What do you think about Disney's Wish?
Predictions:
The movie will be an eye-candy with beautiful 2D and 3D. (But going by the trailer it's not as impressive as the Puss in Boots the Last Wish or Spiderverse. We need a better name for that animation style. How about 2/3D? ZED? I don't know.)
The music will be great. (But after listening to the song from the trailer that is supposed to be the ''I want song'', oh my God the lyrics are so generic and bland they can fit practically any main character ever. And it's just a lot of singing about nothing.)
The Star character, Valentino or both will be annoying.
Valentino will be funny and marketable but the movie could've worked without him.
The world will be huge, beautiful, and interesting and we explore none of it.
The protagonist will be bland with one obvious flaw or a dream which will be related to the message of the movie.
The message will have all the subtlety of the hammer in the face.
Inconsistencies, contradictions, and random stuff happening because funny/the plot.
References to older classics that you wish you would be watching. (You saw how many references they cram now into their other movies? And now it's one of the things they talked about the most!)
Death is funny until we have the fake-out death then you need to care.
No love interest because love makes women weak apparently. Or no love interest because the actress is a lesbian and she talked about how Asha ''looks like her'' because modern acting isn't about pretending to be something you're not, it's about showing who you are every chance you get. And for those who think they might make a lesbian love interest, I would like you to take a look at the gay ''romance'' in the Strange World. But if by some chance they do I doubt it will be any good. When was the last romance in Disney, Frozen 2 (2018) and that's a holdover from the first movie (2013) and the last good romance was Tangled (2010).
Lame villain! It's supposed to be a throwback to the older Disney movies and that includes its villains but Disney is so incompetent with their IPs I wouldn't be surprised if they get their own villain ''formula'' wrong. I swear if they try to make him a twist after spoiling that Chris Pine will be voicing the villain and his evil laugh in the teaser trailer, or ''redeem'' him after he did unspeakable evils. And no villain song. Can Chris Pine sing? Please no terrible auto-tune!
Making jabs at old Disney tropes even tho this movie isn't even half as good as the movies that came before it, uses a bunch of other modern tropes or straight up the same ones that it mocked earlier and completely misinterprets them and uses them even worse! Modern Disney seems to hate its past and does everything to show how ''better'' they are now. Which is untrue in most cases and just smug and annoying!
I'm sorry for being so pessimistic but that's how jaded I become and only towards Disney. It might be their greatest hit that will make people think ''Disney is back''. But Disney needs to change. One good movie will not save them if they keep making remakes that lose money.
I don't know; some of the things you've listed are likely, but I doubt all of them will be true!
I think the animation looks...unfinished. Isn't that odd? It looks like there's not a lot to fill in the scene, and what is there didn't get done rendering.
See these are pretty, but there just isn't a lot going on in the backgrounds--it's very icon-y. Maybe they're going for a storybook-look, but...a very minimalist, simple storybook? Not like Snow White:
Or Pinocchio
I can see that there are 2D textures on the trees and grass and stuff, but I wish there was just more there. Like all these pots and all the stonework in the background, in the screenshots from classic Disney above. Where’s the stuff; it would look even better if there was stuff. You know usually when Disney tries a new technique or look, they show it off. In Moana, they’re like we animated water, and as a result, we are going to show you SO MUCH WATER. In Tangled, they were like, we nailed the hair, and as a result you get to see Rapunzel’s hair do SO MUCH. In Wish it looks like the artists were shy about showing off the painterly stuff. But I’m no expert.
I really agree about the music. Like I really agree. I have only heard snippets. But I remember seeing the trailers for Frozen when a little bit of the music would play and immediately wanting to hear more. Looking it up like “Frozen trailer music” because just the snippet was enough. In this movie, I like the trailer until she starts singing, and then for some reason my whole brain rolls it’s eyes. Why does it do that for this movie? I love Disney music. I listen to Disney Princess Christmas album every season even though it’s not amazing, because I just like hearing characters sing. So why should I be exasperated by new feature-film Disney music, even if it does sound just like the others? I don’t know. I am not a music expert, either; I’m just telling you who I am (a Disney lover) and how inexplicably I reacted to Wish’s little music thing. Chris Pine can sing, but just like everything he does: he sounds like Chris Pine singing.
I think you’re right about Valentino; I don’t know if that’s a fair criticism, though. The Little Mermaid could’ve worked without Flounder. Mulan could’ve worked without Cri-Kee. Cinderella could’ve worked without Jacques. Moana absolutely did work without Pua. But in the new movie’s trailer I did feel like, “this feels like a pointless character.” Don’t know why.
