Um... Did A.I Write Disney's Wish???

[@TheWritersBlockOfficial]

Which Animated Disney Film is your Favorite???

[@thatonepossum5766]

Not including Pixar, it’s probably a tie between Beauty And The Beast and Lilo And Stitch. Including Pixar, Onward. (I know a lot of people say Onward wasn’t a good Pixar movie, but I really like it. But then, I’m extremely socially anxious and into DnD, so I’m kind of exactly the target audience. 😅)

[@TheWritersBlockOfficial]

@thatonepossum5766 all great picks! Even onward! I love that movie. I think people might have been burnt out on pixar when it released, but its a stellar film that can stand up with the og pixar flix

[@hocuspocus9922]

Probably Mulan, although I'm still a fan of Robin Hood. It's difficult to pick just one or two.

[@awol_b]

probably The Emperor’s New Groove rn

[@red-lioness]

The Hunchback of Norte Dame. The music is intense and beautiful. The villain is terrifying, the plot is dark and so is the villain’s song (Hellfire is the best villain song Ever), the side characters serve a purpose (though the gargoyles could have been better if they were just a figment of Quasimodo’s imagination).

[@mooredaxon]

I find it ironic that, the classic fairytale lesson of: "be careful what you wish for" is completely disregarded in Wish, the 100th anniversary movie from Disney

[@chriswhite2151]

It's like it was written by a ten year old kid, saying " if I can't have everything I want, that's not fair!"

[@mooredaxon]

@@chriswhite2151 coincides with the political leanings Disney has

[@mr.x2567]

@@mooredaxonliterally every human being ever is selfish, not just one political side.

[@tyreecorfe8052]

@@mooredaxonthe only politics Disney cares about is $$$, they don’t care about diversity, sexuality, or whatever. If it tests good enough to bring people in to see/buy it, they’ll use it.

[@anitadarling4592]

I could see its potential, it could have been a lesson about ambition and not being too complacent as well as being content with what you have and careful what you wish for… and then layers of several story settings in depth. BUTT, The Puss in Boots Last Wish already delivered that story! Story writing.. is regressing at this point. Is there even a theme and are all details connecting back to that theme?

[@intel_coar6844]

Fun fact about that Nemo comparison. The opening scene was planned to be a flashback for much later in the film, serving as a big reveal for why marlin is so overprotective. When test screening, audiences didn’t like marlin and seeing an explanation didn’t help because they already formed their opinion on him. So, the flashback was moved to the start of the film to show audiences why he’s such an anxious parent.

[@TheWritersBlockOfficial]

That's awesome I didn't know that. Also shows how much better (not that it would fix everything) Wish would have been if we set the stuff up with her dad at the beginning

[@tobyeasterbrook8117]

That reminds me of Memento, where audiences mostly left theatres under the impression that the cop lied about how the main character’s wife died despite the authorial intent of the cop telling the truth that the wife wasn’t murdered, and the theory is that’s because we spend the whole movie seeing the main character reading and rereading the same note that says not to trust the cop, which convinces most people to also not trust the cop.

[@fabiofuoco]

Do they even do test screening nowadays???

[@Lets-Go-Family]

I still don't like Marlin.

[@anitadarling4592]

@@fabiofuocoWell this proves that they need that again!

[@jonathangrant480]

The fact that it most likely has human writers but it FEELS like it was done with a.i is additionally embarrassing......

[@Aspect_of_the_idiot]

I support the writers strike that happened but at the same time I feel like some of them deserve the pay they get because of how bad something is written

[@benpowell5348]

@@Aspect_of_the_idiot if it is entirely the fault of the writers i sorta agree. however, i wonder how often these results are because of higher-ups pushing for unrealistic deadlines, demanding certain things in the plot, not understanding what is needed for writers to flourish etc

[@kingofhearts3185]

​@@Aspect_of_the_idiot This movie is proof to whichever side is right. If it was written by people, then they deserve to be replaced. If it was AI, the writers have proven their point.

[@FaeraGaelwyn]

There's a reason some people get referred to as NPCs.

[@kingofhearts3185]

@@FaeraGaelwyn Getting more accurate by the day

[@kawaii33366]

"You had the audacity to waste a perfectly good chris pine" PREACH BRO!

[@981zASDF]

We can always pick up more Pine Sol at the store

[@Skjorrious]

how tf did I end up reading this comment at the exact same time he was saying it

[@UnderworldsHeiress]

I didn't saw the movie, but I agree since I only see critics on this movie and Pine is an wonderful actor and voice actor, just see him as Frost in Rise of the Guardians. Perfection.

[@kawaii33366]

@@UnderworldsHeiress jack frost was my comfort character as a kid dude he rocked it

[@princecaspiangw796]

Chris Pine deserves better :(

[@funnyvideoguy3216]

Not only is Mushu more than just a joke telling device, but the jokes he tells are actually funny

[@TheWritersBlockOfficial]

Dishonor on your cow!!!!

[@kasagure.]

​@@TheWritersBlockOfficial Crik-ee, write this down...

[@Theawesomeninja_XD]

Exactly!

[@agentdon1760]

Mushu will forever be the best supporting disney character...and it was dishonorable that he wasn't in the remake

[@Lylaris_or_Garuk]

@@agentdon1760that was no remake But rather a shambling corpse of previous greatness that may never be found again

[@springdemon.w.]

It hurts more knowing that even staff on the creative team have said on twitter that the team had a story that payed homage to classic Disney magic of storytelling, but so much was scrapped because of executives meddling, that it felt like a PR stunt than showing 100 years of magical storytelling

[@cosmicspacething3474]

Is there anything from the original script available?

[@snakeeeee-g3y]

@@cosmicspacething3474 i havent seen much for script but ive heard of a few scrapped concepts that really would have made the film pop- originally Star was actually going to be a shapeshifter! changing between a star and a magical floating boy! i dont know if he would shapeshift into anything else but allegedly it was changed for marketing- a cute star plushy being more sellable than a boy doll (which… they would have had both? if they kept the shapeshifter thing?? so silly) and king magnifico and HIS WIFE!! THE QUEEN!! WOULD HAVE *BOTH* BEEN EVIL!! we could have had a villain power couple!!!!

[@buchstaben-suppe]

@@snakeeeee-g3y the queen also being evil wouldve been so cool. cause shes his wife shouldnt she know what kind of person that guy is? why is she allowing him to be evil etc questions like that wouldve been erased if they just wouldve been both evil

[@snakeeeee-g3y]

@@buchstaben-suppe EXACTLY!! i like they way u think

[@buchstaben-suppe]

@@snakeeeee-g3y thank u :3

[@elizabethalexandragarciar.1181]

Imagine writing a story SO BAD that people thinks a human is incapable of doing this bad

[@HotChilliOnion]

thats deep

[@hansolobutimdead]

Its more like the movie is so generic that no one thinks someone capable of expressing human emotions could make it

[@korinoriz]

@@hansolobutimdead Look up what a bell curve is. Not everything is going to be revolutionary. Though, I will agree with Disney, and other similar companies, we should expect high quality.

[@HateshWarkio]

Exactly because it is so bad, I'd give credit to humans Untalented hacks who were hired because of their identity rather than their ability trying to copy whatever came before them

[@ConcernedJellyfish]

@@korinoriz Look, even the trash bootleg mario games from the appstore have SOME personality. Sure, anyone can make one really quickly and with almost no effort, but its Something.

[@Kyoufu_gaaden]

Me and my friend have made a joke about Magnifico. Now every time we either see a glowing light or someone asks us a couple questions, we say, “I’m evil now!”

[@E_D___]

Really?

[@singer2be256]

I'm surprised nobody has made a Taylor Swift phone call joke about him yet. Here, let me be the first. "I'm sorry. The old Magnifico can't come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, cuz he's dead."

[@Kise-w]

Sound like something I would do with my cousins 😂

[@thepoorliestdrawn]

props to disney for giving the writers a giant break for their 100 year anniversary

[@stalebiscuit8516]

Cackled aloud-

[@calicobagels]

LMAO

[@ABCEasyas--]

Well, they went on strike

[@Global-yt]

@@stalebiscuit8516 same bro

[@MarcelloThe1st]

Maybe the writers' strike is what made Disney try to use AI for the movie? Hopefully this flop will convince them to never do it again (although looking at their live actions, this won't happen).

[@Potatypus]

I'd be surprise to learn Disney actually used AI, but I think disney is focusing so much on commercial and formula that it is essentially trying to write a story the same way an AI would, by reproducing things that already were made mixing them together and handing out a product that is lesser than what it is imitating.

[@TheWritersBlockOfficial]

The ridiculous thing is so much of GOOD art is formulaic too. Like, the human species figured out how to do storytelling thousands of years ago. All itt takes to make something NOT feel like ai made it is a little bit of heart/soul. Ideally, you have someone putting a part of themselves into the project from the very beginning. But AT THE VERY LEAST it's not that hard to come in at the end and add a little sauce. Look at Crazy Rich Asians. That movie is as standard/formulaic of a rom-com as it gets. But the creative team and actors really cared about what they were doing and brought parts of themselves to the project, which is why it connected with people the way it did

[@alpaca6462]

Disney posted an AI generated Thanksgiving image btw. And it looks horrifying but they still posted it. I know an Instagram post isn't the same as a whole movie but they are at least publicly not against AI and have been caught using it

[@Sylvershade]

It's how Disney has been making movies the last several years. Everything did about Wish also applies to Disney Star Wars and the recent Marvel movies and the recent Disney shows.

[@ImmaLittlePip]

​@@Sylvershadeafter phase 1 of marvel they found a winning formula and stuck to it

[@cosmicspacething3474]

@@ImmaLittlePip Perhaps too hard, to the point of forgetting the soul

[@itsjustaline]

It scare me if Disney used AI to write Wish but It scare me even more if Disney didn’t

[@jamescarr1265]

Same like wtf was this movie

[@Prototype-357]

It's so sad this is so true

[@oliverdelica2289]

It's a losing battle

[@Piiiiiiiiit]

I don’t think anyone could’ve put it better than that💀

[@mrbigglezworth42]

Maybe Disney's writers should learn to code.

[@joshclips2053]

here's a chatgpt version: (Verse 1) In the shadows, where the darkness thrives, I concoct my schemes where no light arrives. With a twisted grin, and a heart of black, I'll turn your dreams into a nightmare track. (Chorus) Wishes, oh wishes, they're so divine, But I'll twist and turn them, make them mine. Your hopes, your dreams, I'll make them fall, In the depths of my darkness, you'll lose it all. (Verse 2) I'll lure you in with promises sweet, But beware, my dear, for I cheat and I cheat. For every wish you utter, every desire you speak, I'll warp it, twist it, leave you weak. (Chorus) Wishes, oh wishes, they're such fools' gold, In my hands, they crumble, they're bought and sold. Your heart's deepest longings, your most fervent plea, In the end, they all belong to me. (Bridge) I dance in the moonlight, I revel in glee, As I shatter your wishes, your spirit, your glee. For in this dark symphony, I am the star, I'll extinguish your light, no matter how far. (Chorus) Wishes, oh wishes, they're my game to play, In the end, you'll regret what you wished for today. Your innocence, your trust, I'll shatter it all, In the chilling echoes of my villainous call. (Outro) So heed my warning, and heed it well, In the realm of wishes, I cast my spell. For I am the villain, the darkness, the dread, And in your dreams, I'll reign supreme instead. I feel like ChatGPT is better than the original..

[@cheaproot]

ChatGPT rhymes glee with glee, it has the same redundancy the original had

[@joshclips2053]

@@cheaproot ya..but I srsly hate the original song😞😞

[@blondbraid7986]

​​@@cheaprootthough at least this still felt like an actual menacing disny villain song, and not like a youtuber whining about their popularity fading.

[@Kaprosuchus-99]

This is the worst villain song ever and yet it still makes me want to hate magnifico more

[@ElanaVital83]

LMAO That's pretty cool!!

[@Shippou011]

12:26 The first time I saw Tangled, I missed the prologue. I will ALWAYS adamantly believe that this made my viewing experience better. I didn't know about the flower, the magic, the kidnapping, any of it - enjoyed it immensely. Finding out the story as it unfolded was a thousand times better than just being told up front what everything was - being shown through the imagery of the missing princess, Gothel's odd behavior, Gothel having Rapunzel use her power at the start to make her younger, etc. was so so so much better than the narrated "here's what you missed on Glee" segment.

[@liu7052]

Well damn, now I *Wish* I can forget about the entire plot of Tangled so that I can rewatch it after skipping the prologue, cuz that sounds like a really fun experience. I love it when stories have these hidden foreshadowing moments that eventually builds up to reveal the twist. And then the second time you experience the story, you get that moment of "holy shit, it was right there from the start!"

[@snoopy6518]

CjTheX has a video on this its really interesting @@liu7052

[@NachoCheeseDorito-Kun]

It's kinda like watching a Columbo episode and purposefully skipping the intro murder scene.

[@meownyas]

I did this with almost every Disney movie (on accident) and it's such a better experience in general. It creates the foreshadowing and plotwist that they lack

[@andrewmetzenroth5631]

Ive never heard that critique of Tangled before but its right on the money.

[@Kittyboi.]

Honestly the original concept was so much better than the final product from what I’ve heard. We could have gotten a magical star boy! A cute romance with him and Asha and a married villain couple!! The queen was also supposed to be evil!! I want my mute shapeshifter star boy!

