To celebrate their One-Hundredth Anniversary, Disney ordered up something uncomfortably close to an Occasional Piece, one of those forgettable public commissions designed to commemorate an important event. Beethoven’s noisy Wellington’s Victory a famous example of the form. (And when’s the last time you heard that?) Here, hiding under a generic title, proven animator Chris Buck & debuting Fawn Veerasunthorn treat their assignment in paint-by-numbers fashion. (Then again, I guess digital animation by definition is all paint-by-numbers.) Misconceived on nearly every level, even technically, it features incessant nods toward past-Disneyana right from the git with Olde Timey storybook opening credits in Disney’s 1940s font. You see, once upon a time a mighty island overlord promised contentment with a trade-off: Give me your deepest wish for safekeeping and I’ll give you prosperous safety. A life of diminished expectations visualized in such a restricted, vibrant-free matte-finish, you’ll think your picture settings need adjusting. (On the plus side, Chris Pine’s dictatorial Magnifico gets the chance to cut loose with previously unused vocal chops on the film’s best song, ‘This is the Thanks I Get?!’) Naturally, there’s a feisty young girl to stand up to him, wish upon a star, and make the walls come tumblin’ down: Ariana DeBose, overselling sass with every inflection and condescending to her outlier gang of mutts. Considering the extended development pipeline Disney puts these projects thru, you wonder if they skipped development hell to hit that 100th anniversary release date.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: With the slow, but steady success of ELEMENTAL/’23 just before this, and the rocket out of the gate performance of Pixar’s INSIDE OUT 2/’24 quickly following, WISH at least has the luck of being as quickly forgotten as most occasional pieces. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2023/12/elemental-2023.html
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