2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the Walt Disney Company, a company known for animated musicals, female protagonists, and wishing on stars. And so, it's fitting that this year’s production from Walt Disney Animation Studios will be an animated musical about a girl who wishes on a star. And it also appears to have something that has been largely lacking from many more recent Disney animated movies, a good old-fashioned Disney villain, voiced by Chris Pine.
Of all of the upcoming Disney movies, this is perhaps the most exciting. The first teaser for Wish is here and it introduces us to a land called Rosas and King Magnifico, voiced by Chris Pine. He tells us this is a land where wishes can come true. He sounds quite majestic and noble at first, but then we discover that not all is as it seems, as he wants all the wishes in the land.
We also meet Asha, voiced by Ariana DeBose, who wishes on a star, and is gifted with Star, who, among other things, gives her pet goat Valentino the voice of Alan Tudyk, who has spent most of his recent Disney appearances making animal noises.
There's certainly a lot of detail about the main plot missing in this first trailer, that's usually the case with Disney teaser trailers, but everything that we do have here looks and sounds incredible. The animation style has a more traditional two-dimensional look, like Disney movies of old, and that's wonderful to see.
Also like classic Disney films, this movie appears to have an actual villain. Most recent Disney animated films have had their heroes battle against circumstances and personal challenges, and there's nothing wrong with that, some of those movies have been incredible. But Disney has a history of creating some of the most memorable bad guys in movie history and it will be fun to see a modern take on it. Chris Pine doesn't usually play the bad guy, but maybe that's why he seems so perfect, as King Magnifico doesn't seem to be outwardly seen that way, his motives are likely secret from his kingdom.
We also get our first tease of the music in the new musical. The song playing over the end is called "The Wish" and it's sung by DeBose and written by Julia Michaels and Benjamin Rice. I certainly want to hear the rest of it, so the trailer has done its job as far as that goes.
Wish will have something of a challenge ahead of it, as Disney Animation has been struggling at the box office of late. Last year's Strange World bombed pretty hard, and even Encanto, while the film eventually became a viral sensation, only found its audience when it was released on Disney+ after having a lukewarm run in theaters.
But Wish looks like it ticks all the boxes of just the sort of movie that fans of Disney animation could possibly want. The only problem now is that we have several months we have to wait before the movie hits theaters.