[@TheWritersBlockOfficial]

Sounds like it would have been rad

[@c0d3warrior]

Can't have evil women in Disney movies these days, only in the Disney company itself. 😂

[@andreabanuelosavila2317]

@@c0d3warriorFunny, because most of Disney’s most iconic villains are women and have always been women.

[@Jprager]

@@andreabanuelosavila2317I mean, Scar, The Horned King, Gaston, Captain Hook etc?

[@gailtay8502]

​​​@@Jpragerbut the gender of the villain often matches the gender of the protagonist. I.e. Hercules, Aladdin, Peter Pan, Simba... The Princess centered/Disney Classic ones are different ie, Maleficent, evil stepmothers in Snow White and Cinderella, Cruella DeVille, Ursula... I dunno I don't think the gender of the villains is an issue.

[@corvidkhaos]

princess and the frog is by no means a perfect movie. but it feels like much more of a tribute to disney’s animated film legacy than wish does, 2d animation, it has wishing on a star, fairytale retelling with a twist, and while it has its issues you can definitely feel the passion of the writers behind it.

[@amandapanda5087]

100% agreed.

[@Niobesnuppa]

It also has the classic Disney villain, and good music.

[@stephenlee1664]

Dr facilier's song is such a banger.

[@starlit-rain]

I miss Disney's 2D movies

[@Tgungen]

To me, is also the only meaningful case of Disney race swapping historical characters. Instead of making a German princess black for no explanation they reimagined the story to be set in 1920s New Orelands and it works perfectly well.

[@willow2816]

Imagine if Asha was a quiet or more introverted character who doesn’t like speaking up. In the beginning instead of the musical we got we get to see how sad and emotionless characters are without their wishes and younger characters (who aren’t old enough to give up their wish) are wild in imagination and happiness. The island would be lifeless in the beginning, representing how lost the people are without their dreams and hopes, (also setting a theme that as we grow older our lives get more and more realistic and less imaginative) so the wishes would represent dreams, imagination, hopes, basically what makes a person have joy in life. The few people that get their wishes granted are happy yet not exactly fulfilled because in this story the king and queen control those who’s wishes were granted by meddling into the wish and sometimes changing it to ‘benefit’ the kingdom. Asha notices what’s happening but to her it’s normal. Till everything changes when she wishes upon a star and a boy with different beliefs starts questioning the kingdom allowing Asha to wander out of her shell…

[@flamefromHalo]

5 months late, but I agree. Taking away someone's wish could have been a pretty cool narrative choice that gave everyone peace and limited joy, but depriving them of their goals in life, in turn making their existence beyond the surface level hollow. A population with all their desires met, but no dreams or hopes for the future. People able to enjoy those around them and momentary pleasure, but through small acts it might be revealed that beyond what is right in front of them they have no real motivations. Many settings have dabbled in this to great effect: what is a human life when you take the meaning in that life away?

[@benjaminprietop]

Honestly, if it does turn out to be an A.I written script, it's kind of good news, since it's failure proves that audiences are more smart than the executives think

[@ICantThinkOfAFunnyHandle]

Failure doesn't mean squat for Disney, they're constantly being fed ESG money

[@yapflipthegrunt4687]

@@ICantThinkOfAFunnyHandle not if i get involved

[@MBLsidekick]

​@@yapflipthegrunt4687bravo six, going dark

[@that_deadeyegamer7920]

Sure they are, so smart that that they're still giving Disney money and publicity? If we treated Disney like gamers treat Sega Disney would have another golden age by next week but no matter what they do and what they shove down your throat everyone won't shut tf up. You either have bozos like these trying to make money off the controversy or people sucking Disney off anyways for the old stuff they've done 20+ years ago. If we all pretended Disney just didn't exist anymore, no more money, all of their products flopping, they'd turn shit around quick

[@Mostly._.Human_drawz]

Honestly AI generated content, especially when it comes to writing, is usually so easy to catch, I’d be a little impressed if they really tried to pull off an AI generated movie this early. Don’t know if I’d put it past a studio like Disney, but I’d be a little shocked

[@SaraTinjacaA]

As far as the music goes, this is what happens when instead of hiring a theatre music composer, like disney ALWAYS has, you hire a literal pop music composer... Soulless, corporate, and shallow, and only has the purpose of being catchy and keeping up with trends.

[@TheWritersBlockOfficial]

That's why honestly I think you just stick with Lin Manuel Miranda for this type of thing. I know not everybody love his style, but he's thoroughly versed in the music and storytelling of theater, while also bringing a broader "pop" appeal with his work. Even the Greatest showman, which is one of the "pop-iest" musicals in quite some time, still focuses on storytelling in the musical numbers (even if that's more thanks to the director/cinematographer rather than Pasek and Paul)

[@KeitieKalopsia]

Pop music is good on its own, but it doesn’t belong in movies and theater. That’s what we have theater music for!

[@kerrypoppins5388]

What would the Sherman brothers think of this nonsense

[@ChRW123]

Didn't know about it. But it explains A LOT! Never seen such an anticlimactic score in a Disney movie.

[@cosmicspacething3474]

Pop isn’t bad on its own, but it just doesn’t fit right here. It’s like hiring a pastry chef to make a Thanksgiving dinner

[@kierashan1580]

My problem is that no one seemed to have anything driving them before the conflict hit. Mulan wanted to be a good daughter, tiana wanted her restaurant, and Rapunzel wanted to see the lights. They all had a dream before the conflict. I have NO CLUE what asha wanted

[@starlightlemonade1933]

fr

[@bigbadwolf3199]

Kinda like real women.

[@kaneyenorth8345]

@@bigbadwolf3199literally what 💀 that’s an animated girl are you stupid?

[@Cruxin]

​@@bigbadwolf3199dude

[@gromplin]

@@bigbadwolf3199Your lack of game and charisma isn’t the woman’s fault. Get well soon

[@tadeogomez7303]

One thing I see people not mention is that Magnifico, at one point, signals to a partially burnt map of Rosas he's got hung up on the wall while mentioning something along the lines of "we don't want something like this to happen again" to his wife... and then it's never brought up again. That single piece of dialogue gave me hope that there would be a twist villain, or a sort-of consequence to having all wishes granted, but none of that happened. The whole premise and story of the movie just felt... empty.

[@elizabethbellauthor]

This!

[@_aWiseMan]

That's because it is empty. It's a shell of a story put together with tropes and nothing more

[@Kidey11]

The meaning of the movie should have been "Not all wishes get granted" imo. Harsh, but true. I can imagine that after everyone gets their wishes and the big bad Magnifico is defeated, things will slowly start going downhill once some people realise just how powerful their wishes are. I mean, come on. You expect that some spefific people won't abuse the powers of their wishes, making wishes like "Becoming an evil warlord" or something like that? This meaning could have been boosted up a bit as well with the part you said about the map of Rosas piece

[@mr.histor1996]

That wasn't a map of Rosas, it was a tapestry from Magnifico's homeland, which had been destroyed by marauders. That was his motivation for founding Rosas. He wanted to give people a place where they could be safe. The scene comes after he senses Star's magic and assumes the kingdom is under attack. I find it to be a really strange scene because it shows that he only turned to the book out of a deep love for his people and a desire to protect them. Yet, he is made irredeemably evil and condemned to suffer a fate worse than death all because he loved his people too much. It sends a really odd message.

[@GlassesnMouthplates]

It's rather ironic that Walt Disney, in his earliest career, favoured cel animation, experimented on it, and then persuaded the company he worked in to switch to it from cut-out animation (which was the common medium of animated media in that era) because he found the big appeal on it despite it requiring more workload and cost, only to have Disney's 100th anniversary celebrated by a feature film that is suspected to have its writing automated.

[@cedar4539]

tbh Walt deserves a sullied legacy. Now I'd love for a better company to shake off Disney's tentacle suckers that are apparently indented in everything.

[@Peabnub_Bubber]

As if thats ever gonna happen. Disney is the big money, nobodies gonna go against them@@cedar4539

[@TonySandMan]

@@cedar4539 wouldn't be sure about that, he was smeared and lied a lot about even in his day

[@Themudeater]

@@TonySandManthe things that are true about him are bad enough, no need to lie about him.

[@TonySandMan]

@@Themudeater like what?

[@electragoob]

The more I watch Wish reviews, the more I see that Starkid’s Twisted the Musical was a better love letter to classic Disney (and wishing) than Disney ever could.

[@TheWritersBlockOfficial]

Finally a video of mine seems to be connecting with an audience that cares about musicals! Why won't the youtube algorithm just let me make non-stop Mama Mia Analysis videos :(

[@dangerdays666]

Seriously! The use of wishes in Twisted was so well done and there was clearly love put into the creation of the play from everyone involved, from the writers to the actors themselves. Disney should’ve put more care into it.

[@siri7228]

Seriously twisted was the best Disney musical I've ever seen

[@ElleDeas]

Oh man, I don’t know how I didn’t know this was a thing! I have to check it out

[@bulletsandbracelets4140]

SO TRUE

[@tadesubaru1383]

as a spaniard, i can't shake the feeling that they did a lot of shallow and unimportant pandering instead of actual representation. why did they sell asha as an "afrolatina", a label that makes no sense in the balearic islands during the middle ages? why not create the first iberian princess? and represent moorish culture, and/or the Peoples of the Book cohabitation that was happening during that time? There's so much rep they could have done, so much untapped potential to explore.... and they went with a quirky, boring, cliché """""afrolatina""""" girl with nothing to do and a very shakey plot she participates in. I'm just so disappointed Edit, for clarification: I don't care that she's black, there were black people in Iberia during the middle ages. My problem with that was the LABEL they used for advertising it, as "Afrolatina" is an anachronic term used for black latin americans, and she isn't from Africa nor from America. Secondly, I meant that her personality is cliché (following the clumsy quirky girl archetype created by Tangled), not the fact she's black and hispanic. Lastly, I don't mean to invalidate the people who relate to her or any character in this movie, all I mean is that us Spaniards love our history and we have a very complex history and culture of actual, real life cohabitation of Moors (muslims), Jews and Christians, and the middle ages in the Iberian peninsula have so much culture and cool shit to explore that they only glanced at and represented in the most superficial, subtle ways (as many commenters have stated, there's no way to know this is meant to be Iberia just by watching the movie). We deserve better representation. SEA deserved better representation than Raya. We all deserve the same love and research that went into Encanto, Coco or Moana. We are asking for very little, it's just Disney doesn't care enough

[@samueltitone5683]

The true problem with “””woke””” that no one addresses is how these big companies clearly don’t actually give a shit about representation. It’s just about checking boxes because white people aren’t the only ones who have money. I suppose the forced diversity better than not having it all, but it could be actually good instead.

[@SpiderkillersInc]

I have the artbook. From what I've gathered, they did research into the region... but very surface-level research.

[@Aspect_of_the_idiot]

Not seen the movie yet but I agree with you as well. Why does Wish have to take place in the real world? They could have just made something up and not really have to go in depth just like Frozen and Tangled. They can be inspired by real life places and not have to worry with how people of those places looked like or act. You can give the excuse that "but it is just fantasy so it doesn't matter" crap but then why is Beauty and the Beast and Encanto a good representation of their land?

[@ryannathaniel9296]

Reminds me on how they handled the "representation" in Raya and the Last Dragon. It feels so shallow and the movie doesn't feel Southeast Asian at all

[@CrazyAboutClassics]

Also a Spaniard and quite upset.

[@toppiejoppie12]

You talking about the ‘show don’t tell’ issue was spot on. Gonna go on a bit of a rant here, but something i noticed myself when giving the songs a listen is how much Asha and the others talk about what they do or want. Who they are or aren’t. Like in a very literal way. Easiest way to explain this is if you listen to Ariel’s i want song. She doesn’t outright say “i want to go on land”. Instead the phrases it like “wandering free, wish i could be part of that world”. It conveys what she yearns for without making it feel like she’s just bluntly telling the audience. Compare that to the very literal phrasing of “so i make this wish”. It doesn’t play with language and so barely feels like a song. When they do attempt to bring in metaphors you get things like “throw caution to every warning sign.” The combination of very literal phrasing clumsily mixed with metaphors that don’t land is what’s making it feel AI generated.

[@teresar6348]

Kinda reminds me of Mulan's song telling half the story while the situation tells the other "When will my reflection show who I am inside" If you watched the movie up til this point you know who she wants to be. And even if you didn't, you only needed to watch the last minute to know what she is NOT.

[@libbykeppel1090]

The "show dont tell" has been an ongoing issue in media, especially kids media. Like in toy story, you see woody putting together a plan to get buzz stuck behind the dresser. He doesnt say anything, but he looks from thing to thing, implying a plan. If that were made today, they would have come up with a way to just immediately explain it. The reason this is so problematic is not only because it makes for just very poor visual storytelling- but it also doesn't help develop that connect-the-dots function in kids brains. Its not helping them learn how to read between the lines, or take context clues

[@lpstweetytv5242]

Not just kids media, unfortunately. I was watching the cutscene movie for ff16, same problem

[@adamofblastworks1517]

Well, movies shouldn't be relied upon to teach childen much of anything. It's nice when they do though. It is also annoying when they just explain something they could show better, but it's probably so dumb people like me can understand it. I have to ask people to explain their jokes to me more than normal.

