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Wish Analysis Pt. 1/3

I just saw Wish and 😍😍✨🤩!!!!!! I love it SO MUCH!!!! I have a rule for myself: watch first, analyze later, so I only really have surface level analysis right now, but I figured I’d write and post it anyway! Sorry this is gonna be super long, I typed a whole essay! Obviously spoilers ahead:

First of all, let me just say that I was absolutely dazzled! The animation, the songs, the story, AHHH so good! And STAR 🤩🤩!! YES! The songs felt very Disney, but in a new way that I absolutely loved. I was crying, stifling screams (because movie theater), and I nearly fell off my chair a few times. I’m legit thinking about going to see it again tomorrow.

Ok, enough of me just fangirling haha. There were so many references to other Disney movies in Wish. I know I missed some while watching and I’ve forgotten some since then, but I’ll try to summarize what I saw. Beginning with a storybook was a beautiful choice as a nod to old Disney movies. So many Snow White references, it was insane. Dahlia and the other kitchen workers were the seven dwarves, the wishing well (that was also a hidden Mickey), Magnifico’s whole hidden lair (especially the poison apple and listing ingredients). There was a bear named John (Little John from Robin Hood), a bunny did Thumper’s foot tapping thing, a deer named Bambi, the mushrooms and flowers dancing could be Alice in Wonderland all in the You’re a Star sequence. There were lanterns and the boats as a reference to Tangled. The vines of magic across the castle at the end looked very much like Maleficent’s magic. The swirling clouds above the castle looked like Night on Bald Mountain. When Magnifico got trapped in the staff at the end was very Jafar in the lamp. At one moment in the forest Magnifico directly mirrored a shot of the Headless Horsemen from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad. Asha riding on a deer surrounded by other deer could have been a reference to Lost in the Woods. And all the wishes briefly mentioned/shown were references to other Disney movies; one directly used footage from Peter Pan (and then showed Peter and Wendy in the very end), a wish for true love could be any number of movies, the wish to sail a ship could be Peter Pan, but I think was probably Moana, the wish for a perfect nanny for their children must have been Mary Poppins (which is slightly odd, since every other reference I caught was to an animated movie, but whatever), and the one to climb a mountain was about Strange World. I know I’ve missed dozens of references, but that’s all I can think of right now!

Wish Analysis Pt. 2/3

The songs in Wish felt very classic with a modern twist, which I loved. They somewhat followed the established “song formula” with Welcome to Rosas as the opening song, This Wish as the I-want song, This is the Thanks I Get?! as the villain song, and I’m a Star as the fun, upbeat “wake up song.” A couple of the songs were very unique though. At All Costs is really interesting as one of the few times the hero sings a duet with the villain (I think Love is an Open Door is the only other time?). In this song, Asha sings about protecting and following the wishes wherever they go, while Magnifico sings about holding the wishes and keeping them as his own. In addition, Magnifico is controlling the wishes and moving them around to create his view of perfection, while they are naturally flocking to Asha. And Knowing What I Know Now! This song, man, it was incredible. And very unique to have a power song for the heroes in a Disney movie. It wasn’t so much the “all hope is lost, but I’ll find the answers within” like I am Moana (although I do love that too), it was more of a “now is the time to fight back,” rallying song. And This Wish (Reprise) was beautiful! I was sobbing so hard. This was sort of a “all hope is lost, but I’ll find the answers within” song, but it was unique in the aspect that it brought everyone together and wasn’t just about the main character’s development. It was also unique that the song itself was the climax of the movie. It was so amazing, visually and thematically and musically and I just LOVE IT.

Wish Analysis Pt. 3/3

I loved the use of color symbolism throughout the movie, with Magnifico starting as blue and gold and changing to green as he was corrupted. Lime green in Disney movies has traditionally been used to represent the villain, so I love the exaggerated use of it here. I’ve seen the phrase Every Villain Is Lime as E.V.I.L. and I feel like the visual artists really just went with that in Wish.

