“Wish”: the perfect world of Disney that hides a sinister side and that reaches the cinema

Hundred years not met daily; disney he knows. The American multinational entertainment company uses its streaming platform, merchandise and amusement parks so that there is no one left who does not know the date. As part of that plan is a feature film, number 62 of the company that began creating these stories with “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” (1937).

This is “Wish”, an animated film that is based on the tradition of making wishes when a shooting star passes by to tell a story full of songs, magic and characters hungry for adventure. A style created by Disney himself that, with changes, has been maintained over the years. The film follows Asha (Ariana DeBose), a teenager who seeks to become an assistant to the sorcerer king Magnificent (Chris Pine), who has the power to grant the wishes of his subjects; not of all, only of a select few. This idyllic-looking kingdom hides a secret that calls into question the ruler’s intentions. Also involved in the problem is a star fallen from the sky that threatens to change everything.

“Wish” will be a story about fulfilling one’s dreams, but at the same time it is the culmination of the dreams of other people, who have dedicated years of their lives to creating it. In an interview with El Comercio, Chris Buck, one of the directors, said that his desire to do animation arose when he saw “Pinocchio” for the first time when he was 4 or 5 years old. “I fell in love with animation from that day, I started drawing since then and I kept drawing and I am very lucky to be here today“, held. Director Fawn Veerasunthorn is in a similar situation, but for “Beauty and the Beast,” which led her to become obsessed with drawing before knowing that she could turn her passion into a career. “But once I found out, I wanted to be a part of it“, held.

They are responsible for giving the film its current look, a combination of computer animation and drawings on paper. “Being the 100th anniversary, we wanted to honor our legacy but also embrace the innovations we had made in recent years. So we went back to ‘Snow White’ and ‘Pinocchio’, to that beautiful storybook style of illustrations that they had, and we wanted the audience to be able to enter into these illustrations. Computer-generated media would allow us to achieve that; so that’s how it started, honoring our past, but also the future”said Buck, who started at Disney in 1981 and went on to work on classics such as “The Little Mermaid” (1989), “Pocahontas” (1995) and, as co-director, create “Frozen” (2013) and “Frozen II.” (2019).

The film’s links with classic Disney are also represented in “cameos” or “references” from time to time on the screen and that promise to bring a smile to the viewer, whether they are children or adults. “The fun begins by adding the ‘winks’. And not just the two of us [los propusimos]everyone who worked on this movie came to us with ideas, because we have grown up with Disney movies and we can’t help but put all that as a love letter to Walt, to the studio“said the co-director.

Without giving spoilers, suffice it to say that there is a sinister element that turns the film into a dystopia, something that the filmmakers say is in line with the Disney legacy of the fight between good and evil. In short, “Wish” puts a modern spin on familiar classics, but without going too far from the source.