19 Wish

 Just...copying from my Letterboxd review with a few additions, that will be in italics.

I didn't hate this as much as I expected, but there are some huge flaws.

The rules in this world regarding magic are not set up too well, and that could be easily ignored if the story didn't focus so much around it.

ex. yeah we don't know why Mirabel didn't get a gift from Casita, but the story isn't finding out why and giving us a story about a magic system, the story is about how Mirabel is being poorly treated by people for not being magical. 

It's so funny how Dreamworks last year beat Disney at its own game with a story about wishes.

 

This story revolves around the magic system and it could have used a few more questions.

Asha is boring and non-distinct. There is no reason for her to be so awkward and socially inept when she has a loving family and a community she also loves and friends. Disney had nothing to give this character besides a very good performance by Ariana DeBose, who, like Kelly Marie Tran in "Raya" before her, deserved a better movie.

Would have been 500% more impressed if Disney had made the movie about Magnifico (Who looks, ironically, like a big name Disney fan who was disgraced earlier this year and has gone into hiding), a paranoid man turning to the dark side.

I partook in #WishWednesdays -- Where they premiered most of the songs for the 6 weeks preceding the movie. The only one that works better in context is the villain song.

The songs were written by a duo making pop music for C-list stars and Demi Lovato (who is A-tier to me!), not by musical theatre people.

It shows.

Parts of "This Wish" are incredibly derivative - It's like a Taylor Swift B-side (Does she have b-sides? Of course she does, she charges you 30$ for one song on a colored record).

The best song is the reprise, and the next best one (which is still firmly mid) is the one before it.

You may not like Lin-Manuel Miranda, but he can write a damn musical.

When you can remove 90% of the characters (The mother, the talking animals, 5/7 of her friends) and nothing changes, you wasted a lot of time and effort that could have been used to write a decent story.

This is not a family, or general audiences movie. This is a movie for infants, just 2 years after a movie, "Encanto", where it was clearly for all people and was tighter.