Why Disney's Wish Feels So Bland
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- Опубліковано 29 сер 2024
- On the Brittney Reacts Show, we review Disney's Wish starring Ariana Debose and Chris Pine. This is the newest Disney animated flick from from Disney animation. I the box office has been terrible and reviews have been mixed. Here's make take on Wish.
#wish #disney #animation #arianadebose #review
Watch the full review here! ua-cam.com/users/liveemqf__cScy8?si=foWBGItJZgZIc5Tu
Well said about Cinderella!
Most of the Cinderella critics seem to forget that the movie was a Female centric film: Protagonist is female and the Antagonists are Female. In fact as far as the human males go, the Prince hardly has any lines, the King and Duke are portrayed as idiots and the males with the biggest roles are Jaq and Gus, who are mice!
Also Cinderella saves herself from the Stepmother when she instructs the birds to get Bruno to scare away the cat (who trapped Gus with the key that she needed to free herself from the locked attic), also she in turn revealed that she had the other slipper (when the original one broke) thus humiliating the Stepmother who had abused her for years.
In the original movie the prince doesn't even have a name! I think they gave him one in the sequels, but in Cinderella proper he's just "The Prince."
Took until the third movie for the prince to get a role and im thankful because he's a total funny and charming (pun intended) Chad. And the movie still remains women centric as a conflict between Cinderella, her step moms and sisters so nothing lost.
This! I rewatched Cinderella recently and was shocked to realize the Prince has TWO scenes the dance and the wedding. He isn’t even there when cinderella tries on the shoe (it’s his fathers idea not his too!) If someone is going to make the arguement Cinderella gOt SaVeD bY a MaN, they can at least talk about the mice who are the only ones who actually helped save her
Same with Sleeping Beauty! Female centric on the fairies and villain even without the princess.
I love Cinderella. People look down on her because she didn't girl boss her way out of the situation but at the beginning of the movie not only does the narrator tell everyone outright that she's an abuse victim, but Cinderella herself says why she takes the abuse. Cinderella in her own words says she takes the abuse because at least she'll have food and shelter. All she asked for in the movie was a night off. And the prince didn't save her, she saw an amazing opportunity to escape her situation for something better, not knowing the man wasn't a concern to her, and rallied the animals to help her. Rewatching the movie and seeing the nuance in her character you see she's not weak and domicile. Cinderella was trying surviving.
Similar with Snow White. Here we have a girl who's parents died and is being abused by her stepmother, singing about a prince, not because she wants someone to save her, but because she wants someone to love her for the first time in years. That's why she wasn't singing about a prince coming when she was with the dwarves. They loved and cared for her as shown when they chased the queen to avenge her death and mourned her loss.
Not every story should be about a girl boss feminist, that's boring.
$200M and no great songs and no 2d animated star. They're not saving money, they're saving effort
It's also kinda hilarious to me that a BILLION DOLLAR CORPORATION felt they needed to "save money" on their 100 year ANNIVERSARY FILM . as if they haven't already made that money back in Frozen merch 💀
They're money-laundering. A 100 year celebration. Where is Glenn Keane? Where is Alan Menken?
Lin-Manuel Miranda as their in-house musician is a mistake. His style is way too verbose. I don’t like the guy in general and I have issues with Hamilton, but I gotta admit that it works for some of his songs in that. Kids aren’t going to be singing “Scuttlebutt.”
Just a copy & pasted movie
Ohhh lol this ones roughhhhh
Fun, or unfunny, piece of trivia: the idea was to have a villainous couple with an evil king and queen. The only unique thing it could've had, and they deleted it.
I think it could have made for such a neat dynamic! Why does Disney insist on doing this to us?!
@@ThatPageTurnerthey can’t write interesting couple dynamics, mostly because most Disney stories usually ends with people getting together at the end of the story. Hell, take Embers mom from Elemental, her defining trait was that she’s sniffing the air whenever she was on screen? Weak. You’d think creating a dynamic back and forth between 2 evil characters would give them more to work with, not less. But, here we are.
This enrages me every time I see it. It would probably have made this movie WAY more interesting.
evil x evil couples are literally the best dynamic
@@MsMvsc
I'm writing a adult duology with the main couple being evil. It's great and they get worse in the second one lol.
I was under the assumption that the King was once short/ugly and his wish to become dashing and handsome became true. But in order to keep that power, he had to limit/harvest other dreams to keep powerful would have been so interesting!
That would be more interesting!
Now that's an interesting idea! It's like how Mother Gothel controlled Rapunzel to stay young but on a larger scale where the king is manipulating everyone. It could add to his paranoia of being overthrown too like Macbeth but probably less dark, and it contributes to his final fall at the end.
Haven’t watched the movie yet but what happens when he crushes the wishes? Does anything particularly bad happen to the people who made the wish?
@@QueamQuackers when their wishes get destroyed, the person tied to that wish feel a sense of grief in their heart, or some sort of chest pain. but they can get over it. thats all that happens
@@sbeana9aw dang so evil, temporary chest pains
There are some story ideas in the art of wish book that would have been so cool. Like Star being a Peter Pan/Jack Frost style character and the king and queen being a villainous couple. Imagine an evil version of Gomez and Morticia Addams!
Their original ideas were so much better!
@@Brittney_Reacts_ yeah, give us two villains in one movie!
I don't even care about Disney movies now and when I found out they scrapped the villain couple idea I was legit disappointed. Imagine the villain song potential!
The boy was also mute, Asha was their kid, and her and the boy had a romance. Like?? Disney does not want to do anything new these days.. Western animation needs to stop playing safe and or try to pander to the wrong groups, at first it was okay but this studity ia going way too far already. Like these people need to either get called out and do their job well or just get fired.
@@Bombonribon and it is limiting their creativity too.
Villains make the movie. The hero of a story will only be as heroic as the villain is bad. This is a formula that Disney used to know and execute so well and they gave us some of the most memorable bad guys in movie history. But Disney these days is so terrified of offending anyone that they end up pleasing no one.
Sucks that Disney is too afraid to have evil villians. That's why I prefer Transformers films, since each film (minus The Last Knight), have great villians. Even The Fallen has a consistent motivation than Magnifigo, while Megatron, Sentinel Prime (best twist villian), Lockdown, Dropkick/Shatter, and Scourge/Battletrap/Unicron/Nightbird are well written villians. If they stick to the twist villian route, Magnifigo could just be like Sentinel Prime, in terms of their act of desperation of wanting to protect their people.
