The Reel Rejects - Just Watched Disney's WISH! Instant Reaction & Review

Episode Date: November 21, 2023

DISNEY CELEBRATES ITS 100th ANNIVERSARY!! Right-Out-of-the-Theater Movie Review for Disney's Newest Animated Motion Picture Musical that plays much like a Revue of the Various Earmarks that have made their Films what they are for a Century & Counting... I give my first impression of the film starring Ariana DeBose (West Side Story, Hamilton) as Asha & Chris Pine (Star Trek, Wonder Woman, Dungeons & Dragons) as King Magnifico with music by Julia Michaels & Benjamin Rice. Then talk with Directors Chris Buck (Frozen, Tarzan, Surf's Up) & Fawn Veerasunthorn (Raya and the Last Dragon) along w/ Producers Peter Del Vecho (The Princess and the Frog, Treasure Planet) & Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster-Jones (Strange World, Encanto) about vision for the movie, tributes to past films & characters, the art & animation style, the song & dance numbers, and, of course, all those precious Disney Easter Eggs! #Wish #DisneysWish #WishMovie #Review #MovieReview #InstantReaction #FirstTimeWatching #ArianaDeBose #ChrisPine #Disney100 #DisneyAnimation #WaltDisneyAnimationStudios Become A Super Sexy Reject For Full-Length T.V. & Movie Reactions! https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Aparrel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ We wholeheartedly stand with the actors and writers currently on strike. They are the heartbeat of the stories that we cherish; the narratives that spark our imagination, open our minds, and invite us into unexplored realms. Their creativity shapes our understanding of the world and ourselves. Without them, our channel would be void of content. They challenge us, make us think, and broaden our perspectives through their compelling storytelling. We owe the existence of our channel to their craft and we believe in the power of unity and stand firm with the creative community during this critical period. SUPPORT THE STRIKERS: Support the Entertainment Community Fund for struggling strikers HERE: https://entertainmentcommunity.org/ THE STRIKING ORGANIZATIONS: SAG-AFTRA Strike Homepage: https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ WGA-West: https://www.wga.org/ WGA-East: https://www.wgaeast.org/ POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM: FB: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Leave a like for longevity. Leave a like for 100 years of Disney. Before we hop into this, just real quick, much like with the creator, I'm going to give you my initial thoughts here while they're fresh in my mind, and then we are going to catapult forward a couple days into the future,

where I'll be lucky enough to speak with both the directors, as well as a couple of the producers behind Wish, get their thoughts and perspectives on the process and see if any of my takeaways are in any way relevant to what they had in mind. And then you can take all of that and throw it away, and just go watch the movie and form your own opinion, and, uh, and that is what I wish for all of you. Anyway, what is Wish about? And how is the movie?

Wish tells the story of Asha, a sharp-witted idealist who discovers that the kingdom of Rossas in which she lives and its seemingly benevolent ruler, King Magnifico are not, as they seem. In a moment of desperation, Asha makes a wish so powerful that it is answered by a cosmic force and together they must confront the king and save Roses. I just taught myself how to roll the R's so you're just going to have to put up with me for this one. Anyway, that's the basic gist. And I got to say, you know, like I went into this with pretty reasonable expectations. I mean, obviously this isn't aimed directly at me, but I had really enjoyed the tradition of Disney animated musical movies and whatnot. I love the art form in general. The trailers for this

I found to be pretty forgettable, but given the circumstances, the centennial, all that stuff, I was excited to see what they would bring to the table. And, you know, this for me was one of those experiences where, like, a quarter or a third of the way into the movie, you sort of catch yourself and you're like, oh, man, I'm really getting into this. And by the end, you know, I was pretty much all in. This is definitely looking to embody an homage the quintessential elements that make and have made these Disney animated movies what they are for, you know, so many years now. A century. First and foremost, through its animation style, which brings a pretty interesting blend of 2D and 3D-inspired traditions. There's so many gorgeous watercolor backdrops, pencil sketch interludes,

things that blend CG with more photorealistic elements, and it all came together into something that, you know, felt accumulative of so much time and innovation. And I found the tradition of musicals this exists in pretty lovely as well. It always takes time and repeat viewings for songs to find their place or not among the pantheon of classics. But I found the songs by Julia Michaels and Benjamin Rice to be largely catchy and entertaining at very least in the immediate moment the first time around. There were actually multiple times throughout the movie where I'd catch myself sort of transported

and just feeling like I was actually watching an ensemble of dancers performing choreography and singing on stage and sort of reminding myself that like, oh yeah, there's probably no mocap or anything. This is probably just all in computers. So, I mean, hats off. I mean, that's pretty cinematic, at least as far as I'm concerned.

