audience of Wish, but those who have seen many Disney movies have already seen everything in this movie. SKIP IT. 

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.