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Credit: Inside the MagicTo say Walt Disney Animation has had a rough go of it lately is an understatement. Its last box office success was Frozen 2 (2019) – which raked in an incredible $1.453 billion but was also released four years ago in the halcyon days of pre-pandemic cinema.
Since then, the company has released a string of films ranging from middling hits to total flops. That’s not entirely Disney’s fault. Encanto (2021), for example, was a huge hit with audiences when it hit Disney+ but floundered at the box office. The same is true of Raya and the Last Dragon (2021), which struggled with its mid-pandemic release date.
The studio’s latest effort, however, came in 2022, while other movies proved that the cinema was very much back in action – if audiences like the film enough. Strange World (2022) made a meager $73.6 million on a $135–180 million budget, with critics complaining that it “offers little audiences haven’t already seen.”
For a company that’s synonymous with the world of animation, Disney’s latest efforts have been more than disappointing. However, the company hopes to rectify that with its next release: Wish (2023).
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Due for release in November, Wish combines computer animation with Disney’s classic watercolor style to tell the tale of 17-year-old Asha (Ariana DeBose), who makes a wish upon a star after sensing rising darkness in the Kingdom of Rosas. It’s inspired by Disney100 (AKA Disney’s 100th anniversary), centering on a theme that crops up in most Disney films: making a wish come true.
The film dropped its first trailer in April, making reference to multiple Disney classics such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Frozen (2013). While we’ll have to wait a while to see the final, perfected product, a batch of raw footage dropped at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival over the weekend.
Spanning the course of 20 minutes, this featured two new original songs penned by Julia Michaels and introduced both Asha and the film’s antagonist, King Magnifico (Chris Pine).
The footage was reportedly very much unfinished – but is already generating a lot of buzz from those lucky enough to bear witness. One such witness was @IryPixar, who declared “mind = blown” after watching. She went on to praise the film’s animation, despite its unfinished state, noting that its “backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous” and questioning “how the heck did they manage to get into that level of detail AND give it a painterly, stylized and absolutely hand drawn/watercolor-ish feel – and it’s all CG!!”
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User @MaciejMaik agreed, commenting that both Wish and its preceding short “Once Upon a Studio” were “magical!” and “enchanting.” Meanwhile, Slash Film declared that the film is “shaping up to be a nice way to celebrate 100 years of Disney animation.”
If reviews for the final film are this glowing, then we could have something really special on our hands. Disney is in dire need of a hit – especially one that reasserts that it’s still at the forefront of innovative, fresh storytelling. If Wish is the marvel its first previewers claim to be, then it may just be the key to saving Walt Disney animation. Now that’s how you celebrate your 100th anniversary.
What’s your favorite Disney movie from the past century? Let us know in the comments!