Movie Review: Wish

Movie Review: Wish                                                                                                                                                               11-22-23  

Wish is about a 17-year-old Afro-Latino girl named Asha. Asha lives in the Mediterranean kingdom of Rosas, where wishes can come true. However, King Magnifico has strict rules about which wishes can come true, as he wants to be in control of Rosas. When denied from being Magnifico’s assistant, Asha wishes on a star, which flies down to Earth and gives her goat Valentino the ability to talk. Now, Asha, Valentino, and Star have to journey into Magnifico’s castle to free all the wishes he’s been hogging to himself.

Wish is a movie worthy of Disney’s 100th anniversary with a story that pays tribute and homages to the company’s legacy, animation that shows off its hefty 200-million-dollar budget, a protagonist who sits nicely alongside past heroines, and songs that are perfect for a Broadway adaptation.

Asha meeting Star for the first time.

Wish is also the first Disney movie in over a decade to have a true villain: King Magnifcio. As stated earlier, this guy grants wishes only to those who he thinks needs them. And by that, he doesn’t want to cure people’s illness’s such as lameness. If that wasn’t bad enough, Magnifico is willing to hurt anyone who questions him, including his wife, Queen Amaya. You could say that this king is up there with best animated villains of 2023 alongside Super Fly (Ice Cube’s character in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem), Bowser, and even Spot.

If I were to complain about one thing, however, is that I felt that Wish had way too many Disney references. We get it, it's the company's 100th anniversary, but you don't have to cram in references every minute!

See those mugs? They're all named after the Seven Dwarfs.

In conclusion, please see Wish in theaters when you can, regardless of what critics say. With kids being too young to see the latest Hunger Games movie and some adults getting sick of Trolls, Disney’s Wish will be a breath of fresh air.

Rating: 3.6 stars out of 5

I’m aware that, at the moment, Wish doesn’t have the best ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and iMDb, but for someone who’s been reviewing movies for eight years now, I have advice to give to each and every one of you: Be your own critic! Just because someone says something negative about a movie you have high hopes on seeing doesn’t mean you should avoid it. If there’s a movie you want to see, whether it’s in theaters or on streaming, go see it. There are at least six (soon to be nine) movies in my DVD and Blu-Ray collection that have a rating lower than 60% on Rotten Tomatoes, and does that stop me from enjoying them? No way! That’s why I implore all of you to let out your inner critic and express the movies and shows you love openly, whether it’s online or in person.