They should’ve stuck with the concept plot, whoever keeps deciding to take these movies and turn them soft and super clean needs to be fired. Old Cinderella never once looked for love, she worked for freedom and a way to escape her abusive household. She just so happened to have fallen in love.
They should’ve done an actual fairytale recreated like they did in the past with 2D or false 2D watercolors.
I have to point something out. Him already being in a position of power doesn't effect his role as an antagonist negatively. We've seen characters like The Queen from Show White, Shere Khan, etc. as well as several from movies outside of Disney where that's actually a plus, like with Joffrey or Gus Fring from Breaking Bad.
It's just that being in that position doesn't work for this particular villain, one who wants more power despite already having all of it.
True, unless his next step to power is a higher level like a god or something, it doesn't really work.
Frollo is another example of a Disney villain already in power, and he's a terrifying threat for several reasons.
He reminds me of Marlucia from Barbie secret door she was like for a short time a princess aka on power but she wanted MORE!
I feel like he could work in a position of power if people giving up their wishes to him was a scam and he was using the wishes to get something. Then a better plot for Asha could have been that she wants to become the king's apprentice (or is already one) because she SUSPECTS it's a scam and wants to prove it and expose him.
@@matthewmazzatto8003 with Frollo his power was not above the church, every time he tried to commit a malicious act near it, the church pulled his leash and bonked him in the head while telling him "bad Frollo bad", the church forced him to take care of Quasimodo as punishment for murdering his mother and trying to kill him when he was a baby, and the church kept Esmeralda relatively safe from him, with him even warning her that as soon as she steps out he'll go after her, and its not until he decided to very much abandon his religion and go against its beliefs in his pursue of overly corrupt desires that the church couldn't stop him anymore, but the devil was very happy to meet him once his time came to an end, much the same way he wanted his way to go with Esmeralda should she decided to step out of the church, he stepped out of the light protecting him from endless torment in the afterlife
The funny thing about Disney not wanting any consequences for their characters in Wish is that they had this exact same problem in the 80s. Philosophical disagreements over The Fox and the Hound caused Don Bluth to make his own animation studio and gave his old company headaches. After taking some hits, Disney took a big swing with Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which led to their animation renaissance and heavier themes.
Time is a circle but Bob Iger has no interest in actually breaking the cycle this time.
Chief staying alive after getting hit by a train in Fox and the Hound was a bad call, and the cultural impact from the Death of Mufasa scene is all the proof I need.
But the fox and the hound was a good movie
@@matthewmazzatto8003 Chief wasn't the main character, and his injury had an impact, the newbie Copper replaced Chief entirely because he's now to old and injured to hunt. Which lead to Copper getting more intense training as hound dog. And The main theme of the movie is a friendship between a Fox and a Dog, which would eventually lead to them being enemies as result of societies influence. And it's exactly what happens, their friendship is broken and Copper tries to kill his old friend Todd later on.
*Lady and the Tramp* let Trusty live at the end because Peggy Lee pleaded for the character’s life, practically throwing herself at the mercy of Walt Disney himself.
@@Attmay Trusty living is a bit of a different situation. Narratively speaking, almost nothing would've been gained by killing him off at the end of the film. Chief dying would've been a much stronger sparking point for Slade and Copper to hunt down Todd.
I know a lot of people point to Scar and Judge Frollo for "evil villains", but let's not forget that we had Mother Gothel in 2010's Tangled. We were introduced to her as the villain in the very beginning, but the story was laid out so carefully so that the audience's suspense was built around the moment she drops the caring mother act. She was a very well written villainess and it kind of sucks that it's taken over a decade for Disney to forget how to write a meaningful villain.
It'd be interesting if we found out that Magnifico had been imprisoning all the potential sorcerers in the land, and that Asha was just going to be the next victim due to his paranoia of someone taking his spotlight. They could have doubled down on the idea that anyone can make their wish come true if they work hard enough- that they didn't need a sorcerer to grant their wish all along. Or that Magnifico was never able to grant wishes because he never believed in them, not because he refused to grant them. If you want him to be greedy, double down on the greediness. If you want him to be arrogant, make him the most pompous dick towards his subjects, including Asha and his wife. Don't just stop halfway.
Puss in Boots Netflix show did the star thing better lol. You made good points. It's a kid's movie, not family. Even Snow White had a little sass towards the dwarves and she apologized for freaking out earlier and her sweetness isn't boring.
King Magnifico was hardly a villain at all he came off more as massively insecure.
He’s the good guy.
He let everyone live in his kingdom for free 💀 and not pay taxes.
Another example of a good Disney villain is the Queen of Hearts from "Alice In Wonderland," who goes "OFF WITH THEIR HEAD!" to a few playing card soldiers JUST for planting white roses in the Queen's garden by mistake.
(speaking of Alice in Wonderland you should play American McGee's Alice and its sequel they're both some of my favorite games ever made)
@@crowMilatonin I agree. Is it on just the PC, or can you play it on home consoles, too?
I miss the romance.
I miss the terrifying villains.
I miss the terrifying villains that wanted to do awful things to the most innocent characters in the film and/or their children.
I miss rooting for the main character to get their dream they sang so passionately about during their “I Want” song (if you don’t know what an “I Want” song is, look it up).
I miss the imperfect princesses that had unique personalities that will ultimately get bashed on by the next generation of kids who think they’re so enlightened and shall make it their life mission to “fight the patriarchy”.
Yeah, that Disney. When will we get that one back?
AND ITS GONE!
Same here. I miss tat so much...
That Disney is dead
They think that it’s a bad message to send to little girls. I’m tired of the girl-boss, quirky characters. Like we can be strong and we can be in love.
In Princess and the Frog, Tiana had a classic love story, she fell in love and got her prince. But she was still more empowered than most of the new princesses! She got her I Want song and she worked and fought for her dreams, and it was a great example of why you can have a classic princess movie and bring new ideas into it.
I love Tangeled, but Disney doesn’t need more Rapunzels, they need more unique characters.
King Magnifico: doesn't grant stupid wishes
Disney Stans: "BOO!"
Cruella de Vil: wants to skin puppies for a coat
Disney Stans: "Yas queen! Slay! Give her a sequel!"
Thank you so much for giving Cinderella the justice she deserves. And she ISN'T kind towards her abus3rs, which is a lesson Disney's been forgetting
I don't really have a problem with the villain being in positions of power in the beginning of the story like the evil queen.The evil queen in Snow White was more scary and intimidating.❤️🔥🍎🍎🍎
Was he really even a villain? He basically got powers and shared them with EVERYONE and with good intent initially. And then society became ungrateful so he adjusted based on that! Justice for Magnifico!