I can't really think of another animated movie off the top of my head that has given me that particular kind of experience. And that's absolutely, you know, a testament to the combined efficacy of all the elements working together, the songs, the music, the animation, the choreography, etc. I thought the voice cast did a quality job for the most part, especially Ariana DeBose and Chris Pine as the two central characters in the movie Asha and King Magnifico. With Asha as you're sort of spunky, more modern heroine, dreaming of a better life while also coming to grips with the harsh reality that her beloved home isn't as it appeared all these years. There's a lot in here about truth versus the status quo. Standing up to tyranny, especially when it's hard.

Entrusting your hopes, your dreams, your vitality to systems greater than yourself for better or for worse. And in that sense, when you combine it with the main motif of wishes and the wishing star, it does coalesce into something that feels timely and timeless, with the major themes obviously being pertinent to the current moment, but, you know, they're sort of always pertinent to all of the endeavor of human history. Chris Pine comes through with a villain who's both dastardly and charming and equal measure with some pretty delicious musical numbers to boot. Complete with the green magic flourishes,

love a good villain number, this movie's got them. And then you also have your requisite merch character, who in this case they've kind of split off into two characters, that being the wishing star, as well as Valentino the Talking Goat. Star being a more fanciful physical presence, almost like a silent age character in a way, while Valentino is here to supply us with the non sequiturs and one-liners,

and no shade to the character, no shade to Alan Tudic. I was excited to hear him among the voice cast. He does fine work here, and I'm sure plenty of people are still going to go out and buy the talking Valentino plushy or whatever it is. But just for my viewing experience, that particular thread of comedy just never really clicked in one way or another. His presence never really detracted from the movie, but it also just didn't really add anything for me either. It's just kind of there. But your results will vary. Who knows?

Maybe you'll love it. There are also a ton of nods and references to various Disney classics of yesteryear. Some surprisingly subtle, others about as overt as you might expect. Although, to be fair, nothing quite approaching the shamelessness of Geppetto's branded wall of intellectual property clocks from the recent Pinocchio remake, so there's that. I think my favorite was that Asha's, you know, little coterie of friends all in their own ways evoked the different seven dwarves. That was kind of a neat thing. I had to lean over to Wendy Lee during the movie and be like, am I crazy about this, or is there a, yeah, okay. Shouts out to the movie couple.

Are some of the themes a bit on the nose? Could certain character beats have benefited from a little extra breathing room, a little bit more finesse? Absolutely. But given who this movie has to communicate most clearly to, and just the vigor and vitality with which it orchestrates all of the rest of it, and it didn't ultimately hamper or detract from or feel out of touch with the tradition, again, that this movie is seeking to embody homage and celebrating. It kind of feels like a review show of all those different elements,

just with new songs and characters to tie it all together. And through that perspective, pretty dazzled. Feeling the magic, appreciating the care and craftsmanship. Is it Disney's greatest film in a hundred years? I don't know, man. I mean, you know, probably not. But who knows? Regardless of where it lands, I got a lot out of it. And if this is something you know is for you, I think you're going to as well. But anyhow, those are my thoughts. I've yammered on long enough. I'm going to put the old iPhone away. And we're going to go talk to some of the real creatives who brought this all to life. John?

48 hours later. Hello again. citizens of the Reject Nation, we're here in one of Walt Disney's authentic and lovely offices, and we're going to be talking to Chris and Fawn, the co-directors of Wish, as well as Peter and Juan, the producers of Wish. Let's jump into it. And I'm going to be super professional and refer to my questions, things on track. We know what it's like. This is the first in-person. I've done it in a minute. First off, Chris Fawn, thank you guys so much for taking the time out to chat with us today. I, you know, I'm obviously the target demographic for this movie. But I honestly, like, whilst watching it and expecting to at least have fun, I got real

swept up in it. So I, first off, just congratulations, because especially for 100 years, I mean, it's got to be quite a feat to pull it together. And with that, you know, I'm quite curious. Like, was the milestone, the centennial, was that something you were thinking about a lot while making this? Was that something that informed your approach? Or were you mostly just trying to focus on the work and kind of leave that behind? Well, it informed, I mean, a little bit of both. I mean, we were always thinking about it. It did inform the approach because knowing that it was the 100th anniversary,

we felt, you know, we really wanted to pay respect to our legacy, right? But also embrace the technology that we have today. So that came about in several things, and one of them was the look. How do we come up with a look that does that? So it was going back to Snow White, going back to Pinocchio, and those gorgeous watercolor illustration backgrounds. The blend of animation styles and the charcoal's and the photoreal, certain elements, like glass and things like that. Yeah, so going back to those things and then, but being able to use the CG and the camera work that we can do today,