[@libbykeppel1090]

@@adamofblastworks1517 it's just like.. a missed opportunity. Especially since so many kids are just left to watch movies for way too long every day now :/

[@adamofblastworks1517]

@@libbykeppel1090 it definitely is a missed opportunity.

[@lpstweetytv5242]

@adamofblastworks1517 Well, that's what stories are for tho, to bring context to our lives and the people and things around us. The problem now is that we don't tell stories to teach, entertain, or help each other understand. We create them only to make money, that's why so many are bad. They have no purpose

[@cencent2189]

I like that when it comes to diversity you don't say it's bad but that Disney is depicting it in mostly women not men! Refreshing to hear

[@TheWritersBlockOfficial]

Exactly! The reason I love storytelling and art is because you can see diverse ideas, people, and experiences represented. The problem isn't studios like Disney being more diverse. It's that their diversity is biased in certain directions, making it feel artificial or like a form of Tokenism. A movie like wish feels cold and corporate in its representation, whereas Encanto feels truly authentic and clearly comes from a place of love.

[@cencent2189]

@TheWritersBlockOfficial Yeah, I haven't seen Wish, but Encanto is also how a lot of Latine families are... when I came to the US I found it confusing just seeing everyone separate ppl by race so much. Ofc it's not perfect where I'm from (Puerto Rico), but the division between race isn't like it is in the US.

[@Crazyashley42]

@@TheWritersBlockOfficialThank you so much for mentioning Encanto! You can tell the company took a lot of care to do research on Colombia and were very selective about how they included parts of the inspiration (One Hundred Years of Solitude) They yellow butterflies, Bruno's little nod in his telenovelas, the secure, secluded town with a nebulous timeline. Each of the characters is onscreen and shown enough that we get a good glimpse of who they are, and there's enough going on in the background that we can build so much about the town from context clues throughout the movie. Tt's wonderfully done and that's part of the reason it's my favorite modern Disney movie!

[@TheWritersBlockOfficial]

@Crazyashley42 i think what works so well is the movie isnt trying to represent too big of a group. Its specifically a single community and is very detailed and thorough in its depiction. As a result, MORE people can find something to attach to or feel represented by. Another Lin Manuel Miranda project, in the heights, takes a similar approach and likewise achieves a similar effect

[@whamloverfr]

i agree but also its nice to reliably have somewhere you can see a lot of female leads in a male driven market. still should actually get a femake director if they really care about diversity, sure its nice seeing women in power in fiction but they have the ability to do that in real life

[@strobo308]

Tiana had an entire scene to show us how her relationship with her father shaped her motivations and wishes, and shaped her as a person entirely. It's crazy that the same studio produced this pile of goo for this big of a milestone. It's embarrasing.

[@Still_theBaddest_561]

I’m so confused? Wish was a good movie why is everyone hating on it so much???

[@pisceskitties]

@@Still_theBaddest_561 because it wasn't good. Hope this helped

[@Still_theBaddest_561]

@@pisceskitties did you watch it before looking at the critics or did you try to be like everyone else?

[@hanimallover1]

@@Still_theBaddest_561 i saw it before reading any reviews. came out the theater with the same ideas most reviewers had. its poorly written. but if you like poorly written movies, theres nothing wrong with that. i like some very bad movies.

[@Still_theBaddest_561]

@@hanimallover1 ok 👍 i don’t like poorly written movies I’m just confused and i was asking a question.

[@spacey-q8m]

this movie feels like the assignment you complete at 2 am the night before it’s due

[@spritezilla_the_bebop]

You made a really amazing point with the modern "exposition through baseless dialogue" issue. I watched the new Ghibli movie in theaters yesterday, and one of its biggest strengths was the imagery storytelling. Scenes would go for 20 minutes without dialogue but I'd still learn so much about the story. Go watch it, its beautiful. It's called "The Boy and the Heron".

[@TheWritersBlockOfficial]

Ooh is that out? I'll have to check it out. Just watched My Neighbor Totoro for the firs time a couple days ago and loved it

[@spritezilla_the_bebop]

@@TheWritersBlockOfficial That's great! They don't have one single bad movie.

[@midnight4685]

I watched it 2 days ago, I also absolutely loved it. I do kind of wish they'd kept the Japanese name of the movie "How Do You Live?", it feels more expressive than the Boy and the Heron. I'd seriously recommend it to anyone reading.

[@Leonkennedy19992]

​@seeyouspacecowboy_909 watch from up on poppy hill or ocean waves. Im a huge ghibli fan and rewatched all the movies and god those are awful.

[@Leonkennedy19992]

Ill be honest. I didnt understand the plot of the story but just being in the movie with the animation, world, characters, and music made me enjoy the movie even if i didnt know the story

[@kyleoates6367]

The sad thing is... DIsney has worked with people who 100% nail "show don't tell." Up's first 15 minutes is nothing but "show don't tell" and I've yet to meet someone who doesn't comprehend everything that happens and glean the full impact of it. Then, they did a double punch of perfect "show don't tell" at the end when he turns the page in Ellie's scrapbook.

[@Ironcabbit]

Are we then to extrapolate that modern Disney thinks its audience is stupid and unable to figure out what’s happening unless details are force-fed to them?

[@enyalim1535]

​@@Ironcabbitconsidering the uptick in tiktoks of someone narrating what is going on in a movie scene or some irl event, yes. Media literacy is dying

[@jasonclough9380]

@@enyalim1535 HAHA, this reminds me of a short I wasted my time on that basically attempted to "explain" why "variant loki was taken by the TVA" and he plays a small clip from a scene where variant loki mentions being taken by the TVA and then says a bunch of nonsense words, then plays a few seconds BEFORE that scene where the character straight up explains what led to his capture, AND THEN spends another bit of time restating everything he said. The entire comments section was bashing how pointless the short was.

[@mariokarter13]

My favorite part of lazy scripts is when the writers realize the villain actually has a valid point, so they make him kick a puppy or something so we know he's evil.

[@HawkinaBox]

And he didn't have to be a villain, but they decided to go with "too unredeemable to change" by making him use dark magic where it could not be reversed. That part pissed me the hell off when his wife just ABANDONED her husband in a jewel or whatever and shrugged him off in the end instead of being a good, faithful partner like she tried to be throughout the movie.

[@Longknife]

It reminds me of Santa Inc's approach to their villain. For those unfamiliar, don't worry about spoilers cause it's horrible, but Santa Inc is about a female elf wanting to be Santa's successor and working hard to do so, trying to fit in with a "boy's club" corporate atmosphere in order to get the role. Day finally comes, she doesn't get it, and another white male is picked as Santa's successor. When confronted about this, Santa actually makes a super valid point: that the protagonist herself doesn't like kids and isn't a very jolly personality, so he could never in good conscience pick her as his successor. He instead decided he wanted her to be the "Vice Santa" behind the scenes because she's still terrific at running the company and doing the logistics, whereas the guy he chose as Santa himself was perfect to be the face of the company because he's good with kids and has that positive attitude, but bad at the logistics. Santa concludes his speech by telling her she shouldn't let her ego get in the way of doing what's right, and that doing a good job is more important than the glory of being *the* Santa. Phenomenal, fantastic speech that honestly could've saved that series from being utter garbage and instead make it okay. But no, what happens? She tells Santa to go f*** himself and then the finale proceeds to engage in character assassination of Santa, showcasing that he was puppy-kicking evil all along and it really WAS all just a move to keep her down! *Point being:* It's weird to me that today it feels like writers *don't* want the complex, thought-provoking villain and would actually prefer one who can only be described as "stupid evil," aka, they're evil in such a way that it can be downright nonsensical they behave this way. We actually have writers that prefer a black-and-white world where we encourage the audience to plug their fingers in their ears, chant "don't think about it" and demonize the villain as irredeemably evil, regardless of what they actually have to say.

[@neophyte_tpk]

@@Longknife Never heard of Santa Inc but that does sound exactly like what modern movies would do instead of having a main character grow and change throughout the story's progression.

[@caleron6945]

@@Longknife I've never seen Santa Inc, but I just wanted to say thank you for writing this comment. It's a super valid point and very close to what I've been feeling towards modern shows and cinema. It's nice to know there are other people who care about story and character motivations who are frustrated with the same stuff I am

[@tombliboo2771]

Jojo refrence?

[@robertlauncher]

The line about rent is so epically bad and memorable, I forget it’s not the opening of the song

[@Jenacide]

100 year anniversary. You’d think they’d want to make it something extra special and memorable. They should have been working on a film for like the last decade. This honestly feels like someone trying to finish up a last minute project they forgot about until the night before.

[@thomasphillips885]

Something like Fantasia

[@NiaArifah-br6cr]

wish is special for them

[@CloverLovesTT]

​@@NiaArifah-br6cr for them and nobody else lmao

[@ATeyken]

I think making an anti-fascist movie in these times is bold and a great way to value signal

[@gameteamsk6892]

its so bad that it will be remembered for ages to come

[@generalcodsworth4417]

I think a much better plot would've been some kind of "be careful what you wish for" story. Perhaps Asha could've succeeded in dethroning Magnifico halfway through the movie and granted everyone's wishes, but then there would be tons of unintended consequences. Maybe those who wish for wealth wreck the economy, those who wish for giant homes end up crushing nearby buildings as their houses grow, all sorts of chaos even without malice and evil wishes. Then, Asha would get Magnifico's help to undo the wishes and return things to the way they're shown at the start of the movie, which is actually super good. Asha would learn that her original ideal was harmful and have a real character arc. And Magnifico could have an arc where he learns that being more transparent with the kingdom about what he does with their wishes and why, maybe establishing a council of several people who determine how helpful or harmful everyone's wishes would be, and maybe people who are rejected can get a chance later on to make a new wish, rather than be denied any wish at all. We could still get an improvement in their society by helping the people who are denied their wishes without the start needing to be very problematic, all the main characters can get arcs and learn, and we could have a twist good guy instead of a boring villain.

[@thewallachianbard6975]

Boom, a random KZbin commenter came up with a better plot ! Why do they find it so hard to come up with this ?

[@chaosenforcerdhm969]

NO NO NO A twist that give depth to the story the only twist that should be allowed are the ones for villains

[@CazRaX]

Not a chance they would allow the white man be helpful to the PoC woman, not now anyway. They had to have a puppy kick in the movie to even make Magnifico seem like a bad guy in the first place, they were determined to make him bad.

[@betelgeux6010]

@@thewallachianbard6975 tbh this is literally bruce allmighty, just animated. he grants all prayers with 1 enter key and has to deal with the shit ppl prayed for the rest of the movie

[@thewallachianbard6975]

@@betelgeux6010 Aw I loved that movie as a kid

[@Tarikkb]

I wish they had asha as an actual assistant/trainee who’s been under magnifico for years as the only other person who could do magic in the kingdom , making him a sort of a parental figure for her on a personal level, that dynamic alone could have changed a lot on its own , and it would open a great door for fantasia references, not a direct reference to the movie but maybe using it as an inspiration to the some magic scenes and etc

[@dapril]

Also that would better integrate the loss of her dad into the movie rather than just seeming plopped

[@luronsminecraft]

It's funny because this video is a great lesson for world, character and story building

[@TheWritersBlockOfficial]

Thank you! I know the title is a bit click baity, but I do still try to make the videos worthwhile

[@KarateGirl999]

2:06 God, these characters look SO much better in hand-drawn 2D than they do in 3D.

[@TheWritersBlockOfficial]

Yeah they needed to xcommit to the art style. Its currently too much of a hybrid

[@Dany_lop]

My guess is that they do not have anyone in animation who specializes in 2d anymore. All the veterans were outed. 🤷🏻‍♀️ just my take. With films with puss in boots and spiderverse, not even counting animations from japan with a similar hybrid style, theres no excuse for how weird the style looks in this movie. Its like they skipped textures and added cell shading and called it a day

[@fishyfishyfishy500akabs8]

@@TheWritersBlockOfficial Calling it a hybrid is a disservice to films like Spiderverse or Klaus which actually do so. Wish borrows the cell shaded storybook aesthetic from these sorts of films but has very few if any actually 2D elements from what I see of it. The little star guy for example was supposed to be 2D and was 2D in the trailers but now they’re 3D. And the film was supposed to be fully 2D before becoming a hybrid only to end up as what we have now. In a way it’s not enough of a hybrid, and is essentially Disney’s standard 3D fare with a filter slapped on top of it.

[@TheJadedJames]

@@Dany_lop I believe hand drawn animation is more unionized than CGI animation

[@purrpletiger2159]

​@@TheJadedJamesEx-disney animators have came out and said that they just don't have the tools and production process to make feature-length 2D animation at Disney. They've replaced everything with the 3D process, so now 2D is mainly only being created in their TV animation studio, a studio probably not big enough to make a whole cinematic movie like Disney's main studio would've used to.

[@Tzarina8472]

Finding Nemo's original screenplay had the barracuda scene about half way through the movie as a flashback/memory. Nobody liked it because it made Marlon look like a complete jerk for no reason, even for the remainder of the movie after the scene was revealed. Doing nothing more than putting that at the beginning changed everyone's perception of Marlon from a very negative one to being very sympathetic, even though most of it is never mentioned again.

[@TheWritersBlockOfficial]

That's so interesting! It shows why story structure and order is so important.

[@firestorm5371]

Same goes for the last of us 2, if the game would tell its story chronological, it would have been a way better game.