Not society
The main protagonist was the problem
She believes everyone deserves a wish no matter how chaotic it would be.
The king was the in right
Exactly 😭
@@goddessofchaos2679 Good point
@@goddessofchaos2679He wasn't in the right. To grant wishes he had to take their ultimate wish/dream away. It took away the essence of who they were as a person. And even if he knew he wouldn't grant the wish he would not give it back. Which meant the person just went through their life as a shell of a person.
@@goddessofchaos2679 But she said if the wishes are dangerous they should not be granted her complain was that magnifico doesn't give the wishes back to the people and even makes them forget they're wishes so that they don't work on they're wish that's what she complained she never said that everyone deserves a wish it was just the awful marketing
Heres what i would have done: In a kingdom where the king has the ability to fulfill wishes, he selectively grants them, leading to some subjects feeling disheartened. A benevolent heroine emerges, possessing the same power but using it freely to help everyone, causing the king to view her as a threat. She eventually overthrows him, but her indiscriminate wish-granting begins to drain her strength and creates chaos in the kingdom, as conflicting wishes cause turmoil. The kingdom's citizens, overwhelmed by the consequences, urge her to act. In seeking advice from the deposed king, she learns that to maintain balance and her powers, she must consume the people's hopes and dreams. Horrified by this notion, she refuses. When her father, seeing her weakened state, wishes for her power to be taken away to restore normalcy, she grants it. The kingdom stabilizes, but the heroine realizes that reliance on wishes had made the people complacent, lacking ambition and drive in their lives.
Now, that is a movie!
They should have had you write the movie.
What bugged me about Magnifico’s motivation was that, he went from “defend the town/the wishes at all costs, never let THAT happen again”, to “make them all suffer and destroy the wishes and MAKE that happen again because they dared to question me!”
Like what?! The impetus for him finally opening the forbidden book was the fact that people asked him questions. Questions that, let’s be real, are first day questions if I’ve ever heard them. Like before I moved to Rosas or turned 18 I would for sure make absolutely certain I had answers to each and every one of those questions before handing part of my soul over to this guy.
He’s been in charge for at least 18 years. You mean to tell me that not one single person ever asked him a single one of those questions before?! If that’s the case, then the citizens are absolute idiots. I’m sorry.
We just really needed so much more information in order to be okay with these events happening the way they did. You’re absolutely right that he is one of the weakest villains.
Imagine Asha starting to care too much and confront a once noble king who turned into straight up madness because once he cared to much about citizens of his kingdom.
So I think that he starting from position of power could actually be interesting if written well.
Not to mention Rosa was presented as practically a paradise
I really think they had a HUGE missed opportunity to connect Asha and Magnifico by making it so Magnifico couldn’t grant his own wishes and that is why he’s pissed and wants power. Maybe he comes from a line of sorcerers who can grant others wishes but wither away from self neglect making them come true. Magnifico obv doesn’t like this and wants self-preservation, but his power physically doesn’t work that way, So he takes others wishes for himself, hurting them in the process. Meanwhile, Asha “cares too much” about other’s wellbeing and neglects herself, and throughout the movie she learns a healthy way to care for herself without hurting others.
Now we have both of them who help others but not themselves. Then the lesson could be that while helping others, you can take care of yourself, but there are healthy ways and destructive ways to go about it, exemplified by the heroine and villain.
That would have been a great way to go with the plot
I like this idea! I don't think the movie was bad but it didn't make strong connections like this that would've given it an extra "oomph"
If they wanted Asha's flaw to be her kindness, there's so many ways that could be explored. She could be burnt out from helping others like Luisa from Encanto and learns to set boundaries with her standing up against the king. It could manifest as her believing that everyone is truly good deep down inside, and her learning that despite that, she still needs to know that people can still hurt others and refuse to change and to learn to take care of herself. The king could be taking advantage of her kindness, and she'll realize later on that he was pulling the strings. Of course, the audience can see the king's behavior behind Asha's back, so we're rooting for Asha to see the truth. Not sure how I'd rewrite the wish concept, but that would be the character concepts.
I was thinking maybe the wishes could be the life force of people or something, like their essence or soul which would further emphasize Asha's point about wishes being "the most beautiful parts of people." So when Magnifico is crushing people's wishes, it literally kills them (or at least puts them in a Sleeping Beauty style coma if they want to play it safe) and it's up to Asha to stop Magnifico from taking more lives.
@@colbystearns5238 Now that is super interesting and a lot more powerful of a message!
I saw someone say it elsewhere, but if they had really wanted to play it safe they could have made this a Mickey Mouse movie where he goes on some quest to get everyone's wishes granted or something. Trying to introduce a whole new princess for an anniversary celebration feels like it would have been a losing situation even if this movie was great because of how high the expectations were.
True! We haven't had a Mickey Mouse movie in a while too, so that would be a great idea.
A Mickey Mouse quest sounds awesome - not gonna lie.
@@justradiclesandcoyou're right! I don't think I've seen a mickey mouse movie since the early 2000s. At least give him a last hurrah before the copyright on him runs out
@@sissysovereign1294 Exactly! Bring some life back to the character besides just being a corporate symbol
That's actually what I was expecting for the 100 year anniversary: a full movie based on the sorcerer's apprentice segment from Fantasia. It's such an iconic clip that it would have brought the nostalgia out in everyone.
The commentary about the villain is spot on. It could have been comparable to Beast in Beauty and the Beast because really he was his own villain because of his own character. They could have developed this character that way or something, but, yeah, the Wish villain was definitely boring. He also went from normal to just seemingly crazy with no type of arc or backstory or something that would explain that.
He was an antagonist with a superman complex. I thought he was a great character
The current climate forces Disney to be too safe with their characters, villains and protagonists alike. The king is, at absolute worst, summed up as "he did a mean thing one time" which is just so far removed from villains who were willing to kill or just be horribly cruel to the past Disney Princesses. I also don't know why Disney won't stop with the quirky "XD random" female leads these days. It's getting old. We get it, not every girl is girly but they're also not all tumblr girls either.
My biggest issue with these so-called ``quirky`` girls is that they are awkward in a way that doesn´t make them remotely unlikeable or complex. They are all still charming, outgoing and traditionally beautiful. I wish they would fully commit to making a new Disney princess a weird little gremlin like Lilo from Lilo and Stitch (which I say with the utmost affection because I love her.) Or just....create characters with different personality types altogether.
