BE WARNED: SPOILERS AHEAD. Ahead of attending a family screening for Disney’s new film Wish, it was all my kids, who are seven and four years old, could talk about. I have to admit I hadn’t watched the trailer before hand, but my sons seemed to know what the buzz was about – not surprisingly, they do watch more TV than I do, after all.
I finally saw the trailer a few days before seeing the movie, but I have to admit it didn’t really prepare me for what I would be watching.
The synopsis of Wish reads: “Young Asha makes a wish so powerful that it's answered by a cosmic force, a little ball of boundless energy called Star. With Star's help, Asha must save her kingdom from King Magnifico and prove that when the will of one courageous human connects with the magic of the stars, wondrous things can happen.”
As soon as the film began, I found myself finding Easter egg references to old films as opposed to actually following the film’s plot, and I was ok with it. It took me back to my youth, to Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and The Jungle Book, amongst many other hits. I loved that Asha’s goofy friends were each based on Snow White’s seven dwarfs, with the same personality traits and even their clothes.
© ShutterstockI also loved spotting that Asha’s robe used midway into the film was a copy of the fairy godmother’s from Cinderella – hinting at her future towards the end of the film. And the talking mice... we all know who those were based on!
© Moviestore/ShutterstockLikewise, I enjoyed that Wish brought back a traditional scary Disney villain, something my kids are definitely not used to seeing as much as I did at their age, my son closed his eyes at one point!
© DisneyAnd what about the magical forest with the talking animals? That’s what made my kids laugh the hardest – who doesn’t find a talking animal funny, especially Valentino the goat, voiced by Alan Tudyk.
© DisneyThe music was incredible, and Ariana DeBose was the perfect choice to voice Asha. I know I’ll be listening to the soundtrack for many months to come, much like when Encanto came out.
© GettyOverall, this is a film for the adults who have watched the classic Disney films over and over again throughout the years. I mean, who hasn’t watched Cinderella 100 times at this point in their lives?
My kids are still too young to pick up on all the references, even though they have watched most of the classic Disney titles. Nevertheless, they loved it. And who was the star of the show for them, well… the actual star of course.
In the words of my eldest son: “I loved Wish, because I like the star, and my favourite part was when the star came from the sky”. When I asked him to give it a score out of ten, he obviously gave it a ten.
© DisneyAs for my youngest, he gave it a “10 million out of ten” and his favourite part, much like his brother, was “when the star came down from the sky.”
I loved it too, but I will say that I need to enlist a fellow fan of Disney classics and rewatch it several times to spot all the references to old films. For me, this was the perfect film to commemorate 100 years of Disney.