[@rumpeltyltskyn]

@@firestorm5371Yeah, the jump back to Abby(?)’s POV was so jarring and weird it threw me out of the story and I never finished the let’s play I was watching because I realized I wouldn’t really see any more of the main character until the end of the complete second half of the game. It was, definitely a choice.

[@shleaumeau7740]

When you mentioned Kerchik finally accepting Tarzan as his son while dying, it reminded me of the essential plot structure-- the hero gets what they wanted but pays a terrible price for it. If the hero wants for other people to have wishes, it means they want for others to want. It's too meta.

[@SeanHartnett-t8c]

yep.

[@Spiralredd]

And at the end of the day whether or not she accomplishes her goal doesn't matter cuz there's no stakes. The town won't be any worse off than it was. And she isn't risking shit by doing what she's doing. And so therefor we don't care about what she's doing. Wish was just the ennard of Disney movies. A soulless amalgamation of different concepts

[@meyague]

huh? that last sentence doesn't make sense

[@fieldofdandelions1508]

Honestly, I would have LOVED it if King Magnifico maintained that villain persona and acted more like Scar from The Lion King. Scar was manipulative when he talked to Simba, still pretending to be his kind uncle when telling Simba about the "elephant graveyard". The audience knows he's a crazy, irredeemable villain--and we ATE IT UP. Why not do the same for King Magnifico? Have him address the crowd during a wish ceremony with warmth, then as he turns to leave, have him roll his eyes and mutter something under his breath. It's cheesy, but it adds so much extra jazz! Maybe I just really loved Scar as a villain, lmao...

[@Juju2927]

Magnifico should have been either of two things : - A Missguided good person, wanting to help his people but not understanding how wrong it might be to strip them of their ambition and then guided back to help them accomplish their wishes in their own power. - A straight up old school villain, who wants to control everyone's wish to force them to serve him, or to drain their "wishpower" to make it his own, and therefore should be defeated so people keep their independance. Here, they basically wrote him as a person who think is doing the right thing, but gets triggered by one single defiance and decided to say "Well screw you, evil time" just like that.

[@JasminT-y8m]

EXACTLY!!!! Also his people, who once loved him, started questionling his authority, and he felt that his comfort of his people beliving him was disapearing, so he took drastic measures! It is OBVIOUSLY not written by AI!

[@aaronhernandez7268]

bruh he is literally the good guy in my eyes because the "protagonist" is selfish and defies magnifico's rule for no apparent reason other than her opinion, then convinced his people to turn against him even tho he did nothing wrong

[@Ansem_SOD13]

The thing is we actually got exactly what you just described with the first villain type mixed with a little bit of the second type. Only difference is that instead of telling them "Oh no! poor thing! Here's some hot chocy to calm your nerves!" They actually held him accountable for his horrible crimes. The people of Rosas tried to reason with him, but he was so far gone that there was simply no saving him. You say he became evil just like that as if it was too sudden when in reality the movie showed him gradually descend into madness from the very start. The red flags were shown throughout the whole movie. His biggest red flag before he went batsh1t insane was when Asha tried to compromise by asking to give the ungranted wishes back (perfectly reasonable given the fact they're never going to be granted anyway which the whole reason people even gave their wish was in the hopes of it being granted) after which Magnifico responded by lashing out at her by saying *!!!HE DECIDES WHAT EVERYONE DESERVES!!!* And might I add, this was during Asha's interview which was pretty close to the start of the movie, so there is really no excuse for saying it was sudden when he was showing his true colors from the start and gradually became more and more insane as more and more people started looking through his BS. There is something inherently wrong when one person gets to decide who gets to live their dream and who doesn't when in reality that should be left to the people to work towards themselves. I understand people willingly gave their wish, but that doesn't change the fact that there is something really messed up with a society that is okay with giving up the very essence of their souls and forgetting about it in the hopes that one day someone else MIGHT grant it. Magnifico of all people should have known that's messed up and yet, here we are. Him willingly casting away his last bit of humanity and benevolence by embracing the dark magic was simply the final nail on the coffin. The people of Rosas couldn't just forgive him as he showed no remorse for his actions. Even going as far as playing the "after all I did for you" card. Even though he just tried to destroy and enslave Rosas. Risking the lives of many. As he showed no remorse, he would just try it all over again if they actually freed him, which could end in a catastrophe. He had good intentions. Honorable even. Unfortunately he went about it the wrong way. The movie teaches 2 things: 1.That no matter how good a ruler's intentions may be, their ego, narcissism and spitefulness can negatively impact society. Not to mention he clearly had a God complex. His song makes it obvious that he believes he's totally infallable, which is false. People like Magnifico are simply not fit to rule as they are some of the most dangerous people to be in a position of power. 2. Instead of placing your hopes and dreams in the hands of others, you should strive to work towards it yourself. The second message of the movie is Walt Disney's vision ever since Disney's conception. Siding with Magnifico means you're also rejecting Walt's legacy which has been 100 years in the making. It's an insult to everything Walt has labored to build. Damn shame people don't realize that.

[@koreancowboy42]

​@@aaronhernandez7268 not only is Asha Selfish, shes naive and an spoiled opportunist brat. Shes 17 years old and Magnifico didnt grant her apprentice job or title. And she asks a favor from Magnifico to grant her 100 year old grandfathers wish before she even got the job or did anything. And when she gets to be 18 years old she can offer her wish. Meaning shes STEALING TWO WISHES free of charge

[@hariman7727]

My favorite theory is that Asha's wish changed King Magnifico, because that was the only was the shining wish demon could grant her wish.

[@OriasRofocale]

What would stop you from telling your wish to a friend, so even if you personally forget your wish your friend could just remind you and you could both magically and mundanely pursue it? AI could overlook how humans would have conversations.

[@CloudDistrictEnjoyer01]

or even bloody writing it down??

[@DrawciaGleam02]

That might be why Asha knew her grandfather's wish.

[@schuylergeery-zink1923]

Yahhh AI still isn’t good at logic which is pretty funnyyyy

[@halcyon63]

literally even a throwaway explanation of "everyone else forgets it too and it disappears totally" or whatever coulda solved this 💀

[@murciadoxial8056]

to be fair, humans can overlook this too, wish is incredibly generic and soulless, but I've seen human writers do far worse than this, I wouldn't be surprised if this is AI shenanigans, but I also wouldn't be surprised if this is just a first draft and there couldn't be any rewrites due to having a tight schedule

[@Lefaid]

I was worried with the marketing that the movie seemed like it was Disney soulessly putting out what they think their brand is. Them using AI to come up with this makes too much sense. If they did, then I am glad this original Disney movie bombed. Even if people wrote this, this generic writing shouldn't be encouraged.

[@bandawin18]

That's just what Disney has become, generic and soulless. Movies keep flopping left and right and the popular excuse is the woke garbage and pandering, but the God awful writing is mostly to blame in these cases. Disney isn't trying to make movies that people will want to go back and watch years later anymore, they're making slop that'll sell tickets and toys today because who cares about tomorrow if it isn't profitable?

[@Fruity_one]

"Cruel!" 5:36 My history teacher made us watch Oliver Twist for homework. I don't remember much of it but i loved it. And, yes, everyone was so *cruel* to Oliver

[@johndoe5432]

A 5 year old could tell someone why EVERYONE getting their wish is a bad idea. Not everyone wishes for good things, and sometimes what they think may be good is terrible. Has no one at Disney heard the phrase "the road to hell is paved with good intentions?"

[@Cartoonicus]

Disney wants us in the mindset of "being happy by having everything" so we can keep on gorging ourselves on everything they put out.

[@polelix1023]

It would be like the villain has a point moment right?

[@luiszuniga2859]

Aladdin's Genie established three rules at the beginning and no one complained that they were "being oppressed"

[@bloodyidit4506]

they have a fair amount of people who operate on wishful thinking tbh.

[@ArdenKsenia]

@Cartoonicus Like in Wall-E

[@vivikins]

At this point, I feel the smartest move for Disney would be to move back to book based movies. Like, they cannot create originals anymore…

[@jesseleeward2359]

It is a disaster

[@pyerack]

It's funny how most of their famous hits are mostly stories taken from other people and changed around lol

[@togucvinw7]

They ran out of books 😅 and also those books are not inclusive enough anyways so unless you want them to change up the stories like they are doing with Snow White again it’s best they keep doing original trash that will bomb

[@Kyumifun]

Come to think of it, the fact they've been just redoing someone else's work already says something about Disney, even if not much.

[@Emppu_T.]

Seems even book based adaptations are getting screwed up by writers who, probably don't even read the source material.

[@emeraldnickel]

AI or not, Disney is putting in less effort in order to lower your standards. Don't let them get away with this. Demand the high standard you know they're capable of.

[@ohiasdxfcghbljokasdjhnfvaw4ehr]

or just stop giving them money

[@amazin7006]

Lmao what are you yapping about. It has nothing to do with "standards". What's the point of lowering standards if the budget is nearly twice as much as their older films? That doesn't even make sense. If they wanted to make a low budget movie then they would just do that. The fact is, it's that they lack talent. You can't even blame Disney as a company any more, the writers themselves are just BAD. They have zero talent or experience. One of the writers for this movie has only ever worked on TV shows made for babies, and another one has never worked on any animation ever. Back in the 90s the writers used to work on comic books, storyboards, screenplays, for years before they were allowed to touch a 200 million dollar production like this. The animation department was always working WITH the writers, instead of now where they are completely separate.

[@emeraldnickel]

@@amazin7006 Who hires the writers? Do you really think Disney doesn’t know they’re hiring garbage? The budget’s high, but that doesn’t mean they’re not lowering the standard. They’re trying to get consumers comfortable with the slop they can get out of any old writer, because that’s the only part of the process that they have to put effort into any more. For everything else they can just throw money at it.

[@emeraldnickel]

@@gabhug9338 just read reviews? That, or pirate every new Disney movie. People watching on streaming is exactly what I’m talking about, it’s a lowering of standards in consumers due to the platform. Unsubscribe from Disney+, stop buying cinema tickets, and read reviews to find out how Disney is failing you as a consumer with each new movie. You gotta remember Disney gets the money passively from you being on their streaming platform.

[@spinechiller567]

they speak money@@gabhug9338 and be can get change if we speak to them in their language

[@-.._.-_...-_.._-..__..._.-.-.-]

As a huge Disney fan, I was really looking forward to Disney's Wish, especially with it being a celebration of the company's 100-year anniversary. However, after watching this video, I couldn't help but feel a bit skeptical. The points raised about the film feeling like it was written by artificial intelligence are intriguing and definitely make me want to approach it with a critical eye. It's fascinating to think about how AI could potentially influence storytelling in such a beloved and iconic industry like Disney. I appreciate the insights provided in this video and look forward to seeing how Disney's Wish stacks up against its predecessors.

[@Blazenix1]

There's something I quite like in storytelling, worldbuilding dialogue. What if there was a moment where Asha talks to someone and notices they enjoy doing something they are good at like baking/singing and asks if they consider doing it for a living. They go distant and say no. But then Asha sees that they did dream of doing it professionally but just forgotten. Then that would have given Asha more reasonable motivation.

[@DoveJS]

That would've been so simple yet perfectly chilling to add.

[@lucinda2506]

Fun thing, the plot used to be completely different and more in line with the old movies. A love story between Asha and the Star, the villains would have been both the Queen and the King making the first villain duo.

[@featheryfemme]

Aw man, that could've made for a really good film. Something worthy of a 100th year celebration. Shame they changed it.

[@breadisgood9336]

I was so mad when I found out they didn’t go with those plot ideas

[@MothGuyz-]

@@breadisgood9336real

[@kairon5249]

A macbeth style king-queen villain duo? count me in

[@thisusernameisalreadytaken5132]

They even sell a doll bundle of the king and queen in stores. Rewrites and changes were probably happening even as toys were being made, because there's no reason to sell them in a bundle considering how the story unfolds.

[@StrawHatNick56]

The most compelling argument is the "show dont tell" line. ChatGPT and the like are language models, in that they can only express themselves using dialogue. The fact that ideas are only expressed through words and not inferred by depiction makes me feel like this was definitely done by AI.

[@wwjccsd]

Well, it wasn't.

[@NUFCOfficial]

@@wwjccsd How do you know?

[@theMyRadiowasTaken]

​@@wwjccsd"nuh-uh"

[@gavinjenkins899]

AI could do that, though, because it would be using training data from screenplays, which DO use words to indicate implied things. It just does so as notes and directions in the script, not dialogue. but GPT would be writing those in still

[@TheRezro]

So what about graphic AI? The real problem with AI is that they lack holistic approach to the problem. And this entire movie is failure of holistic. Like low level scenes work, but not as a whole.

[@saigesplayce3915]

The fact that I did my last production show with the (high school) cast of Oliver as one of the orphans just a couple of days before I watched this and saw this movie just made me appreciate you and the video so much. It really speaks to me that people know that story, and have seen that movie, or the musical, for that matter! Love the movie, it’s really underrated, and I’m so glad you included it in this video. Gruel!

[@Kyumifun]

It's ridiculously common for modern stories, the visual ones anyway (games, movies etc.) to be about "oh no, my homeland is terrible/in great danger, i need to save it/make it better!" Meanwhile the homeland in question is apparently a freaking paradise. Everyone is happy and dancing, the world doesn't even come off as corrupted in any way that would justify the protag's mission, and there's like a single person in the whole movie who is often a bit sad. Tf are they trying to fix in these places!? Why make a story about saving a world from corruption/danger when you refuse to show the danger/corruption "cause it's inappropriate for kids!" Or it outright calls you out your big corpo's crimes.