@@missstripedsocks At this point, I don't even trust them to make a faithful reinterpretation of Lilo for the supposed modern live action remake, much less try to make a Disney Princess version of her. I can already see her reduced to being just "that one weird girl a la Haruhi Suzumiya-lite" instead of "actually unhinged".
Asha is girly tho
Well the current climate of Disney failing will have to have them break out of that “safe” box and take risks again, especially when something like puss and boots the last wish was so acclaimed and successful taking a whole bunch of risks that Disney wouldn’t
@@missstripedsocks "I wish they would fully commit to making a new Disney princess a weird little gremlin like Lilo from Lilo and Stitch"
A Disney adaptation of Once Upon A Mattress/Princess and the Pea could do this. Winifred is an absolute hoyden and I love her.
It's really sad when the you look back at the older Disney movies, and those had actual villains that could pose a threat to the protagonists and then some. The main problem with Disney is that they're too soft nowadays.
What always seems to be the case in modern Hollywood is the lack of a good villain. They always want to spin this moral ambiguity or moral relativism. They want to make you sympathetic towards the would be evildoers. (Part of me think that's projection but I digress lol) which can and has made for a good story. But idk, might just be me noticing it. Either that or in this case the villain is just lame. Why can't villains just be villains?
it really could be projection lol, artists making good villain concepts and the execs trying to make it less evil because it reminds them of themselves
@@maca76 Is it just me? I feel like I keep seeing this pattern as of late. Like it's okay to just have evil characters without telling me every detail of why they're bad. I mean heck, sometimes villains are just villains. No need to explain it. But I reckon there's a lot of self insert afoot lol
There's nothing wrong with moral ambiguity and having characters and villains that are nuanced. In fact that's what you need realicism give us a villains that inacts his revenge arc against his mother gothol and goes crazy with power. Experience and nature is what allows for a villain to be made so yes I'm fine with sympathetic villains because that's how the reality of it. In reality life sometimes typically after something fucked up or traumatic rapunzel snaps and kills mother gothel.
@@Name.......... As I said; it has made for great stories. However it is more common recently. Sometimes evil villains are just evil villains. We don't need the back story of the Joker to love him as a villain. Can it work in some cases? Absolutely and obviously as we saw with the recent Joker. But the mystery was what fueled his character for decades.
Having to demonstrate moral ambiguity within a finite time will take a chunk of the story. How necessary is it really? I think it definitely depends on the story but when it's the new meta I find it repetitive.
@@Name.......... I think the best use of ambiguity will be in the origins with villains. The tease of mystery is tempting and interesting. To use a moral subjective interpretation of morals for motivation isn't as creative imo.
Let my mind build the character versus you showing me a dilemma. That adds to a character rather than an either or.
I keep imagining an awesome dystopian sequel showing what happens to the kingdom without the king.
Adding onto the argument against Cinderella being "passive" and "meek": Some might wonder why she didn't straight up leave her situation and take independency into her own hands. Sounds easy on paper, but the fact she didn't showcases how much control her stepmother had over Cinderella. Instead she chose to patiently wait for that chance and find joy in such a bleak situation through her work. Plus I think deep down she still cared for her family, in a "love your enemies" kinda way.
Having the King be an sorcerer's apprentice is so clever. This movie wanted to celebrate 100 years of Disney, and they could've had a callback to Fantasia, with Mickey as the apprentice feeling frustrated with chores and trying to use Yen Sid's magic and it spiraling out of control. The King could've wanted the magic, but also got slowly lost by it, and then the insanity and his wife leaving him. Also, speaking of the wife. Have him kill her. The movie almost goes there, but then it doesn't.
Asha could've been their daughter so she has a closer relationship the the couple, and the betrayal feels more deeper and dramatic, but that's her actual Father.
4:41 A few years ago in Norway there was a Christmas series that was basically just that. The villain wanted to be Santa Claus' apprentice but had his hopes crushed so turned to an evil book that corrupted him further and he took over the village and became a dictator. Even crushed a few wish balls along the way. So unlike Magnifico he was actually evil but also got redemption and forgiveness in the end.
One simple way to improve his villainy I think would be instead of crushing the mom’s wish is to use it as a weapon to literally attack her with, like punch her in the gut or knock her on the head with it, leaving her unconscious, nearly killing her, or actually killing her and either Asha can wish her back to life or maybe she stays dead like Mufasa. You can still have Magnifico hamming it up, absorbing the wish’s power just like in the movie also.
magnifico is not a villain, he rather reminds me of a sims character (from the game)
Omg, now that you mention it. Though I'm getting more Vincent or Dr F. vibes.
@@alexanderbolton God those are names I haven't heard in awhile 😂
After a few days thinking about it, my takeaway was that Princess and the Frog did a much better job with a similar overall message.
Couple: "Your highness, we wish for a child".
King: "Not granted. I have looked into the future and foreseen that the child will die young and even my powers cannot prevent death".
Couple leaves, dejected.
Asha: "Why didn't you grant their wish? They could have loved the child anyway for as long as they had".
King: "Some wishes are bad, and will harm the wisher. Why grant wishes that bring pain? I did what was for their own good".
Asha: "But you have no right to decide that!"
King: "As my apprentice, you should know that this power must be used for good, and bad should be used to bring happiness and happiness only, never wasted on what may bring pain".
In this scenario, neither the king nor Asha are completely wrong or completely right. It would make for a compelling story if Asha finds the star and uses it to grant wishes SHE thinks are good ones, ones the king already rejected, only to realize that in so doing, she's no different than he is and is causing problems separate yet similar to his. Not every story needs a villain and, here, the concept is actually creative if executed creatively and it just frustrates me that they made it as generic and riddled with plotholes as they did.
People crush my dreams all the time and no one calls them a villain.
You’re so real for this 💀
I want to bring up Tangled:The series for a minute, branching off of 7:00 'you care too much'. In the series, Rapunzel is extremely positive and to me it became toxic positivity. She didn't listen to those around her, constantly inserted herself where people wanted to be left alone, invalidated others' feelings, made it about her in front of other's pain, and they always had to have her 'one-up' everyone else so she was now smarter than everyone too. They played all of it off as jokes, but it was very frustrating for me. Her being positive ALWAYS and being seen as great often felt like everyone around her was a problem. For Wish and the Tangled series, it really just makes them a blank, empty vessel for the plot rather than an actual character.
I feel like a character can still be in power and be a compelling villain. Disney did it with Emperor Belos from Owl House. Magnifico desiring to maintain his power isn’t so bad but if he wants to be the sole person with magic powers, it feels strange that he’d want to hire an apprentice.
