Wish 2023
This movie continued a decline for Disney by getting pretty poor reviews generally and a terrible box office performance. That always works out well for me because it lowers my expectations and I often end up pleasantly surprised, which is the case with Wish. While, it definitely follows the Disney formula, that formula can be really good: great visuals, an imaginative story, fun characters, catchy songs, and strong vocal performances. Disney was trying for a more 2D look for the animation, almost like watercolor, but light also has big role in the visuals and the result looks great. The songs seem kind of similar to Encanto, but Lin-Manuel Miranda was not involved. It is hard to know for sure on the first listen, but some of them seemed pretty good and were instrumental in telling the story. The story about wishes is maybe a little perplexing, but also straightforward enough that they don't have to spend a ton of time explaining rules or establishing characters. Instead they just jump right in. They don't do a great job of explaining why the villain becomes so evil, but that was okay. This isn't Disney at its very sharpest, but definitely not their worst either. There isn't a great sense of humor at work, though there are somewhat amusing sidekicks. I liked that there weren't long mindless action scenes or the standard heart-tugging issues at work. There are some nice lessons and while I had heard there were a lot of Disney easter eggs, I didn't think it was too much (more than I thought; worth looking into after you watch). The only thing annoying was throwing in wishes with Peter Pan and some other Disney characters which seemed misplaced since those characters never lived on this island. This just felt like a solid movie, paling only in comparison to some great Disney movies of the past. I am giving it a low B+.
Written: 05 Dec 2023