Film Name: 星愿 / wish
Yesterday, I took my baby to see Disney’s latest animated movie, WISH, and compared to her reaction, I was unperturbed the whole time – it was indeed too board, too ordinary to be somewhat boring.
By the way, this film is also the Disney animation centennial tribute film, in “wish” before the start of the main film, a special screening of the commemorative short film “Once Upon A Studio”.
Although I’ve already seen the short film and can’t recognize all the characters in it, I’m still happy to see it on the big screen, and to say that it’s a “tribute”, it’s the most sincere of them all.
Talking back to “wish”, Disney animation in recent years for the “princess” identity is no longer so obsessive, and keen to play around the world to show their “comprehensiveness”, so the story stage of the film came to the Iberian Peninsula outside the Kingdom of Dreams! The main character is Yasha, a 17-year-old girl who is full of energy and a spirit of questioning and defiance.
However, compared with some of Disney’s past successful animation, “Wish” obviously failed to deeply cultivate on its own basic background characters, so no matter the character image or exotic flavor failed to form a sufficiently prominent characteristics, in other words, too commonplace and strange. ……
The songs in the movie are still quite good (but not too chic), and the setting of the wish magic has a potential to be outstanding (but unfortunately, it is skimmed over), but the whole story and all the twists and turns are too straightforward and hard, so that sometimes I have the illusion that I’m watching a “plot guide”.
I don’t want to keep bringing up the great Disney animations of the past to stomp on them, after all, those successes and excitement have nothing to do with the current production …… However, “WISH” does, in a way, kind of look like some of the ancient animated films of the last century, which like to give it simple and straight, fearing that people won’t understand it.
I should say that “WISH” as a whole is all very stale, not trying to be, and I’m afraid most viewers will find it boring.
But there is one thing that I think the movie does that is relatively bold and innovative – and fresh, at least as far as Disney productions go – and that is to transform the defiant adventurous spirit of a few major characters into the group will of the vast majority of the nation, and ultimately rely on that strength to defeat the villainous McNifico.
In this respect alone, WISH is more like a Japanese anime than an American one.
Even more interesting is the villain, King McNifico, who had his home destroyed when he was young, and after acquiring magic, founded the “Wish Kingdom”, Rosas, and gained power by relying on the faith of the people from all over the world who came to settle in the kingdom.
But in the movie, he gets lost in the power of “easily deciding whose wishes will come true”, and becomes obsessed with security anxieties and an unabated lust for power.
It’s a classic “dragon slayer becomes dragon” role, and then, with Yasha and others leading the revolt, the people of Rosas break free of the magic of McNifico and collectively sing to unleash a powerful wish that defeats the king they themselves elected.
Power is taken from the people and used by the people, never forgetting that water can carry a boat or capsize it – which is why it suddenly surprised me slightly when I saw the end of WISH: Disney’s centennial tribute film, which actually has such an un-Disney side to it.
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