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ultraericthered · 5 months

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King Magnifico: Reimagining A Good Baddie Into Disney Villain Excellence.

I did not plan on doing another post about King Magnifico but dammit, the man just compells me. Since I recently drafted a revision treatment for the story of Wish, dubbed The Fully Fulfilled Edition, and it got me thinking more about Magnifico and the iteration of the character that I envisioned for my version of Disney's sentimental centennial tale. I've covered the troubles with the finalized official Disney character enough times already; I feel like the handling of his character and execution of his role as the story's villain was like a basketball wobbling along the rim before falling through the basket rather than a straight slam dunk. He's easily the most well-realized, enticing, entertaining, and developed character of the whole picture, the only one who comes close to being three-dimensional. But even he could've been better. If all the kinks were to have been ironed out in him, what might that actually end up looking like in practice?

Note that for this undertaking, I did not want to super drastically alter Magnifico's character to the point where he'd become completely divorced from what we got in the film and just be Magnifico in name only. I make just enough expansions, alterations, and fixes necessary to turn what I find good enough into what I'd consider truly great.

For starters, his tragic origin story being told to us upfront right out the gate helps to clear the air early into the picture, when we've not yet met King Magnifico but are given the background information of the man who became King Magnifico, wed Queen Amaya, and built the kingdom of Rosas. In my take on the backstory, the young would be-King Magnifico's family lived in a harbor town, working slavishly on what's implied to be export and trade. It's said that one day the young man, wanting his family to be happier and have more time for him, made a wish upon a totem for his family's burdens to be lifted. Well, that ended up being a vague wish that in a way did come true, as the town was soon attacked by a band of greedy marauders. In the storybook images the town would be shown going up in green flames as young Magnifico takes a boat to survival. Unfortunately, the boat ended up getting wrecked landing on a desert island, and the story would tell us that the youth lost everything he had in the wreck...even though he'd clearly be holding onto something in the accompanying picture. It is then said that Magnifico understood well the value and the danger a wish can hold, which inspired him to learn the arts of sorcery and magic that can extract a heart's deepest and most precious wish as a tangible substance held within a magic orb. Eventually he and the loyal wife he'd married built a great kingdom on that very island Magnifico had landed on, the kingdom of Rosas, where the citizens wishes are given, protected, and granted in the benign rule of Magnifico and Amaya, the "long lived" king and queen.

With that backstory and the reasons for why Magnifico founded Rosas and created the wish giving system established, the first in-universe look at the king we're given is in statues, in murals, in his face painted in various locations, even in the cookies Dahlia bakes. The face looks very kind, dignified, wisened, majestic, and above all gorgeously handsome. His presence is also subtly felt in what we'd be shown of the average Rosas citizens - some who are overly happy and enthused in a very cult-like manner and some who are only half-awake and half-heartedly trying to stay into it. This is heavily implicit as being a result of the system and society in Rosas, where the happier people are the ones who've had their wishes granted or have such good standing with the royals that they feel they're likely to have their wishes granted in the near future, while the lethargic ones are those who've given their wishes away, cannot remember what they even were to start with, and have been tirelessly waiting for when the time comes for Magnifico to grant them in a wish ceremony.

So then when we’re properly introduced to King Magnifico after all the build-up, it'd be immediately striking how the appearance of the man himself doesn't quite measure up to what we'd seen depicted in the kingdom's arts and crafts. We were told he's beloved by all, yet the man we meet here would come off very...Stephen Strange-ish. He'd be very smarmy, disgrunted, and patronizing towards Asha, visibly or verbally condescending to her and treating her like a silly, hapless child who he doesn’t believe will attain the apprenticeship. However, he is coming off of another interview that ended poorly, so we think maybe he's just in a mood and we shouldn't immediately assume too badly of him. If we hold onto hope for his better nature to win out, it seems to pay off when he appears to empathize with Asha after she's told him of her deceased father and all the ways in which he'd inspired her to dream big and to love Rosas; it's almost like the king sees some of his younger self in Asha, and through that, he recognizes that she could be a good fit for the job of working for him as his apprentice, someone he can shape into being more like him and following his ways. He'd do the "I too suffered great loss at a young age due to the selfish wishes and actions of greedy thieves and built Rosas as a place where that would not happen" thing like in the movie, but not only do we understand that more due to having been given the whole backstory, it'd also be more noticeable just how...calculated it feels. Like, Magnifico might as well say "I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. Y'know, my late son, Beau..."., y'know those shows of pseudo-empathy that political leaders love to do.

