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Wish is a new Disney animation, in which King Magnifico (Chris Pine – Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Thieves ) likes to grant wishes for the townfolk of Rosas, and since young Asha (Ariana DeBose) is about to turn 18 – given that her birthday is coming up – will Asha get a brimful?
Either way, her grandfather, Sabino (Victor Garber – Titanic) is reaching his century on the day that the next wishes are to be granted, so has his time finally come?
Magnifico does this because his family have all been wiped out, leaving just him, and he feels he needs to give something back. By granting wishes, he can help people forget about their worries, such as Asha bemoaning that her weakness is that she cares too much, while her strength include, erm…, being young, as well as able to draw.
But since he’s looking for a new apprentice – and Alan Sugar’s nowhere to be found – will she get the job?
Over what feels like forever, we eventually learn that Magnifico is a massive arsehole because he wants to keep everyone’s dreams, to the plan is to get them all back; and, because reasons, Asha’s goat, Valentino, is able to speak and sounds like Patrick Stewart, albeit voiced by Rogue One‘s Alan Tudyk.
Beyond that, it’s a few bland songs, and nothing that’s massively engaging, for this viewer, at least.
More interesting than the threadbare plot is that Wish is actually presented in 2.55:1, not the usual 2.39:1, so at least there was an interesting technical aspect to it. Recently, The Creator went further, at 2.76:1, same as Ben-Hur with Charlton Heston. However, in both cases, it’s rather unnecessary to go beyond the usual, since it just results in more black bars for everyone. It’s not as if the screen can get wider than 2.39:1. That’s how cinemas screens are built!
Additionally, there’s a post-credits scene, the details of which you can see in the video below.
Wish is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, you can buy the Original Soundtrack on CD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 95 minutes
Release date: November 24th 2023
Studio: Disney
Aspect Ratio: 2.55:1 (Dolby Vision)
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 3/10
Directors: Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn
Producers: Peter Del Vecho, Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster-Jones
Screenplay: Jennifer Lee, Allison Moore
Music: Dave Metzger
Voice cast:
Asha: Ariana DeBose
Magnifico: Chris Pine
Valentino: Alan Tudyk
Amaya: Angelique Cabral
Sabino: Victor Garber
Sakina: Natasha Rothwell
Dahlia: Jennifer Kumiyama
Gabo: Harvey Guillion
Hal: Niko Vargas
Simon: Evan Peters
Safi: Ramy Youssef
Dario: Jon Rudnitsky
Bazeema: Della Saba
Sania: Nasim Pedrad
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.