#king Magnifico

[scurviesdisneyblog]

Early character designs for King Magnifico from Wish (2023) by Brittney Lee and Bill Schwab

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

I'm sorry but I've read too many dystopias to believe this whole "King Magnifico kinda has a point" deal.

He is magically removing his subjects' ability to resist his rule in any meaningful way. He pulls out any ambitions or desires for anything greater and only returns them once he's cleared them of anything subversive. Old man playing the lute to inspire the younger generation is bad because he might inspire them to dangerous ideals like change or improvement or, god forbid, democracy.

"But some wishes are bad!" You know what else is sometimes bad? Emotions. But if you've got a society that says "someone could kill someone in anger so we're going to remove all emotion forever except for the elites that run everything", you'd still get why that is a bad thing and a con. I know the myth of the benevolent dictator has far too much hold on our culture, but the idea that the guy lobotomizing the entire population is definitely doing it for their own good and and it only happens to give him absolute power and control over them is ludicrous.

The problem isn't that Magnifico has a point, the problem is that Disney thought he'd need a magic book to be "really" evil rather than realizing that an absolute monarch running a system Brave New World would envy is already a terrifying villain. Stop trying to half-ass a sympathetic explanation and commit to the bit, Disney! Down with the king!

[doverstar]

shoutout to Disney's Wish (2023) for completely spitting on the idea that wives help their husbands. like even if the pointy queen couldn't convince Chris Pine to turn good, you could have at least given us the evil power couple in the concept art

[fantasygerard2000]

Animal Star based on an unused design from the Art of Wish book.

Also being a furry artist, I couldn't pass on making anthro forms based on the two unused designs I like.

And my take on Star as a cat child inspired after Death from the Last Wish as an anthropomorphic wolf.

[lambdesune1xx1]

An old dood i made of this idiot a few months ago✨

Still love It

[hopeyarts]

UGH, I really wanted that classic Disney villain. Not whatever they gave us. King Magnifico is still the best character in the movie, but I’m really disappointed where they took his character in general. The movie is just so, so lame.

Found a clip of the Wish story producers talking about how the first five minutes of the original series of boarded sequences had Magnifico being evil from the get-go. During the first five minutes, he’d been shown being vile. Actually DOING evil acts. That’s what I wanted and I’m sure plenty of other people wanted. Ugh, this movie makes me so mad. Here’s the clip for proof.

Also, the drawn frames you see in here aren’t a part of those first five minutes. Those are from the deleted scene titled “Valentino Is A Star” and in that scene, Mark Kennedy aka the Head of Story, said that scene took place right before the climax of the original story and script.

So they’re just using the frames from that deleted scene to visually show how Magnifico eats the wishes. What the people in the clip are talking about is the first five minutes of the original script. …Say first five minutes 3x in a row, ya’ll.

Anyways, gonna go continue dreaming about a better story than the one that we got.

[rivero-piv]

what if magnifico has a daughter

I don't think he and Amaya are the type to want kids but if they did,,,,

[adventuretolkienlover]

Honestly, this make me so sad. I would have preferred this story so much. THIS feels like a love letter to Disney's past. I'm sure others will have their opinions on it. But this pretty much sums up mine.

(I kinda hope they'll do a remake someday with this instead. That's probably wishful thinking. But hey! I can dream. Lol.)

EDIT: People seem to think I mean a live action remake. I don't. I mean I would want it completely done over. That's a bit out there, but like I said, I can dream. It's just my fantasy.

[artist-issues]

If you haven’t seen Wish yet and you love Disney, do not go see it. I am telling you now. It is ripping out the hearts of the Disney movies you love and then waving their corpses around as if celebrating those hearts.

I’ll explain why, again: the message of Wish? Awful. Anti-Disney.

But they've been doing this for a long time. Saying one thing with their movies, and saying another with their PR and Disney Parks Soundtracks.

I'll explain.