Once Asha has the job and returns to the castle for her first day of apprenticeship, King Magnifico would show us that oh, this guy might actually be worse than we'd thought he was before. He's now in full Handsome Jack from Borderlands mode, acting more giddy and animated because he just loves his apprentice's first days where he can "dazzle them with all his splendor, and win over their love and devotion and appreciation for all his royal duties." And he just acts completely unkind and insensitive to Asha, making her do all sort of minor chores the way Lady Tremaine would do to Cinderella. He lets Asha into his sanctum of wishes, where he holds, throws, balances and caresses some of the various wishes in a way that seems unsettlingly possessive, much akin to how Mother Gothel stroked Rapunzel’s golden hair, and as he does he sings these words:

If happiness was a tangible thing, it would be you If you'd have told me the feeling you'd bring, I'd think it untrue And people search for a wonder like you all of their lives You still amaze me after all this time You pull me in like some kind of wind Mesmerized by the hold I'm in Leave you here, I don't wanna I wanna promise as one does I, I will protect you at all costs Keep you safe here in my arms I, I will protect you at all costs At all costs

Then the shoe drops. Magnifico reveals that he doesn't just collect these wishes to safeguard them and grant them in ceremonies: he uses the magical blessings cast upon the wishes as means of keeping his own magic powers charged every day, and it's also how he has sustained such slow aging and long living for himself and his wife. Yes, the royals feed off of the souls of their own subjects in order to keep their lifespan going, with the wishes extracted from the beautiful innermost part of those souls serving as convenient battery power for them. Unnerved as this makes poor Asha feel, the subject of a long life span naturally calls her almost 100 year old grandfather to mind, and she makes the dreaded "nepotism favor" request that the king consider granting Sabino’s wish at the ceremony. Magnifico, disappointed but not surprised, declines this request, rationalizing the wish could be too vague and might pose a threat to the kingdom. Asha then realizes Magnifico intends to never grant most of these wishes yet refuses to return the ungrantable wishes to their owners. She openly questions the king, telling him it's unreasonable of him to keep the most beautiful part of his subjects very selves from them if he truly has no inclination to grant them with his magic, and he should return those wishes to their owners so that they'll remember them and gain the drive to at least try to work towards fulfilling them themselves. Magnifico lashes out at her in fury ("I decide what everyone deserves!") and as consequence we get the ceremony where Magnifico pulls the spiteful fake-out with the wish granting just to shame and humiliate Asha, and let her know that her family's wishes will be kept by him forever, never to be granted. Also just barely noticable in the same scene would be that Magnifico reveals the wish of the person he grants it to and how it had been worded, but what he gives is notably a distorted alteration of the original wish. For all his high horsing about "be careful what you wish for, wishes worded too vaguely might go wrong when granted and that's too much of a danger risk", he himself exploits vaguely phrased wishes in order to twist them into something with benefits to the kingdom, his rule, and his image. For years, he's really only been using this system of wishes to make his own wishes come true, and has been routinely dishonest and hypocritical about it as he defrauds his people, committing theft by deception. What a self-obsessed bastard.