but not going overboard with it because there was an elegance to the older films, you know, and a restraint when it came to the camera. You didn't want to always zip around. There are times we use that. We're times we moved, but there was also, we were very conscious of that, having that. We kept using the word elegance of the camera work. That was definitely,

that was always going through our heads, as you say, throughout the whole movie. Beautiful. Another thing that kind of struck me, again, alongside the animation and the tradition of all that, multiple times, and I don't know if this was intentional, I found myself kind of feeling as if I was watching an actual staged musical ensemble

and then reminding myself, oh, no, this is all probably in computer not motion or performance captured or anything. Was that an intentional thing you kind of wanted to transport us to, or is that just a happy byproduct? Well, because of the aspect ratio we chose for this film, right? The cinemascope, the wider screen possible, it provided us an opportunity and a challenge

to frame this movie differently than what we have done before. The last time that was used was sleeping beauty and that film is beautiful it's like a milestone in how you compose a shot. So we're like okay we want to

give it our best and do that and that lead us to certain shots we would frame we have philosophy of like if someone's in control right in the center and if there's imaginative feeling going on the camera will start to spin

So we have all these guiding principles that we share with our artists everywhere, and everyone's holding on to that from start to finish. I am so proud that we pulled this off. Lovely. The first, I mean, you know, sticking within the traditions and all that, you know, you guys have, between the two of you, certainly done a lot with Disney and all that, and now you're co-directing together. You've, you know, directed a handful of these, and this, as I understand, is your sort of first major directorial. you know what did you kind of glean from Chris's experience and Chris was there any moment where it was like the student becomes the teacher or you know this fresh perspective is sort of broadening your palate too we get to connect on you know the the topics of when you have a passionate wish in your heart what do you do about it how do you go about it right and we look at our own lives and journey and are able to share with each other a story which I find very special getting to know Chris more

and getting to work with Chris and see how he navigates certain things. There will be stuff that comes up that I feel like I'm very passionate about this topic but sometimes I'm like, well, I don't want to slow people down. This is a production.

The machine is going forward and Chris had taught me that if there's something in you that you're like holding near to your heart just just stick with it, like put your foot down and express that, not just keep it to yourself,

express that to everyone because the solutions can come from surprising places. Sure. And you'd rather, you know, throw the idea out there or at least pursue it than regret not doing that at all. Yeah. Yeah. So for me, it was because we come from different sort of creative backgrounds.

Hers is more in the story end of it. Mine's more in the animation end of it. You know, there's so many times that I would really listen to Fawn and her, just how she would get into the characters, get into the scenes and their motivations and really think about it. Because when you're storyboarding, you are really in the head of the character and your every move, why there's a camera move, why there's this. And so she would bring that to the directing end of it and always think about those characters

and always ask those questions, which is great. And sometimes, you know, we both, she would ask the questions to the room and the room might go, I don't know. That's a great question. Let's figure that out. Let's come up with an answer. But it always made the story stronger and the character stronger for that. So I was learning from that aspect.

Lovely. I guess they're giving me the wrap-up. But last but not least, I mean, this is a movie certainly filled with lots of loving nods and references to the swath of, you know, the Disney Pantheon. Were there any of those that were like your particular baby that you wanted to make sure got a nod? My favorite, and I don't know if you got to see the whole film all the way through the credits. past the credits there's a big knot at the very end okay I don't know if you remember but it's past as the credits roll and are done there's another digit tag at the end

okay and that is my favorite and I'm not gonna say what it is stay soon stay tuned not just for marble did you did you have one it's it's not as grand as that but I love beauty and a beast and throughout this production I kept wanting to put a cup that has a chip mark on it yeah and I And I just kind of like, maybe this scene, maybe that scene, and those scenes keep getting, we cut them. And I'm like, goodbye, goodbye, Chip. But at the end, we found a place for it, and I asked production, like, can we? And they were like, yes, we will make that happen.

Put it right on the screen. I don't know if you saw it or not. But when I see it now, I'm like, yes, thank you. That's my, that's my too. Well, beautiful, guys, thank you so much for chatting with me. I really, really had fun with the movie. That's great. I wish you all the best.

Thank you. Thank you. It didn't work. When does the magic happen? I'm talking? I'm talking. Who knew my voice would be this low? One hour later.

