Wish (Walt Disney Animation - November 2023)

[TP2000]

I must say too early to say that. Wish has only released recently in France, Austria and Germany (29 and 30 November) and Estonia (1 December) this week (alongside other markets that already released the film last week)...

Estonia is on the board!

Opened 15% below Trolls 3’s opening.

Estonia Weekend:

Wish - €70,409/$76,345 NEW

View attachment 757531

$76,345 from Estonia in just its first debut weekend?!? What are those crazy folks in Tallinn doing, spending like drunken Russian sailors on shore leave and going out for fancy Lutefisk dinners and nights out on the town at the American cartoon movies like it's the last weekend before winter sets in for 5 months?!?

Someone needs to tell drunken Oskar and Aron to calm down, get the firewood stacked for the winter, and stop going crazy with the wallet at the American cartoon movies. Look at the far more reasonable Lithuanians just to their south, they've only spent $61,727 on tickets to Wish since it opened.

Estonia, be more like Lithuania, please. Hell, even Latvia is embarrassed. Baltic Pride!

Wish

www.boxofficemojo.com

 

[Advisable Joseph]

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.

More like wordplay.

 

[celluloid]

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.”

Your last one particularly goes against whatever your point is.
You only have throwing cautions out the window or at the wind when you are disregarding it.

Real easy example here.

If a law enforcement officer told you to "throw caution to the warning sign up ahead"

Would it mean to take heed and obey it. Or disregard it?

You know in your heart the line is not well written. I think you just want to argue.

.

 

[_caleb]

Your last one particularly goes against whatever your point is.
You only have throwing cautions out the window or at the wind when you are disregarding it.

Real easy example here.

If a law enforcement officer told you to "throw caution to the warning sign up ahead"

Would it mean to take heed and obey it. Or disregard it?

You know in your heart the line is not well written. I think you just want to argue.

.

I’m not trying to argue, I’m trying to discuss. You made a statement that didn’t make sense to me, so I tried to inquire how you came by that interpretation.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Too soon?
View attachment 756983

Maybe I put the stone carvers to work too soon?
For a moment there it looked like Wish was going to flat line but now it looks like there is some life:

 

[celluloid]

I’m not trying to argue, I’m trying to discuss. You made a statement that didn’t make sense to me, so I tried to inquire how you came by that interpretation.

Ok, did the law enforcement example help you understand then?

 

[ParkPeeker]

Ok I see how that line looks sloppy. I hardly hear that phrase so I didn’t know the background and thought the shorthand “to throw caution” was to throw it away. Instead it’s shorthand for throwing ‘something to the wind,’ so not throwing it away per se, but importantly throwing that something to the wind for it to disappear like sand. It’s not something big I hold against the movie though.

 

[Haymarket]

A (conservative Catholic) screenwriting professor's review from today.

Disney’s ‘Wish’ Unfulfillment

FILM REVIEW: The Mouse’s latest offering is startlingly unfulfilling as entertainment and just as vacuous in terms of having any real wisdom to share.

www.ncregister.com

 

[celluloid]

I’m doing my best to hang in there after Wish received unfair bad reviews and doing bad at the box office, but it’s just hard for me right now.

Know and remind yourself that your life is not connected to the success of a movie.

 

[LittleBuford]

Isn’t it just portions of two common idioms put together to convey a sentiment?

• Throw caution to (the wind)
• (Ignore) every warning sign

Doesn’t seem like such a big riddle to me.

It works for me as an unexpected play on the known idiom. Does it fall apart when you stop to think about it? Sure. But that's true of many song lyrics. Is its intended meaning clear and vivid? Absolutely.

 

[LittleBuford]

So then - what does the phrase mean?

The same thing as both of the phrases it combines. Are you really going to claim its meaning is unclear to you?

 

[LittleBuford]

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?

People are conflating two different things: the phrase's logic with its intelligibility. I agree the phrase is illogical, but it makes perfect sense.

When people say "case and point" (as opposed to "case in point"), it's clear what they mean.

When people say "beg the question" (whose definition isn't what they think it is), it's clear what they mean.

When people say "irregardless" (an erroneous combination of "irrespective" and "regardless"), it's clear what they mean.

When people say "for all intensive purposes" (rather than "for all intents and purposes"), it's clear what they mean.

Anyone hearing "throw caution to every warning sign" knows exactly what it means, even if they dislike the formulation intensely.

 

[LittleBuford]

A (conservative Catholic) screenwriting professor's review from today.

Disney’s ‘Wish’ Unfulfillment

FILM REVIEW: The Mouse’s latest offering is startlingly unfulfilling as entertainment and just as vacuous in terms of having any real wisdom to share.

www.ncregister.com

"The sorcerer king, Magnifico, is an egomaniacal white male who has been cruelly suppressing his subjects’ dreams — in a premise surely created to attract male-hating feminist theatergoers."

I think she may be projecting a little.

ETA: Yes, if you caught my original post, I assumed the author was a man. That's on me.

 

[LittleBuford]

A (conservative Catholic) screenwriting professor's review from today.

Disney’s ‘Wish’ Unfulfillment

FILM REVIEW: The Mouse’s latest offering is startlingly unfulfilling as entertainment and just as vacuous in terms of having any real wisdom to share.

www.ncregister.com

I'm also very puzzled that she likens Magnifico to God. I view him more as a false prophet.