After Asha's made her wish to the stars and called Star down to Rosas, Magnifico and Amaya, having witnessed the wave of magic it brought, fear an unknown magic source that might threaten their kingdom and the hold they have on all the magic and wishes, but they find no answers in their books and scrolls to what this strange light might be. Magnifico starts acting furiously paranoid, remarking about how much he hates craven thieves and traitors. Due to how things went over with Asha, she is his primary suspect who he fears is now out to usurp his power and might not even be acting alone. As he starts to be overcome by desperation, Magnifico turns to his tome of forbidden dark magic and goes to unseal it. Fortunately for him, Amaya remains level-headed and is able to talk him out of it, to which he gives a very transparently half-hearted "thanks", followed by the "I am a handsome king" bit when Amaya tells him that, as they cannot baselessly accuse and arrest Asha for treason, they use the people’s love of him as their monarch to get them to reach the truth for them.

Of course, during the briefing with the public, people start asking how and why their wishes might now be in danger, which leads to questions about why Magnifico established the system the way that he did, which leads to deeper questioning such as why everything in Rosas is so tailored towards the king despite his role being to protect and provide for the people - like, why does the king need to have his handsome face plastered everywhere? When everyone feels the next wave of magic from Star’s evolution, it proves definitively what Magnifico told them: that this magic didn’t come from him, and that only creates a sense of disillusionment among the people. A furious Magnifico warns of a traitor within the kingdom conspiring to use this magic to steal all wishes and topple the monarchy, who must be found and punished, and then he shuts the doors back into his castle, frantically pacing about and looking to see if the magic came from somewhere within. Visibly aggitated, Amaya tries to soothe her petulant husband urging him to calm his mind and cheer himself up by gazing at his reflection in the mirrored walls. Which leads to....

"This Is The Thanks I Get" (Revised version)!

In between the second chorus and the bridge, Magnifico walks in front of the forbidden magic tome and vocalizes that in his years long reign, he has been far too soft on his people, spoiling them into becoming greedy, entitled ingrates who are all no better than thieves, so he needs to harden his heart and exercise more power “for their own good”, to tighten his grip over Rosas and preserve his power. So he unseals the book, opens it up, and gains power from its corruptive influence. And he made sure to do this when his wife wasn't around to stop him from doing so. This was his choice. He wanted this. In his desperation to not let his power over Rosas slip from him, he turned to what he knew as wrong primarily for the convenience of it enabling him to shed anything within himself that was restraining him before, and grant to him more destructive, awesome power to squash all dissent with. This is what takes him from "big jerk" to "true villain."

After being told by Simon that Asha was indeed responsible for Star's summoning and has been plotting against him, Magnifico goes to Asha's family's home and assaults Sabino and Sakina with magic that’s holding them down when Asha and Star return. Declaring he must arrest the whole family for both high treason and harboring a criminal, Magnifico also takes time to relish some cruelty towards Asha, not only stepping on Sabino's already broken lute in front of her but bringing out Sakina’s wish and using his new dark power to shatter it in his grip, making Sakina reel in agony as the energy from her wish, a sacred part of her soul, gets absorbed into Magnifico’s black magic. Realizing how much power he can claims from the wishes delights the vainglorious monarch, who says had he known this, he would've broken wishes ages ago! So now Magnifico has a singular goal: to absorb the magic of both Star and all the wishes in order to become an all-powerful tyrant, motivated purely by pride, spite, desire for retribution and control, and the power high he's on.

Forging his new dark magic scepter, Magnifico addresses the public once more, revealing the traitor to be Asha and Simon to be the one to sell her out under the promise of having his wish granted. But be careful what you wish for, Simon! Magnifico twists the wish once again ("to be one of the king’s greatest, bravest and most loyal knights"), this time using his new dark magic to bewitch and brainwash him into a magitech knight. He then puts out the reward of another wish granting ceremony for the wish of whichever of his subjects helps the knights capture Asha, with the added threat that the longer it takes for Asha to be captured, the more wishes he will break so no one may get their wishes granted in the end, which makes the masses erupt into carnage and division between the fearful but still adoring loyalists to the king, and those who see this is not right and want no part in it. To quell this disorder, Magnifico unleashes more magic, desecrating the area and putting lives at risk, prompting Amaya to suggest he reign himself in better. To her surprise, Magnifico points his staff at her, telling her to never again second-guess him or give him orders. He then orders all dissenters to be rounded up and locked up in the dungeon. So it's pretty clear by now that Magnifico is far gone, and this time the needless "looking for a way to save Magnifico from the thrall of the dark magic only to learn it can't be done" plot point is omitted, as this Amaya knows from the get-go that once you open the book and read from it even once, your addiction to the power it grants is unbreakable.

