There are things I love about the Disney Princess machine and things that I hate. There’s no doubt that there’s an effort for inclusiveness which I love, but the current optics aren’t that good and this particular animated feature seems to pander both to diversity and to Disney’s centennial celebration. The results are some good visuals, costumes that are definitely cosplay-worthy, but a story that fails to be emotionally moving.

The story by Jennifer Lee, Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn and Allison Moore (with a screenplay by Lee and Moore) centers on Asha (Ariana DeBose), an Afro-Latina, who lives in the island Kingdom of Rosas. Of course, there is an absent parent. The 17-year-old Asha lives with her mother Sakina (Natasha Rothwell)  and grandfather Sabino (Victor Garber). As one would expect and all plushie-loving Disney fans expect, Asha has a pet: a pajama-wearing goat named Valentino (Alan Tudyk).

The kingdom was founded by King Magnifico and his wife Queen Amaya in the Mediterranean Sea because the king was disappointed with the warring and bickering nature of human society. With his magical powers, he keeps the citizens safe, or so he says. When a citizen of Rosas turns 18, the king has a ceremony in which they give up their most important wish to the king who keeps these wishes sealed in a bubble in a special room in his palace. Once a month, the king selects one of the residents’ wishes to be granted in front of the citizens, but otherwise, the citizens forget their wishes.

Asha is soon to turn 18, but because her grandfather is turning 100 sooner than that and on the day of the monthly wish granting ceremony, she hopes Magnifico will grant his wish. Asha also happens to be up for an interview at the castle to be the sorcerer’s apprentice. No, that’s not a reference to  the 2010 Nicolas Cage film or the 2001 film with Robert Davi as Merlin.  This is a reference to the famous third segment of Disney’s 1940 animated feature film, “Fantasia” which stars Mickey Mouse as the titular apprentice.  To bolster her confidence, Asha talks with her bestie, Dahlia (voiced by Jennifer Kumiyama), an East Asian-ish disabled teen who happens to be the royal baker. Breaking the Disney tradition, Asha has a whole gang of friends. Besides Dahlia, she has six of them–Gabo, Hal, Simon, Safi, Drop and Bazeema. With Dahlia that makes seven to remind viewers of Disney’s 1937 “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”

The character Dahlia is inspired by Doc. Cynical Gabo (Harvey Guillén) is Grumpy. Cheerful Hal (Niko Vargas) is Happy. Simon (Evan Peters) is the strongest but he’s often asleep so he’s Sleepy. Safi (Ramy Youssef) has allergies (and shouldn’t be working in the kitchen) is Sneezy. Dario (Jon Rudnitsky) is Dopey. The shy Bazeema (Della Saba) is Bashful. Or:

• Doc Dahlia
• Happy Hal
• Sleepy Simon
• Sneezy Safi
• Dopey Dario
• Bashful Bazeema

The interview begins well, even though Asha sets off the magical alarm surrounding a dangerous book of dark magic, but then Magnifico allows Asha into his observatory where the blue bubbles which contain all the wishes he’s been given float around. During this sequence there’s a reference to other Disney films (e.g. “Peter Pan” and “Mary Poppins”). Instead of thinking of the whole of Rosas,  Asha proceeds with tunnel vision immediately finds her grandfather’s wish and asks Magnifico to grant it. As Magnifico rightfully points out, it is a bit impertinent to ask for favors during an interview. Usually, he admits, it takes longer, but it’s still inappropriate.  Yet Asha learns that when Magnifico takes the wishes, the citizens’ forget their ambitions and dreams and this makes the adult citizens of Rosas complacent and easy to control.

All the adult audience members will be wondering what happened to teenage angst, but I guess in Rosas, teens don’t get that until after 18? So by taking their wishes at 18, Magnifico (and the parents of Rosas) don’t have to deal with rebels with or without causes. Still,  are your wishes at 18 the same as your wishes at 100? I hope not.

