Wish (2023)
Directors: Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn
Screenwriters: Jennifer Lee, Allison Moore
Starring: Ariana DeBose, Chris Pine, Alan Tudyk, Angelique Cabral, Victor Garber, Natasha Rothwell, Jennifer Kumiyama, Harvey Guillén, Evan Peters, Ramy Youssef, Jon Rudnitsky

One hundred years of Disney. How does one possibly celebrate such an occasion? The little studio that begun with animated movies about a cartoon mouse (and rabbit) almost one hundred years ago now exists as a behemoth of the entertainment industry, owning half of Hollywood as well as the famed Disneyland and Disneyworld theme parks. With so much power, so much history and so many controversies, what could the company plan for their 100th birthday party release Wish that could possibly pay homage to such a legacy?

After undergoing a five year hiatus from releasing original animated movies between 2016’s Moana and 2021’s Raya and the Last Dragon, Disney have gone back to what they do best, what they are most known for, animation. They have returned to their roots in the past few years and released animated pictures like Raya, Encanto, and Strange World, to varying degrees of success. 

Wish finds itself set in the wonderful kingdom of Rosas, which is ruled by its king Magnifico (Chris Pine). King Magnifico performs a yearly ritual in which once someone turns 18, they can pass their greatest wish onto him and he will protect it and potentially allow it to come true one day. However, once Asha (Ariana DeBose) discovers that Magnifico’s intentions may not be as pure as they seem, she realises that she must do whatever she can to stop him. Even wishing upon a star. 

As is probably obvious from the story of a young girl wishing upon a star, the film finds itself heavily inspired by the famed Disney tune “When You Wish Upon a Star”, which originally featured in Pinocchio but has since become Disney’s signature song. Much like this little reference to the past of the company, the film is also filled to the brim with references that show the journey of Disney from then to now. 

It’s a good idea in scope; a nice way to celebrate the history of the studio whilst pushing forward with the new. This is, however, the only facet of the movie that feels at all genuine.

Whilst Disney were patting themselves on the back for how great their company used to be, they forgot to put heart into any other aspects of Wish. Similar to the hand-drawn animation style that the film attempts to replicate, much of Wish is flat and one dimensional.

This disingenuity is most evident in the film’s characters. The main character Asha (voiced by DeBose in perhaps the only memorable vocal performance of the entire film) is given a bit more depth and personality, but the side characters make it clear what was most important to Disney in the making of this film. The supporting cast of Asha’s family, friends and sidekicks is upwards of ten people, all of whom are of varying races, genders and sizes, placing equality, diversity and inclusivity at the forefront of the film to showcase the company’s core values. At least, what the company would like you to think are their core values. This becomes painstakingly obvious through the number “Knowing What I Know Now”, in which the film makes a point to show the differences in the characters through their blocking.

The issue is, these characters are given so little to do and have such little depth that we simply do not care about a single one of them. Though the filmmakers would like us to believe that these are beliefs, values and causes that the studio care about, they do almost nothing to convince us of that fallacy. Instead, the little bit of character that Asha’s friends are afforded is that each of them are inspired by the dwarfs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This once again proves that what Disney cares about the most is patting themselves on the back.

Wish essentially only exists as a form of corporate self-fellatio that is as insufferable to watch as it is to write about.

Coming in at only ninety-five minutes, the centenary celebration of Walt Disney Studios moves along at a breakneck pace, showing us that even the execs up at Disney HQ wanted this one to be over just as quickly as we did. This simultaneously illustrates just how little care was put into the story aspects of the film and how Wish is really just one big advertisement for the company that made it. Come the end of the film, a character asks how they could possibly keep the magic of the Kingdom of Rosas alive, to which another responds “easy, just keep wishing.” What Disney are really saying is “keep buying tickets.”

Just as one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, it must be said that among the garbage there are some nuggets of gold in Wish. The story has a really good idea underpinning it, and the film offers a nice opportunity to create a full-circle moment for the “wish upon a star” fable that Disney is essentially built upon. Going back to the hand-drawn aesthetic is also a nice touch, as is making the film a musical. Given more time, care and passion, Wish could have been something special. All it needed was some heart. The lack thereof in the final product tells us more about the company that made it than anything in Wish ever could. 

Wish is a hollow and lazy picture that feeds its audiences the propaganda of Disney, only this time they aren’t even hiding it with the usual magic that pervades throughout their output. Though the kids seeing this film will undoubtedly enjoy it, they deserve better. 

Score: 7/24

Steamboat Willie (1928)
Directors: Ub Iwerks, Walt Disney
Screenwriters: Walt Disney, Ub Iwerks
Starring: Walt Disney, Charlotte Jamquie

It all started with a rabbit. That’s right, around a year before Mickey, Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit who, despite starring in dozens of shorts, was unceremoniously ditched in favour of another anthropomorphic animal character Disney could retain control of because of a series of fascinating legal wrangles and rights issues with Universal. Almost a full century on, how does Disney’s game-changing breakthrough cartoon short that introduced Mickey to his public hold up?