[@100lovenana]

Can you give some examples of movies and games with this plot? The most recent one that comes to mind is Encanto (I know it actually does show the bad stuff, but it counts because of how lively the town is shown at the beginning)

[@Kyumifun]

@@100lovenana Okay i maybe shouldn't have phrased it as "ridiculously common" that was stupid of me but there are out there media like that and i swear it's not so rare. There's The Lorax 2012 where in the supposedly terrible post-everything-died future the people are completly fine with their lifes. The Thneedville is "beautiful" and people are litterally dancing and singing there, are fine eating jelly and don't even cares about the whole planting trees thing the main character wants to do so he can score some chick. That movie is so bad. Another movie is the one in the video, Wish. For a game, i'd say Pokémon Sword & Shield did a terrible mistake with their story. The antagonist wants to summon an eldritch horror capable of destroying the world, to harvest it's energy because he's worried that his nation will run out of power ...in approximately 1000 years in the far future.... And the region of course is completly fine. It would've been way better if it was stated they'll run out of power in 100 or 50 years and we saw signs of the people overusing the energy or smth, anything like that. That would at least somewhat explain/validate his concern and desperate plan. I'll try finding more examples...

[@DoveJS]

That's the kicker. Pretty much all large-scale media don't want their big corporate backers to get angry. It's self-censorship for the almighty investors plus merch and ad revenue. That's why if a big corporation is doing bad things in these films/series/games, it's usually just one bad apple and not presented as a systemic issue. I still haven't seen it yet but probably one of the most realistic portrayals I can think of, off the top of my head, is Arcane and as noted, that's more like teen and up than kids. There's usually a sinister solo figure when it comes to younger media.

[@colt-_-jonson1743]

destroy stable aspect of society 😁

[@matuili2633]

@@DoveJS I was just about to comment on Arcane, haha. Gonna talk about about it here without spoilers in case anyone is interested: While in Arcane you have Piltover, a beautiful and rich city filled with the greatest scientists and literal magic, but also containing a very oppressive and oligarchical government, you also have Zaun, Piltover's underbelly, which is a chaotic and dangerous place, whose citizens are frequently exploited by crime/drug lords and also by Pilties (people from Piltover). The story takes its time to focus on the reality of both these places and deeply explores how they relate to each other. Sometimes its Pilties realizing that Piltover is not as good as they thought. Sometimes its Zaunites realizing that their communities are in dire need of help, and that they're being exploited. The show never says "look how shitty or screwed up this place/situation is" without proving proof first. This, among many other things, is why Arcane is one of my favorite pieces of media world building-wise. Period.

[@SharmClucas]

Out of pure curiosity I had ChatGPT write me a synopsis for a Disney movie inspired by the films in the Disney Renaissance. The plot it gave me sounded way more interesting than the plot of Wish. I actually think it would have been a better film if AI wrote it. What I think happened is that they had a decent story, then executive meddling killed it.

[@DrawciaGleam02]

Someone posted their ChatGPT results in the comments!

[@animeisaweapon420]

@@DrawciaGleam02 "I think AI is very good and that more people should use AI more often in day to day life." -ChatGPT

[@teflonda5655]

@@animeisaweapon420I think its more that if AI had been used it wouldn’t really matter since someone had to look at this thing and think “yeah, we should ship it”

[@mikaelafox6106]

I want to read what it wrote for you!

[@macmcleod1188]

It's not just executives. Diversity hiring has lead to a lot of their writing staff being out of touch with the general public (or even actively hate men).

[@MeredithSims]

While it's possible some AI was used, judging by what we've seen from the original concept, my guess of what happened is the creatives turned in their story, and the marketing and corporate executive teams came in and started cutting/pasting in their own ideas that they saw as "more marketable" "more nostalgic" "more pandering to the traditional Disney fan". You can feel it when you see the forced Easter Eggs. Some executive probably sat in the board room going "It's the 100th anniversary...give her some friends we can call back to the Seven Dwarfs. Throw in more visual Easter Eggs. I want a Peter Pan in there, he performs at "insert popularity poll position here". Oh and we need a talking animal. I can see a talking animal. Oh the goat's not cute enough, make the star boy a character we can put in Emoji Blitz." By the time they get whatever muddled collage the execs demand of the creative team, it is so disjointed that no amount of editing could make up for it.

[@pyerack]

I think this is the most likely reason since this is already what's been happening for a while. Writers make a script and then a mf in a monkey suit and tie comes in like "According to our statistics-☝🤓"

[@RomanvonUngernSternbergnrmfvus]

True but the writers in general suck without help in general these days

[@vf1923]

@@RomanvonUngernSternbergnrmfvus Why go into writing movies if this is what happens? How do you learn to write movies if you never get to try anything out yourself? It's a feedback loop, like pitch correction in singing. Nobody needs to learn to sing in pitch if they're always corrected.

[@RomanvonUngernSternbergnrmfvus]

@@vf1923 I was more making commentary on how todays climate just breeds mediocrity to the point they pretend their worst examples of it excesses in human form get the limelight . . . but still need every form of assistance possible, not as a favor to them but for the audiences sake. Compare the more recent vs classic Conan movies

[@Quinn-he3vn]

​@@RomanvonUngernSternbergnrmfvusIf you really think that you haven't watched much media

[@PanOpasta]

The description of wish on Disney+ is literally (basically) "a sharp-whitted idealist tries to make a change"

[@JWS1313]

For a hundred year celebration i think they should've just turned their Disneyland show Fantasmic into a movie, by fleshing out the stage show. Afterall the central character of that show is Mickey and isn't Mickey Mouse supposed to be one of the big symbols of Disney.

[@murciadoxial8056]

i mean... they did turn a park ride of theirs into a movie and released it this year... it bombed though

[@jackpijjin4088]

​@@murciadoxial8056It's not even said ride's first go as a movie. It's reheated leftovers.

[@felipevasconcelos6736]

⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠@@murciadoxial8056 turning a park ride into a movie worked great for them in 2003, though.

[@xrarelightx]

THIS ! 1000%

[@SnagTheRabbit]

Manifico harboring wishes to grant so people never have to feel the burden of their wish never becoming a reality, is an actual interesting and compelling plotline that they could have done so much more with. I think the problem is that Manifico starts out like too much of a normal and sympathetic character. A stern, stubborn character, but his sterness and pragmatic thinking is more of a neccesity than a degredation. I don't think they could have made him a "classic villain" with these traits. I'm not a great writer, but here's a simple way I think he could have been improved: make Manifco an old sorcerer, secretly eating wishes to stay alive, but on the surface acting as a noble benevolant ruler. (similar to Mother Gothel) Until Asha discoveres the truth, and then with paranoia of the truth being revealed, then does he start to panic and become desperate and mad. It's not the most creative and a little on the twist villain side, but if it was established from the start, I think that would have worked much better. If Manifico was a ticking time bomb, instead of "a decent guy until whoops evil book!" the plot would have worked a lot better.

[@TheWritersBlockOfficial]

I think that's a really great direction they could have taken! I think Encanto shows how a good/noble motivation can lead to negative outcomes in a community, and they really should have done the same in Wish.

[@_birdie]

Well, whether u think ur a great writer or not, that’s actually a pretty great take on what they could’ve done with the plot. And actually makes him a more complex character instead of being as 1 dimensional as they wrote him. 🙃🫰

[@t0t383]

I'm sorry but EATING THE WISHES TO STAY ALIVE!?!?! THATS LIKE, SO DAMN COOL!?!?!?! you definitely have imagination and creativity bc you couldn't pay me to come up with that bc I could never That's honestly very neat! People's wish having this sort of power that give life or extend life, like mother Gothel!

[@Mikumo91]

To show you why you're already a better writer than whoever made Wish, we have to examine what made the classic Disney villains so great: their wants were unreasonable and often cruel. Cruella wants to skin puppies. The Evil Queen wants to be the fairest of them all. Scar wants to take over his brother who's an excellent ruler, similar to Ursula and Jaffar. Gaston wants the girl, no matter what. Magnifico wants to keep the status quo in order to protect his country (and his power) from any unseen consequences of a wish. It's not that unreasonable or cruel, right? Living forever is unreasonable, eating wishes is cruel. Your solution is perfect.

[@alpaca6462]

Your suggestion totally fits with the classic villain vibes. An alternative I think, if they wanted to stick with the "had good intentions that were corrupted" since they wanted him to be at least somewhat sympathetic given they gave him a backstory where he literally was a hero and founded a country because people love him so much (which we never see anything related to that, we're just told this Shrek style at the beginning of the movie) Have it so Magnifico isn't wrong, some wishes ARE dangerous or bad, and he doesn't grant them for obvious reasons. But he cant destroy them so over time, after hoarding these evil wishes to prevent them from being granted it also corrupts him, and his power comes from a darker and darker place. Contrast that with Star's power coming from a fresh and pure place where he hasn't experienced bad wishes yet, and he just grants all of the wishes he comes across, leading to a confrontation between him and Magnifico who is in a corrupted state of just knowing he needs to stop Star but going way overboard and have Asha be the balance, her seeing it happen makes her realize there's a middle ground that yes not all wishes should be granted, but Magnifico just hiding the wishes wasn't the way to deal with them properly

[@aeden8008]

It's sad that Disney movies have become so formulaic that it's difficult to tell if it was written by a human or by AI. Though considering the recent writer's strike, and the fact this is Disney, they likely used AI in some capacity.

[@OctopusOwl]

AI probably wrote the rough draft, and since they won’t pay for writers rooms anymore, the junior junior script writers were paid just for punch up, not structural fixes. So the character breaking choices just….stay.

[@blessedarethepeacemakers.1457]

Miramax could’ve already been owned by Disney, even though they credit that as non-Disney platform for movies,

[@MrGamelover23]

​@@OctopusOwlthe writers room cant exist when theres like 500 shows to write at once. There's literally too much tv and movies being made, that is literally half the problem.

[@AnonD38]

It's astonishing to me how many people haven't yet realized that the soulless corporation that used to be the cheerful company called Disney has long since lost it's magic and replaced all childlike wonder with greed enabled through nostalgia baiting.

[@Dailyfiver]

I’ve honestly noticed the Disney formula since I was a kid and I find most Disney movies to be boring musicals at this point. There’s definitely exceptions though.

[@SirSamich]

I love how the only way they could make Magnifico look like a bad guy was by making him confident and rude.

[@1sdani]

NGL, awkwardly telling another dad that he's afraid of Nemo being eaten by a barricuda like his mother was sounds 100% in character for Marlin.

[@TheWritersBlockOfficial]

hah fair

[@deltarubes2065]

another ai-like thing i noticed in the movie, but have'nt seen anyone point out, is that the dialogue can often be very repetitive in a way that's reminiscent of ai. take the first few scenes of the movie for example. we hear that asha has an interview with the king and that she's nervous about it over and over and over! contrast that to the first scenes of a movie like frozen, where the momentum keeps going forward and repetition ("do you want to build a snowman" coming up more and more as anna grows more desperate to see her sister, for example) feels meaningful. it feels like the writing in wish gets "stuck" the way ai does when it keeps generating off of the same information rather than building forward on it. the movie also keeps circling back to having asha and company repeat their wants and motivations throughout (and leaves them inconsistent as a result, like you mentioned) rather than delving into the story behind the basic beats. it feels like no thought was put into having a script that drives forward the way other movies do.

[@TheWritersBlockOfficial]

Noticed this too. I think it's because, whether AI written or not, the script relies on Dialogue to make things move forward rather than action, so it tries to repeat things until you feel like they've actually happened, even though the action doesn't go along with it

[@murciadoxial8056]

it could be AI, it could also be a producer note telling the writers to dumb it down as much as possible for the foreign market, that kind of dialogue has been a thing since before chatgpt, the mummy 2017 is a pretty notorious example of that

[@eg4441]

@@murciadoxial8056ngl i'm a little unnerved by how many people here are going "sounds like ai!!" and describe something i have seen plenty of amateur/unskilled writers do

[@md_vandenberg]

@@eg4441 That should tell you a great deal about the talent at Disney these days.

[@ivannasophiamansilla5601]

Something that I think many people did not noticed is that mainly the story is very similar to "Wicked" only very poorly done. Magnifico is the Wizard of Oz and Asha is Elphaba. Elphaba admired Oz and wanted to be a wizard like him. She also believed that he could grant her wish, but she discovered that Oz was actually selfish and false, so she stopped admiring him and turned against him.

[@MysteryDisc]

Oh so its title came from Wicked found on Wish

[@jesustovar2549]

Damn, does that mean Wizard of Oz is going to be rebooted by Disney? I was hoping Warner to do so.

[@alexy5660]

I watched Wicked in theaters a few weeks ago (very very good), and I noticed this too. Glad I'm not the only one to pick up on it

[@TheWritersBlockOfficial]

@alexyork5660 wish would be much better if it had a himbo anthem like dancing through life

[@redpanda6497]

@@jesustovar2549 A Wizard of Oz movie would be so good. But I'm pretty sure Disney wouldn't like it because it would take time and effort.