Magnifico refuses to grant Sabino’s wish and makes Asha sit next to the queen at the wish-granting ceremony so that Asha can feel doubly disappointed. In frustration, Asha goes to a tree that she used to sit on with her father and wishes on a star. The star drops to earth and causes magical things to happen, including making animals talk. I suppose that’s meant to remind us of “Cinderella” and “Bambi.”

With the mute, but expressive star, Asha and her seven friends decide to break into the chamber of wishes and retrieve the wishes of only Asha’s grandfather Sabino and mother Sakina. So the seven friends are going to selflessly risk their livelihoods and perhaps even lives for Asha’s family?

Magnifico feels a disturbance in the realm and feeling threatened, searches through his library of ancient spell books until he decides he must use the forbidden book of dark magic. And in this world, once one goes to the dark side, there’s no returning. Of course, Asha and her friends will defeat the villain and there will be a happy ending because this is a Disney film.

Ariana DeBose has a wonderful voice and Chris Pine’s voice work, both singing and otherwise,  is up to the challenge of villainy. Yet the music by Julia Michaels and Benjamin Rice (Dave Metzger composed the score) doesn’t have great hooks and doesn’t stick with you when you leave the theater. The only song I remembered was the classic, “When You Wish Upon a Star,” the song first introduced in the 1940 “Pinocchio,” and used by Disney as its anthem.

The storyline of “Wish” meanders in its attempt to serve and mention 100 years of Disney. But let’s think of one person, Asha, asking seven other people to undertake a risky endeavor to benefit just two members of her family: Sabino and Sakina. Doesn’t that make Asha ultimately selfish? Sabino’s wish is vague, at least to me, and his character is underdeveloped. We are supposed to run with our own memories of gracious and loving and uncommonly old grandfathers. None of my grandfathers lived to witness my birth so my life experience might be a little impoverished here. While I am envious of those who have or had grandfathers and great memories, Sabino as a character isn’t richly developed enough to justify the sacrifice these friends are willing to make without me thinking: Why not their grandfathers or mothers (or grandmothers or fathers). If the film had shown that Sabino and Sakina had somehow been more involved with the lives of Asha’s friends and even the community at large, that might have justified this kind of ask. Yet too much time is spent briefly attempting to build characters of these seven dwarf stand-in and supply opportunities to allude to Disney movies that we have too many characters and not enough character development.

The animation style is supposed to hark back to the Disney traditional watercolor animation combined with computer animation of recent years. At times it does achieve a look reminiscent of the Golden Years of children’s book illustration, but other times, it seems to fall into Saturday morning TV simplicity. The patterning of the costumes might remind you of “Frozen” in its use of geometric design elements. That had the seamstress in me wondering about practical matters and cosplay potential. I did love the character of Star, but I felt it almost belonged in a more fantastical and lighthearted Japanese anime.

I’m not sure what the two directors could have done to save this weak plot and poor character development, but since both Buck (who co-directed the 1999 “Tarzan” and directed the 2013 Oscar-winning “Frozen” and the 2019 “Frozen II“)  and the Thailand-born Veerasunthorn (who was a storyboard artist for the 2013 “Frozen” as well as the 2016 “Moana” and “Zootopia” and the head of story on the 2021 “Raya and the Last Dragon”)  are credited for the story with two others, they are as much part of what is problematic in this film.

For the Disney centennial, you’d wish for more-more creativity, more pushing boundaries, more innovation. It’s great that Disney now has an African American mermaid princess from the live-action “The Little Mermaid” and an Afro Latina princess from “Wish” but I wonder if it might have been more interesting to dig into the folklore and fairytales of Africa–both subSaharan and North African to achieve this. If they wanted to showcase the achievements of Disney over 100 years, perhaps a “That’s Entertainment!” style compilation film would have been a better choice.

“Wish” premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on 8 November 2023 and opened theatrically on 22 November 2023.