At the climax of the story, King Magnifico ascends the castle’s tower, sucks the life out from every wish that has been released into the night sky through his sanctum's open ceiling, and absorbs it all, sending droves of people in the kingdom into agonizing pain, anguish and despair. With no wishes to charge himself with, he gleefully traps Star in his scepter to act as the new living magical battery for his power. He thanks Star and Asha for how they've challenged his rule, because if they hadn't, he'd not have learned how much more gratifying it was to take all that he wants rather than "pretend to care and lightly snack on the magic of those wishes only in desperate moments". Asha's attempts to stop him are easily overpowered, as he uses his dark magic to block out the sky so that the citizens never again may wish upon stars, then KO's his wife with a magic blast for her betrayal, then creates magical chains from out of the ground that bind all the citizens in place, and when the knights rush to stop their mad king, he not only chains them too, but unleashes waves of dark magic that set Rosas ablaze with green fire, madly declaring that he will oppress the disspirited masses forevermore: "No more hope, no more dreams, no escape, no chance to rise up, no one to tell any tales, and no one to challenge me ever again! And I would gladly much rather see my great kingdom burn and physically crumble to Rosas' soil than give up this awesome power I so majestically wield!"

What happens next...well, you all probably know that by now.

So that's Magnifico's progression as the villain in my revision of Wish, but there's one last tiny yet hugely significant touch I'd add to fully bring his character together. A little before the big climax, Amaya would make reference to the fact that sealing the forbidden black magic inside “that heirloom” was among the first fundamental cornerstones of Rosas, but Magnifico has now totally backtracked on that and betrayed his oath to his people and their wishes. Hearing the book called an "heirloom" and then looking back at the storybook images of Magnifico's origin story at the start of the film makes the two pieces click together. That tome of forbidden magic belonged to Magnifico's family, the marauders sought it out and opened it up, which is what actually set the town ablaze, Magnifico took it with him as he fled to the boat, and it was the only thing he had that survived the boat's wreckage onto the shores of what would become Rosas. Throughout the story, Magnifico would have lines expressing his disdain for "thieves", "traitors", "cowards", "ingrates", and "weaklings". ...But this did not really come from just his trauma with the thieves. It's because he felt as though he himself, as a youth, was all of those things. He was a thief who stole his family's book, he was a traitor for making that vague wish that brought the marauders there, he was a coward and an ingrate for fleeing and leaving his family to burn, and he was a weakling for lacking the power to stop any of that from occurring and get things under control. To us on the outside looking in, it's easy to see how irrational it is for Magnifico to blame himself like that and have such self-loathing for boyhood mistakes and things beyond his control that were not really his fault. But tragically, no one ever told him this, not even Amaya. So what drove Magnifico forward in life was a pathological need to change his self image, to become someone greater and more powerful than that thieving little coward, to assert himself as the height of perfection, someone who could be loved and who could love himself in turn. He needed to be a king, for back in the day, a king was considered the only flesh and blood mortal human on Earth close to or secondary in power to the divinity of God Himself, for they had "the divine right to rule", the mandate of Heaven. So not only could Magnifico be that, but his magical power, the extension of his life via the wishes, and the system for taking the secret hopes, dreams, and prayers of the commonfolk to protect and decide which among them to grant, could put him that much closer to being a god among men. That is the core of what King Magnifico wanted; to feel like he was God, so as to erase his own inner pain over the fallability of being human. He was for years perpetually feeding his own power and ego, and yet it was never going to be enough. And he became so enthralled in his own God-and-Savior Complex, in playing at being the highest power in all the land, that he became a greedy, immoral, disruptive and destabilizing individual who brings suffering to the lives and wishes of others, like he'd once been the victim of; he became the very threat to Rosas that he’d been so wary of. And so, he got rewarded as such a threat deserves.