If you're going to have someone in power already as a villain, the goal shouldnt be more power, it should be doing everything possible to keep it
The King was evil because he took the hopes and dreams from within the hearts of his citizens from the entire kingdom and kept them for himself, only granting one once a month. These were more than a simple wish, they were their literal heart's desires and it shows them coming straight out of their heart when he takes them. So most of the citizens were living in "ignore is bliss" without any life's purpose. Thats pretty evil imo. Imagine someone took your life passion and dreams away and you were forced to live a generic life without them. Im sure youd be pretty upset once you found out what he was doing (like Asha). The reason the kingdom was so perfect was because no one was really allowed to do anything special or unique (unless they were one of the lucky few who got their wish granted.)
All the concert art is better then then what we got I would have loved star boy and Asha and a evil couple
No romance in this movie except for the mariage of the king and queen falling appart. I'm not in. I want passion ans romance in medias
I think what could've made Asha more interesting as a protagonist would be to make her the complete opposite of King Magnifico. What I mean is that whereas Magnifico is confident and sauve, Asha could be more timid and fearful and would find it hard to stand up for herself. But over the course of the story with learning the truth of what kind of person King Magnifico is, and with meeting the star, she would become more confident as she would face hurdles she hadn't before. This, in my opinion, would work best for the story as there would be a great parallel between her and the villain and it would work for the theme of the movie as yeah miracles can happen and they can help you when times get rough but its still up to you to stand up and make that wish come true. But that's my two cent idea anyway
All the scrapped stuff in the art book would have made this a true call back to classic disney including thr romance and an evil power couple. Modern disney needs lee and iger gone
A weird idea, imagine the King was collecting wishes for a must darker reason. His parents didn’t want him to rule so they used the wishes to never die but what if he used the wishes to keep his parents sick? If they die he becomes king but what if he kept them alive and used the wishes to keep them alive but sick. He didn’t kill them so he could claim that the way he rules is what his parents wanted.
I watched the movie yesterday and you were right about everything.
Awe thanks!
Asha literally only cared about her Grandpa's wish only because he was 100 years old, she passed up all the other wishes for her Grandpa, that's SELFISH!!!
It didn’t seem like she really cared about being the King’s apprentice either. She did not seem to take that seriously. She only thought going or being one would benefit her and her Grandpa like…that screams selfish to me.
For a movie that's supposed to I guess represent 100 years of Disney, I expected much more from the music. It was the only thing I was disappointed in the most
The more I think about the more I think Wish should have been a series not a film , why?
We are given some background stories about Asha and the King, what are their motivates but we are not given why the kingdom was establish and the mini series would explain Asha's friends more and how the wish affects them since we have one teenager been affected by the ceremony, it would explore what it was like during Asha's grandfather era and how King got his powers and his relations to Asha's father and why does the Queen love his husband and what are their dreams and why haven't they been fulfilled it would awesome way to help them drive the story instead of plot device A helps Asha and Plot device B corrupts the King.
I feel like a lot of family/kids cartoons in general got super soft and were terrified of actual consequences or villains truly being evil. Instead of fighting a villain or doing something tangible, it was all about feelings and just talking things out and that's it
Now I'm imagining an alternate take on the movie where Magnifico (not a king) and Asha both wanted to be the Queen's apprentice because the Queen got to choose whose wishes are granted. Asha is initially set up as the flawless protagonist who wants everyone's wishes to be granted. Magnifico is initially set up as the ruthless antagonist who wants to control everyone's wishes. The movie explores the nuances and the final moral is that a celebration of creativity must be grounded with realistic milestones. A bit similar to the themes in Princess and the Frog - "that old star can only take you part of the way".
Did nobody wish that the girl using a crutch can walk again? You'd think the town would organize their wishes to benefit everyone, like 'no citizen can get cancer' instead of doing their own goals, but whatever. As I understand it, you don't have to give up your wish, it's a system you enter voluntarily. If you don't ask questions beforehand about consequences or how its run, that's on you; if you don't like the way it's run, then don't play. It's like the whole story is about buyer's regret, and by the end, they've wrecked the wish system and dispatched the most powerful defender of the country. Are you sure Asha isn't the villain here?
It sounds like the movie defines a wish as someone's deepest desires and dreams. Sure, that deep desire could be someone wanting the girl to be able to walk again, but it seems like the wishes are generally personal dreams and desires.
If so, then they have even less grounds to condemn the wizard guy for his own selfish behavior.@@justradiclesandco
If King Magnifico did the usual cartoon sorcerer trope of kidnapping princesses to make him gain more magic, like I don't know Ganondorf from the Legend of Zelda or even what the whole plot of Kingdom Hearts which relied on the seven princesses of light, to execute his plan it would've tied the legacy princesses or their descendants to have more validity or even context to what this movie is trying to hint at with the easter-eggs.
It would be great if the "villian" king would be a good at the end and Main protagonis was wrong about whole wishes thing. Maybe starboy would be like this free spirit who don't think about consequences and wants to make everyone dreams comes true and Asha would help him. And in the end she and starboy would end up vilians as there would be chaos everywhere. Redemption ark and learnind and Asha would need to clean it up togehter with King and Queen. Like making everywish come true by magic is not ok, but she could at the end taught people that they dont need to wait for magic to make fishes comes true but start making moves towards them. This story had so much potential
And thats whats so terrible about this film that the impressions are that its " ok" ... "not terrible"
This is a culmination of 100 years of Disney, this movie is meant as a showcase of a company's 100 year progression into the art of animation, a company that in its golden years produced, not just entertainment but art of the highest quality.
And for this film to just be "not terrible", for it be anything less than an outright masterpiece, is in and of itself terrible.
I feel like being second fiddle isnt the villians issue. He just needs to be heightened. Crushes a few dreams... ok sure... what if: he & his queen regularly destroy and absorb hundreds of dreams for eternal youth and power? Give us some consequences for their greed. People of the city are specifically NOT happy. They dont know why, but they are stuck in their dead end lives with no hope. The only happy people are those too young to give up their dreams, and the upper classes that feed on dreams like vampires
I always look forward to your videos, you put my thoughts into words! Another great review, I strongly agree!
