Wish (Walt Disney Animation - November 2023)

HoustonHorn

HoustonHorn

Premium Member
choco choco said:
Wish deserves its fate. I'm gonna start posting random observations about the film to demonstrate Disney's lackadaisical execution of their tentpole 100th anniversary release. First up:

The main lyric to Wish's big anthem, key enough that it was featured in all the trailers and promos, and serves as the all-important reprise that defeats the main villain (the power of song an heretofore unmentioned source of weakness for the main villain up until the very second it is used to vanquish him - inexplicably) features this lyric:

So I look up at the stars to guide me
And throw caution to every warning sign

This has already become a laughingstock among film aficionados, achieving popular meme status in just a short time, because that second couplet makes no bloody sense. The saying being referenced is, "to throw caution to the wind," which means that caution is being thrown away, to be swept out with the wind, in favor of greater risk-taking. It's literally incomprehensible what it means to "throw caution to every warning sign." What...what does that even mean?? There is a sign of warning and you throw caution into it...what would that even do? It's unparseable.

How could such a lyric get past, well, anyone with a facility for english language? Forget the songwriter who wrote that (no seriously, they deserve to be forgotten), but how did an entire cadre of executives, animators, directors, artists, interns, janitors...anybody(!) let that get out. How did the frickin' guy who cut the commercials and trailers at the very least think, "We might not want to use this lyric, because it features a totally confusing turn of phrase that doesn't make a lick of sense."
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That line bothers me Every. Single. Time. that I hear it.

And what is worse is that THAT is the line that played at the beginning of virtually every commercial and trailer - so not only did the "entire cadre of executives, animators, directors, artists, interns, janitors" "let that get out," but they actually leaned into it and focused on it for marketing! So all of those - and more - thought it was a great line with which to sell the film. Holy smokes.


 
BrianLo

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
I saw Wish yesterday. Its complete box office rejection is I think a bit puzzling. Has the Disney audience truly been fully trained by D+ to see it at home? Will it even find an audience on D+ or is this another strange world? Which is inherently confusing because it is reasonably competent, a musical and enjoyable. Strange World carry’s a flat B CinemaScore and Wish an A-.

I think it makes for a fun film, perhaps weighted down by its mandate to be the Disney 100 film. One too many characters for a short 95minute film. Valentino for instance is somewhat sidelined and other than a few extra quips, we’ve seen the majority of his dialogue in the trailers.

The Art direction I think is one of the films flaws. It can have times where it looks gorgeous, but the water colour filter for everything in the film makes it look muddy. It’s great in some of the big natural scenes. It looks atrocious during the crowd scenes in the castle forecourts. Characters in the backgrounds come off as low resolution. Like a video game that can’t render the backgrounds properly or drops resolution to run. The characters theme selves shouldn’t have had the water colour filter effect applied. They should have been sharp and crisp and that would have stood out better on some of the flat backgrounds. Asha largely looks good for instance, but her Doc friend often looks poorly rendered.

They should try again with the 2D-3D - but no more water colours please.

The story is reasonable and all makes sense in the context of the film. Most of the songs I think are still good. I’m not going to defend the lyrics other than I think a bunch of adults are being a little too neurotic in their parsing of them.
 
Disstevefan1

Disstevefan1

Well-Known Member
BrianLo said:
I saw Wish yesterday. Its complete box office rejection is I think a bit puzzling. Has the Disney audience truly been fully trained by D+ to see it at home? Will it even find an audience on D+ or is this another strange world? Which is inherently confusing because it is reasonably competent, a musical and enjoyable. Strange World carry’s a flat B CinemaScore and Wish an A-.

I think it makes for a fun film, perhaps weighted down by its mandate to be the Disney 100 film. One too many characters for a short 95minute film. Valentino for instance is somewhat sidelined and other than a few extra quips, we’ve seen the majority of his dialogue in the trailers.

