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Credit: Inside the MagicWish (2023) wasn’t exactly the most successful Disney film of all time, but some theories suggest it may be more important than you think.
Released last November, just in time for Disney’s 100-year celebration, the film followed the journey of a young girl named Asha (Ariana DeBose) who made a heartfelt wish upon a star, leading her to discover the power of hope and friendship in a magical world.
While hype was initially high for the film upon the release of its trailer, Wish massively underperformed at the box office. Despite a budget exceeding $175 million, the film struggled to gain traction, grossing only around $50 million domestically during its opening weekend.
It didn’t help that reviews were lukewarm at best, with critics tearing apart everything from its animation style to its uninspired storyline.
One of the biggest critiques was its failure to properly celebrate Disney’s century of innovation and animation history. Despite being packed with countless references and easter eggs for prior releases, the film felt more like a half-hearted re-tread of several old tropes and story beats, never quite building upon the legacy that came before.
However, one theory suggests that there was much more to the Disney film than we originally thought. TikToker Ivan Mars has claimed that Wish acts as a prequel for Disney’s first-ever animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
This idea isn’t as crazy as it sounds. At the film’s climax, King Magnifico (Chris Pine) ends up imprisoned in his staff. Just before he’s trapped, however, there’s a flash of light, and he appears as the Magic Mirror used by the Evil Queen in the animated film.
@its_ivanmars This is crazy 😱😱😱 #snowwhite #wish #disney #fyp #foryou #screammovie
There’s also a lot of imagery connecting Magnifico to mirrors throughout the film. In “This Is The Thanks I Get?!” – the villainous solo song for the King of Rosas that some argued sounds like it was written by AI – he spends a huge chunk of the song staring at himself in reflective surfaces and quite literally opens the song with the line “I can’t help it if mirrors love my face.”
As Mars notes, the Magic Mirror, which is what aids the Evil Queen throughout her mission to eradicate Snow White as “the fairest one of them all,” is surrounded by zodiac symbols in the OG 1937 animation. The same symbols are shown throughout Magnifico’s palace in Wish.
Other people have corroborated this theory, responding to Mars’ video to say that “I’m pretty sure his staff is also Maleficent’s staff too. I think it’s the origin for all the fairy tales. The castle resembles Cinderella’s too. It’s as if the story is also meant to show that through the birth of evil you always have the birth of good as long as there are those willing to hope and fight for better. I really enjoyed it!”
While this is just a theory, it would have added so much more depth to Wish and acted as a nice bow on its centenary celebration. In fact, if Disney had really leaned into this concept, we’d argue that the film would have been much better received – especially if the studio had left the bombshell revelation that it was a prequel to the film that started it all to after its release.
What do you think of this Wish theory?