I will say that the movie most likely had an original good story line or concept but then the strike happened and Disney lost so much $$$, creators, animators, and people who wanted to be in the movie so maybe once the strike was over they thought “well I lost a lot of $$ and park price increases still brings in business to an extent, so rather than loosing more $$$ by pushing the release of the movie further down the line to have more time to search for talent and make the movie better, let’s just stick w/ the original release date and do what we can w/ what we have already done, especially since people will be so happy the strike is done and they won’t notice that the movie is half of what we wanted it to be bc they’ll be too busy buying tickets and getting excited for some Disney magic after months of no movies or shows being available to watch”. I still remember when being a part of a Disney project was good on the resume for potential actions and creators, now it feels like it’s getting difficult to get people on board to play characters
I think that a story is only as good as its titular characters. Bland character = bland story. Imagine if both the king and Asha started as selfish apprentices, only wanting power for themselves. Then, throughout the movie, Asha learns how to be selfless and to grant people's wishes with sincerity. The king, on the other hand, remains power-hungry. I think this would have made the story more gripping and memorable. It would allow for a more interesting face-off at the end.
I like this review because it's level-headed and straight to the point. 🙂
My ideal wish: Asha is Magnifico's apprentice already and likes him and doesn't see his evilness and magnifico is not king but comes to Rosas to be a court wizard and bewitches the king or queen to like him and most of the subjects. Star is a real boy who leads the resistance and makes Asha see Mag's evilness and Asha and star have a romance but Starboy sacrifices himself to save rosas and Asha becomes a good witch to the king or queen who is restored to power.
Puss in Boots 2 flexes with 3 interesting villains, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse astounds with the 2 thought provoking antagonists while Wish can’t even manage 1
I think Magnifico’s evilness becomes more obvious if you consider that he deliberately deprives people of their dreams and motivation so that they won’t oppose him, only living for the faint hope that their gracious king _might_ grant them that satisfaction… It’s a subtle and clever way for a magical dictator to keep their people docile. Hence his goal is less to gain more power than to prevent any remote chance of someone threatening that power, until he becomes paranoid. I think that’s what they were going for.
The problem is that the "losing your wish makes you sad" thing is only apparent with one character (Simon), everyone else looks perfectly peppy and happy, so you never feel like they’ve lost anything. Hence why it’s easy to see Magnifico as a pretty chill guy and the wish ceremony as just a sort of harmless magical lottery. It also doesn’t help that after he uses the "evil magic that enslaves their user", he’s technically no longer in control of his own actions, which makes him less interesting.
How did this magical movie, that is meant to pay homage to 100 years of princesses movies, did not have a magic outfit transformation?? It’s like the easiest thing to include!
I always thought the sultan in Aladdin was this sweet and jolly old man but when I watched as an adult I realised that this guy was also a total clown, I get Jefar's frustration. It's good when character have multi faceted personality.
I'm a huge Sonic the Hedgehog fan.
I also enjoyed the movie, Wish, but I can't help but feel like both Disney and Sega relate a lot with each other.
Not all of Sonic's games are perfect even though I love all of them but I do know that even Sonic fans themselves can call some of my favorites bad games.
But, at the very beginning Sonic had stories in his games that had a whole lot of high stakes to go through and plot twists that you don't see coming as well as some awesome pure evil villains.
Then somewhere in the 2010's things changed for Sonic where everyone got new voice actors but Sonic's own arch nemesis, Eggman, and then the stories started being played way too safe that it got on everyone else's nerves including mine even though I still enjoyed the games.
Finally, Sega started hyping up this really awesome game called Sonic Forces that was coming out in 2017.
Almost all of the bad guys from past Sonic games were going to come together and fight off Sonic and his friends.
It really sounded like Sega was going to go back to what we really wanted which was a dark yet lighthearted story.
Yet, when the game came out it failed expectations.
It was very obvious that Sega was too afraid to go up those high stakes in case Sonic would have another big failure of a game again like Sonic 06.
You don't even fight every bad guy in the past you only fight a couple and the others are done in just a cutscene and are only short.
The story mode itself was short and not long like it once used to be years ago which was another thing that we were tired of.
I loved the game but I was mad at Sega for lying to us and not giving us what we really wanted.
Good news is that Sega learned their own lessons and five years later they gave us Sonic Frontiers which finally gave us exactly what we wanted. :)
Now Wish feels like Disney's own Sonic Forces.
It was a movie that everyone had high expectations for especially a new awesome villain which Sega also promised us Sonic fans with Infinite who was the new villain.
Yet, they both failed and were played too safe including the story itself.
Hopefully, just like Sega Disney can learn from this too. :)
I agree. These characters are just blobs made from pieces of past characters blended together. Also I don’t see Asha as a princess.
I had a good feeling skipping out on this in theatres to binge all of Blue Eye Samurai and Gen V instead and it was the best decision I've made these couple of weeks.
I definitely agree with you for the most part.
Although, I would say that a small flaw that Asha did have and she definitely grew from it, was that she was a bit selfish initially. As she only really cared about her grandfather's wish as well as her mother's and only wanted to steal THEM back until Star convinced her to go back for the others.
And that development where she is more connected to the people of Rosas comes through the reprise where it's not just her wish. It's a wish that everyone makes.
Not saying it's a GREAT development. But it is a character growth of a kind.
I would agree with you if it weren't for the fact that the movie gives no actual reason for the change of heart. So if anything, this is completely unintentional
Disney went from writing stories with actually good lessons kids could learn from, and a thick enough plot where adults could like the movies...to actually making "The Bad Guy" the most respectable character in the movie lmaoo
like, this bro went from rags to riches after his family died unexpectedly, built his own kingdom, doesn't charge taxes (implied in the song), grants people wishes as long as it doesn't cause extreme destruction, etc. and now they want to write him off as a bad guy because a 17 year old "quirky" girl things so...i mean what was the lesson of this movie?
I watched a review the other day and then last night I caught a bit of the Disney Holiday special on TV where the lead actress sang and the critiques from the review I watched were instantly apparently just from that. The commercialization of the cute star, the lack of emotion behind the song, the odd heartless almost nonsensical lyrics, I felt nothing watching it except the confirmation that the critiques seemed to be on point. The classic Disney songs made you feel something whether it be strong emotion or just enjoyment of a good villain song and with this I could feel why people said it seemed almost ai generated, there was no soul. The main song in a Disney movie should be the advertisement for the movie but I certainly felt no more inclined to watch after that than I had before.
