Wish

From a pure craft standpoint, Wish is gorgeous. The animation, production design, vocal performances, editing, visual effects, et al are top notch. no complaints there (beyond the intentionally muted color palette of the early portion of the film crossing the line into even more drab than the story called for.) But from a story standpoint, the film feels like they went straight into production on the first draft of the screenplay. Which is to say that narratively the film is a complete mess that either can't seem to ever settle on what it wants to be about, or else can't figure out how to convey that story in a thematically coherent, intelligible way. As just one of many examples of this muddle, the rules of the world are bizarre, overly complex, illogical, counter intuitive in the worst way, and almost impossible to follow or make sense of. People immigrate to a kingdom so they can have their most important wishes removed from their memories at age 18 all for the infinitesimally small chance that the kingdom’s ruler will grant that wish to them at some point before they die? What? Huh? In what universe does that make narrative sense on any level? Who on earth would that “deal” appeal to? This is fantasy world building of the laziest, sloppiest, worst kind. The kind that just makes up the rules as it goes along and then keeps changing them to suit the needs of the story without any regard to logic or internal consistency. Is it possible that the writer’s strike meant the studio just plowed ahead without the necessary revisions to get the world and the story to work? Based on all of the references to classic Disney films and characters laced throughout the film and credits, the filmmakers appear to believe they have made a major meta-statement on the entire Disney catalogue and legacy. But if they have, it was lost on me. I spent the entire time trying to figure out what the darned picture was trying to be about. Most importantly of all, I was never moved emotionally. Not even a teensy tiny bit. What a waste of talent and resources. Wish is pretty, but dead on arrival.

I was cocncerned not “previewing” this movie before taking my daughters to see it. They’re 5 and 7. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised with this movie. Asha is a young, not yet 18 year old teen, who is respectful of her nearly 100 grandfather and her mother. There isn’t a father in the movie. Asha has a strong friend group that she visits prior to having the opportunity to interview to be an apprentice to the towns king. The king takes favor in Asha and in doing so shows her the towns wishes. He then explains that he “manages” the wishes and grants them as he sees fit and most of them will never be granted. Then they show the towns people as they “give” their wishes to the king and it’s almost like they are giving away their hearts — they lose their shine and happiness. They all seem robotic and just sad. The concerns I have about this movie are the king is very manipulative and then shifts to becoming very evil. It’s obvious when he shifts and he is depicted having green eyes and green powers. I interpreted the message to be that it’s so important to not place your wishes and dreams into someone else’s control. They are yours and yours to achieve with the help of family and friends! The other message is that when there is someone doing something wrong, fight against it as much and hard as you can. And as a bystander seeing the injustice or wrongs, don’t let one person do all the fighting — it will take a village/town to make change — help! Raise your voice.