The problem with a narrative is that it’s hard to change once it starts. It’s like a snowball rolling downhill. Unless something stops it along the way, it will pick up steam until it can’t be stopped. And therein lies the problem that is currently facing the Walt Disney Company.
Related: Disney is Getting Clobbered at the Box Office Again
The narrative surrounding Walt Disney Studios is that they lost their way. Films, which launched Disney into the entertainment giant that it has become, have fallen off over the last few years. And now, the sharks are starting to circle. As film after film fails at the box office, more narratives accumulate. Disney went “woke,” so now its films are causing the company to “go broke.” The creatives aren’t running the company anymore. Disney CEO Bob Iger lost something off his fastball.
Failure after failure only adds more fuel to the fire. But Iger and Disney Studios had an ace up their sleeves. Disney’s Wish (2023) was supposed to restore Disney’s reputation and, more importantly, Disney’s box office dominance. But with less than a week to go before Wish is released in theaters, reviewers got their first look at Disney Studios’ latest release. And the reviews are…not great.
The Hollywood Reporter wrote in its review:
At the heart of Wish is a topical and winning formula, so it’s a shame that it’s squandered for the sake of a lukewarm, ultimately safe conclusion. The film co-opts and parades a rebelliousness it doesn’t want to commit to: Good wins, but only within the existing structure. If our continuously unprecedented times have taught us any lessons, it’s that the present-day order will need nothing less than a total overhaul. If the last number of Wish — a powerful reprise of “This Wish” — tells us anything, it’s that Asha and her people know that, too.
Variety wrote in its review:
In “Wish,” the lines are too cleanly drawn to tap our imaginations. The songs, by Julia Michaels and Benjamin Rice, are catchy, though in a consumable way that makes it hard not to notice how much they’re imitating the Lin-Manuel Miranda school of verbal aggression wrapped in hooks. Sorry, but there’s no “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” or “Let It Go” here. That may sound like a high bar, but it was Disney, with the quality of those songs (and those films), that raised the bar. The strategy behind “Wish” seems to be: If we do an homage to enchantment, the audience will be enchanted. True magic, however, can’t be recycled.
While the reviews don’t necessarily pan the film, and by no means does this mean that Wish will tank at the box office, it does continue the narrative. It’s been years since Walt Disney Animation Studios had a hit. It’s been two years since Encanto (2021) and four years since Frozen II (2019). But in those years, Walt Disney Studios also released Strange World, which lost millions.
Bad reviews from critics don’t necessarily mean audiences won’t show up. Still, it’s an auspicious start for Disney Studios’ latest release, especially after The Marvels (2023) set a new low for an MCU release with only $46 million in its opening weekend. Bob Iger has said that he wants Disney’s creative teams to focus on fewer films and improve them. But his recent announcement that there will be a Frozen 4 when Frozen 3 hasn’t been released yet shows that Disney is desperately grasping at straws with few new ideas.
Wish stars Ariana DeBose as Asha, Chris Pine as King Magnifico, and Alan Tudyk as Valentino. The Disney movie was written by Jennifer Lee, Allison Moore, and Chris Buck. Lee is responsible for the Frozen series. It opens in theaters November 22.
We will continue to update this story at Disney Fanatic.