The use of When You Wish Upon A Star throughout the movie also got me. At several key points the background music was very similar to or exactly WYWUAS. Also, as my sister pointed out; in the after credits scene, Sabo is playing WYWUAS and his wish was to create something to inspire the next generation 🥹🥹

I’ve come up with a phrase to help with story analysis, that I don’t feel like explaining right now (maybe I will at some point, IDK), but part of it is the word “completed.” In stories, when a character says something definitive like “always” or “never” it almost always gets broken. My sister pointed out at the beginning when Amaya was referred to as Magnifico’s “loyal wife” that she would probably betray him, and sure enough. When Asha is talking about her wish to Dahlia and the others, she says it will not affect their lives in any way, and it very much does.

Ok, I think that’s all I’ve got for right now? I will probably do another post about Wish pretty soon when I feel like typing it all out haha. Thanks for reading if you made it this far, I’m so sorry this was so long 😂🤦‍♀️.

TL;DR: I loved everything about Wish. There were lots of references to other Disney movies, the songs followed the classic formula in many ways but also broke out of it in some ways, and there were various other beautiful things I appreciated throughout the movie!

Ok, last post about Wish for now, I promise! A few years ago, I was writing a lot of short-ish analyses on various Disney Movies, and I remember I actually wrote one for Wish based only on the song This Wish! So I thought it would be fun to go through my analyses from over a year ago and see how correct I was now that I’ve actually seen the movie…

The black text is all direct quotes from what I wrote over a year ago. The purple is my comments on it now.

09/12/22

Considering that it is over a year until this movie comes out (the current date is 9/12/22), I am fully aware how ridiculous it is that I’m already writing an analysis on it. The main character, Asha, appears to be princess-like, although she may not be actual royalty. (I personally think she isn’t royal or high-ranking at all, since I think that will work better with the story and themes). That is actually true, although I still think she is Disney Princess coded. When I listened to More for Us (This was the original title for This Wish) the other day, I was literally crying, and that is with it out of context. It is a beautiful song that combines the simple magic of The Golden Age with the power of the universal truths and complex themes of The Revival Era. It is a perfect I-want song, and showcases Disney at its heart as a beautiful celebration for its 100th anniversary.

09/13/22

I finally found the lyrics to More for Us! (This Wish) Now that I have the lyrics, I can analyze the song properly. Also, after reading the lyrics, I’ve changed my mind about what I think the themes will be and where the story will go. Seriously, by giving us the I-want song, Disney gave us the most valuable single piece of information they could give. I have a LOT to say about these lyrics. Who is “us”? Now, I’m thinking that either she is part of a minority group in her kingdom, ehhhh, that is not true or that this is kind of a kingdom where the rulers (presumably the people who live in the tall palace-like building on the left side of the concept art) control/harm the people in some way. That was spot on. Knowing Disney, I would assume the first option, but the way she says “open their eyes to all lies” implies some sort of combination of the two options. I’m thinking that themes could be something like, action, making choices, standing up, etc. I will stand by those themes, in a way. They certainly aren't the only ones, but they are definitely present (think “if not us, then who and when” from Knowing What I Know Now. I would also say a theme is how knowing the truth can change your perspective. And a bit about willful ignorance in the way that the people unquestioningly gave their wishes to Magnifico because it was easier than trying to pursue them themselves. It appears that Asha is on the edge of something when she sings this. She’s had some sort of realization that sets her apart from everyone else in her world, but she hasn’t taken the step to act on it yet (“I’m past dipping my toes in, but not past diving in”). By challenging Magnifico and learning about the wishes, she’s gone too far to go back to her life just as it was, but she hasn’t made a decision on how to act on this yet, but she knows she needs to. By the end of the song, she has made her decision to act on her realization/feelings. Mhhhmmm not quite. I think she knows she needs to act already when she starts singing, she just doesn't know how. And that’s what Star shows her. She gains strength and confidence throughout the song. It acts as an I-want and a catalyst, as most of the recent I-want songs do. Yeah, that is definitely true. I find it interesting that the I-want itself was the catalyst, but I love it. It feels very Disney. Asha says “the way you always taught me to.” Who is “you”? My guess would be some sort of (likely dead) mentor figure like a parent or grandparent. Yeah, Disney’s pretty predictable with the dead parents. It does make sense story wise though. Whether this is the case or not, whoever “you” is has clearly had a significant impact on Asha, her personality, her values, and how she views the world. They will be an important part of the story, even if they’ve died before the movie begins. Her father was actually mentioned directly less than I predicted, but I still think that what he taught her about the stars’ guidance stuck with her and is the reason she wished on one to begin with. So in a way, her dad did have a big impact on the story, just in a less obvious way. And he definitely affected how Asha views the world and how she chooses to respond to what she learned while in the palace.

