Credit: DisneyThe Walt Disney Company is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. The celebration has included events at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, and will culminate with the release of Disney’s latest animated film in November.
The Walt Disney Company has been a staple in the world of animation since 1937 when it released the first ever animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Since then, Disney has been the golden standard of animation, and the studio has branched out into the world of superheroes, outer space, and so much more. However, this past year the Walt Disney Company has been under a lot of fire for a variety of issues from the Disney theme parks to Disney+ to CEO Bob Iger himself.
Disney has continued to miss the mark with its releases this year as well, including Pixar’s Elemental, which was a theatrical box office flop but a streaming release smash hit, and most of Marvel’s releases this year have been major fails. As such, expectations for Disney’s big 100th celebration movie, Wish, were mixed, with many worried about Disney’s recent downward trend with their releases, and others excited at the prospect of such a celebratory film.
Wish stars Ariana Debose as Asha and Chris Pine as King Magnifico. Asha resides in the kingdom of Rosas, which is ruled by Magnifico who continues to rule over the kingdom by granting people’s wishes. When Asha realizes that he’s only granting certain wishes, she takes it into her own hands to grant the wishes of everyone, finding herself in the usual Disney antics along the way.
When the movie was first announced at D23 last year, Wish was marketed as a love letter to classic Disney animation, and would include both 2D and 3D animated elements. However, the latest trailer dropped yesterday and many people don’t seem to be too happy with the latest look at the film. Many people commented saying that it looks half-rendered and unfinished and doesn’t seem like a movie worthy of celebrating the Walt Disney Company’s 100th anniversary.
“I wanna be excited for this but, respectfully, why does it look half rendered?” asked @AwestruckVox.
“Why is it rendered like one of those old straight to DVD animated Barbie movies,” @LavenderGhast asked.
Many pointed out that Disney seems to be trying to capitalize on the recent animation trends made popular by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022).
“Imo this movie’s style kinda looks like an attempt at trying to imitate the art style spiderverse, last wish, and tmnt used. But Disney doesn’t want to fully commit to it so it just looks like a bad filter instead. I feel bad being negative about this movie’s animation-” said @Scribby64.
“U can [tell] they trynna replicate the 2d-3d style thats been popular recently but it just looks like a rough draft,” replied @newbjorkers.
“honestly….they should’ve just did 2d pencil drawn, traditional animation on this one. This attempt at blending the two makes it look unfinished and jarring next to the beautiful watercolor background :(” @dumbdotcomm stated.
The film was expected to be an homage to Disney animation, classic and modern, but it seems as though Disney is still trying to get it just right. Wish will be released in November of this year, and with the full trailer having just been released, it’s highly unlikely Disney is planning any further editing on the project.
Many others pointed out how little marketing the film has received, similar to Elemental earlier this year. For a movie that was supposed to be Disney’s major milestone project, it seems to be failing to reach the expectations Disney itself laid for it. Hopefully, like Elemental, Wish will be a sleeper hit, blowing audiences away after its release, although we’ll have to wait until November to see if Wish hits or misses the mark. You can watch the trailer here:
What did you think about the trailer? Are you excited for the movie? Let us know in the comments below!