[@Imedithmora]

0:35 "Logline: In the enchanting land of Everdell, a spirited young pixie named Luna discovers a forgotten portal to the human world. Eager to explore the wonder beyond, Luna embarks on a magical journey where she befriends a curious human girl named Emily. Together, they must overcome the challenges of the two world colliding and save both realms from ancient darkness that threatens to consume everything" Just change a few things and this is literally the plot to Kirby and the Forgotten Land

[@technounionrepresentative4274]

it's crazy how this company had a decade of great movies in the 90s but now they are soo hit or miss

[@murciadoxial8056]

because they had to give their artists creative freedom out of sheer desperation, and once they became profitable again there was no need for that kind of artistic freedom anymore

[@Chameleonred5]

All companies decline over time. Executives get so focused on money that they forget everything of actual value. This is especially problematic after the founding members are all dead.

[@sethkrueger9294]

Disney won the early battles, but Dreamworks is winning the war.

[@roberth.1201]

​@@sethkrueger9294Dreamworks will fail just like disney

[@zenochara7522]

@@roberth.1201yeah eventually but they certainly will last longer than Disney

[@Cityweaver]

This is one of those stories where nothing really bad is happening to the main character, because they are so much of a self-insert that the writer can't stomach actual problems happening to them.

[@TheControlBlue]

Exactly. Thank you! (and you can bet the writers were all women!)

[@Cityweaver]

@@TheControlBlue Well, that just means the writers received poor direction and didn't have the experience to overcome that. Please don't highlight that they are women as if that's shorthand for something. 🤨

[@TheControlBlue]

@@Cityweaver It's the truth.

[@Cityweaver]

@@TheControlBlue Indeed. Jennifer Lee is a woman. Just like she was a woman when she wrote Frozen, which this video is pointing out she wrote better when she wasn't told to make a generic Everygirl character. 🤨🤣 If the same writer can write a good movie and a bad one, yes, she continues to be a woman regardless.

[@TheControlBlue]

@@Cityweaver Maybe what it shows is that Frozen was a fluke? There are plenty of examples I could give you to prove my point, but I don't mind you not believing me. Keep observing things and see if what I say is true or not, that simple.

[@josefinarivia]

Something that confuses me is that Magnifico is put forward as the bad guy for taking everyones wishes, but the citiziens seem to be doing very well. They're smiling, laughing etc. Is what he is doing evil then? He's making people forget about wishes they can't fulfill in the first place. He's being merciful. Asha wants to fulfill everyones wish but how do we know that's better? It's like in bruce almighty when he answers yes to all prayers, the whole world gets in disarray and nothing is actually better. I think if they made the citizens more solemn/hollow and make some of them act like they miss the wish part of them "There's something very important I've forgotten", "I feel wrong but I can't put my finger on it" "Why did I put up all these posters about going overseas?" then it would be more obvious why Magnifico's actions are wrong since dreaming can be a outer motivation for people to do things, without it, some may become utterly depressed.

[@Killgore-ip2yq]

Good point. I thought the film trailers were intentionally exaggerating Magnifico evil until you actually watched the film and revealed he was actually a surprised hero who was protecting the kingdom from wishes that are wild and harmful to others. I can't help but think of WW1984, but in that movie, the villain gave people their hearts desired and it nearly destroyed the world because their wishes had consequences.

[@pinkliongaming8769]

When WW1984 is actually better than a Disney movie.. Starwars and Marvel don't count.. or the Live Action Remakes.. Or whatever the hell that weird racist stuff they used to do. @@Killgore-ip2yq

[@bernardsoul5186]

I haven't seen the movie, but it doesn't seem like Asha wanted to fulfill everyone's wishes, but return them to them so they have that very motivation

[@RobinTheBot]

​@@bernardsoul5186why post this knowing you're almost certainly wrong? Why give a correction/interpretation on a movie you've not seen?

[@bernardsoul5186]

@@RobinTheBot because I paid attention to what the video literally explained. DUH. Why comment at all if you're not planning on using more than 4 brain cells?

[@Zye_Red]

Gruel! That was one of my favorite musicals and the first stage production I ever took part in!

[@rhondayutzy7612]

I have been watching a lot of “Puss in Boots the Last Wish” and “Wish” and made a startling realization. They both focus on wishes coming true. In natural Dreamworks fashion, they created a story focused on wishes completely opposite of Disney. In everything that Disney failed at, Dreamworks succeeded. They had unique characters, beautiful cinematography, and-everything Disney used to be. Rather than the AI generated Wish, Dreamworks returned audiences back to the traditional fairy tale. I specifically thought about how the girl in Wish wanted dreams to be released back to the people, but in Puss in Boots we learn that we don’t need magic stars. Sometimes we are already living our dreams and lose sight of it. We got the true villain, who much like the evil man from Wish, wants all the magic (wishes) to himself. It would be SO COOL if you made a video comparing and contrasting the two of them.

[@kotlolish]

The best part of Puss in Boots 2 is the fact it was a sequel of a more mediocore movie ment to cash in on a favorite charater from the Shrek movies. In comes this movie.. redoing the style... still using established charaters correctly, but putting them in a better movie , yet keeping the original charateristics of the Shrek universe in place. The funniest part is.. this movie has 1 antagonist but tries to Jam all 3 of puss in boots in the king. While puss in boots has 3 antagonists. 1: Is the reflection of Puss in Boots that he should be happy with what he has. (Goldie Locks) 2: Is the force of nature that the end will come and he is running for (His selifsh motivation and karma aka Death) 3: A downright evil guy who is just there to increase the conflict to the max, while having fun with the storybook elements (Yep. Jack is that) So we got the "We aren't so alike" antagonist, The motivational Antagonist and the downright evil antagonist all in 1 movie. And in most movies all 3 are mostly packed into one. But here we are having them be indiviually great!

[@DeadFishFactory]

TLW is definitely the better wish movie than Wish is. Wish's morals is people should strive to make their wish come true through hard work, but they then contradict that moral by having Asha become the fairy godmother that grants wishes. And she's now in the same boat as Magnifico, because we clearly see that she's not granting everyone's wishes. TLW's wish moral is the same, but they follow through with that moral, by showing us that all of the characters (except Jack Horner) got their wish without the wishing star. Destroying the wishing star is the completion of that moral, and it's beautiful. And this moral isn't even the _main moral,_ which would be the moral of appreciating your life, your loved ones, your friends, and the people who matter to you; which Puss learns and he grows as a person because of it.

[@ibadurrohmanmusthofa7619]

facts, puss in boots 2 is masterpiece of this decade

[@XXTH3ST4RXX]

@@ibadurrohmanmusthofa7619based

[@ohgin12345]

​@@ibadurrohmanmusthofa7619 when average, generic movies that were of similar qualities of those made in 2010s, 2000s and 1990s are being talked as being a masterpiece, we know which we are heading towards disaster

[@VoidStar.]

What's even scarier than Disney putting out such a brainless movie is how many people are still out there going "It was such a cute movie! My kids loved it! There's too much hate for it." Like... consumers have actually been trained to be braindead. It's scary AF.

[@schuylergeery-zink1923]

I’d be more forgiving if it were a smaller company with a minute budget. No one would care. But this is Disney and even worse their 100th anniversary! Yikes!

[@darkzeroprojects4245]

Tbh it's consumers who support anything.

[@VoidStar.]

@@darkzeroprojects4245 That's why I watched a cam. :)

[@JamesE88]

People can have their own opinions, at least they actually saw it, unlike a lot of the people who are bashing it

[@ioncekilledamanwithmyshoe]

The people who say that stuff usually aren’t so bright in the first place. They often aren’t the of deepest thinkers which leads them to be so easily manipulated. It’s not all consumers but you’re totally right that there are too many people who can’t critically think.

[@Teramoix]

I can't get over the fucking premise. So you're telling me that the "bad guy" grants wishes that he thinks are good and helpful, and makes people who have evil or selfish wishes forget them, making them better people as a result. And this is supposed to be the actions of a vile dictator?

[@cakeyeater7392]

One could make the argument that authoritarian leaders act in symbolically similar ways. By removing agency of their people, and deciding for them what is good or helpful, and what is selfish or bad. Where this argument appears to fall apart, though, is that this practice is, ostensibly, voluntary. He doesn't have the desire, or power, to grant every wish, but he can remove the feelings of failure and/or the frustration of being unable to achieve your dream from those would couldn't.

[@Triggermangravy]

Red Scare was one helluva drug, he'd have prolly been called a commie back in the day

[@nadinaccg]

The point was supposed to be that he was overly anxious about what could be considered a "threat", so he saw nearly every wish as a potential threat to the kingdom, making him a control freak. To the film's credit Asha, the queen and the citizens try to get through to him but he doubles down and gets worse as the film goes on because he's unable to give up control. It feels like an ironically adequate representation of what happened to this movie. Disney sticking to its rigid formulas instead of letting the creatives on board do something, well, creative, created a technically correct but soul-less product.

[@towelgirl21]

And I mean... if you forgot that you wanted something unobtainable, you don't get disappointed when you don't get it, right? At this point, I'd probably hand mine over.

[@pinkdarkman]

I haven't seen this movie, but from the video I think it's more like: someone wishes that they could fly. The king sees this as an unobtainable wish, so he never grants it. He doesn't realize that this wish that HE sees as unobtainable could he obtainable ie: inventing hot air balloons, jetpacks, airplanes, etc. The moral, I think, is that with enough creativity a wish can come true, even if it seems impossible, and if that is what your heart truly desires, you should go for it even if everyone puts you down for it. And don't put down others for their dreams cuz what seems impossible to you might very well be possible in someone else's hands. Idk if the movie actually goes into all that and shows examples or if that even is the real moral that they're going for.

[@Trailblazers_Phone]

Wish doesn’t feel like a Disney movie, it feels like a fever dream gone wrong.

[@VulpinetideCuteTimes0w0]

Puss in boots 2 felt more like Disney than Disney has since it's renascence. Only thing that was missing were songs... Well, other than the one in the beginning.

[@lmahu6627]

It's really funny that Dreamworks started as a subversion of the usual Disney fare, where things are placed straight, and now it's been flipped to a degree.

[@MRed0135]

That's because conventional storytelling IS subversive new. People are so starved for a good traditional story without a modern twist that it's a breath of fresh air. Traditional is the new subversive.

[@bendietrees]

I enjoyed that movie so much I actually cried during it 😂

[@cosmicspacething3474]

@@MRed0135 Puss 2 still had some good twists and turns

[@nonameless2]

Mulan also has a similar motivation at the beginning of her story--she wanted to do well for her matchmaker interview. But we aren't awkwardly told that--we are SHOWN that as she writes the cheat codes on her wrists and then rushes into town, where her family is annoyed she's late. It all feels natural, it shows the character's motivations & personality, and it also has a fun musical number (which, admittedly, has some dialogue that spells out some stuff, but it's also shown to us as they sing it, so it feels fine)

[@fractalgem]

And which hints at things to come, like her instantly grasping a good chinese chess move involving a canon, showcasing her strategic genius and fondness of canons.

[@arkel_77]

Sometimes I wonder if these studios should challenge themselves to do a silent movie, just to see if they can still get their point across with directing & screenplay. Watching a movie like Treasure Planet, The Little Mermaid, Wall-E, etc, loses a little of its color without the audio but you can still *feel* the story.

[@sonkponkle7549]

Good point, as someone learning animation, it's something majority of animation students learn to do before ever being introduced into voice acting. Silent movies are the #1 way to get a story across because you're forcing yourself to work with the expressionism aspect of animation. that being said, I disagree with your comment on Wall-E, alot of the story between Wall-E and Eve and Wall-E and the planet were done without voice acting and I admire it alot for that. Anywhoo im blabbering, my bad.

[@arkel_77]

@@sonkponkle7549 that's actually why I brought up Wall-E. With that one, the main reason it "loses some of its color" is because without audio, you miss out on that bloodcurdling scream "WALL-E!" by Eve when Wall-E dies (spoilers oh no) - one of my favorite lines in any movie because of the absolute masterclass in voice acting. Also the human characters lose out a lot & you miss out on "Put on Your Sunday Clothes," which is a big part of the heart of the movie, but it was mainly the Eve line

[@aotc2669]

one great example is alan becker's "animation vs animator" series (as well as all the spinoffs). it's crazy how much character he makes without FACES, much less dialogue

[@TheDsRequiem]

Literally nobody would watch a silent movie nowadays lmao

[@pizza-pi]

@@TheDsRequiem meanwhile, in reality, there's a whole genre on youtube people are very active in that is just that.

[@LaurenJD]

Chat gpt prompt must have been: 'Write a movie that feels like it's trying too hard to be a Disney movie. Make sure all the songs are just more dialogue to music.'

[@psychotophatcat]

Man. People so often complain that Disney gives male characters diverse body types and facial features more often than female that I didn't even notice how egregious the lack of skin color and ethnic representation was for the guys. It's like they want all female lead characters to be pretty but will concede in coloration/ethnicity, yet want all male lead characters to have different silhouettes with no change in coloration/ethnicity. The closest we've gotten is Naveen and he's from an imaginary country! And if you count Disney shorts, John Henry. Good grief! Guess we can't have a stout main girl or a dark-skinned main boy.

[@Ironcabbit]

And you have to go back to the hand-drawn animation era to find Disney’s last villain of color in Dr. Facilier.

[@jelyfisher]

Yep. I've noticed this growing up. It's part of why I've become disillusioned to Disney.

[@madeniquevanwyk]

I would class Moana and Mirabel as a lil bit more stout than the rest, but I do still agree with your point.