Wish spoilers but uh... just saying rn, people siding with the villain are wrong. Before seeing the movie I myself was like “I can see where he’s coming from” but nah dude is a dick (evenifheishot)

We all know that the movie Wish had potential but it is very poorly written so I think the movie would have turned out better if they had made any of these options:

1) Better implement the problem of desires and their consequences. For example, the anime Madoka Magica explores the theme of wishes, how your wish can be granted in the worst possible way, the consequences of this way of obtaining your wish and how people realize that what they wished for was not what they really wanted and how they have to deal with it. It would have been interesting to see this in the movie and how the characters handle it.

2) Asha was a potential Miyo Takano so the movie could take advantage of this to make Asha a villainous protagonist and see her rise from antagonist to full villain becoming obsessed with making her grandfather's wish come true to the point of becoming more amoral until she is a total villain. It would have been interesting if Asha has Miyo Takano's story and personality.

3) Making Asha reflect and realize that Magnifico turned to dark magic out of desperation to stop her because he got carried away by his paranoia that someone would want to harm his kingdom which makes Asha understand Magnifico's motivations, try to save him from his corruption and make him stop his paranoia.

4) Make Magnifico always carry his book of dark magic with him. That way it would be shown how Magnifico gradually became corrupted due to the dark magic of the book and the longer he was around the book the more he became corrupted, that way Magnifico's descent into villainy would be more believable.

5) Another way to make Magnifico's villainy believable is to show more directly that he believes that people only value him for his ability to grant wishes so seeing that many wishes that the inhabitants of Rosas ask him to grant are wishes that they can fulfill themselves without his help but they decide to leave everything in the hands of Magnifico out of laziness, he ends up exploiting and getting angry because he feels exploited by his own people. In this way, Magnifico would have quite justified reasons to be angry, and therefore, all the inhabitants of Rosas would have to recognize that some wishes could be achieved by themselves as well as recognize their exploitation of Magnifico and save him from his corruption or make Magnifico repents and stops when he sees that his subjects have changed for the better and seeks to help them in a healthier way, such as giving them advice so that they can fulfill their own desires.

6) Give Magnifico the personality of Big Mom. Big Mom is a rather violent and ruthless pirate empress who has a country called Tottoland where anyone can enter but she forces them to give parts of their soul to her to keep the ecosystem of Tottoland running. She created Tottolando to make her dream come true and that is to make a country where people of different races live together in harmony and are the same size as her, but everyone in Tottoland is scared of her, including her own children. Simply Magnifico would have been a more convincing villain if he had the same violent and unstable personality as Big Mom, if his subjects were afraid of him as Big Mom's are and if he forced his subjects to give them their wishes as Big Mom does with their souls of her subjects instead of waiting for them to be given to Magnifico and willingly.

