How I Wish “Wish” Was a Better Movie
The star was so cute!
What a Way to Spend $100 million
It’s sad when a film that has so much financial backing (~300 million dollars) doesn’t make back the money it cost. But people want to go out and see a decent Disney movie (heck, I would have if I had heard anything good about it).
I bought my daughter a plastic Star toy to placate her while we were out once, but I couldn’t help but feel that no one really cared about this movie or had anything good to say about. Once I saw it… I could see why.
It’s the Writing, Stupid!
Writing is hard. I don’t consider myself an amazing writer, but as someone who’s seen a lot of movies, (especially a lot of Disney movies since I’ve had a kid) I can see when the writing is the core problem.
It’s easy to criticize and say “well that scene could have been written better”, but I think what was really bothersome was the structure of the film, and which parts really bothered me.
This will contain spoilers for the film.
The Protagonist‘s Mission Is Lame And Nonsensical
Asha, our protagonist, starts out trying to apprentice herself to the sorcerer king/antagonist, King Magnifico. He shows how he has possessions of all the wishes that people have given to him, but their effect on the people he took them from seems to be a longing/sadness than anything.
Asha’s motive appears to be to apprentice herself to Magnifico so he will grant her family’s wishes; but when Magnifico says her “Saba’s” (Grandpa’s) wish can’t be granted because it could upset balance, she becomes determined to steal the wish back.
This becomes Asha’s goal: to take back her Saba’s wish and restore it to him, because Magnifico won’t grant it. But this motive has to be painfully explained to us because, well, it’s both lame and nonsense.
Teenagers are not focused on their grandpa’s wishes. They (rightfully so) have their own goals and missions.
Asha’s wish isn’t ever brought to light, nor does it become a core focus. Instead, we have to be dragged through exposition, and though the cute Star pops up to help Asha, her motivation continues to be “just give the people their wishes back!”
But we don’t have any connection to any of the younger characters because we don’t really see their wishes, and instead things have to be explained explicitly.
What could have been different
Give us a clear mission, a hero’s quest, that is really motivating. What this film needed was drama. Something that doesn’t need spoken exposition, that we can clearly see. Some examples might be:
- Asha has a really dangerous wish, like getting rid of King Magnifico since he is oppressing people. This wish is clearly bad for Magnifico, so he immediately opposes her and seeks to destroy her.
- Asha’s family member is on their deathbed and needs their wish granted, or he will die without truly living. (Even this is pretty lame, but I think makes things more dramatic)
- Asha discovers that Magnifico has immortal life/ awesome powers etc. on account of the wishes, and his possession of the wishes strongly affects those he takes them from. He is essentially a wish vampire. Asha is Van Helsing.
The Villain is Too Many Villains Stuffed Into One
Narcissistic. Autocratic. An Evil Mastermind.
Normally in a film, a villain represents a sin that mirrors the hero. Some examples from other Disney films:
- Snow White (innocent/pure), Evil Queen (corrupted/jealous)
- Simba (innocent/brave), Scar (deceitful/skulking)
- Anna (loyal), Hans (conniving/deceitful)
What Magnifico really lacks in the film isn’t depth; he’s got plenty of attributes. His motive is just as lame as Asha’s, but his character is too fleshed out. He has attributes that would belong to two or more villains.
There is a really simple fix for this… just add other villains! That way you can make the characters less muddled. From the list above, we have pairings of:
- Evil Queen + the Huntsman
- Scar + the Hyenas
- Hans + the Duke of Wesselton
Each of these other villains helps round out the attributes of the main villain, highlighting even further what makes them evil.
For Magnifico, his only follower is someone he seems to basically enslave. And his henchman is so flat it’s not really clear what his attribute is other than being depressed and easily manipulated, nothing “villainous.”
What could have been different
Give Magnifico a good and clear henchman/ ally. His wife made perfect sense as an ally, she’s already described as “loyal”, but she ended up turning on him and being good (which I think was wrong for other reasons), and her being good didn’t even seem to matter to the plot (so why?!)
Good villains are not all in one packages, they have good allies.
The Song Lyrics are WAY Too Complicated
I scoffed when I heard “excitatory” in one of the songs. What?!
Lyrics like:
“‘Cause I’ve got reservations and hesitations”
“He’s more vicious than I could have ever comprehended”
“And why our eyes all look like microscopic galaxies?”
Are not lyrics for children. I’m no song writer, but I’ve watched many Disney movies. The lyrics that speak to kids are lyrics like:
“I want to be where the people are, I want to see, want to see ’em dancing”
“No one saying ‘do this’, no one seeing ‘see here’, no one saying ‘stop that’…”
“No one to tell us, ‘No’
Or where to go
Or say we’re only dreaming”
My English teacher in high school always stressed the importance of a precise word over a complex word. For kids especially, a precise word is one that is at their reading level and conveys the concepts/feelings that the characters have.
And what do kids understand? Being told no. Wanting things. Not “reservations” or “microscopic galaxies”.
What could have been different
I’m not sure how they evaluate the quality of song lyrics, but I think should have just been a basic play-test to kids, to see if they get what the song conveys. I don’t know that I understood it while listening to most of the songs.
The songs themselves were melodically fine, but lyrics are what make a song something you can sing along to.
Beyond the writing, there’s the one obvious piece that I think stands out to most people —
The Art Style Confuses My Brain
I understand the idea of a more storybook look (the movie begins and ends with a storybook opening and closing), but I can’t watch a CG film without motion blur and other effects I’ve gotten used to seeing without thinking they just cut corners.
There’s a very good breakdown of how they’re paying homage to older animation,
but I think if they really wanted to do that, they needed to make it as close to a hand animated film as possible. Even rewatching Shrek (from 2001!) recently, I felt the motion was less confusing than what I saw in Wish.
What could have been different
This I feel like was something that they could have done like with Sonic the Hedgehog film, where they got feedback from a trailer/preview and went back and added in motion blur etc.
It’d be a lot to ask it to be redone as a hand animated film, but I think that would have been the only way to accomplish the intended goal of the art direction, instead of just making a CG animated film as they have been for the last 20+ years.
I’m surprised it got into theaters looking the way it did. It looks very good in certain respects; many of Magnifico’s effects look very good, and Star looks great, but I think that’s because they essentially ignore the storybook animation style.
Summary
- Make your hero have a mission that makes sense, is clear, and makes you care about them
- Make your villain simpler by spreading attributes onto other villains
- Kids song lyrics need clear, simple messages
- It’s too late to break the mold with CG movies, we’ve been trained to see them one way