Mickey Mouse works on a steamboat under the gruff Captain Pete. On his way down the river transporting livestock, he picks up his girlfriend Minnie Mouse and puts on an unusual impromptu musical performance involving all of the farm animals on the boat.

Steamboat Willie is proclaimed proudly in the opening credits as a “A Mickey Mouse sound cartoon”, setting out Disney’s character branding and chief selling point from the off. Technically this isn’t Mickey’s first appearance, as Plane Crazy was made and previewed first, but Steamboat Willie was the first Disney cartoon to see a wide release and essentially helped put Disney (appropriately sometimes today known as the “House of Mouse”) on the map.

About the only major studio to keep the tradition of a short film preceding the main feature alive during cinema exhibition is Pixar, which has of course become a subsidiary of Disney. As a reference to its past, for the longest time an image of Mickey whistling from this short was the production logo for Disney Animation Studios, but when cinema hit mass popularity with the invention of synchronised sound in the late 1920s, it was standard practice for every studio to produce short subjects and B-movies in support of their main events.

Clearly revolutionary for its time, capitalising on the incoming synchronised sound revolution caused by the release of The Jazz Singer, Steamboat Willie introduces increasingly elaborate musicality during its 8-minute runtime. This really emphasises Disney’s talent as a businessman, his ability to spot the next big thing to capitalise on, as well as his need to step back from animation, giving way to cartoonists like Iwerks for the good of the company. 

No matter how cartoony and unrealistic this short is, to the modern eye it’s difficult not to notice how much (admittedly creative) animal cruelty is employed by Mickey just to make music. He turns the tail of a goat who has swallowed sheet music to use it as a gramophone, he strikes at a cow’s teeth to improvise a xylophone, and he pulls on suckling piglets’ tails to make them squeal to add another musical layer. You can’t help but think of the classic Monty Python sketch where Terry Jones is hitting a row of mice with a hammer to produce a musical scale and is forcibly dragged off midway through by his shocked onlookers. 

We should probably reference the links to minstrel shows here. Taking a minstrel musical standard (“Turkey in the Straw”, which had a much more offensive original title that won’t be repeated here) and using hallmarks of the morally dubious entertainment style in Mickey’s appearance, from his white gloves to his exaggerated body language, can’t be ignored given early cinema’s links to vaudeville and sideshow attractions, but nor is this a call to “cancel” Mickey. 

You have to acknowledge that Steamboat Willie is 95 years old, and looks it. Ub Iwerks was the master of the stretch-squash cartoon with a slightly surreal, mischievous edge, but the burgeoning Disney Studio had a way to go before their moving drawings transitioned from curiosities to magic. Sometimes the animation looks cheap and rushed, and is mostly held together by sheer exuberance and the clever matching of cartoony ideas to the building musical accompaniment.

Steamboat Willie is a fascinating artefact of film history and remains a pretty enjoyable way of spending just under ten minutes of your time. It’s certainly not polished and overall quality-wise it’s solidly in the middle of the Mickey Mouse canon, but a first step is always an important one, and the ideas tried out here cleared the way for many years of escapist amusement for audiences of all ages.

Score: 18/24

Recommended for you: Disney Renaissance Movies Ranked

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Director: David Hand
Screenwriters: Dorothy Ann Blank, Richard Creedon, Merrill De Maris, Otto Englander, Earl Hurd, Dick Rickard, Ted Sears, Webb Smith
Starring: Adriana Caselotti, Lucille La Verne, Harry Stockwell, Roy Atwell, Pinto Colvig, Otis Harlan, Scotty Mattraw, Billy Gilbert, Eddie Collins, Jimmy MacDonald, Moroni Olsen, Stuart Buchanan 

“My sincere appreciation to the members of my staff whose loyalty and creative endeavour made possible this production.”

With this statement, Walt Disney paid tribute to his hard-working animators even before the opening credits for his first feature rolled.

Uncle Walt was nothing if not ambitious, and in 1937 (after a decade of making cartoon shorts to accompany cinema releases) he guided his studio in the bold new direction of making feature-length animated films with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Its impact was seismic, it inspired generations of budding animators, it won an honorary Oscar (with, of course, seven little duplicate statues), and it kick-started an iconic production cycle of lavish fairy tale adaptations at its parent studio that has more-or-less continued to this day. 85 years on, how does the great-grandparent of animated movies play to a modern audience?

