Wish (Walt Disney Animation - November 2023)

BuddyThomas

Well-Known Member
Sad to report that nothing from Wish made the Oscars' shortlist for Best Original Song. Getting an Ariana DeBose performance during the ceremony could only have been a good thing.

I'm also sad that Theater Camp's (Searchlight) rousing, largely improv'd, anthemic finale, "Camp Isn't Home", apparently wasn't seriously considered either. It would fit right in alongside any of the songs from Barbie.

ETA: Completely failed to notice that nothing from Wonka is on the list, nor is Mario's "Peaches." Outside of the Barbie selections, the Academy is showing its typical lack of sense of humor.
They completely snubbed Little Mermaid too. I was hoping Wild Uncharted Waters would get some attention, at least. That said, I’d be happy if any of the songs from Barbie get noms, and although I’m not seeing Color Purple until Christmas Day, I’m hearing great things, so I’m hopeful the two short-listed songs are fantastic.
 

brideck

Well-Known Member
They completely snubbed Little Mermaid too. I was hoping Wild Uncharted Waters would get some attention, at least. That said, I’d be happy if any of the songs from Barbie get noms, and although I’m not seeing Color Purple until Christmas Day, I’m hearing great things, so I’m hopeful the two short-listed songs are fantastic.

I was surprised to see that two songs from The Color Purple are even eligible -- usually these Broadway adaptations only add a single new song, for this very reason.
 

BuddyThomas

Well-Known Member
I was surprised to see that two songs from The Color Purple are even eligible -- usually these Broadway adaptations only add a single new song, for this very reason.
I’ve heard that The Color Purple is odd in this way. I’ve been told that it cut a bunch of songs from the stage musical, and retained ones from the original film (Sister; Maybe God is Trying to Tell You Something), so the two new song thing is not surprising for me. As I’m sure you know, all the recent stage musicals that have been adapted for film have added one new song, hoping to get an Oscar nomination. Two new songs is definitely unusual.
 

DKampy

Well-Known Member
They completely snubbed Little Mermaid too. I was hoping Wild Uncharted Waters would get some attention, at least. That said, I’d be happy if any of the songs from Barbie get noms, and although I’m not seeing Color Purple until Christmas Day, I’m hearing great things, so I’m hopeful the two short-listed songs are fantastic.
Yes… I don’t usually throw the snubbed word lightly when it comes to nominations but for Wild Uncharted Waters to not even be on the short list seems outrageous…I am hoping at least Billie Eilish and Ryan Goslings songs from Barbie get a nod
 

Miss Rori

Well-Known Member
ETA: Completely failed to notice that nothing from Wonka is on the list, nor is Mario's "Peaches." Outside of the Barbie selections, the Academy is showing its typical lack of sense of humor.
Those are major disappointments, especially in Wonka's case, but at least Asteroid City was shortlisted for "Dear Alien (Who Art in Heaven)", which would make for a delightful live performance.

(Frankly, if anything from Wonka or Super Mario Bros. got into the final five along with the Barbie stuff, and given how unpopular the Wish songs are with the general public, I think Disney/ABC would have immediately insisted the Best Original Song performances be cut for time.)
 

BuddyThomas

Well-Known Member
Yes… I don’t usually throw the snubbed word lightly when it comes to nominations but for Wild Uncharted Waters to not even be on the short list seems outrageous…I am hoping at least Billie Eilish and Ryan Goslings songs from Barbie get a nod
I have a feeling that Billie Eilish's song is going to win, but in the meantime.....I love this song so much, especially how it is directed.

 

Sir_Cliff

Well-Known Member
The comedic web short series Pitch Meeting imagines what the pitch for Wish was. (I too only recently thought "Why didn't anybody write their wishes down, or anybody just tell another person what their wish was?")


This reassures me that I am not completely insane for thinking many of the exact same things about the internal logic of the film! I also had that same thought about the Queen, to be honest.
 

Tha Realest

Well-Known Member
I honesty think the soundtrack would have been a big hit had Wish come out a few years ago. So many good songs will now probably fade into oblivion while the inexplicably ubiquitous “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” plays for the umpteenth time in the parks.
You're obviously entitled to your own opinion, but “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”’s popularity isn’t inexplicable. It’s a delightful earworm of a song - both lyrically and melodically - that is the de facto soundtrack for one of the most popular and innovative film series of all time.
 

LittleBuford

Well-Known Member
You're obviously entitled to your own opinion, but “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”’s popularity isn’t inexplicable. It’s a delightful earworm of a song - both lyrically and melodically - that is the de facto soundtrack for one of the most popular and innovative film series of all time.
I wasn’t being entirely serious. I understand why people like it, even if I myself don’t.

I stand by my larger (and main) point, though: Wish has some great songs that would easily have entered the Disney canon a few years ago. Alas, they will now fall by the wayside.
 

Miss Rori

Well-Known Member
As of yesterday, Wonka has grossed more in North America in seven days than Wish has grossed in 30! This is the sort of story that will be analyzed by movie marketers for years to come: Why didn't Wish's promotional campaign, which seemed comparable to Wonka's, get people in seats? Was it (as the Pitch Meeting skit ponders) that just positioning it as the centennial movie wasn't enough? Why did Wonka overcome the skepticism its initial trailers evoked and Wish didn't? 🧐
 

Miss Rori

Well-Known Member
This reassures me that I am not completely insane for thinking many of the exact same things about the internal logic of the film!
Some particularly good reviews discussing this are the ones at Vulture and Alternate Ending. Seriously, the broken logic was a huge factor in many negative professional reviews, and it's one reason I'm puzzled that the film got all the way to release with no one questioning it.
 

