I wished that "Wish" was a better film.

Although it's a bit late to talk about Wish, the animated film that was released more or less a year ago to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the House of Mouse, I find it quite interesting to analyze the context in which it emerged, as well as the positive and (mainly) negative consequences it had on the public's reception.

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It's no wonder that, directed by Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn, Wish was sold as a love letter to the entire history of Disney, a narrative that was enhanced by the leading role that Asha (it's protagonist) had in the short film "Once Upon Studio", released a couple of days earlier and characterized by bringing together all the most representative characters of the long-lived animation studio.

The thing is, expectations were sky-high when it came to Wish, and every piece of promotional material that was revealed only increased the hype, especially considering that it would represent a return to their more traditional princess formula, starting with an animation style that mixed CGI with 2D elements, as well as the fact that it had a story full of magic, castles, and kings.

And while I don't feel like it's a movie that deserves all the backlash it's generated, I do feel like it was destined to fail from the start.

You see, Wish is a movie that's built on a pretty simple premise: the town of Rosa is ruled by a benevolent king who has the ability to grant the wishes of its inhabitants, however, said wishes are hand-picked by the king and fulfilled in a special ceremony in order to "filter out" those that turn out to be dangerous according to him.

Asha, the protagonist, is applying to be the king's assistant, and in the middle of her interview she discovers that he is not as good as he is painted, stripping the inhabitants of Rosa of their dreams and making them forget them, living in perpetual conformity.

I like the premise of Wish because instead of giving importance to the fulfillment of wishes (or not) it focuses thematically on the role that they have within the person we are, how they work to propel our lives and how seeing them fulfilled by an external agent is not necessarily something positive. Asha (played by Ariana DeBose) is a charismatic character and easy to empathize with and the King Magnificent (played by an excellent Chris Pine) is presented as an antagonistic force practically from minute 0, thus breaking with the tedious custom that Disney has acquired in recent years of having twist villains in their films.

So, what is the problem with Wish? Despite being a decent film from all technical and artistic aspects, it doesn't do anything out of the ordinary nor does it have a differentiating factor that makes it worthy of being the celebration of a century of classics on the big screen.

The constant references and easter eggs are appreciated (especially because most of them are shown with subtlety and elegance), but at the end of the day we are not facing a break in the current Disney paradigm, nor a nostalgic return to the formula that put them on top of the world just a few decades ago.

It's entertaining, fun, but after a couple of days I know that I will barely remember everything that happened.

Score taken from my Letterboxd account.