[@SnackAttackJack]

you clearly forget Junglebook or Aladdin

[@avalonlove8114]

@@SnackAttackJackthey’re both lightskinned though

[@xpendabull]

A room full of suits and corporate writers is basically the same as chat gpt imo

[@NdieCity]

about the same amount of humanity

[@aminulhussain2277]

Chat gpt has more empathy.

[@jneumy566]

I feel like Magnifico's "villain" song alonehad some AI involved in it. There's no way a human being thought "I let you live here for free, and I don't even charge you rent" made sense. At least not someone who's supposed to be a professional screenplay writter.

[@ananas_6029]

I thought this line was specifically made to be funny, because when he tries to explain why he thinks the people are ungrateful he says the same argument (no rent) twice, which shows (for once shows not tells ) his lack of actual arguments and letting us see through his point of view. Also shows his praise obsession cause he literally wants to be thanked twice for the same thing.

[@jneumy566]

@@ananas_6029 I haven't seen the movie, but from what I've heard his actual behavior that we're shown in the beginning doesn't show him to be all that villainous and then they kinda shoehorn a villain plot in

[@ananas_6029]

@@jneumy566 Well yes they do I was just explaining the lyrics

[@blanche__]

the song is from Magnifico's PoV. it could be a way to display how little he actually does (thus he has to repeat things to make it sound like he does more than he actually does). this being said... that's just a theory

[@benpiano800]

"Peep the name"

[@papermind4010]

“We’re making another brown girl, just rollback the Moana design and fresh it up a bit”

[@Matau228]

From what I've heard about this movie, it sounds like it would've been more creative, fun, and in theme for 100 years of Disney to make it a jukebox musical of re-contextualized, remixed, and re-composed Disney songs. Like, imagine having Magnifico's backstory being a sort of twisted version of Aladdin, where he first learns to grant wishes in a version of "One Jump Ahead," and the first wish he granted was his wife's, where she wished for him to be king- making him wonder if she truly loves him, or the power he now has- so he wipes her memory of it, starting the tradition of making his people forget their wishes and not granting the ones he deemed "dangerous" in order to hold onto his power (and in his eyes, the love of his wife). He's charismatically 'evil,' but ultimately motivated by his uncertainty and lack of confidence. Magnifico's wife was originally going to be a villain as well, so you could have her be the kind of person who enjoys holding power over people- A slightly sinister "Be our Guest" during a scene where she flaunts their wealth- but give her the twist that as soon as Magnifico loses his power/influence in the final act, she reveals that she loves him even without it all, she just likes having power over people. Have Asha be centered around her family, around the power their wishes could give, learning that Magnifico singles out wishes that he deems 'dangerous,' and that all of her family's are considered 'dangerous,' decides to usurp him for selfish means (Good-guy "Be Prepared" song), and along the way she sees that she'd just be the same as Magnifico if she only granted her family's wishes. Throw in some more thematic and relevant songs from other classic Disney movies, and it'd all close with a rendition of "When you wish upon a Star," of course. It'd still be corporate (can't really escape that with Disney nowadays), but at least it'd be more fun than what we got.

[@togucvinw7]

A very good concept , if we were still in the 2000 era of Disney but in the 2020’s it’s all about « down with the patriarchy » so no evil Queen (unless she has a sad backstory like they did Maleficent and like they are more than likely going to do with the new Snow White’s Evil Queen)

[@nothingqueen444]

​@@togucvinw7disney is not "down with the patriarchy" lmao, they just adopted corporate white feminism to sell more

[@mane53017]

At least a leitmotiv

[@mane53017]

​@@togucvinw7which I, as a woman, find insulting, why can't they just treat woman like actual people? Evil woman exist, and female villains (such a s Gothel, to me at least) could be presented as powrful woman soooo, the issue is? Disney is just coward and too capitalized

[@aelie8198]

@@mane53017 exactly. im a woman too and originally wish was gonna have the king and queen be evil together which WOULD HAVE BEEN SO COOL??? an homage to all the male and female villains

[@captainbirch2.079]

To see how close the idea that Wish feels like an ai generated movie, i made Chatgpt write the plot to a Disney film that would be the 100 year Disney celebration, while also having the same plot revolving around wishes. Heres what i got. "In celebration of Disney's 100th anniversary, imagine a heartwarming film titled "Wishkeepers: A Century of Dreams." The story revolves around a whimsical town called Evergreen Grove, where a mystical tree, the "Century Wish Tree," has stood for a hundred years. Every year on the eve of Disney's founding anniversary, this tree grants one wish to a chosen individual who has shown exceptional kindness and bravery. Our protagonist, Lily, a young girl with an unwavering belief in magic and kindness, discovers the existence of the Century Wish Tree. However, the tree is slowly losing its magic due to people in the town becoming more self-centered and forgetting the importance of selfless wishes. As the 100th anniversary approaches, Lily realizes that the tree's magic is fading faster than ever. With the help of her quirky friends, she embarks on a quest to remind the town of the power of selfless wishes and restore the tree's fading magic. Throughout their journey, they encounter obstacles, face personal challenges, and learn valuable lessons about the true nature of wishes. Along the way, they meet characters from iconic Disney movies who impart wisdom and guidance, tying in the celebration of Disney's legacy. Ultimately, on the night of the anniversary, as the town gathers around the tree, Lily selflessly wishes for the tree's magic to be replenished so that it can continue granting wishes for generations to come. Moved by Lily's pure heart and the unity of the townspeople, the tree bursts into a dazzling display of light, restoring its magic and showering the town with hope and joy. "Wishkeepers: A Century of Dreams" celebrates Disney's rich history while emphasizing the enduring power of kindness, selflessness, and the magic of wishes." How is this actual AI generated plot better than the actual plot they used

[@Lalalauren1117]

That actually sounds fantastic. I haven't watched a new Disney movie in years, but if they rolled with that idea, made it hand-drawn and sprinkled it with Disney's classic magic, I'd totally watch that.

[@tiahnarodriguez3809]

Not bad. It sounds like the Disneyfied version of “The Giving Tree”.

[@ThePC007]

It’s honestly just marginally better. After the exposition, everything else just concludes itself naturally. There’s no mystery, not even a plot twist, nor any character development at all. I think this could be a nice little short-story, designed to remind people of all the great Disney characters (since apparently the main cast is supposed to meet all of them), but this isn’t really material for an actual movie.

[@The-Shadows-Lair]

If this story could be expanded on with actual conflict or something trying to prevent the heros from healing the tree aside from just people being selfish... this would be an amazing story.

[@corrieloren8661]

Sounds really boring. I mean wish wasn’t great but its plot is not be compared to what i write for a story assignment in third grade. Also Sophia the first has similar plot of Disney princesses coming to her world to guide her. Which what is expected of Ai.

[@pentifexmonolith]

Asha doesn't have a character arc because it is a villain arc. In the movie she wants all the wishes granted not just the ones that benefit everyone, this includes all the wishes that want to harm people and enslave countries/world.

[@tessfabled4115]

This is presumably why this kingdom is not mentioned anywhere despite apparently being a precursor (timeline-wise) to other Disney films - someone probably wished for something absolutely catastrophic and wiped it off the face of the planet.

[@murciadoxial8056]

something tells me this is just your interpretation and there isn't an scene of wishes almost destroying the world

[@pustota7254]

@@murciadoxial8056 *a

[@psychotophatcat]

@@murciadoxial8056 No. Magnifico briefly mentions that something happened in his past (not spoiling it in case you actually care) to make him not want to grant all wishes, but that's about it. There's no real, tangible threat.

[@TheJadedJames]

1- Magnifico definition of a dangerous wish was literally just an old guy who wanted to make inspirational music. 2 - Asha didn’t want Magnifico to grant all the wishes. She wanted the wishes returned to people that he wasn’t going to grant

[@TheSecretTheo]

The audacity had me giggeling🤣

[@TheWritersBlockOfficial]

Someone of culture i see

[@decusq]

Wish's concept COULD HAVE WORKED had the writers taken more time to flesh out both Asha's and Magnifico's motivations as well as the Kingdom itself. Rather then Magnifico and Asha being enemies I think this should have been more like a retelling of Sorcerer's apprentice. The story could have been about Asha learning that not all wishes can come true and Magnifico could have learned that Paradise is nice but having even impossible dreams is apart of you even if they don't come true. The story could have been handled much better had they taken the time to let this cook a little more in the writer's room.

[@rai1578]

That's the worst thing. I think the general concept is more than just okay, I think it's GOOD actually. But the writing is so bad that it turns a concept with a lot of potential into something that feels boring and uninspired. I honestly think there's enough potential that this movie could have been beloved by many if they had just.... done a good job. I mean, who doesn't have a wish? That's just such an innate, human experience that just about anyone could relate to.

[@Anotherfunnyword]

Some of the song lyrics sure felt like they were written by AI. "So I look up at the stars to guide me" "And throw caution to every warning sign" (what?! lol) "If knowing what it could be is what drives me" "Then let me be the first to stand in line"" or "I let you live here for free And I don't even charge you rent"

[@Tofu_soup]

Lol those are pretty bad

[@slackwellman5499]

Honestly I've prompted AI and got better results than that trash

[@cinderelenn]

lmao yes

[@Klassikhuhn]

What's more scary: AI writing the script or a person writing it and everyone thinks it was written by AI.

[@deltaxcd]

I think now every writer will be using AI s that's pretty good thing and it very much improves your work But there is no point for Ai to write movie script movies are pretty short you can write that by hand

[@aaronhernandez7268]

bruh he is literally the good guy in my eyes because the "protagonist" is selfish and defies magnifico's rule for no apparent reason other than her opinion that "everyone should have their wish", then convinced his people to turn against him even though he did nothing wrong and then he is portrayed as the "bad king" even though his magic that is "forbidden" doesn't hurt anyone with his attacks?! HE IS LITERALLY TRYING TO REDUCE PEOPLE BEING SAD BECAUSE THEY CANT FULFILL THEIR DREAMS????

[@crossanddream2]

That's what I'm saying! He never once actually hurts anyone and he still listens to his wife when she asks/tells him something, he is much more reasonable and likeable than any of the other characters. He's by far the worst "villain" I've seen, I've seen random people do better at portraying him as an actual villain. Including his wife which just makes it so much better giving the viewers with a villain couple who despite evil do love each other

[@Amberchuuu]

UP is the definition of show not tell. The first part of that film, with not a single sentence uttered, is such a beautiful piece of storytelling

[@rooenart1346]

Disney is afraid of making a 'bad' guy in their animated movies. Elemental, Turning Red, Strange World, Luca, Raya, Encanto, Soul, Onward none of these movies had a 'BAD guy' that wasn't misunderstood or doing something for what they thought were the right reasons. It was family drama, a vague concept of 'evil' or just a mindless creature. You never see Scar's or even Mother Gothals anymore because Disney is too afraid of making a 'bad guy'. Even in Wish the King started out making sense and suddenly just kinda snapped but also he has a point but also he's dumb as hell. They didn't want to make him 'bad' but they also wanted to fake that old school disney antagonist.

[@BiggieTrismegistus]

I don't think that's a problem with Wish and other Disney movies. It's a problem with a lot of fiction today, especially genre fiction. In fact the superhero comics community has been discussing this exact same problem over the past few days. I've come to the conclusion that the cause of this issue is political and to rooted in the drive towards "diversity" and "representation" both on-panel and amongst the writers. I know by reading that you're going to immediately think I'm a Trump fan who is going to start calling everything "woke" but I'm not. I'm a man of the political left and was initially happy to see more diversity and representation when DC Comics and Marvel Comics began making the effort about 10 years ago. The thing that's had the biggest effect was the demands that began to be made around 2010 that "we need more woman in comics". This was treated as a good thing _a priori_ for some reason but I wasn't opposed to the idea. It turns out I should have been because woman are for most part incapable of writing good superhero comics I've spent years waiting for things to get better but if anything they've gotten worse. It seems they decided that traditional superhero stories where the heroes beat the villains are full "male toxicity" "white supremacy", "misgony", other popular buzzwords. Our newer diverse and representive writers set about creating diverse and representative heroes and other protagonists to fight the bad guys. What they didn't say outloud through was that beating up the bad guys was no longer the point of the stories: affirmation and validation were. Thus, the villains weren't ever real threats because the hero fighting struggling physically, mentally or morally to come out on top against the bad guy wasn't the point anymore. Instead the diversity and representation characters would always easily come out on top to see show awesome the new heroes were. The validation of how awesome women and LGBTQ+ people was more important than an interesting story. What made it even worse is that the new diverse and representative women doing the writing decided that the villains not only have to be easy to defeat but that couldn't even do anything truly villainous either. Having the bad guy do anything actually evil might upset the new diverse and representative audience they were going for (and that never arrived). Having a bad guy be anti-trans would be "violence" done to trans people who might want to read that comic and that's not acceptable. If the villain wasn't going to be a group similar to Trump's fans written as vaguely white supremacists, the patriarchy, and "entitled" male comics book fans, the bad guy will be a barely threatening and easily defeated white guy. Perhaps most bizarrely the women brought into Marvel and DC and their male sycophants is an idea that the beliefs and statements of villainous characters somehow represent the _real_ beliefs of the straight white men who usually wrote them. Combine placing validation over fighting as the main goal of the story with, ineffectual easily defeated straw-man villains and a refusal to write evil because that somehow means *you're* evil and you have a mass of long-time readers becoming ex-readers. The demographics of those ex-readers allows the diverse and represent crowd say all the fans leaving are bigots with an enormous sense of entitlement who only want to see white men on panel and white men writing the stories. They tell themselves it certainly has nothing to do with all the atrocious stories we've gotten over the last 10 years. It's a nifty little "get-out-accountability-free" card they play over and over again: "the problem isn't us for not telling interesting stories! It's the entitled probabply-bigoted white manbabies who hate our stories because of the demographics of the characters and the writers." Right now they seem content to keep playing that card until an American institution like superhero comics ceases to exist because nobody wants their crap. The most galling thing though is their insistence that fans like me are the "entitled" people in this situation. These are people who felt entitled to positions at Marvel and DC just for their gender. They were handed the key to numerous American icons who had been around for decades and were entitled enough to immediately set out creating what _they_ and not the traditional audience wants. The way they respond to criticism makes it obvious they feel entitled to only hear positive feedback about where they're doing. I've been reading superhero comics for over 30 years and they've been a HUGE part of my life. I'm more than a little disappointed that bunch of ignorant (you can tell the writers haven't read much about the characters beyond check out their Wikipedia page), arrogant, talentless, mean-spirited and _extremely_ entitled people have pretty much killed my love for something to previous meant so much to me. (Sorry for the long but I hope it gave you some insight into the problems Disney has with villains along with letting me vent a bit.)