7) I feel like Asha would have shined more as a protagonist if she were like Miles Morales in the sense that Miles has a more convincing evolution than Asha. Miles Morales is motivated to be Spiderman because he feels guilty for the death of Peter Parker in his universe, but his parents remind him not to forget who he is beyond his work as Spiderman and he ended up accidentally creating Spot and ruining a canonical event without knowing it. What makes Miles decide to try to save both his father and the multiverse because Spiderman always tries to save all and why Miles believes it is his responsibility to stop Spot for creating and angering him. It would be interesting if Asha had conflicts (about feeling guilty that her grandfather did not get his wish and that Magnifico turned bad, although that is not entirely true, and that because Asha feels that she should be the one to make her grandfather's wish come true and of being the one who stops Magnifico) and overcame them and watched her mature like happened with Miles.

We all know that the movie Wish had potential but it is very poorly written so I think the movie would have turned out better if they had made any of these options:

1) Better implement the problem of desires and their consequences. For example, the anime Madoka Magica explores the theme of wishes, how your wish can be granted in the worst possible way, the consequences of this way of obtaining your wish and how people realize that what they wished for was not what they really wanted and how they have to deal with it. It would have been interesting to see this in the movie and how the characters handle it.

2) Asha was a potential Miyo Takano so the movie could take advantage of this to make Asha a villainous protagonist and see her rise from antagonist to full villain becoming obsessed with making her grandfather's wish come true to the point of becoming more amoral until she is a total villain. It would have been interesting if Asha has Miyo Takano's story and personality.

3) Making Asha reflect and realize that Magnifico turned to dark magic out of desperation to stop her because he got carried away by his paranoia that someone would want to harm his kingdom which makes Asha understand Magnifico's motivations, try to save him from his corruption and make him stop his paranoia.

4) Make Magnifico always carry his book of dark magic with him. That way it would be shown how Magnifico gradually became corrupted due to the dark magic of the book and the longer he was around the book the more he became corrupted, that way Magnifico's descent into villainy would be more believable.

5) Another way to make Magnifico's villainy believable is to show more directly that he believes that people only value him for his ability to grant wishes so seeing that many wishes that the inhabitants of Rosas ask him to grant are wishes that they can fulfill themselves without his help but they decide to leave everything in the hands of Magnifico out of laziness, he ends up exploiting and getting angry because he feels exploited by his own people. In this way, Magnifico would have quite justified reasons to be angry, and therefore, all the inhabitants of Rosas would have to recognize that some wishes could be achieved by themselves as well as recognize their exploitation of Magnifico and save him from his corruption or make Magnifico repents and stops when he sees that his subjects have changed for the better and seeks to help them in a healthier way, such as giving them advice so that they can fulfill their own desires.

6) Give Magnifico the personality of Big Mom. Big Mom is a rather violent and ruthless pirate empress who has a country called Tottoland where anyone can enter but she forces them to give parts of their soul to her to keep the ecosystem of Tottoland running. She created Tottolando to make her dream come true and that is to make a country where people of different races live together in harmony and are the same size as her, but everyone in Tottoland is scared of her, including her own children. Simply Magnifico would have been a more convincing villain if he had the same violent and unstable personality as Big Mom, if his subjects were afraid of him as Big Mom's are and if he forced his subjects to give them their wishes as Big Mom does with their souls of her subjects instead of waiting for them to be given to Magnifico and willingly.

7) I feel like Asha would have shined more as a protagonist if she were like Miles Morales in the sense that Miles has a more convincing evolution than Asha. Miles Morales is motivated to be Spiderman because he feels guilty for the death of Peter Parker in his universe, but his parents remind him not to forget who he is beyond his work as Spiderman and he ended up accidentally creating Spot and ruining a canonical event without knowing it. What makes Miles decide to try to save both his father and the multiverse because Spiderman always tries to save all and why Miles believes it is his responsibility to stop Spot for creating and angering him. It would be interesting if Asha had conflicts (about feeling guilty that her grandfather did not get his wish and that Magnifico turned bad, although that is not entirely true, and that because Asha feels that she should be the one to make her grandfather's wish come true and of being the one who stops Magnifico) and overcame them and watched her mature like happened with Miles.