Based on the macabre fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, we follow Snow White (Adriana Caselotti), a teenage princess whose fair beauty is envied by her narcissistic stepmother the Queen (Lucille La Verne) to such an extent that the Queen orders her death. Escaping when her assassin has a change of heart, Snow White finds her way to a cottage in the woods where she meets a band of seven dwarf miners who she cooks and cleans for while she stays with them. Before long, the Queen hatches a new dastardly plot to remove the new Fairest of Them All.

News flash: this film was made in the 1930s, in a world where gender politics were very different. Snow White is delicate and submissive and completely confirms the traditional domestic roles as a housewife. She doesn’t appear to have any ambition or dreams of her own beyond desiring a handsome prince to sweep her off her feet. It’s a product of its time and, while we can criticise outdated views, it should be seen in that context.

Some of the things achieved in 85-year-old hand-drawn animation are truly astounding; like how in the world did they do the shot of Snow White looking at her rippling reflection in the well? $1.5 million was a massive budget for any film, never mind what many might have dismissed as a really long cartoon, so Disney himself had to remortgage his home and take out a bank loan to get the project over the line. The money is all on the screen in the final product, with some of the most pristinely detailed and alive hand-drawn animation of all time. The film ended up making over $400 million at the box office.

The animation teams included Disney’s legendary “Nine Old Men” (though in the mid-1930s they were all still in their late 20s) whose talents were essential to developing the quality and style of Disney’s animation house. The rotoscoped animation (an old-timey technique where you draw over live-action reference footage) used for the more human-proportioned characters – Snow White, the Queen and the Prince – is pretty distracting, even more so in contrast with all the anthropomorphic animals and the more caricatured, stretch-squash septet of cartoon dwarfs, but it must’ve seemed like the best option available to animators at the time. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly given Disney’s efforts to introduce them one by one in the film’s original theatrical trailer, all the dwarfs manage to be memorable characters in their own right, with eccentricities beyond their namesakes and a believable group chemistry. Doc’s (Roy Atwell) flustered spoonerisms, Happy’s (Otis Harlan) need to perform, Dopey’s (Eddie Collins/Jimmy MacDonald) puppyish behaviour, and Grumpy’s (Pinto Colvig) incel outbursts, all add texture to their characterisation. Astoundingly none of the voice actors were credited on the film’s release, and while it’s great that Disney’s team of animators receive such prominent billing in the opening credits, the voice talent were instrumental in giving their creations their personality.

The cheery songs by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey also go a long way to giving this story vibrancy and life, and are one of the main reasons why the film is still remembered. “Heigh-Ho” and “Whistle While You Work” in particular are rightly iconic. The fact that this was the very first commercially issued soundtrack album says a lot about how easily the songs take up residency in your head, and perhaps even more about Uncle Walt’s business acumen.

There’s a fair amount of nightmare fuel in this particular kid’s movie, from Snow White’s escape through a psychedelic dark forest to pretty much every scene with the Evil Queen. The moment where she takes a magic potion to alter her appearance to fool Snow White, transforming into an old crone in a cloud of smoke, and her sinister leering at Snow White as she tempts her with a cursed apple (so many kids must’ve used this as an excuse not to eat fruit over the decades) are among the scariest in the Disney canon. Little ones will quite understandably be watching large portions of Snow White through their fingers.

The film swaps the carefree storybook fantasy aesthetic in its final stretch for a thrilling finale straight out of a gothic horror movie – admittedly toned down from the even more twisted Grimm version – with the Dwarfs chasing the Evil Queen up a jagged mountain in a raging storm.

If there’s an aspect where the film falls short, aside from its product-of-its-time gender dynamics, it’s the relationship (or lack thereof) between Snow White and her Prince (Harry Stockwell), who doesn’t even have a name. Yes, their singing voices are both lovely, and you tend to take storytelling shortcuts in fairy tales, but she literally sings about the day “My Prince Will Come” – then he comes (not like that), goes, and then reappears at the end to proclaim himself her true love.

“Snow White” the story and this sugary sweet iteration of the character in particular have been parodied no end, both by rival studios (Dreamworks’ Shrek has her glass coffin hauled unceremoniously onto the ogre’s dining room table) and even several times by Disney itself as their films have become more self-aware (Enchanted’s cheerfully innocent Giselle is clearly chiefly inspired by Snow White). In its original animated form, Snow White is so earnest about everything, so committed to delivering a magical fairy tale experience to a young audience, that it’s easy to mock if you’re a cynical soul, but it’s even easier to love if you just want to escape the real world for 83 minutes.

Score: 20/24

There is, however, a darker side behind those oversized mouse ears, and every now and then a smidgen of macabre seeps through the cracks. Even if only for a scene, there will always be a bit of Dickensian in the Disney. What did we expect from a studio that famously stakes its claim on Grimm’s fairytale adaptations?

So, steamboat your willies and bibbity bobbity brace yourselves, as The Film Magazine counts down the most depressing Disney movie moments.

