Wish Pitch Meeting

Warning: SPOILERS lie ahead for Wish!

As the movie continues to struggle at the box office, Screen Rant‘s own Pitch Meeting series is taking a look at Wish. The latest Disney animated adventure centers on a young woman in the magical kingdom of Rosas who goes to work as an apprentice for the wish-granting King Magnifico, only to learn of his darker intentions, setting out on a quest to stop him with the help of a sentient wishing star. Coming from the team behind the Frozen movies, Wish has struggled with critics and is on track to become a box office bomb.

On the heels of the movie’s Golden Globe nomination, the latest episode of Screen Rant‘s Pitch Meeting has set its sights on Wish. The episode, as seen at the top of this article, pokes fun at the movie’s attempts to capitalize on Disney’s 100th anniversary with its various references and connections to other iconic properties from the studio, including Cinderella and Zootopia. The video also points out many of the movie’s flaws, namely its formulaic plot and numerous logic gaps.

Wish Continues An Unfortunate Disney Trend

Though chock-full of nostalgia for longtime Disney fans and offering a form of origin story for the studio’s iconic wishing star, Wish serves as an unfortunate continuation of the House of Mouse’s recent trend of failures. Since the pandemic, Disney’s animated fare has yet to enjoy any proper hits at the box office, with Elemental only just bouncing back from an initial struggle at the box office to become a sleeper hit, grossing just over $496 million against its $200 million production budget. A comparison of Disney’s recent animated box office struggles can be seen below:

The initial struggles for Disney to bounce back were largely cited towards coming from their focus on Disney+ exclusive releases during the pandemic, with families not wanting to venture back to theaters as they reopened. Turning Red was one such victim of this, as the movie only released in theaters internationally while being dropped on streaming, despite critical acclaim. The other major factor credited towards these issues has been the reviews for the movies themselves, with the majority of the studio’s releases barely clearing the Fresh minimum on Rotten Tomatoes, save for Encanto, which scored acclaim with a 92% approval rating from critics, and Raya and the Last Dragon, which holds a 93%.

Wish, on the other hand, scored Walt Disney Animation’s first Rotten score in 18 years, with 2005’s Chicken Little being the last to do so, and only barely landing one at a 58% approval rating. Despite having an acclaimed team behind the movie, it seems clear that the latest Disney effort felt less like a unique vision from the group, but rather a push from the studio to find a way to capitalize on their anniversary and turn around their recent woes. With reports of major behind-the-scenes overhauls to their development processes, it will be interesting to see if Disney can get back on the right track in the coming years.

Wish

Wish is a Disney animated adventure/fantasy comedy that follows Asha, a young girl from the kingdom of Rosas who wants nothing more than to care for the people of her home. One night, Rosa takes a chance to wish upon a star – only to invite a bit of chaos when her prayers are somewhat answered by an energetic cosmic entity known as Star. Together with her goat and this new friend, they’ll set off to save the kingdom from an ambitious king.

Director

Chris Buck , Fawn Veerasunthorn

Cast

Ariana DeBose , Chris Pine , Alan Tudyk , Dee Bradley Baker , Frank Welker

Rating

PG

Runtime

95 Mins

Genres

Adventure , Comedy , Fantasy

Writers

Jennifer Lee , Allison Moore

Studio(s)

Walt Disney Pictures , Walt Disney Animation Studios

Distributor(s)

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures