With Disney set to reach its 100th anniversary this fall, the studio is celebrating the massive milestone by releasing an all-new animated musical called Wish. As announced at D23 late last year, the upcoming movie is a love letter to a century of beloved movies with catchy song-and-dance numbers, breathtaking and innovative animation techniques, and a deeper exploration of what happens when one wishes upon a star. CinemaBlend had the great pleasure of seeing early footage of the November release, and Chris Pine’s villain character is already a standout.
I attended Disney’s press event for Wish on Thursday, September 21 at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California. While there, the movie’s filmmakers, Jennifer Lee, Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn, introduced to us Disney’s next animated musical by showcasing around 30 minutes of the movie and discussing their inspirations for it. I was very much impressed, and I need to talk about what I saw and what I’m most excited about for the release. There are some mild spoilers ahead, but only enough to set up the movie and get one excited for its premise and characters.
The Early Wish Footage I Got To See
The footage we were shown introduces audiences to the world of Wish, which takes place in the fictional Kingdom of Rosas, known around as "the kingdom of wishes" to its people, and is located off the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages. The first music number that we witnessed was sung by Ariana DeBose’s Asha as the 17-year-old character tours a group of people through the main kingdom, giving us a feel for the movie’s setting. It’s a playful song that’s going to take some serious repetition for me to learn the words to, but in a good way.
Then came the inciting incident of the story, where Asha, who is applying to be an assistant to Chris Pine’s King Magnifico, gets an interview with the man himself. While trying to impress the King with her skills and how she "cares too much," she learns more about the inner workings of the kingdom.
Asha comes to learn that the king keeps villagers' wishes locked away and doesn’t actually plan to grant most of them, including her own grandfather’s. Asha is distraught by the realization and later sings a gorgeous “I Want” song that leads her to wish upon a star. The star itself, simply named Star, then comes down, greets her and enact its magic on her cute animal sidekick, who is a goat wearing pajamas named Valentino. Star gets Valentino to talk before bringing its magic to a whole forest of animals, who then sing another song with Asha. Classic Disney!
Meanwhile, the entire Kingdom senses a shift in energy once the star falls from the sky, including King Magnifico, who states that he's been "threatened" by the new magic. Since the footage we watched wasn’t the movie all the way through, I believe something else happens before the last clip of the movie we got to see rolled, which was Chris Pine’s villain song. It’s called “The Thanks I Get," it's absolutely fabulous and what I want to talk about the most regarding the footage I watched.
My Thoughts On Disney's Wish After Seeing 30 Minutes
Before I get to why I'm super into Chris Pine’s delicious villain character, I want to communicate my first impressions about Wish as a whole. For one, I walked away from seeing the footage absolutely hyped to experience the entire Disney movie.
I am a lifelong Disney fan who was a Disney Princesses fan as a young kid through and through, but I’ll admit some of the recent movies haven’t caught on with me as much as I’d like. Sure, that probably has to do with the fact that I’m no longer exactly the target audience for these movies, but I just haven’t seen a female-led Disney musical since Moana that was the whole package. I wish Raya and the Last Dragon was a musical and I was obsessed with the music for Encanto, but the story was rather predictable to me.
I have a really good feeling about Wish though, because it does feel like it’s going to be a combination of a nostalgic Disney musical likened to the Disney Princess movies of my childhood, along with encompassing so many modern sensibilities from the studio. I’m excited that the animation style is implementing 2D and 3D animation, along with having music numbers that have a modern pop sound from Julia Michaels rather than going the typical musical theatre route. Then there’s the villain of it all…
Why Chris Pine’s King Magnifico Might Be Disney’s Best Villain In Years
I was into Wish throughout my viewing of the movie’s early plot points, but I have to say, seeing Chris Pine’s villain song as King Magnifico really sold the whole movie for me. I love that the Disney movie is making it rather clear right off the bat that the King is the bad guy in the story. I’ve noticed that the animation company has centered its villain arcs in recent years around secret villains who are revealed to be the antagonist later in the story, so this is a nice change of pace.
The fact that King Magnifico has his villain song rather early in Wish harkens back to movies like Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and The Beauty and the Beast for me. The King is a textbook narcissist who basically opens “The Thanks I Get” by saying he can’t fault himself for mirrors loving his face so much. It's a really fun villain song that is both menacing and funny. He also thinks he’s the hero because he’s granting wishes with his powers, and doesn’t see the injustice he’s creating in secret by not allowing the people of his kingdom to keep their wishes and perhaps make them come true on their own.
With King Magnifico, between Pine’s inherent charm that he's bringing through to this animated role, and the story of the film itself, I’m interested in how entertaining it will all. And then there also looks like a valuable conversation about the pitfalls of power and ego. The fact that Asha is beginning her journey with the villain being apparent to her and needing to go on her own journey to oppose him, I just know there’s going to be some depth between the two of them as the story progresses.
Could King Magnifico become among the best Disney villains we've seen? I think so! Of course, both of us have to wait to see Wish, which I'm filing under as one of this fall’s most exciting upcoming Disney movies, when it comes to theaters on November 22.