Dammit, now I'm low-key pissed at Disney! Say the line, Peridot!

#Disney #Wish #disney villains #King Magnifico #analysis #fixer upper #what could have been #they wasted a perfectly good character

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creative-soul-22 · 5 months

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About the Critics on Wish

I've read a lot of bad things about Wish. Some make valid points but some are just over the top and some are simply wrong. I didn't want to make a post about it in the first place but some points are interesting to talk about so let's get into it. Buckle up, grab some snacks and drinks because this will get long. Also please hear me out before saying anything.

The first thing this post complains about is the writing. I'm bad at analyzing dialagoues and I only saw the movie in the German version so I'm gonna leave that out of my discussion of this post.

The second thing that is complained is the character motivations. So op is stating that the motivations are "way too broad". This is simply wrong. Asha's motivations are not "that everyone around me gets to be happy". Her motiviation is that the wishes of the people in Rosas get a chance to be realized. She sees that Magnifico keeps all the wishes "under lock and key" (if I may cite Captain Amelia from Treasure Planet here) and asks him to give them back to the people if he doesn't mean to grant them. She doesn't ask him to make them all come true. She asks him to grant her Saba's wish, yes, because she is really excited for his 100th birthday and wishes that his wish is granted since he has been waiting for such a long time. But when Magnifico states he won't grant that wish because it's too vague for him Asha then doesn't say "I want you to grant it anyways". She says "Please give it back to my Saba so he can try to make it come true by himself". She doesn't want to grant them all. She doesn't even want Magnifico to grant all the wishes. She wants Magnifico to at least give the wishes back if he is not intending to grant them because otherwise the wishes will never stand a chance to come true. Also calling a character out for caring about others is a bit over the top in my opinion.

I could talk about King Magnifico for hours. He has such a good character arch and character development. He starts out losing his entire home and family, literally everything he has. We are not only told but also wonderfully shown that he doesn't want everyone's wishes to be destroyed. Because after he lost everything he learns magic and becomes a magician that can protect wishes from harm. And he can also grant wishes. That's what his magic is based on. And he starts out using it for good. He has very good intentions at the beginning: creating a place where wishes are protected from harm and come true so that everyone in Rosas can benefit from his powers and not just he himself. Watching over the wishes in a loving, caring way and keeping them safe. This is very well shown in the "At All Costs" scene. It shows how much Magnifico cares for the wishes and wants to protect them to protect the people by extend - at all costs. Although the flaws in his system of "give me your wish, forget it and I'll grant it somedays" are obvious (I'll get to that later) but that does not make him a villain. It does not make him "driven by a lust of power". He starts out good.

But when the people of Rosas start questioning him he feels hurt in his pride (like Gaston when Belle refuses to marry him) and he turns towards dark magic. That's when he becomes the villain. Because he then does something he actually never did before: actively destroying wishes. His magic is supposed to proctect wishes. That's what he built Rosas on so that others can benefit from it. But when he uses that power for the exact opposite, to destroy wishes and cause harm to the people of Rosas, it happens because of a lust for power.

Because he has very much power over the people of Rosas. Physically through his actual magical abillities but also psychological. He doesn't intenionally grabed for the power. It just came with how Rosas works. He knows he has that great power over the people but that alone doesn't corrupt him. But when people question him he feels threatened and turns to the dark side. And as soon he finds out what else his powers can do, he willingly grabs for that power. Offer a person with power even more power and they will highly likely take that. Power can corrupt the best people with the best intentions and Magnifico is a perfect example for that.

Now for the premise of the movie. What the person has gotten wrong about "wishes are the most beautiful part of a person" is that it has nothing to do with your physical appearance. Also, if you can't tell what a wish is after watching a couple of Disney movies then have you really watched them? A wish is your heart's greatest desire. Ariel's greatest desire is to get to know humans and spend time with one. Moana's greatest desire is to set sail and ship on the big wide open sea. Elsa's greatest desire is to be herself without hurting someone with her powers. All of that expressed in Disney "I want" songs like "Part Of Your World", "How Far I'll Go" and "Let It Go".