The Art direction I think is one of the films flaws. It can have times where it looks gorgeous, but the water colour filter for everything in the film makes it look muddy. It’s great in some of the big natural scenes. It looks atrocious during the crowd scenes in the castle forecourts. Characters in the backgrounds come off as low resolution. Like a video game that can’t render the backgrounds properly or drops resolution to run. The characters theme selves shouldn’t have had the water colour filter effect applied. They should have been sharp and crisp and that would have stood out better on some of the flat backgrounds. Asha largely looks good for instance, but her Doc friend often looks poorly rendered.

They should try again with the 2D-3D - but no more water colours please.

The story is reasonable and all makes sense in the context of the film. Most of the songs I think are still good. I’m not going to defend the lyrics other than I think a bunch of adults are being a little too neurotic in their parsing of them.
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Wish is a good movie. It just costs more to make and market than it will bring in.

I am not excited so much that I will go to the theater to see it.

It will up to the family if we will pay to see it on streaming or wait for it to be "free" on D+

I am however excited about Godzilla enough to consider going to the theater. Even at that, I am also willing to wait to pay to see it on streaming depending on what the family wants to do.
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Figments Friend said:
‘Godzilla Minus One’ is epic and a must see on the big screen with a good theater sound system.

Anyone considering going to see it, DO IT!

😎

-
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I am a huge fan of the 1960's and early 70's Godzilla films. Will I like it too? Or is it too modern and slick and lacks a bit of camp? I need some camp in my Godzilla movies.

In Wish news, while we wait for box office data from Estonia, Wish actually had a not-disastrous weekend domestically. It clawed its way back into the shaded area, going from no legs to poor legs. Of course, it's very weak opening week dooms it to a stunted graphline anyway. But at least Wish achieved a feat The Marvels never could; getting some time in the shaded area!

Poor Legs.jpg
 
BrianLo

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
Disstevefan1 said:
Wish is a good movie. It just costs more to make and market than it will bring in.

I am not excited so much that I will go to the theater to see it.

It will up to the family if we will pay to see it on streaming or wait for it to be "free" on D+

I am however excited about Godzilla enough to consider going to the theater. Even at that, I am also willing to wait to pay to see it on streaming depending on what the family wants to do.
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I do think it is a good movie. It falls more squarely into the millennial throwback wheelhouse. Unlike Strange World, whose 50 pulp serialization is perhaps nostalgic for the baby boomer, but that’s not the demo who really drives animated movie attendance anymore.

I know I am speaking to the wrong audience because I’m about to hear how many people love 50’s nostalgic sci fi… but people here are weird. 😂

Modern audiences are into 80’s and 90’s nostalgia, currently.

The remaining question is will audiences find it on D+ or is it actually going the way of Strange World. In that case I can’t make sense of it, because it is a good (though not a great) animated princess musical. I thought at least Tangled was an achievable benchmark.
 
T

TsWade2

Well-Known Member
TP2000 said:
I am a huge fan of the 1960's and early 70's Godzilla films. Will I like it too? Or is it too modern and slick and lacks a bit of camp? I need some camp in my Godzilla movies.

In Wish news, while we wait for box office data from Estonia, Wish actually had a not-disastrous weekend domestically. It clawed its way back into the shaded area, going from no legs to poor legs. Of course, it's very weak opening week dooms it to a stunted graphline anyway. But at least Wish achieved a feat The Marvels never could; getting some time in the shaded area!

View attachment 757472
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I’m still upset it didn’t do well at the box office, but I’m glad Wish is making progress. I hope it does better on DisneyPlus.
 
Phroobar

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
ParkPeeker said:
I don’t understand how that particular phrase is apparently, according to you, such a controversy that it’s become a popular meme among film aficionados. How?

I read it as
Throw caution (throw caution to the wind)
to every warning sign (in response to every warning sign)

What’s hard to get?
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Thow caution to every warning sign means the exact opposite of what she is trying to say.

It's brilliant!

No, it's dumb. Just plain dumb.
 
T

TsWade2

Well-Known Member
Yeah, I see there’s a lot of silly criticism going on here, so I’ll just be on my way and listen to this great soundtrack of Wish. Toodles!🙂
 
Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
This has been said before, but "Throw caution to every warning sign" is a mixed metaphor. Its like saying "Hitting the nail on the nose". Sometimes these are accidental and sometimes they are intentional, and I believe this one is intentional.

