The way I am sure Disney would like you to think of Wish is as an origin story for pretty much every fairytale it has ever bothered to put on celluloid.  After all, one of the themes written into the trailer is that it had been 100 years in the making.  If you have been paying any attention to the Mouse this past year, they have been marking 100 years of magic, or whatever other nonsense they ascribe to the past century.  I have a more sinister way of looking at it.  This is not spoiling anything (though the rest of this review will do that) but the villain, King Magnifico (voiced by Chris Pine), is stealing the wishes of his subjects.  While seeing this plot unfold, it occurred to me that a parallel can be made between this character and Walt Disney, the inventor of Mickey Mouse.  I will return to this theme in a moment, but as any introduction should do, keep this in mind as you read the rest of this treatise.

According to the synopsis on Wikipedia, Wish takes place on an island kingdom called Rosas in the Mediterranean.  I do not recall this physical location being made evident, but wherever it is, it is established by King Magnifico and his wife, Queen Amaya (Angelique Cabral).  He had a rough upbringing, and fled to this part of the world, attracting citizens for this new state because of his magical abilities.  His particular feat is to have those he leads give their one, individual wish to him, in exchange for his protection.  What keeps them in line are his charm and good looks, and the fact that once a month he grants one lucky resident the wish they had given him upon turning eighteen.  It is getting to be that date again when we meet Asha (Ariana DeBose), who is also approaching her eighteenth year.  However, this is not her main concern.  The best way I can describe her job is that she works for the government of Rosas.  She gives tours of the city, but her real hope is to become the personal assistant of King Magnifico, and her interview is that day.  Not only is she trying to get the most prestigious position in the land, but she hopes that she can do so for her grandfather, Sabino (voiced by Victor Garber).  He is turning 100 on the same day as the wish granting ceremony.  Asha is clearly nervous in meeting King Magnifico, but as they go on he becomes impressed by her enthusiasm.  As a result, he shows her all the wishes in his possession, emphasizing that he holds onto them for the protection of his subjects.  It is during this interaction that she sees Sabino’s wish.  She asks King Magnifico if he could grant it given the occasion, and what it would mean to Sabino.  King Magnifico takes a look at it and deems it too dangerous, despite it being a desire to play the guitar and make people happy.  King Magnifico claims that it could foment revolution.  At this point, Asha realizes how unfair it is for their ruler to keep them, particularly when it is made apparent that many of them will go unfilled instead of returning them to the person that made them.  Angered by her impertinence, he informs her that not only will Sabino not get his wish, but neither will any member of her family.  She is then forced to sit through the public spectacle when another is given their wish.  After this, she runs out into the forest, climbing a tree she used to sit in with her deceased father, and makes her own wish upon a star.  I am not entirely sure exactly what this request is, but it triggers a burst of warm, radiant light that is felt and seen around the kingdom.  Everyone is gladdened by it except for King Magnifico, who sees it as a threat to his power.  He immediately sets out to find the person who would commit a supposed act of treason.  As for Asha, she must now deal with a magical, anthropomorphic, miniature star, whose main ability initially seems to be able to make animals and plants talk.  This is much to the delight of Asha’s pet goat Valentino (voiced by Alan Tudyk).  When Asha can get the star to calm down a little, she explains that all she wants to do is to retrieve Sabino’s wish.  To do so, she enlists the help of her co-workers in the castle, who provide for her a secret way into King Magnifico’s chambers.  She goes there during one of his public addresses, but is later betrayed by Simon (voiced by Evan Peters), who had recently given his wish over and sees a chance to have it once more by turning in Asha.  Thus, she is forced once more to flee, though King Magnifico finds her home and destroys Sakina’s (voiced by Natasha Rothwell), Asha’s mother, wish.  This is part of the dark magic he is practicing in the wake of this so-called new threat.  This encounter forces them to flee to hide the star, which King Magnifico wants for himself.  Seeing the disappointment on its, er, face, about halfway to their destination Asha decides to go back on her own to start a revolution.  This time, not only does she get the help of her remaining friends, but also the backing of Queen Amaya, who is not on board with her husband’s corruption.  The plan is to lure King Magnifico away from the city while the others attempt to free the wishes.  This seems to work until it turns out that the person sent after Asha is actually Simon magically disguised to look like King Magnifico.  From his tower, he decides to abandon any pretense of benevolence and take all the wishes into himself after springing his trap and absorbing the star’s power.  Despite being outmatched, Asha faces the real King Magnifico, and triumphs when she reminds the citizens that they have more than just one wish inside them, that they have their own stars.  This frees the first star, and leads to King Magnifico being entrapped in a pendant.  Before it leaves, it makes Asha a wand and bids her to become the Fairy Godmother.  The end.