 

[Advisable Joseph]

Ok I see how that line looks sloppy. I hardly hear that phrase so I didn’t know the background and thought the shorthand “to throw caution” was to throw it away.

But you were right. It's wordplay on a common phrase.

"Throw caution to" makes you think of "throw caution to the wind," i.e., throw caution away, discard caution. "To every warning sign" changes the mental image a little, meaning, so instead of letting the caution fly away on the wind, you leave the caution on the sign, mocking it.

I think people are fixated on the idea of giving caution to the sign, as if the sign were a person who could use the caution, as in "Throw the ball to Michael Jordan."

 

[Haymarket]

Indeed, the box office trajectory of Wish is already trending far below that of Universal Pictures’ animated comedy musical film Trolls Band Together.

"Following its third weekend of release, Trolls Band Together, which carries a production cost of $95 million, has grossed $74.8 million domestically and $85.8 million overseas for a current worldwide total of approximately $160.6 million. Wish, which has presently grossed approximately $39.6 million overseas, has a current worldwide box office total of approximately $81.6 million.

Is Disney’s Wish a Box Office Disaster?

The box office failure of Wish is even worse than that of The Marvels.

movieweb.com

Ultimately the problem with "Wish" is the same problem that has been plaguing Disney for some time now, and which reached critical mass this year: risk aversion. This is a known bug of big companies, and the problem only grows as companies get bigger and answerable to more shareholders. Risk aversion was arguably the downfall of Nokia; in 2004, Nokia had the largest market share for cell phones, but had experienced a dip as competitors started to roll out fold-away devices. In an effort to innovate, research engineers created a prototype for a new type of phone — one with a large display and no buttons, operated entirely through a touch-screen.

"It was an expensive device to produce, so there was more risk involved for Nokia," a former employee later told the New York Times in 2010. "So management did the usual. They killed it." Three years later, Apple released the first iPhone.

"Barbie" is the highest-grossing movie of 2023, but despite its famous leading lady, it was still a big risk for Warner Bros. Pictures. "There was absolutely nothing to point to before," director Greta Gerwig recently explained. "We weren't able to use anything as what they call a 'comp.' That's how they build budgets, and they assess risk."

For most of the 21st century so far, Disney has been buying up other companies with successful existing franchises (Marvel, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox) and remaking its own classics in live-action. What the company hasn't really been doing is taking a lot of risks. Even its riskiest move, the creation of Disney+, was reminiscent of Nokia scrambling to release a touch-screen phone after Apple got there first. With animated offerings struggling and once-reliable franchises like Marvel delivering diminishing returns, Disney may go the way of Nokia and IBM if the studio doesn't start taking risks again.

Disney's Wish Will Not Pull An Elemental At The Box Office - /Film

Disney's Wish has fallen hard in its second weekend at the box office, suffocating any hopes for an Elemental-style turn of fortune.

www.slashfilm.com

 

[celluloid]

But you were right. It's wordplay on a common phrase.

"Throw caution to" makes you think of "throw caution to the wind," i.e., throw caution away, discard caution. "To every warning sign" changes the mental image a little, meaning, so instead of letting the caution fly away on the wind, you leave the caution on the sign, mocking it.

I think people are fixated on the idea of giving caution to the sign, as if the sign were a person who could use the caution, as in "Throw the ball to Michael Jordan."

That only works with mixed metaphors, and this is not. That is why it does not flow very well if in fact that is what they were intending. Which no other part of the song or character has demonstrated that.

 

[celluloid]

People are conflating two different things: the phrase's logic with its intelligibility. I agree the phrase is illogical, but it makes perfect sense.

When people say "case and point" (as opposed to "case in point"), it's clear what they mean.

When people say "beg the question" (whose definition isn't what they think it is), it's clear what they mean.

When people say "irregardless" (an erroneous combination of "irrespective" and "regardless"), it's clear what they mean.

When people say "for all intensive purposes" (rather than "for all intents and purposes"), it's clear what they mean.

Anyone hearing "throw caution to every warning sign" knows exactly what it means, even if they dislike the formulation intensely.

Or Mute instead of moot etc...

All that is fine when you are forgiving to someone who is ignorant to the actual term and being kind to know their intent and informally speaking.

However, for a 200 million dollar budgeted film where so much of it is its musical qualities, and in a main song, I think it is fair to critique and want better from professional songwriters and consider it quite the blemish.

 

[LittleBuford]

Or Mute instead of moot etc...

All that is fine when you are forgiving to someone who is ignorant to the actual term and being kind to know their intent.

However, for a 200 million dollar budgeted film where so much of it is its musical qualities, and in a main song. I think it is fair to critique and want better from professional songwriters.

You’re assuming ignorance; I’m assuming that they deliberately toyed with the idiom. The result works for me.

One of the most iconic phrases in all Disney songwriting—“blue corn moon”—is meaningless, devised solely because it sounded cool. Such things happen all the time in song and poetry.

 

[celluloid]

You’re assuming ignorance; I’m assuming that they deliberately toyed with the idiom. The result works for me.

One of the most iconic phrases in all Disney songwriting—“blue corn moon”—is meaningless, devised solely because it sounded cool. Such things happen all the time in song and poetry.

Blue-corn moon works well as it is an adjective based metaphor. Like blue sky. This example is not even a mixed metaphor. I am not saying playing with language is wrong, it is meant to be played with in creative works. I am saying there are ugly ways to do it.


The word "funner" is a recognized english word, is it ugly to use in most cases? You bet.