My way of looking at it is its used to show that Asha is young and naive, hence getting the metaphor wrong. But yet willing to brave her way forward to do what she knows is right even if the kingdom may not agree.

Yes its hard to hear for those that know the correct metaphors. But if you look at it in the context of the movie, the character, and the rest of the song, it starts to make sense.
 
C

celluloid

Well-Known Member
Language guy here. Ridicule and take it for what it is worth(not a lot apparently these days) but teaching idioms and etymology of such is part of my profession.

The phrase throw caution to the wind, is an idiom because it is taking throwing it at the wind, as in air, as in nothing.

You take that out of it and just have "Throw caution" it means you are acting in caution. To throw caution to every warning sign would mean you are either warning every warning sign(confusing) or heeding every warning by being careful.

Terribly...terribly written.
 
C

celluloid

Well-Known Member
Disney Irish said:
This has been said before, but "Throw caution to every warning sign" is a mixed metaphor. Its like saying "Hitting the nail on the nose". Sometimes these are accidental and sometimes they are intentional, and I believe this one is intentional.

My way of looking at it is its used to show that Asha is young and naive, hence getting the metaphor wrong. But yet willing to brave her way forward to do what she knows is right even if the kingdom may not agree.

Yes its hard to hear for those that know the correct metaphors. But if you look at it in the context of the movie, the character, and the rest of the song, it starts to make sense.
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Interesting thought and would be a cool character trait. (Typically it would be for humor and go into the type of character to use malapropisms)

There is no other evidence that is what is happening here. Lyrically, it just comes across very ugly and is like when Jason Maraz misused the word Godforsaken in "I'm yours" and actualy meant "god-given."
He has humbly since performed it live with God-given.
 
_caleb

_caleb

Well-Known Member
celluloid said:
Language guy here. Ridicule and take it for what it is worth(not a lot apparently these days) but teaching idioms and etymology of such is part of my profession.

The phrase throw caution to the wind, is an idiom because it is taking throwing it at the wind, as in air, as in nothing.

You take that out of it and just have "Throw caution" it means you are acting in caution. To throw caution to every warning sign would mean you are either warning every warning sign(confusing) or heeding every warning by being careful.

Terribly...terribly written.
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Where are you getting that “throw caution” means “acting in caution?”
Typical usage where I’m from would use it in a number of ways:
  • Throw caution out the window (not acting cautiously)
  • Throw caution tape across the hood of my car (literally throwing)
  • Throw caution flag at a NASCAR race (“throw” here meaning “wave”)
I’ve never heard “throw caution” used to mean “be cautious.”
 
Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
celluloid said:
Interesting thought and would be a cool character trait. (Typically it would be for humor and go into the type of character to use malapropisms)

There is no other evidence that is what is happening here. Lyrically, it just comes across very ugly and is like when Jason Maraz misused the word Godforsaken in "I'm yours" and actualy meant "god-given."
He has humbly since performed it live with God-given.
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As I said its hard to hear, especially when you know the correct usage. But its a lyrical choice, just as you mentioned with Jason Mraz (correct spelling by the way) and I'm Yours. Also he changes the lyric depending on the venue, still using the original, plus also changes it to "god-intended" from time-to-time.

Back on the movie, in the movie its shown her character is head strong and thinks she's right. As I mentioned I read it as a turn of phrase to showing that she is young and head strong, barreling forward even in the face of maybe being wrong, ie the kingdom not agreeing with her decision to return the wishes.

It could have been written better, but so can many lyrics from many songs these days.
 
M

MoonRakerSCM

Well-Known Member
celluloid said:
Language guy here. Ridicule and take it for what it is worth(not a lot apparently these days) but teaching idioms and etymology of such is part of my profession.

The phrase throw caution to the wind, is an idiom because it is taking throwing it at the wind, as in air, as in nothing.

You take that out of it and just have "Throw caution" it means you are acting in caution. To throw caution to every warning sign would mean you are either warning every warning sign(confusing) or heeding every warning by being careful.

Terribly...terribly written.
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Oooo, do "I let you live here for free and I don’t even charge you rent" next!
 

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