Latest "Awful" Movie Sets Disney up to "Fail," Say Fans

On Wednesday, Walt Disney Animation Studios released the first full-length trailer for the upcoming movie Wish (2023). But fans aren’t sure that the Disney100-inspired film about the origin of the Wishing Star will perform well enough to save the company’s struggling reputation.

Wish (2023)

Disney first announced Wish at D23 Expo 2022 and premiered the Walt Disney World Resort version of the new Disney Princess at Disney Destination D23 in early September.

“In ‘Wish,’ Asha, a sharp-witted idealist, makes a wish so powerful that it is answered by a cosmic force—a little ball of boundless energy called Star. Together, Asha and Star confront a most formidable foe—the ruler of Rosas, King Magnifico—to save her community and prove that when the will of one courageous human connects with the magic of the stars, wondrous things can happen,” the official Disney movie description reads.

“Featuring the voices of Academy Award®-winning actor Ariana DeBose as Asha, Chris Pine as Magnifico, and Alan Tudyk as Asha’s favorite goat, Valentino, the film is helmed by Oscar®-winning director Chris Buck (‘Frozen,’ ‘Frozen 2’) and Fawn Veerasunthorn (‘Raya and the Last Dragon’), produced by Peter Del Vecho (“Frozen,” ‘Frozen 2’) and co-produced by Juan Pablo Reyes (‘Encanto’). Jennifer Lee (‘Frozen,’ ‘Frozen 2’) executive produces—Lee and Allison Moore (‘Night Sky,’ ‘Manhunt’) are writers on the project. With original songs by Grammy®-nominated singer/songwriter Julia Michaels and Grammy-winning producer/songwriter/musician Benjamin Rice, plus score by composer Dave Metzger, ‘Wish’ opens only in theaters on Nov. 22, 2023.”

First Full-Length Movie Trailer

The first Wish trailer dropped Wednesday afternoon. It gives fans a look at the captivating personalities of Asha, Magnifico, and Valentino:

Most importantly, fans see Asha betray Magnifico. Instead of bringing the king her wish so that he can decide if it’s worthy, she wishes on a star… and that star comes to life!

Doomed to Fail?

Despite a warm reaction to the Wish trailer, many fans feel Disney is setting the movie up for failure. Before the trailer premiered, The Walt Disney Company was near-silent about the film. The confusing marketing strategy echoes the leadup to Pixar’s Elemental (2023), which initially flopped but eventually became one of the studio’s most successful movies.

“Is it just me or is Disney setting Wish up to fail?” Reddit user u/SivleFred asked. “I’m looking around and any marketing of Wish is nonexistent…Can they not even afford billboards or ads of any kind? … It’s so odd that this movie is supposed to be THE movie to celebrate 100 years of Disney, and yet we have two months to go and it seems not even Disney cares about it.”

“I’ve been saying for the last few years that Disney’s marketing of their upcoming movies is absolutely abysmal,” u/Vicious-the-Syd agreed. “For their animated movies, I feel like Encanto was the last one that had good marketing. Everything since then has been ‘wait, what’s coming out?’”

Some Disney fans hadn’t even heard of Wish, mistakenly assuming it referred to the Disney Cruise Line ship or an unrelated online shopping platform of the same name.

“It’s bad enough that I thought you were talking about the cruise ship, since I forgot the movie existed,” u/ohshit-cookies wrote.

“I thought they had taken over that terrible shopping site and that I had no idea about it,” u/Rufio_Rufio7 replied.

Even fans who knew of the film remained skeptical about its success.

“Just watched the trailer…. That looks like an awful movie. Sorry,” said u/Flamingbutterflies.

Still, many were hopeful for a Frozen (2013) or Encanto (2021) level of success for Wish. 

“Many are speculating Disney is trying to follow the same strategy they did with Frozen with a teaser, full trailer at the end of September, and second full trailer in mid to late October,” u/ednamode23 wrote. “…I do think they’ve slightly dropped the ball on marketing but hope they can ramp it up these last couple of months.”

Are you excited about the movie Wish? Share your thoughts with Inside the Magic in the comments.