They are the most beautiful aspect of your personality, of your soul. They are what makes your soul shine and your heart sing. They are what makes you dream and reminisce and what filles your heart with the purest happiness. They are something you long for. They are the best aspect of you. They are a piece of your heart. "Asha's grandfather has forgotten his wish, but that does not make him less beautiful." Exactly.

And the fact that the people of Rosas forget their wishes when giving them to King Magnifico is exactly why it's worth going through this adventure to give them back. Also, at first, Asha just wants to get Saba Sabino's and her mother Zakina's wish to give them back but the more dangerous Magnifico becomes, that plan changes into give all the wishes back. Because how should they have a chance to make their wishes come true? Their wishes are in the hands of Magnifico, who decides which wishes have a chance and which not. And they don't even remember. They have no authority over their wishes. And the whole goal of the movie is to give people back the authority over their wishes. Just like Saba Sabino says: "I might never inspire someone but now I have at least a chance to". That's it what it's about.

The sleepy-analogue character is a sleepy-analogue character, a nod to Sleepy from the seven dwarfs from "Snow White". I don't know if it's due to him giving up his wish or not, I must see the movie again for that. But maybe it's an antithesis to his biggest wish being a strong knight. But I must watch that again to say for certain.

The backround character who wants to fly like a bird still is drawn towards them as we can see her sitting at a well feeding them (which could also be why she wants to fly!). Also may I remind you about how people in the 18th and 19th century made fun of people who wanted to fly? The point was never to fly like birds but to invent a machine strong enough to take off the ground and carry us anywhere. That is the reason we have airplanes today. Because there were people dreaming of flying. They had that dream and never gave up until they succeded and now there's airplanes to take us anywhere. But with her wish given to Magnifico, not remembering it anymore, she has no chance to realize that wish. But once she has her wish back she helps Peter Pan building a flying machine and to make that wish come true.

The post then rambles about how the people feel just grief when their wish is destroyed and how that can be because they forgot it in the first place. Well. It's the best part of their personality. They gave it away and don't remember it anymore but that doesn't mean that part is lost or has faded. It's still a part of them and they are still connected to their wish. Right before "At All Costs" Asha states that the wishes are so "alive". Yes, they are alive, they're parts of people's beating hearts! They are a soul. They are not just lifeless, soulless thoughts. They have a soul because they are a part of people's hearts. So, if that is destroyed, of course you feel devasted. Zakina feels like a part of herself just died and that's what actually happened. She feels the grief of a broken dream without remembering what the wish was. That is even more devasting. Griefing something you don't know is way harder than knowing what you lost.

About the "why" on the wishes: we do get to see why Asha wants every wish to have a chance to come true. Because the wishes are the best part of one's personality. Or, with her words: "They gave away the best part of themselves. They don't even know what they're missing". We do also get to see why the king wants to protect the wishes: because he saw his own wish fall apart. You are right that the wishes are kept vage and without a reason for they're existence. Some wishes are not even shown. And that is the point. When Asha asks Maginfico to grant her Saba's wish he looks at it and states it's too vage. Because who does Sabino want to inspire? A group of rebels? A group of regicides? Maybe he just loves music and wants to pass that on to young people and inspire them to be a musician themselves. We don't know. That's the reason Magnifico does not plan to grant that because he thinks it's too dangerous. Because does a wish always need a reason to have the right to exist? It doesn't. It's not so important why you have a wish. What counts is that you have it! That's the heart of Disney!

The main point of the movie is not "Keep wishing for more even when it's hard". The main point of the movie is "your wish is yours and every wish deserves at least the chance to come true". Hence the endtitle's song "A Wish Worth Making". Also, isn't there a line in "A Wish Is A Dream" from Cinderella that goes "Whatever you wish for you keep"? Because that's what's it about when it comes to wishing. Because what are we without wishes?