First of all, I know I'm the target demographic for this movie, and I was really dazzled by it. Like, honestly, I went in expecting to enjoy myself, and I got completely swept up like I was a kid. So first of all, just congrats on a great, great final product. And I'm very curious, you know, this is, you know, you've both done a lot of notable work with Disney over the years. This is the centennial celebrating 100 years. What does that milestone mean to you? And did it foster any particular sort of guiding principle when assembling the teams and keeping everything on track for the vision of wish? It's not lost on us.

We're here at a very particular moment in time. And with that, you know, comes a lot of responsibility. but the joy is that everybody wanted to work on this project. Everybody wanted to be a part of celebrating the 100th anniversary. What was important to us, the guiding principle was we wanted to make sure that we were telling an original story with original characters and original songs. That was most important and that the movie should evoke all of the emotions of things that we like about the past Disney movies and words like, you know, hope and dreams and wishes and wishing on stars

was very prevalent. We want to make sure that that was embodied in the film. Yeah, no, I think you did a terrific job at that. And, you know, moving on, you know, this is obviously celebrating the swath of animation in terms of, you know, the various media and, you know, there's sketch and there's computer and there's stuff that looks like watercolor and things like that. How much of that was part of your vision, you know, for this? Did you have a very distinct idea of what you wanted the film to look like visually?

Well, yeah, well, what I would say is from very early on, art directors and production designers, knowing that this was the movie that celebrated the 100 anniversary and it being a fairy tale, they wanted to allude to that. So they looked to our first movies like Snow White and Pinocchio, which are also fairy tales, to bring in a little bit of that DNA. But we also wanted it to feel different and fresh. So our artists really worked with our technology team to push it forward. And this, I mean, this is, to me, you know, is telling both a very classic fanciful tale.

you've got this very innocent and very, you know, a lovely idea of the wishes and the wishing star, but you're also, you know, doing a very relevant, cautionary tale about, you know, complacency and tyranny and trusting your livelihood to systems beyond yourself. What was your approach to kind of balancing those tones and making something that has all those timeless qualities but feels very pertinent? I mean, we always say that we want our films to be both timely and timeless. These movies, hopefully, you know, are watched, you know, generation, so it has to stand on its own. But the idea of wishes and, you know, you should never, you know, give up on your wish.

You should certainly never let anybody control your dreams and your aspirations. So that was an important part of the message. Absolutely. And another thing, this is just a personal thing that kind of struck me while watching the movie. But I would catch myself multiple times while in one breath admiring the animation flourishes. Also feeling like I was watching a live staged musical. Is that something that you were striving for? Or is that just kind of a happy byproduct of the, you know?

You know, I didn't really notice until we were at the premiere, watching with an audience. It did have that feeling. And I think it was because, you know, the audience was clapping after every song and laughing right along with the... So there was a palpable connection between the audience and the screen that, you know, it's a wonderful reminder of why we want to see these films in a theater. And I think the masterfulness of the writing both from our screenwriters, Jen and Allison and our songwriter, Julia, is just phenomenal. because they found a way that the songs really pushed the movie forward, right? So the songs are telling the story as well, and that's what a great stage musical does. Absolutely, yeah. And I mean, obviously, this is celebrating and nodding directly to, you know, various, you know, the classic Disney stories and whatnot.

Were there any little moments or Easter eggs that, you know, you champion for in particular, either one of you, where you're like, I got to have my, you know, nod in here. I think the only thing that we pushed for is to make sure it felt organic to the storytelling. We didn't want it to just be about that. And so I'm really happy with the way it's turned out. Yeah, absolutely. And I guess my final question is, you know, so many of these stories focus, especially lately, have focused in on a particular culture.

And what I thought was interesting is Rosas is sort of a haven for many cultures. And that felt like kind of a unique and new way of incorporating and representing people on screen. How did you guys approach that quality of the movie? Well, it was very organic to the story because in the story, we were creating a kingdom where people from all over came because who doesn't want to get their wish granted? So you would travel there, no matter where you're coming from.

And we also wanted it to be a fairy tale, so it's a period piece in the medieval times, and we did our research. We wanted to feel like that Disney fairy tale, so it had that European element, but also to have that element of the story, people from all over the place. We found that area in the Mediterranean actually did have people from different areas because it's between continents. It's between the south of Europe and the

north of Africa. So we have an anthropologist help us with the world building and all of that. So as all of our movies, this one is very much a fantasy place. It's a believable world. But it is, it is grounded in reality because you need to start somewhere. Absolutely. It feels that way. I think you guys did a nice job of of collectively all of you, you know, bringing that to life. And yeah, I really appreciate you taking the time out to talk to me. Really enjoyed the movie and wish you luck on whatever's to come. Thank you.

Thank you. Cheers. Appreciate it.