Have an opinion? Let us know in the comments!

1. Simba Wishes His Dad Dead

The year was 1994 when a sandy coloured lion cub named Simba stole our hearts with his sticky juice-smeared forehead.

We felt for his plight when evil Uncle Scar convinced him to run away from home.

We rejoiced when he found solace from his misplaced guilt in two unlikely friends, Timone and Pumba.

We whooped and hollered victoriously when he took his rightful place on the Iron Throne… I mean Pride Rock.

Unfortunately, this baby cat had pulled a Britney over our Spears, as it turns out he’s not so innocent. Remember the catchy ‘I Just Can’t Wait To Be King’ ditty? Yeah, well, it’s really an ode to his father’s death.

Think about it for a second, there ain’t no abdicating from a lion pride. All Simba wants is to be the “main event, like no king was before” but this childish wish fulfilment fantasy takes on a life of it’s own when you look into the dynamics of how lions become king of a pride.

Younger males are driven out by their parents. During this time of self-discovery they grow stronger, until one day they’re strong enough to return and kill the king. Also, a quick Google search has told me that male lions don’t have a great life expectancy… they tend to die a lot from fighting their dad.

That tragic stampede moment we’ve all been crying about was built on a big pile of putrid murderous deception.

How could you do this Simba? It hurts my childhood.

Recommended for you: The Lion King (2019) Review

2. Elsa’s Parents Push Her Into A Mental Breakdown

Disney’s very own metaphor for depression herself, Princess Elsa, was always going to make a top-ranking appearance on this list. ‘Let It Go’ already…

Blessed with the magical gift of conjuring ice whenever she pleases, one might say Princess Elsa was born with a natural frosty persona. However, when she accidentally hurts her little sister Anna by blasting a beam of ice into her skull (her skull), Elsa is locked away leaving her persona to go liquid nitrogen.

Elsa’s parents come up with the perfect brainwashing motto “conceal, don’t feel.” A curious message that leaves her exasperated when she can’t do either of those things, and eventually brings on anxiety attacks. You’d think that powers heightened by emotions need to be harnessed differently, but instead a hormonal and lonely Elsa must shut off her humanity to avoid shaming the family.

Princess Freak (as she may as well be called) lost connection with her sister as a result of this imprisonment, and was tormented on a daily basis by her confused sister’s torturous song ‘Do You Wanna Build A Snowman’.

Imagine that. Your emotionally fraught younger sister at the door singing about hang time, but you’re confined to a room, numbed to all emotion thanks to your dead parents.

When you put all that into perspective, the song “Let It Go” is basically a musical suicide note.

(That splat sound was my mind blowing wide open and all my happy memories hurtling themselves at the wall screaming “the vessel is impure”.)

Number 30: Hercules becomes a God –Hercules (1997)

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Number 29: Higitus Figitus. Merlin works his magic – The Sword in the Stone (1963)

Number 28: The Evil Queens evil plan – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Number 27: Pink Elephants on Parade – Dumbo (1941)

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Number 26: Copper saves Todd – The Fox and the Hound (1981)

Number 25: Ohana means family – Lilo and Stich (2002)

Number 24: Mulan gets ready for war – Mulan (1998)

Mulan (1998) Review

Number 23: Ray is united with Evangeline –Princess and the Frog (2009)

Number 22: Pocahontas meets John Smith –Pocahontas (1995)

Number 21: Under the Sea – The Little Mermaid (1989)

Number 20: Alice goes down the rabbit hole – Alice in Wonderland (1951)

Number 19: True love’s kiss – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Number 18: 101! – 101 Dalmations (1961)

Number 17: Aladdin wishes Genie to be free – Aladdin (1992)

Number 16: Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo – Cinderella (1950)

Number 15: Steamboat Willie – Steamboat Willie (1928)

Number 14: Everybody wants to be a cat – The Aristocats (1970)

Number 13 – I’m a real boy – Pinnochio (1940)

Number 12: The Bare Necessities – The Jungle Book (1967)

Number 11: Bambi goes ice skating – Bambi (1942)

Number 10: Let It go – Frozen (2013)

Recommended for you: 4 Most Depressing Disney Moments

Number 9 – The Circle of Life – The Lion King (1994)

Number 8: Ariel gives up her voice – The Little Mermaid (1989)

Recommended for you: The Evolution of Disney Dads

Number 7: The Floating Lights – Tangled (2010)

Number 6: Off to Neverland – Peter Pan (1953)

Number 5: Maleficent crashes the party – Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Number 4: Bella Notte – Lady and the Tramp (1955)

Number 3: Mickey’s dancing brooms – Fantasia (1940)

Number 2: Long Live The King – The Lion King (1994)

Number 1: The Dance – Beauty and the Beast (1991)

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