[@manmoy4104]

Luca and Encanto were at least films that worked without needing a villains, idk what they were even trying to do with Magnifico in this one

[@ThingsStuffington]

Honestly, I think most of those movies didn't really need and wouldn't have benefitted from having a clear 'bad guy'.

[@E_D___]

Well, in real life everyone has a motive, something that made them who they are. I don't think it is a problem to show that in stories. But it feels like present movies like to feed you up any piece of information, they can't be subtle, they can't hint. And they HAVE to explain to you the trauma of everyone. They are forcing it down our throats in a way that ruins the story they are trying to tell

[@justapotato9528]

I actually don't think that it was AI. I think it's something far worse, far more evil and destructive... It was pure marketing writing, taken straight out of social media principles.

[@SimmyVee]

Or individual writers/employees used AI to excessively augment their job requirements

[@Lalalauren1117]

As a visionary whose worked with marketing teams recently, I get what you mean. Building a product based on other product's marketing successes always leads to disaster. The motto I've adopted: The reason something succeeded the first time was because they were the first one's to do it! Simply copying and pasting previous successes into your work results in a product that lacks heart and soul. All new ideas involve risk, but the difference between them and the new "copy-paste" method is that in the end, even if it isn't a great success, you still have something you can be proud of. And who knows, it may even grow a cult following down the road.

[@xiaobelike]

While this is evil, I would not consider it worse. AI is leading to an extremely dark future. Simply following what's popular is an old trick and always fizzles out eventually.

[@DisDatK9]

EXACTLY. It feels like it was written specifically for people on TikTok to watch a clip and say "Hey this seems pretty good." It feels like every scene is contained in its ability to be clipped and shared on social media. I'm sure there were many people involved with this project who were absolutely pissed off about the direction this film went. Not to mention Disney execs will take this as an excuse that people "dont want the old animated films anymore."

[@InceyWincey]

Neither, it’s just written by talentless hacks.

[@3ofEach]

It’s funny that your video popped up on my screen. I have asked my daughter who LOVES Disney movies if she wanted to watch this, if she wanted the toys and even a few shirts . She said NO every time. She said she doesn’t even know what the movie was about & that for some reason she didn’t think it was a real Disney movie (she’s 10)

[@caryeverett8914]

The diversity in Wish is particularly egregious after Encanto absolutely nailed it. A diverse multitacial family of 12, featuring hispanic, black, northern european and mixed race individuals, represented well across both genders. It served more than just meeting a quota. It made the family feel alive and real. It was every bit an excellent example of what diversity can bring to a story's narrative and worldbuilding. And then we get Wish.

[@Average_.AceAttorneyFan]

@@xoxmerelyn1316 I'm a latino, i'm not black or anything but I don't like the term "afro-latino" but it's a problem that I have in general. Like, why is so important remark that someone is black? Why can they just be latino without the afro? They aren't something different to white people, idk, is so weird to me have to remark something so silly to me ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[@valkyrie8467]

@@Average_.AceAttorneyFan I'm white European, but I DO know the answer. It's often used for demographic and cultural purposes. Some people find that it's important to mention the fact they're a black Latino. They're absolutely not different and we're all human, but skin color can impact one's life, culture, and the like, depending on social things like racism. It's hard to explain, but white and black Latinos are still treated differently. Afro-Latinos usually experience worse racism. That racism can turn to strength in unity, which inspires pride in their identity, leading to usage of these specific terms. It's good to be proud and have a label. Hope this helps-- I know I wrote this in a complicated way, but I'm trying to explain it thoroughly.

[@Average_.AceAttorneyFan]

@@valkyrie8467 Yeah but I haven't seen any actual latino use that term and that maybe is because us, latinos doesn't cara about that kind of thing and the racism towards black people is not something very common and even being kind of a joke between us but I get that in coutrys like US the racism is really strong and somebody sees necesary call themselfs like that. I think is kind of racism having so many terms just to say that someone is black and from a region, like, I think is unnecesary the afro-latino bc for us race is not important and you are a latino despite your skin tone of something like that ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[@valkyrie8467]

@@Average_.AceAttorneyFan It's still often used for distinction. There are many different types of Latinos and ethnic groups in Latin America, so it's useful in identification and demographics. These things still exist everywhere, even if they're uncommon. It's not really racist to have a term for someone of a specific variation of Latino, especially since so many different Latino ethnicities exist (Dominican, Caribbean, etc.). Specifics are important, especially to one's culture, depending on their ethnicity. It's important to specify, to some- especially since the Latino label is so diverse! My school is incredibly diverse (I'm Northeastern American) and there are a TON of Latino and Hispanic people. It's a majority Latino school. Even in here, it's important for some to mention- every culture is different, and some cultures find value in the term while others don't.

[@stardewposting]

@@Average_.AceAttorneyFan It'd be stupid to force Afro-Latino on people from other countries... but not for America, if people want to identify it. Different countries simply have different histories, and therefore people racial issues (if any at all). There's a LOT of racism towards black people from everyone in America (mostly because of the "I want to be white" brainwashing). Hell, if you're Mexican, you'll be bullied by lighter-skinned Mexicans for being darker. Darker is "ugly", because it's not white. Only pale-skinned Asians are preferred, too. It's simply different cultures.

[@Account.for.Comment]

I think the issue is that the Disney princess formulas just ran out of creative variations. Walt Disney only made THREE disney princesses amongst a DOZEN films. The Renaissance gave Four more princess (one of which, Jasmine isn't the main focus) out of about a dozen. Disney princesses became Disney icons when the head of merchandising found that Tinkerbell earn more money. So modern Disney pivoted all their energy into manufacturing new Disney princess with "Princess and the Frog", "Frozen", "Tangle", "Raya", "Wish" but they are really just variations of the same formulas.

[@Selrisitai]

I think the Princess and the Frog is a strong enough variation (and Tiana, if I'm remembering her name right, isn't even a princess for 99% of the movie) that it's acceptable. Also, the Princess and the Frog is actually an excellent movie.

[@Account.for.Comment]

@@Selrisitai I like Princess and the Frog, way much more than the rest, but it is not what I would call much of variation. The difference is that the main character actually feel distinctive, like it is her own character rather than a manufactured doll. Disney was heavily criticised for its passive love-struck princesses, so Princess and the Frog, made a black workaholic to address the criticisms. The movie flopped. They perfected the formula that worked for the modern age in Tangle and Frozen. Almost if not all the princesses I've seen from Disney since the year 2000 are just variations of Belle and Jasmine. Same spunk, same desire to get of surrounding, more tsundere-type sarcasm with a love interest, if there is any, a Tiger and/or animal as sidekick... Out if all the animation companies, I never understood why Disney is regarded as its finest. They haven't made a masterpiece since the mid-1990s.

[@Xudmud]

@@Account.for.Comment Kidagakash would like a word, also as a Disney princess of color before Tiana (though I know sadly Disney likes to pretend Atlantis: The Lost Empire never existed).

[@Account.for.Comment]

@@Xudmud The pivot toward Disney princesses being the company started in 2000. Atlantis and Treasure Planet was conceived and was in production prior to that. While in that time, most of Disney animated films (with majority of them has male leads) flopped. Disney rewriting history as always, try to maintains that Disney princess and fairy tale films are Disney traditions. Atlantis did not fit that tradition.

[@kian-ganji]

Frozen (the first one) and tangle were both good written and unique enough movie with good enough characters

[@nosidenoside2458]

It reminds me of this "man dies from eating 402 chicken nuggets" "So the limit is 401" Feeling out what audiences won't accept, so they can do just above that.

[@CaptRalsei]

I hate how plausible this is but yeah, maybe it never was intended to be good. Disney might be analysing all of the feedback to see exactly what they can and can't get away with.

[@FuyoBuho]

i always look forward to your videos, they’re enlightening!

[@TheWritersBlockOfficial]

Thank you so much! I get really in my head about making these (which is part of why there's so much time in between releases) but comments like yours really help make me feel like I'm headed in the right direction

[@anthonyptelfor9661]

Honestly, I think it would've been better if they made the king *seem* like a proper antagonist but made it a twist that he was keeping everyone's dreams for a good reason, like everyone's dreams being granted all at once would throw the world into chaos. I personally think that would've been a much better and more interesting story

[@caryeverett8914]

I had assumed this was going to happen when I first saw the trailer. That the king would be a surprise dual-protagonist, as he really seemed mostly reasonable during the trailer. Quite egotistical, but still fairly reasonable; and it's not like Disney hasn't written a LOT of egotistical protagonists that had to be knocked down a peg to become a hero. Maybe a true villain gets their wish granted (Jaffar 2.0), and becomes a common ground for Asha and the King to unite against, leading both to re-evaluate their philosophies. With so many twist villains in Disney films lately, a twist hero would be a twist on the twist.

[@teresar6348]

Or that it takes him a lot of energy or materials or just a lot of thought. Wouldn't it be really easy for wishes to conflict? 2 different people wish to be the best singers in the kingdom. They cannot both hold the title so how do you reasonably deal with that? The whole 'wishes can be bad' makes sense too, not just from the example he showed, but that he is human, not a god. He isn't perfect and at most, is playing over cautious. Have him hide the fact that magic has a cost, it takes energy from him or years off his life. Or that he is a person who often dreams up many things, and he can only grant another person's wish by giving up his own, limiting how fast he can grant wishes as he has to have another dream of his own to shatter first. This allows for Aisha to have a change in mindset. While the king was doing this willingly, he can't do everything, and she can convince those who have the possibility of following their dreams on their own to do so, reserving the wishes for more miracles. Someone wishing to learn an instrument who could have afforded to do so in the last 50 years should at least be trying of their own volition. Someone who wishes to be able hold their kid one day but can't cause they lost use of their arms seems more in line with the king's idea of who brings forth wishes. Maybe it ends with the number of wish seekers dropping to the point that he can achieve some of his own.

[@silenraven1017]

Are you talking about Bruce almighty? Because that exactly what could happen if everyone wants to win the lottery.

[@MullenaxM]

Wish's tagline sounds like it should be "An animated version of a live action Disney remake we haven't made yet." This was a great essay (Thumbs up). I haven't seen Wish and nothing has inspired me to go see it. It sad considering back 2 years ago Encanto came out being made entirely during lock down and people were passing around the "We don't talk about Bruno" song. Encanto didn't even have a "bad guy" unless you consider family expectations, disappointment, and Isolation.

[@littlebear274]

I maintain that Pressure was a better song than We Don't Talk About Bruno. It's such a perfect depiction of the "eldest daughter" syndrome where she's expected to shoulder everything and you can feel the increasing desperation to get out from under that in the music and lyrics. It's a more targeted appeal, though. Bruno is more catchy (I'm definitely not saying it's not a really great song, because it is), but for the somewhat smaller group of people Pressure speaks to it *really* speaks to them.

[@MullenaxM]

@@littlebear274 Can't argue with that. Bruno was a technically impressive song. Pressure strikes a cord with a lot of people. and I can't listen to Dos Oruguitas without my eyes tearing up and I don't even comprehend Spanish.

[@Dee-Dee]

I never realized the lack of men of color in disney films ( though i have avoided all live action films, and the more recent disney films). but holy fuck thats a huge shock honestly.

[@cthonisprincess4011]

I can only think of four main protagonists, not secondary characters: Mowgli, Aladdin, Kusco, and Kenai.

[@RambunctiousMouse]

Prince Naveen as well, he's the secondary main character in the Princess and the Frog, even if he's not the main lead

[@cthonisprincess4011]

@@RambunctiousMouse Yeah, I know that, but I only listed the male leads, not the secondary characters.

[@RambunctiousMouse]

@@cthonisprincess4011 Ah, I see. Sorry, I guess I misread your comment and misunderstood 😅 thanks for clearing that up

[@KLange76]

@@cthonisprincess4011 Does Aladdin actually count? there some aspect of debate with people of middle eastern and Arabic decent, by some criteria, there seen as "White" for some reason, no one bats an eye about the Danny Thomas show being about a Lebanese entertainer with an Irish wife. it's weird that it's like that though. and Danny Thomas himself was of Lebanese heritage.