Are we going to ignore the fact that the song At All Cost was obviously meant to be the love duet for Asha and concept Star boy. The demo even says love you while the movie changes it to promise you
1. Magnifico's thirst for power could've worked if something like Asha and Star started a rebellion early on, that would've made his thirst make sense as he's actually losing the power he worked hard to get so he's pressured to regain it, gives him a lot more motive to do the things he does
2. While watching the movie, I did feel the same about Magnifico not being villainous enough and from there an idea popped into my head, what if the creation of the kingdom was for ill intent? What if he made the kingdom as a sort of "trap" and when Magnifico crushed a wish ball it killed the person/gave their soul to him, it would be pretty reminiscent of Dr. Facilier from The Princess And The Frog which makes the amalgamation of disney tropes work better
3. There was actually a scrapped up concept of Amaya being a villain with Magnifico, this would've been a first for Disney yet they chose not to go there...
But I will say though, I did actually like that she turns against him but I do wish ;> ;> she started out evil until Asha somehow finds a way to turn her to their side, I feel like this would also help build the climax more
4. Star was supposed to be humanoid and apparently be a younger version of Asha's grandfather (who was supposed to be dead in the movie) they should've taken that concept and altered it to what I've been seeing many people want, a love interest, this would've given Asha more of a motive to protect Star (either way though Grandpa Star concept would've been better than what was given to us)
5. The "care too much flaw" they could've actually made her personality somewhat of what Magnifico is supposed to be (at least him in the beggining) cares but not in a way that's necessarily beneficial to the person they care about, sort of like wanting to help but doesn't know how and ends up making things worse, really gives her a lot more complexity
Star boy might also be able to help her here which gives the 2 characters some chemistry.
They thought that putting a POC in their movie would make me want to watch it… they were wrong
She’s technically short listed to be a princess in the same vein as Mulan, did a great deed, but the movie has so far only pulled in about 50-60 million. The worst grossing movie is sleeping beauty in 1959 at 51 million. Adjusted for inflation, sleeping beauty made 680 million. If Wish flops like it seems to be headed for, she will likely be ousted from the list.
it'd be interesting if maybe asha was already a recently approved apprentice and one day finds the wish orbs of ungranted wishes. then she sees the king crush those for some evil magic she doesn't understand, and the next day maybe the citizens of those crushed wishes/dreams disappear? like some sort of affect occurs, on top of nobody remembering the citizen, but asha does and has to convince her friends of what she's found out about her boss and their king. i feel like then it'd make the king feel much more villainous, and make it complex bc the king believes he's really doing right by the peaceful kingdom he's built.
regardless, it's such a shame such an interesting concept, and presumably significant occasion-related film was so....mid.
I think the most disappointing thing about Wish (for me) is te idea wasn't bad. There are a bunch of elements that could have made an interesting movie. If Disney had been willing to let their animation studio just have a little freedom. Take a few risks. I haven't seen the movie yet but from everyone's response to it, sounds a bit like a first draft published as a final product.
*_"Why"?_*
*"MODERN DISNEY"* 🤦♂️
The king might have been better if they pulled a Wizard of Oz 🤔 where he didn't actually have power but tricked people into believing he's super powerful and upon finding real magic and power and threatened by her he shows his true colors in being a villain. On the other hand I would have loved if they played with the idea of making the main character the villain. Playing upon viewer expectations having us believe we're following the good guy when actually they were the villain 😅
Magnifico isn't anywhere near a villain. He's the king. He built the kingdom by his own hand so he gets to run it. He gets to be in control because he's the king and that's what kings do. If anything, he's a benevolent and kind king who has the best interest of his people in mind. Because one of the main duties of a king is to protect his people. Totally not a villain.
And because he's a lame villain, the hero is also lame because there's no real threat to overcome. There's no impetus to rise up and reach down inside for that last ounce of personal fortitude to overcome the antagonist. Magnifico isn't a villain, so there's nothing to defeat and therefore no way to measure a "win".
Disney should have taken a clue from Dreamworks and done something like Puss in Boots 2. You know, a movie with heart and soul and well rounded characters.
Lol The Villain Pub, that would be so interesting to see what he would do
I think the biggest probelm with Wish is it truly it is a collage of all thier animated films. It's is also the complete anthesis to Snow White which was disney 1rst film and by that I mean it's lacking in character development and plot
It truly would been a greater film if we found out Manfico was the reason his previous kingdom was destroyed and Asha discovered his secret.
This story could have worked if they just tweaked the story slightly. Like maybe have Magnifico start out by using a wish/ a wishing star of his own to gain all his desires but maybe this form of wishing is flawed in the sense that it needs to be fed magic energy. He could then pretend to grant wishes for some people while taking most of the wishes to power his wishing scource. Then Asha could find the true wiahing star and start using it to grant people's wishes/ fixing problems. This would actually threaten the kings power since they would start going to her instead of the king whos harder to get wishes granted from due to him harvesting most of the wishes for himself. And gives the king to be a villain due to granting wishes for selfish reasons.
The villain gives me FMA volume 1, chapter 1 vibes, a dude who can do "miracles" ends up being evil (if you know this manga series, you know which person I'm referring to). Disney in general doesn't excite me anymore (haven't excited in the recent years) and I just wish they would try something different for damn once. Like why to make those live action versions and lowkey forced inclusivity instead of actually thinking of different concepts / ideas?
They should've explored magnificos past and where he got that book, and then the magic of that book using his trauma to manipulate him so that his act makes more sense
Also they should've made the queen evil too
I like Magnifico being in charge already - Frollo also was already in charge, and he was essentially just trying to maintain his grip on power, and Magnifico could have worked that way - there just need to be more stakes. As you mentioned, all he does is crush a couple dreams. Maybe crushing someone's dreams should have actually physically hurt them, if not killed them. Disney is just too afraid of actual consequences. Consequences make for interesting storytelling!
Today's Disney feels like someone who tries to be edgy in all the safest most low risk ways.
You know what would be so cool? If Asha's "care too much" flaw is part of her wish (maybe she wants to give herself to Rosas) and Magnifico "grants" it to pretty much mind control her like he did Simon. She cares so much that she gives herself up to the wrong person and end up hurting the people she loves. It would be cool if she started out as a doormat character learning self worth and healthy boundaries as the story progress. Oh no, I've completely rewritten the plot-
The lack of villains is hurting all of their stories. The reason why the audience wants the hero/heroine to win is because the villain shouldn't win. One of my problems with Encanto is the lack of villain, and I felt like I was watching a family soap opera. I'd also say adorkable can be applied to Mirabel. She's sweet, but not much else. Without a great villain like the Evil Queen, or Maleficent, or Hades, etc, I'm not invested in the movie's journey.
