As someone who grew up with Disney back at the 90's, I was extremely hyped to see this centennial anniversary film after Once Upon A Studio. Once I saw it though, it came across as disappointing than magical. Not saying it's awful or anything, but considering Disney has been around for a century creating mostly good content, this could've been so much better.
The story had a good concept about wishes becoming reality and could've provided an emotional core, but the majority of the movie relies too much on references from the past Disney films (which I won't go into full detail) instead of having it's own identity. Which is exactly why Puss in Boots: The Last Wish did a way better job with it's own concept of the wishing star because it fleshed out not only Puss's character arc about overcoming his fear of death, but the side characters as well.
The pacing is weirdly inconsistent considering it's 95 minute runtime which results in scenes that haven't been set up properly and the editing is choppy. Then, there's the biggest problem with the movie. The musical numbers and they left a lot to be desired. The instrumental score is OK for the most part and the singing is good from everyone involved, but the lyrics were so hackneyed and don't rhyme at all.
That being said, there are some good things I liked in this movie. The references, while too self-reliant, are cute enough, the voice acting including Ariana DeBose, Alan Tudyk, and Chris Pine brought some charm to their otherwise one-dimensional shallow character roles, there are some dumb moments that did make me laugh and as I said before, the singing in the musical numbers is so good. The best part, however, is the animation and it's so unique as a centennial anniversary movie. It's blend of CGI animation and watercolor animation makes it all look beautiful especially with the character designs and backgrounds.
Overall, Wish could've made for a magical experience and a great anniversary movie, but instead it came across as disappointing and lazy in terms of it's execution. It's only watchable just for the animation, but to those who want a better anniversary, go watch Once Upon A Studio. 5/10.
The story had a good concept about wishes becoming reality and could've provided an emotional core, but the majority of the movie relies too much on references from the past Disney films (which I won't go into full detail) instead of having it's own identity. Which is exactly why Puss in Boots: The Last Wish did a way better job with it's own concept of the wishing star because it fleshed out not only Puss's character arc about overcoming his fear of death, but the side characters as well.
The pacing is weirdly inconsistent considering it's 95 minute runtime which results in scenes that haven't been set up properly and the editing is choppy. Then, there's the biggest problem with the movie. The musical numbers and they left a lot to be desired. The instrumental score is OK for the most part and the singing is good from everyone involved, but the lyrics were so hackneyed and don't rhyme at all.
That being said, there are some good things I liked in this movie. The references, while too self-reliant, are cute enough, the voice acting including Ariana DeBose, Alan Tudyk, and Chris Pine brought some charm to their otherwise one-dimensional shallow character roles, there are some dumb moments that did make me laugh and as I said before, the singing in the musical numbers is so good. The best part, however, is the animation and it's so unique as a centennial anniversary movie. It's blend of CGI animation and watercolor animation makes it all look beautiful especially with the character designs and backgrounds.
Overall, Wish could've made for a magical experience and a great anniversary movie, but instead it came across as disappointing and lazy in terms of it's execution. It's only watchable just for the animation, but to those who want a better anniversary, go watch Once Upon A Studio. 5/10.