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Oh, Disney, Disney, Disney. Where to start?
I'll start with the good news. This is a nice looking, well-animated movie. It's miles and miles better than "Strange World" was last year. What an unpolished turd that was.
And it's refreshingly free of controversial content, at least I didn't see anything that might trigger the masses of sensitive types. Although some people might rightly be starting to question if there's ever going to be a male hero in a movie ever again.
The concept is interesting. The king of the land has charge of all the "wishes" of his subjects, and occasionally he holds a "wish ceremony" in which one of said wishes is granted. The twist is, once his subjects give him their wishes, they magically forget about them. So the people live blissfully unaware of their unrealized hopes and dreams. Most of them don't even realize that their wishes are being hoarded by the king.
Enter our hero, Asha. She's got an interview at the castle, with the chance to become the king's apprentice. She's also got the ulterior motive of hoping to influence the king to grant her 100-year-old grandpa's wish. But (there's always a "but"), she gets over-eager, and asks the king for her special favor before she even gets the apprentice gig. But she's seen all those ungranted wishes just floating around, and decides something must be done. In other words, she's challenging the king, to which he replies "Only I decide what wishes to grant." So Asha determines to "free" the wishes and give them back to their owners, so they can remember what they wished for and try to achieve those goals on their own, which of course would be much more satisfying than just having something handed to you.
How to accomplish this? Put together a band of forest creatures and storm the castle? Of course not! She's going to accomplish it by wishing on a star. And because it's such a profound and powerful wish, said star (whose name is "Star") comes out of the heavens and doesn't grant Asha's wish directly, but basically gives her the tools to get the job done.
It must be noted here that Star is one of the most annoying Disney characters to ever be invented. It's supposed to be cute, which it is -- they will probably sell a million plushy versions of it -- but it's like Tinkerbell without the personality. Unfortunately, most of the other characters, while not as annoying, are either wasted (the talking goat should have been a better sidekick) or not very memorable. The grand epic battle finale, which has graced about 90% of the Disney animated movies, is one of the weakest climaxes they've ever come out with.
The songs are all over the map from good to bad, but a couple of them are quite catchy. I found myself wishing that the lyrics would be displayed onscreen during the songs, which is not a bad idea, really.
The best thing about the movie is the look of it. The backgrounds are sort of textured-looking, as if they were watercolors painted on cloth. It's probably the most unique animation style they've done since "Lilo and Stitch." Too bad the story doesn't have that uniqueness.
The whole movie seems to be wanting to emphasize the same over-arching message that the Disney theme parks put forth, which is: Just keep wishing. If you wish hard enough, all your dreams will come true. Which is nonsense. I keep on going back to a different concept that is brought up, but then sort of papered over: The idea that working hard to achieve your wish, versus having something magically given to you, is much more satisfying, and makes perfect sense. It's too bad they didn't double down on THAT message.
I sure miss the days when people would come out of a Disney movie like "Lion King," "Toy Story," "Aladdin," "Finding Nemo," or "Frozen," going "Wow, that was SO GOOD!" We haven't seen that from a Disney movie in a long, long time. 2 out of 5 stars from me.
I'll start with the good news. This is a nice looking, well-animated movie. It's miles and miles better than "Strange World" was last year. What an unpolished turd that was.
And it's refreshingly free of controversial content, at least I didn't see anything that might trigger the masses of sensitive types. Although some people might rightly be starting to question if there's ever going to be a male hero in a movie ever again.
The concept is interesting. The king of the land has charge of all the "wishes" of his subjects, and occasionally he holds a "wish ceremony" in which one of said wishes is granted. The twist is, once his subjects give him their wishes, they magically forget about them. So the people live blissfully unaware of their unrealized hopes and dreams. Most of them don't even realize that their wishes are being hoarded by the king.
Enter our hero, Asha. She's got an interview at the castle, with the chance to become the king's apprentice. She's also got the ulterior motive of hoping to influence the king to grant her 100-year-old grandpa's wish. But (there's always a "but"), she gets over-eager, and asks the king for her special favor before she even gets the apprentice gig. But she's seen all those ungranted wishes just floating around, and decides something must be done. In other words, she's challenging the king, to which he replies "Only I decide what wishes to grant." So Asha determines to "free" the wishes and give them back to their owners, so they can remember what they wished for and try to achieve those goals on their own, which of course would be much more satisfying than just having something handed to you.
How to accomplish this? Put together a band of forest creatures and storm the castle? Of course not! She's going to accomplish it by wishing on a star. And because it's such a profound and powerful wish, said star (whose name is "Star") comes out of the heavens and doesn't grant Asha's wish directly, but basically gives her the tools to get the job done.
It must be noted here that Star is one of the most annoying Disney characters to ever be invented. It's supposed to be cute, which it is -- they will probably sell a million plushy versions of it -- but it's like Tinkerbell without the personality. Unfortunately, most of the other characters, while not as annoying, are either wasted (the talking goat should have been a better sidekick) or not very memorable. The grand epic battle finale, which has graced about 90% of the Disney animated movies, is one of the weakest climaxes they've ever come out with.
The songs are all over the map from good to bad, but a couple of them are quite catchy. I found myself wishing that the lyrics would be displayed onscreen during the songs, which is not a bad idea, really.
The best thing about the movie is the look of it. The backgrounds are sort of textured-looking, as if they were watercolors painted on cloth. It's probably the most unique animation style they've done since "Lilo and Stitch." Too bad the story doesn't have that uniqueness.
The whole movie seems to be wanting to emphasize the same over-arching message that the Disney theme parks put forth, which is: Just keep wishing. If you wish hard enough, all your dreams will come true. Which is nonsense. I keep on going back to a different concept that is brought up, but then sort of papered over: The idea that working hard to achieve your wish, versus having something magically given to you, is much more satisfying, and makes perfect sense. It's too bad they didn't double down on THAT message.
I sure miss the days when people would come out of a Disney movie like "Lion King," "Toy Story," "Aladdin," "Finding Nemo," or "Frozen," going "Wow, that was SO GOOD!" We haven't seen that from a Disney movie in a long, long time. 2 out of 5 stars from me.
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