Main Idea of Disney's Wish (and the You Are the Magic theme park song and merch): "The power to make your wishes come true is in you."

≠

Most Disney Movies' Idea on How to Have Wishes: "Do what's right, (trust a higher power) and something even more wonderful than what you wished will happen."

Don't try to argue with me about this. You have to look underneath the slogans and the sweater designs and the song titles to what the stories actually support to acknowledge this.

Because you can’t say “do what’s right” has power unless you answer the question “who gets to decide ‘what’s right?’” (Which, coincidentally, is a question Wish brings up and then doesn’t answer.)

Audiences of Disney used to accept that wishing on a star was much like prayer; there’s something you long for, and it’s out of your hands, but you wish for it and you do what you know is right in the meantime. And you’re not crushed, you’re not downhearted, because somewhere in your mind you trust that the combo of those two things—wishing on a higher power and diligence to do what’s good—will be what makes your wish come true.

Trust in a higher power—COMBINED WITH:

—diligence to do what’s good.

The Blue Fairy (higher power) gave Geppetto his wish specifically because he had demonstrated commitment to do good, whether he got what he wanted or not. The Fairy Godmother (higher power) gave Cinderella her wish specifically because she kept on being kind and good to low creatures like mice and wicked stepsisters, whether she got what she wanted or not.

Do you know why that combo (higher power + diligence to do good) is impactful? Timeless? Important?

Because it’s selfless. You want something, but you’re not going to sacrifice doing the right thing to get it. You’re not going to focus so hard on making what you want a reality, on your own, that you miss out on things that could be more important than what you want. And, you’re not so self-focused as to believe that if you don’t do it, it won’t get done.

Jeez, that’s the whole point of The Princess and the Frog!

Tiana wishes to have her own restaurant, and she believes that only her own hard work will grant that wish. She misunderstands her dad’s advice before he dies. She isn’t willing to trust a higher power combined with her own diligence to do good—she only trusts her own ability.

It’s not until she realizes that Ray, the character of faith, was right all along that she learns—what she wished for was too self-focused. It wasn’t complete without love. Something bigger than herself. And getting that was never going to happen just based on her own hard work.

But you know what? It was never going to happen just by a “higher-power” flavored shortcut, either. Because Facilier offers her her wish if she’ll just trust him, no hard work needed. But what does she say?

Trust in a higher power + diligence to do what’s right = selflessness, and getting more than you could have ever wished for. And if your wish is selfish, doing those two things will change your wish into something selfless.

More examples? Get ‘em while they’re hot, in case Wish made you forget, just like the current #NotMyDisney executives have forgotten, what real Disney wishes are for.

Belle wishes to have adventures in the great wide somewhere--but when she's imprisoned and that chance is taken from her it's not reversed because she worked hard to make her wish come true. It's granted because she gave up her wish for her father: she just did the right thing, regardless of her wish. And in the end, she does get what she wished for, which is adventure in an enchanted castle...and much more, because she gets true love, a throne, and a castle full of friends.

How about the One Who Started It All? The one Wish is failing to pay genuine tribute to?

Snow White wishes for someone to love her, and he does--but when they're separated, she does not exercise power to make The Prince come back to her. Instead, she loves who she can where she’s at—the Dwarfs. In the meantime, she has faith that he will keep his promise, and that pure trust in a higher power outside of her control is a big contributing factor to why the Dwarfs come to love her, and learn from her...and in the end, even more than she could've wished happens. He does take her to his castle, but she also has seven new friends who also love her, and the Queen is dead. And she didn’t need to use “the power in her” to work harder and get it done. She just needed to not focus so much on herself at all.

How about a male main character? One who’s wish starts out selfish, but after learning to wish on a higher power and be diligent to do the right thing, gets more than he could wish for?

