It’s Disney’s 100th anniversary. Since 1923, one of the biggest and most successful film companies has produced family-friendly entertainment. And so, this, their centenary year, they wanted to give us something memorable, something exceptional that will go down in the history books alongside Pinocchio, Bambi, The Jungle Book, The Lion King and Frozen. Instead, they gave us Wish, a bland, uninspiring and dull animation that borrows from all those classic films but forgets to have its own identity.

Asha lives in Rosa, where a sorcerer named Magnifico protects the town’s wishes. He grants one wish each year, and this year, Asha hopes it will be her 100-year-old grandfather. When she applies for the apprentice job to Magnifico, she discovers that he won’t give the wishes out if they are too vague or could cause danger to the town. Angered by his secret, one night Asha wishes there was something she could do, and a star appears to her and she has a chance of changing things in Rosa forever.

Usually, when a new Disney film hits the screen, we talk about the exquisite animation and the beautiful colour palate they use. Alas, this time, the animation is a little wishy-washy, looking like the 3D CGI-generated characters have been placed on 2D backgrounds, where depth and focus seem to have been forgotten. A few times throughout the movie, it doesn’t even look like the characters are facing each other. It is a first for me to say it all looks a little rushed and occasionally shoddy, especially compared to something like Puss In Boots or the Spider-verse movies, where the animation is being pushed to new and exciting boundaries.

The plot is also lacking. We expect good versus evil and the underdog facing incredible peril. Yet it feels so stale. The script just doesn’t click and lacks any humour. Even the usual comic animal character in most Disney movies is woefully annoying, and you want it to stop talking. Let’s not forget about the musical numbers. And there are a lot of them.

In the first 30 minutes, there are five wholly unmemorable songs that borrow the styles of Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast and Under The Sea from The Little Mermaid. This isn’t an animated feature with songs; this is a musical waiting for the green light from Broadway. Directed by Frozen director Chris Buck (along with Fawn Veerasunthorn), you can see that this has been produced with the understanding that it would work on stage as well as in the cinema. Yet, with so many songs in a 90-minute movie, it kills the action dead, so for four minutes, you have to wait for the jazz hands to finish before we get back to the story.

It’s like the filmmakers have never seen a classic Disney before. These were strong stories with the odd song or two you could hum once it was all over. Look at The Jungle Book, which has some of the best songs in a Disney movie, yet they never interfere with the story; they are just there for variety.

Then there’s the easter eggs and references to past Disney successes throughout the film. Everywhere you turn, there are characters, lines and objects from the studio’s history, from rabbits who bang their paws on the floor to mirrors for Magifico to use to even a deer called Bambi. Let’s not forget the seven friends of Asha, one who is grumpy, one who is sleepy…you get the picture. If the filmmakers had spent more time on the script and characters as they did on the references to the past, this would have been a masterpiece.

The vocal talents of Ariana DeBose as Asha and Chris Pine as Magnifico are strong, with Pine stealing the film with his nice guy/nasty guy routine. Yet it shows that the other characters fail to meet the standard of the two leads as they have nothing to do.

Wish is a massive disappointment after the studio’s most recent successes like Encanto and Moana. It has nothing new to offer, just like going through the motions. If this is what we have to expect for the next 100 years, it might be time to get new staff in or stop altogether. It would have been nice to have had a new Mickey Mouse film or something where the real characters of the past made an appearance. Instead, we get one of the studio’s weakest efforts, and that’s not good enough for a centenary.

2 out of 5

Directors: Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn

Starring: Adiana DeBose, Chris Pine, Alan Tudyk, Angelique Cabral, Victor Garber, Natasha Rothwell, Jennifer Kumiyama, Harvey Guillen, Niko Vargas

Written by: (also story) Jennifer Lee, Alison Moore, (story) Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn, (additional story material) Carlos Lopez Estrada and Andrew Rothschild

Running Time: 95 mins

Cert: U

Release date: 24th November 2023