The world actually looks empty to me. See points about the art style above. I don’t want to explore what I’ve seen of it, because it looks like an unfinished Open-World game that someone wants me to stream walkthroughs of on YouTube, and I’m like “no thank you, that looks boring.” But maybe that’ll be the point. Maybe in the story, the Wishing Star deepens and fills up every piece of scenery it interacts with! That would be cool. Maybe there’s a story-reason for the world.
I don’t know about the protagonist being bland. To make a good character (particularly in a kid’s movie) you need one big flaw (to make the character believable) and one big strength (to make the character compelling) and then little flaws and strengths surrounding that. For example, Aladdin’s one big flaw is his insecurity, and his one big strength is his compassion. You can file smaller traits like “trust issues, impulsivity, defensiveness, dishonesty” under the Insecurity flaw, and you can file “generous, insightful,” under the Compassion strength. His compassion makes him help and connect with Jasmine in the marketplace even though his Insecurity leads him to think he needs to be a Prince to re-connect with her after she turns out to be the Princess, etc. So it’s fine if she has one obvious flaw. She just really needs it to be relatable. All Disney characters wish for something. But every single one of them typically learns that the thing they were wishing for isn’t what they thought it would be, and to have what’s worth wishing for (love, usually) requires sacrifice. It’s a formula, but it’s a tried-and-true formula. It’s a multi-faceted formula. If they pick a new facet but remember the good, plain, common sense in the same formula, everything will be fine.
Their messages have been less and less subtle. In general I don’t mind when messages are obvious, because (you know me) I think that’s what movies are for. But! I will admit that movies like The Little Mermaid or Beauty & the Beast or Lilo & Stitch, where the messages are wrapped in layers of compelling character arcs and feel more character-driven, are better than movies like Raya and the Last Dragon. No shade, Raya, but how many times can you say “trust” in the same movie? Aladdin did it in two.
I don’t mind references in movies. Worked for Frozen. But there’s a difference between having Anna excitedly see the sails of a ship entering the harbor as a callback to Pocahontas, and having Rapunzel ask Vanellope if people assume all her problems were solved because a big strong man showed up. One is respectful (hey, let’s parallel Anna seeing the start of a new chapter in her life the same way Pocahontas did with sails!) and the other is sort of poking fun at the audience for ever liking what Disney made. Basically I’m very tired of meta-references.
I think this movie has potential to treat death with the weight it’ll need. After all, if it’s about wishes, one of the very easiest but most emotionally-engaging things they could do is have the main character (or the villain) be wishing to bring someone who’s died back. Then the message could go hard.
I totally agree about romance. The thing about romance is, it is a great way for one character to self-examine and confront their issues, as well as move into a place where they’re willing to sacrifice for others. Having a young, naive character set out to get their dreams, and then run into another character and start to care about that character? It forces conflict and tension, and again, it’s a formula, but it’s a formula that makes sense and shouldn’t be fixed because it’s not broke.
What I really don’t like about this villain is that he just feels bland, like a rockstar character who turns out to be a jerk. Surprise, surprise. And Chris Pine plays Chris Pine in everything he’s in, so I’m not thrilled by that either. But whatever.
Yeah, this last point goes back to meta-humor. #NotMyDisney thinks it needs to acknowledge what’s being mocked in order to trick the mocking audiences into watching their new stuff. “If we just own up to our formulas with a joke, they’ll see we’re self-aware and they’ll come along for the ride!” No, actually, you’ll just take them out of the movie mentally and emotionally to hit them with a fourth-wall slap. And then they’ll mock you because that’s cringe. The truth of the matter is, Disney responded to their haters best with Mary Poppins, and then again with Enchanted, and should’ve left it at that. Don’t say “yeah I know we have princesses and cute animals in our movies, aren’t we silly.” Say, “yeah I know we have Princesses and cute animals in our movies, but that’s because life is dark and hard, and hopeful young women with lowly but loveable creatures are inspiring & important. Kids need a spoonful of sugar to HELP the MEDICINE GO DOWN. But it's still MEDICINE that we're making, you're telling us we shouldn't give kids medicine that tastes good?" That’s what they used to say. Now they just…agree with the haters? Because it's a popularity contest, not a responsibility, anymore. Like that’s going to help.
Anyway, I don’t have set-in-stone thoughts about Wish, because Wish hasn’t come out yet. I agree that actors and actresses can give you some idea of where a movie’s headed and sometimes that’s disheartening, but I haven’t seen anything that makes me worry about Wish—except that it looks bland.
28 notes
·
View notes