Aladdin wishes to be somebody different (somebody he believes Jasmine could love, somebody who lives in a palace and is respected and “never has any troubles at all.”)—but doing everything in his own power for that wish proves that it was selfish all along; so he switches to doing the right thing, regardless of if his wish comes true, and he gets even more than he could’ve wished. He gets real love with Jasmine, he gets his friend Genie, and he gets to be free from feeling “trapped” because he doesn’t have to hide who he is anymore.

Or Simba?

Simba wishes to get to do whatever he wants as King—but when Mufasa dies and he’s convinced it’s his fault, it isn’t for that wish that he goes back to Pride Rock to confront his past and his Uncle. It’s because he had an encounter with a higher power—his father—that helped him to realize his wish was selfish all along. He gives up the selfish wish, and he goes back to take his place as king, not so he can do whatever he wants, but so that he can take self-sacrificial responsibility that comes with ruling. And because he just does the right thing, finally, he gets more than what he wished for.

How about something more recent? Zootopia.

Judy wishes to make the world a better place by proving she can be what she wants to be and catching bad guys—but when she tries to make her wish happen on her own, in her own abilities, she fails and is forced to realize that she should’ve been looking for help by understanding “bad guys,” like Nick. It’s only after she humbled herself, admits she’s wrong, and changes her wish from “proving I can be what I want and catching bad guys” to “proving that understanding each other makes the world a better place” (much less self-focused) that her wish comes true—and so much more. She does make the world a better place, and she does get to catch bad guys, but she also gets to befriend one who was a good guy all along, and become all-around more effective at her dream job.

This is how Disney always has been. Because it’s at the heart of good storytelling, and even life (not to get too dramatic.)

The power is not in you. Because it’s not about you. Self-sacrifice, faith, and doing the next right thing regardless of if you get your heart’s fondest desire is what makes more than just your wishes come true. And there has to be belief in a higher power to make that message powerful.

But Wish?

Not only is it bad at showing instead of telling. Not only is it lazy and soulless.

But it’s characters rip the Star out of the sky and say “don’t wish on this. Wish on yourself, to get what you wish for. You don’t need a higher power. You don’t even need to sacrifice to do what’s good—whatever you do is good, because you are the one doing it.”

That is wrong. That is not true, and it is not powerful. There’s no sacrifice in focusing on or placing your trust totally in yourself, and it undoes every good thing Disney has done up until now.

And it undoes it on the 100th anniversary, and it flaunts Easter eggs of the very things it’s undoing.

[starsha-stardust]

this honestly makes my heart break.

[roberrtphilip]

If happiness was a tangible thing, it would be you.

[idattore]

my beautiful loving wife: you better not be cunty billboard king magnifico when i get there my hungry ass:

[danygn]

I will protect you, at all cost 🤍

[fantasygerard2000]

The kingdom of Rosas is represented by a rose symbol. According to the art book, the rose represents beauty, rebirth and love.

Magnifico founded his kingdom out of love for his people to protect their beauty, their wishes. Rosas became a place he promised for people to be reborn with their greatest desires. The people of Rosas are roses.

However, Roses have thorns, which are served to protect them. Magnifico protects his people, but he does so in a way that harms them without them knowing or even have the power to do something about the way he treats them. Like a gardener who "removes" any roses he does not like.

Magnifico's spiral into wanting complete control over his "garden" resulted in everything in it covered in thorns. What was once served for protection has became harmful to everything it was protecting.

Semi off topic and related, Amaya wears the symbol on her ears. As a stated in a post I wrote about her, she's a listener. Her ears being covered may symbolize how she's in denial over her husband's questionable reign or how she always listens to him as it is his kingdom, this may also represent that she hears her people as she does care for her people, eventually her becoming the generous and kind ruler who supports them.

The roses on her ears once symbolize how she always listens to one man who created Rosas, but now represents her hearing the many voices of Rosas for her to come and help.

[91939art]

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We'll give ourselves — and you — what "Wish" has failed to grant us! Marriage between Strictness and Magnificence.

We're sooo doing them pillow talking, folks...

[xia-artss]

The most handsome king ✨