Disney Celebrates 100 Years of Animation Magic
DIRECTED BY CHRIS BUCK AND FAWN VEERASUNTHORN
Animation, it’s been said, is the right combination of extremes and in-betweens. Meaning, there are the “extreme” moments of characters doing whatever they’re doing- the big poses, the rich expressions, the comedic reactions- that punctuate any given piece. This traditionally is the work of head animators, with lowlier “in-betweeners” tasked with filling in all the movement between point A and point B. Wish comes across as all extremes and no in-betweens.
Wish, a film made very much in service of Walt Disney Studio’s 100th anniversary, is a resonant disappointment in the animation department. The Mouse House’s trademark “illusion of life” aesthetic is nullified by the wearying contemporary trend of unrelenting BIG expression. Be it joy, uncertainty, fear, sudden realization, or whatever else, the characters shift on a dime from one to the other throughout. The exceptions are the two characters pointed out to be introverts in this world of extroverts.
While Wish is simply one of many modern animated films to beat audiences over the head in this manner, it’s extra irritating that the occasion of the studio’s centennial couldn’t warrant a return to form for the industry. What the film does instead is attempt a kind of throwback-y look, kinda sorta flattening the 3D computer-rendered characters to ostensibly more closely resemble the studio’s classic ink & paint glory days. It is a resounding visual failure, with certain shots reading as garish eyesores. It’s as though a decision was made to not make a decision, resulting in a hoped-for “best of both worlds” aesthetic (classic cell animation and contemporary 3D modeling), which instead came out murky, messy, ugly, and feeling very rushed.
All of which is a true shame, as 100 years of Disney animation is truly something worthy of commemoration. Not only that, but the film’s central metaphor is a gutsy and haunting one. A book opens, appropriately enough, to the tale of a benevolent sorcerer, King Magnifico, (resembling a fully grey Dr. Strange, voiced by Chris Pine) who establishes the country of Rosas based upon the tenets of equality, freedom, and the individual pursuit of happiness. Each denizen brings their singular greatest wish to Magnifico for safe keeping. Once a year, in a big public ceremony, a lucky person is chosen to have their wish granted. In the meantime, they all work their remedial jobs in hopes of one day being that winner.
When Magnifico decides to take on an apprentice, the spirited and kind-hearted seventeen-year-old Asha (our main character, voiced by Ariana DeBose) pursues the position. In the inner sanctum of the grand sorcerer, she is amazed by his floating collection of glimmering baubles-the citizenry’s wishes. Quickly she learns what anyone who’s ever seen a movie before has been suspecting: Magnifico is not such a magnifico person. He’s hoarding the wishes out of his own fears of what might might might happen were they to actually come true. As a wise Jedi master once said, fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads… to suffering.
Throughout Wish, we’re reminded in a wholly clunky fashion of better Disney animated movies of the past. Some supporting characters weirdly evoke various Seven Dwarfs. Assorted animals may or may not be the animals from Bambi and Robin Hood. There are more, some quite obvious, others headscratchingly vague. If there’s any doubt of Wish’s raison d’être, look no further than the closing credits, which feature twinkling likenesses of the stars of most of Disney’s “animated classics.” As a musical, Wish is not an outright bad movie by any stretch (some good songs, for sure), but considering the overall lineage it’s claiming, its lack of luster- its lack of class (something that even the recent Frozen and Moana have in spades over this)- it needs to be better. While this is a film that no one asked for, it’s still enough to make us be careful what we wish for going forward.