LittleBuford

Well-Known Member
As of yesterday, Wonka has grossed more in North America in seven days than Wish has grossed in 30! This is the sort of story that will be analyzed by movie marketers for years to come: Why didn't Wish's promotional campaign, which seemed comparable to Wonka's, get people in seats? Was it (as the Pitch Meeting skit ponders) that just positioning it as the centennial movie wasn't enough? Why did Wonka overcome the skepticism its initial trailers evoked and Wish didn't? 🧐
I thought Wonka’s trailer was better than Wish’s, plus it’s already an established and beloved IP.
 

brideck

Well-Known Member
Some particularly good reviews discussing this are the ones at Vulture and Alternate Ending. Seriously, the broken logic was a huge factor in many negative professional reviews, and it's one reason I'm puzzled that the film got all the way to release with no one questioning it.

I would argue that your willing suspension of disbelief and a dash less of tired cynicism is supposed to take care of pretty much every concern presented in that pitch video. (But it would be pedantic of me to possibly want to go through it point by point at this stage.)

One could poke holes in the premise of a lot of Disney animated movies, if one wanted to. For example, a whole host of questions that could potentially wreck ones enjoyment about how the curse in Beauty and the Beast works or what a sensible timeline in that story could possibly be pretty easily come to mind. But I'd have to very intentionally be wanting to play that game while watching it, and as a rule I try not to sabotage my own entertainment.
 

Miss Rori

Well-Known Member
I would argue that your willing suspension of disbelief and a dash less of tired cynicism is supposed to take care of pretty much every concern presented in that pitch video. (But it would be pedantic of me to possibly want to go through it point by point at this stage.)

One could poke holes in the premise of a lot of Disney animated movies, if one wanted to. For example, a whole host of questions that could potentially wreck ones enjoyment about how the curse in Beauty and the Beast works or what a sensible timeline in that story could possibly be pretty easily come to mind. But I'd have to very intentionally be wanting to play that game while watching it, and as a rule I try not to sabotage my own entertainment.
Well, that's the thing. It's easy not to think about the curse or timeline works in Beauty and the Beast in the moment of actual first-time viewing because the basics of it have classic, if sometimes arbitrary fairy tale logic -- the prince was cursed because he was cruel, and breaking it requires him to change as a person to the point he can be loved even in his altered form. The classic question "But why the servants, though?" (which stretches back to the original fairy tale) can be easily brushed off as their just being unlucky to be there at the time, or the overkill one often sees with Fair Folk in old-style fantasy. There are plenty of similar gaps in classic movies' logic that are only picked apart later, sometimes years later ("Why didn't Glinda think Dorothy would believe the Ruby Slippers would get her home if she told her at the beginning?" "Why design a Death Star with an easily exploitable flaw?" "Does Indiana Jones really accomplish anything in Raiders of the Lost Ark?") but the overarching story and characters are so compelling that they are easily missed.

With Wish, what strikes me about the questions people have about how the wish system works, why nobody ever did the math regarding how many wishes would ever be granted, etc. is that many viewers had them immediately, as in when they saw the first full-length trailer or read the plot setup. When the trailer dropped, a lot of people (including me) were asking "Why is it so bad if not all wishes are granted? What if they're bad wishes? After all, a good king would have to be choosy for his people's sake...." (The movie even uses "Be careful what you wish for" as a tagline!) In the movie itself, since it seems there's a goodly deal of exposition about how the system in Rosas works, how Star works (why does Magnifico think he'll be all powerful if he catches it when it just makes animals and plants talk and throws balls of yarn?), how the black magic book works (why didn't Amaya give Magnifico the oil when she had a chance? Did he even know about it?), how "We are all stars!" works, etc. it's practically encouraging people to think about questions like that. Some critics even noted that there's a scene where the townsfolk ask their own logical questions about what Magnifico's doing with the wishes that don't get answered! (Why, if he wasn't going to use them for power before he was corrupted, didn't he just banish the wishes he wouldn't grant -- why keep them around?)

Probably the definitive screw up, which I noticed when I read the tie-in books, is Asha getting the wand at the end. The people of Rosas do not need someone to grant their wishes because they are supposed to be doing that on their own. Instead, Asha will be approached by people who want an easy way out and inevitably have to choose which wishes do or don't get granted. Why is she, a 17-year-old girl with no magical training, seen as a safer choice to wield such power than the well-trained Magnifico was?

Basically, the consensus seems to be that the story has too many logical gaps, and not enough compelling action and characterization, for viewers not to notice them.
 

brideck

Well-Known Member
When the trailer dropped, a lot of people (including me) were asking "Why is it so bad if not all wishes are granted? What if they're bad wishes? After all, a good king would have to be choosy for his people's sake...."

The movie itself doesn't ask you to think about those questions, though. A viewer should be able to watch it and think, "Okay, this is a Disney fairy tale. We're talking about a world where all of the people's wishes are good. Got it. Let's move on." And even outside of that, so what if some of the wishes are bad? In the real world, you're free to pursue whatever dream you want, but only when you run afoul of the laws, etc. are you punished. The model presented in the movie is that instead we have the government (just one dude, in this case) serving as the brain police, deciding who even gets to pursue what. I fail to see how that would ever be preferable or that people would view that as an okay/good thing.

Knowing what we know now, is there even such a thing as a "good" king?
 

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