In the introduction to Wish, I basically called it a Disney meta-origin story.  Somebody who is far more well-versed in Mouse-dom will probably catch all the references made during the film.  Such a person would also likely get more excitement out of these than myself.  Thus, let us talk about what I am going to refer to as a Disney deep fake.  Walter Elias Disney, known more commonly as simply Walt Disney, was born in 1901 in Chicago, Illinois.  His family was never well-off, though I cannot say that they struggled.  They were working class, to be sure, but Walt never went hungry.  Later in life he told anyone who listened that his happiest time was spent in Marceline, Missouri, where his family settled from 1906 to 1911.  If you have ever been to Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom, then you have walked through the idealized version of that tiny Midwestern town.  In other words, it is something that Walt spent the rest of his life trying to recapture, a wish, if you will.  While Mickey Mouse is entirely his own invention, many of the films and other material he went on to make were the ambitions of other creators from which he borrowed.  The writer of Mary Poppins (1934), Pamela Lyndon Travers, would have a different take on what Walt did with her work.  In a broader sense, he also founded a theme park empire where millions of people bring their dreams each year.  Some of them are fulfilled simply by being at one of the attractions.  Others are looking for something more, and can walk away disappointed.  All of this can be paralleled with King Magnifico, especially for the more cynical among you.  The people of Rosas look upon their ruler with the same kind of devotion that people do Walt, dazzled by the magic they wield.  Yet, they hold back just a little, each having their own reasons for doing so.  The company that Walt founded could charge a little less to experience what they have to offer, but then how would they continue to make as much money as they do?  King Magnifico could grant more wishes, but then his power would become diluted.  Either way, except for a select few, there will be many left unfulfilled.

This rather dark way of looking at Wish is probably only me.  It is also not fair to make these comparisons without giving its positive traits.  Indeed, there were points while watching this movie that I was nearly moved to tears.  This occurred while the more familiar song, the one from the trailer called “This Wish,” played.  There is a power to it, and it speaks to something deep within us.  At the same time, I am conflicted with how this concept jives with my Catholic Faith.  On the one hand, God creates us with a desire for Him.  This is manifested either in a longing to just be with Him, or in the way we instinctually reach out to a higher power when there is something that seems beyond our reach to get on our own.  It is because of this last sentiment that I have issues.  It is true that much of religion is based on us trying to find a way of rationalizing something within us we do not fully understand.  Yet, as I have said in other reviews, God is not a magical, wish fulfilling entity.  This is a difficult realization for many, and unfortunately leads to many turning away from the Faith.  The film refers to the fact that many will go their entire lives without having their wishes met as being “unfair.”  As such, Asha triggers a revolt, and then become the wish-fulfilling entity about whom I had just said that many think of as God.  I am not here to say that King Magnifico is correct.  He clearly had selfish designs on keeping the wishes to himself.  I would also agree with the film in saying that we all have, to a certain degree, the ability within us to reach our goals by ourselves.  Yet, it is by the grace of God that anything happens, not because we did it on our own.  This makes the ending somewhat problematic from a Christian point of view.  God gives us agency, but we do nothing on our own.

I took my youngest niece to see Wish because I did not want to be that creepy older guy that sees such a film by himself.  Her older sister decided to skip it.  The one who did come with me basically had the same reaction as I did, and it is a fitting way of giving you a recommendation.  She felt it was a mediocre film, but she did like the chickens.  If that is your idea of an endorsement, then go for it.