Asha has a dream of her own! It's that every wish gets a chance to come true. And oh boy is it hard work to achieve because she is fighting against Magnifico, the king with the magical powers while she herself has no magical powers. Just listen to "Knowing What I Know Now".

The people don't give the wishes to Magnifico voluntarily. Magnifico has built a system of "give me your wish, I'll keep it safe and maybe one day it'll come true". And because of the people believe him they give it to him. But as we learn, they're hopes are empty because most of the wishes won't be granted. It's a bit of a cult-ish thing. This post explaines it very well:

Than we got the next thing to talk about:

@artist-issues you said "don't argue with me on that" but I'll give it a try because you made some interesting points here that are worth talking about.

Yes, you are right about that most Disney movie's idea with wishes is "Do what's right, trust a higher power and something even more wonderful than what you what you wished for will happen".

And it's all in the movie. Hear me out.

The examples you gave for "Trust in a higher power combined with dilligence to do what's right" are perfect and show very good what is missing in the film in the first place and then is restored. Geez the movie is about the absence of this and how the formula of "trust in a higher power + dilligence to do what's good" needs to be restored.

Because listen. When you have a magic king that could make your wish come true with a single snap of his fingers, do you need to wish upon a star? Do you really need to do what's right if Magnifico can grant your wish at a wish ceremony? And when you didn't get your wish this time, there's always a next time... It's a lottery game every wish ceremony. People hope "will my wish be granted?" but it's more like a "will I win the jackpot?"-thing. The wishes are not magical anymore, they have become people's stakes. Yes, wishes have lost their magic in Rosas, wishing upon a star is not needed. The higher power is King Magnifico. That's why the characters don't wish upon a star (the rude comment when Asha admits she wished upon a star comes from the grumpy goat of the characters so that's not saying that much).

Asha has a trust in a higher power and the dilligence to what's good. Listen to "This Wish": "So I look up at the stars to guide me..." She trusts the stars to guide her the right way.

Trust in a higher power (star) and the dilligence to do what's right (give back everyone's wishes and dethrone Magnifico) makes not only her wish come true (everyone's wish has a chance to come true) but also makes the life of the people in Rosas better. Asha is even more selfless than other Disney Princesses. Ariel wishes to know more about the human world. Tiana wishes for her restaurant. Cinderella wishes to escape the toxic environment she's in. Snow White wishes for love. I don't say these princesses are selfish, god no, they are selfless and do what's good. But they're wishes are about something for themselves.

Asha's wish is always about others. At first it's about her Saba's wish. When she learns that his wish will never be granted she plans to steal his wish to give it back to him. Then she learns her mother's wish won't be granted either and she tries to steal their wishes but fails. At first Magnifico comes back before she can get Zakina's wish and then Magnifico shows up at their home with Zakina's wish only to break it in front of her eyes. Why? Because Asha didn't do what's right. Because stealing the wishes isn't good and stealing the wishes only of her loved ones is selfish. That's why she fails in the first place.

But when she plans to give the wishes back to the people (with the help of her friends) and to end Magnifico's malevolent leadership, her wish, her actions become selfless and she succeeds.

Also in the end when they say goodbye to star they wonder how they can make it happy. And Asha says what star wants to tell them: "wish for something. Wish upon a star." Also, with Asha as the fairy godmother they have a new higher power.

Disney could have picked any topic for the 100th anniversary movie but it picked the topic "wishes" because that's the heart of Disney. "Trust in a higher power, have the dilligence to do what's right and you shall have your wish granted". And of course, in a movie about that, the two need to be absent in the first place so they can be restored throughout the movie.

Two other things I'd like to highlight about the movie:

Look at these faces and tell me they don't express emotions

Another important thing:

I recognized this too, and I think it's pretty cool. Having a character using a mobility aid without it being a part of the plot. Just it being a part of the character's appearance. Not the plot.

#disney #wish #wish 2023

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