If you don't relate to that spesific family problem then for sure it'll feel like a very low stakes movie. But for someone like me, with a Colombian family almost just like theirs, it's a personal favourite. That's just subjective beauty. Wish on the other hand....who relates to this? Who can say "oh yeah I also yearn to grant people's wishes even the vague ones" huh????
Why does a family story about family relationships have to have a villain? on the contrary, the whole point of Encanto is precisely that it is not there and should not be, because all family members are partially to blame, this shows reality well.
I feel like they were drawing so much inspiration from Snow White that they wanted to have Magnífico mirror (ha!) the evil queen, so they made him gorgeous and vain. But like. He wasn't jealous of anyone else's looks; he didn't try to murder anyone hotter than him. They even teased a backstory for him and never elaborated on it. 😕
I saw the movie yesterday and I loved it! I actually thought the animation was gorgeous. I really liked King Magnifico and Queen Amiya. My biggest complaints is that when Magnifico crushes the wishes, I would have liked the animation to be more dramatic for those whose wishes were crushed. Like physical heartburn mixed with extreme grief. Also I didn't care for Asha's jokes and dorkiness in the beginning, after that she becomes more of her own person but before that she felt a lot like Mirabel. Other than that, i thought the movie was beautiful, and I enjoyed the songs and story. Can't wait to see it again
Your commentary and the sirens in the background keep me more captivated than anything I've seen from this movie.
Why does it look like Sofia the first tho?
Also an evil couple dynamic would have been so interesting and full circle as if the evil queen and jafar got together and ruled a kingdom. Could have been epic..
6:47, Her biggest weakness is literally one of R. Kelly's justifications for himself doing what he did, just reworded.
"I need somebody to help me not have a big heart because my heart is so big, people betray me and I keep forgivin' 'em!"
Though maybe it would've been interesting if they actually explored that, especially when the Sleepy stand-in quite literally betrays her and the others(!!!).
TBH to me it’s like an unfinished story with queen Amaya is the actual schemer…
I agree about Magnifico's motivation. I wish they would have also spent more time having fun with Asha like when Simba is with Timon and Pumba. Something to endear her to the audience but no, she doesn't really do anything.
Glad to hear I haven't lost my mind. I watched Wish after hearing the hubbub about how bad it was and yeah... there are a few reasons I agree with for why is so bland.
Art and Music direction:
They tried to do a watercolor effect by making things look less saturated and the lines more wispy and it just looks grey and unfinished. Also a technical rendering step was skipped to add to a hand-drawn aesthetic, but it backfired. The music was also really generic: 'This Wish' isn't really about the movie and could easily be heard on the radio as an unrelated love song. Probably an intentional step to try to broaden the appeal that also backfired.
The characters:
Everyone is really two dimensional and flat! Almost no one changes during the movie, and the relationships between the characters are not strongly shown at all! Also Asha had such little direction and motivation outside of doing things for her family. What does she want???
The plot:
About as deep as a puddle. Lots of talking animals and nonsensical scenes to try to make the movie feel more whimsical that served no greater purpose.
I really wish they had explored Asha's tendency to care to much. Have her parents be concerned about her wanting to work with Magnifico, because there's something suspicious about him, but ultimately respect Asha's choice. It could be easy to draw someone like Asha into being compliant with the current regime under the guise of it being the best for everyone, even though what individual people want isn't being recognized. Maybe Magnifico draws power from taking their wishes to keep his past brutal conquest of a previous wish related magical entity secret in addition to having their wishes removed makes the people more compliant. Also please no talking goat.
Maybe it’s because I’ve recently watched Twisted by starkid
but something about ‘everybody has a dream a wish we folllow the golden rule so everyone has their dream to dream a little harder so it maybe comes true one day’ -
this is made to be an ultimate jab at Disney characters that always say ‘we’re dreamers who want things to be good and we act good to have everything go perfect like in a fairy tale.’
I feel weird that nearly 2013 media is so accurate to the Disney brand that in 2023 we’re watching literally every character with their dreams getting their dreams just granted on the regular ‘ because they’re good people’ and granted by ‘good people’ and evil people no matter their intentions are twisted to be horrible.
You have a man who’s granting wishes and gifts to the public people and now because he’s magical he’s evil. - that’s what’s weird is that your main character WAS NORMAL there wasn’t more to her to give her meaning or have her own magic and amazing nature to change things - your Villian with all the magic is still the Villian putting anything whimsical or magical and saying ‘it’s evil it’s bad to be magical’
That’s so wack in a fantasy setting and so weird in a narrative setting and so weird from the perspective of your a corporation that sells magic and whimsey to adults and children. Yet your big bad has all the magic.
The major difference between this and Puss In Boots Last Wish is that the big bad of the story (Jack Horner) may have been trying to acquire all the magic for himself for selfish reasons and purposes to make a magical world of his ruling and creation - horrifying because the world as they exist in it is already magical as hell and there’s options for everybody in different ways (some animals can talk there’s unicorns and magical creatures and there’s people who do nothing have no stories and people who have rhymes or people with destiny’s or magical items) Jack Horner wasn’t even the main Villian because his wish his plans could never work - Puss in boots never really worries over Jack Horner for more then 5 minutes there isn’t worry panic or fear often when seeing him there’s resolve- to stop him.
Death is the only character puss in boots didn’t feel resolve against .
Which is why the story is impactful.
And why 1 man having all the magic by slowly trying to steal it from others makes sense and narratively fits because magic is ubiquitous it’s something literally everyone has or can participate in there’s no loony toons world/wall/divisions. The reality of the fiction is that magic is everywhere both good and bad and good and bad things happen to everybody.
With this you have expressly few people who have any ties whatsoever to magic - it’s noninherent magic it’s themselves as regular human who have interacted with a magical thing which at first was foreign but then with time was usable. And how power can corrupt individuals or provide individuals with a way to fight against evil. - a major thing tho as we know from Disney Villian history is that the ‘corruption’ can just be mistreatment from society. It can be inherently who you are to be evil as a character but 9/10 it’s due to situational reasons and prolonged endurance of suffering in isolation. While having an evil king is new for the entire Disney series and kind of a milestone to show a big evil king. It’s odd with how flat and basic they made that story… there’s been millions of stories of evil kings and if they were evil originally or ‘corrupted’ by something and this just feels like a very very basic story.
I think the main issue is many far-left ideologies are against the idea that non-their-political-enemies humans can be be evil and find the notion heretical. Even if that position obviously makes no sense.
So, it means the America-written Disney stories end up making the villains not even slightly in the wrong (in the writers' minds) or just a strawman of their political enemies.