Arturo Hilario
El Observador
This year has been an exciting time for all things Disney. As they celebrate their platinum anniversary, the studio has been busy at work developing the ultimate encapsulation of Disney animation. One that takes from their 100- year history and asks the question, “What happens when you wish upon a star and that star comes down from the cosmos to greet you?”
Recently we had the opportunity to speak with the creative team behind Wish to find out how they took on the daunting task of looking through the storied catalogue of the studio that Walt Disney built to create something worthy of the centennial history while still having it be fresh and current.
With the help of many of the companies greatest artists, storytellers and archivists, they took the idea of wishing upon the stars to create a new original story that surprisingly enough is the studio’s first homegrown fairytale not based on anything that existed prior.
With inspiration from the giant painted backgrounds used for such films as Sleeping Beauty and Pinocchio, the creators of Wish made a love letter to the studio they so deeply admire, an ode to the billions of memories Walt Disney’s characters and movies have left in generations since its beginning in 1923.
The Story of Wish
Wish is the story of a 17-year-old named Asha who lives on the outskirts of the magical kingdom of Rosas, which itself is an island at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. In Rosas, wishes are granted by the magical King Magnifico. Asha is an idealist who is a beacon of light in her family and community.
After a chance to become part of the King’s closest assistants, she discovers something troubling about the King’s motivations and decides to seek help. As she stares into the sky, wishing for guidance, an actual star comes down to assist her in the journey to unravel the mysteries of the kingdom and help her community.
Featuring the voices of Academy Award-winning actress Ariana DeBose as Asha, Chris Pine as King Magnifico, and Alan Tudyk as Asha’s pet goat Valentino, the animated musical arrives to theaters this Thanksgiving.
Writing About Wishing
When Jennifer Lee, the studio’s chief creative officer and writer/executive producer of Wish began the journey of coming up with the fabled 100th anniversary movie, there was no specifics in mind on where to take the story. The only firm idea was that it would be an all-new musical comedy that would celebrate the legacy of the studio and pay tribute to the people that have watched the films and the artists that created them.
“Because Walt would want us to do something original. So we didn’t want to do a collage of old movies. And someone went, ‘well, good luck. That’s ambitious.’ We were like, ‘Okay!’”
So began the process of talking amongst themselves about what Disney meant to one another, and what that legacy meant to the fans outside of the studio.
Producer Peter Del Vecho says, “I would say there was more joy than anything else. I mean, the idea of trying to create something new and fresh, an original story with original characters, but somehow tied to the legacy. And again, all of us work there, we all grew up on Disney and we wanted to work for Disney, so it’s sort of ingrained in us. But I think it came from a sense of pride and joy and wanting to share with all the fans something special.”
Lee adds, “We just daydreamed beyond. But then what kept coming back were dreams and wishes and the concept of wishing on stars. I will say I have an absolute love of cosmology and stars and I was like ‘a star!? I’ll put it in!’ So I think what is so fun is when we all start inspiring each other and then things, characters start to settle.”
Once the dust settles on the concept of the story and the core idea behind it, in this case the idea of wishing and hope, the next step is fleshing out characters and motivations. For Wish, the main characters of Asha, Magnifico, and the star represent the core ideas of the movie.
“There’s that moment where [characters] start to speak to you and they tell you what they need to be. It was such a beautifully pure collaboration of when I think of it, it just was about possibility at the beginning and then some details came in and fell away as they always do. But then once we found Asha and Magnifico, they became everything for me in terms of the scope and the world fell into place. And so once that happens, it’s a really great, energetic time,” says Lee.
“Any time you pause in this film, our hope is that it’s a painting.”
– Wish Director Fawn Veerasunthorn
Heroism is a core tenant in Disney animation, and Asha in Wish grows into that throughout the film as well. She starts off as a teenager with normal ambitions, and she as well as the viewers watch her and world grow.
“I think we’ve all watched many of the movies over and over and over again and know there’s certain, you know, delicious characters. And having watched it with the Frozen sisters, just the sense of going back to that classic heroine. But what makes Asha unique and different? What new kind of story could we tell in terms of while also celebrating that we have great, strong heroines and the idea of watching her coming of age in a way that she doesn’t start out with the ambition in the beginning.”
In a move that will make many Disney fans excited, Wish will have the return of the classic Disney villain to face off against the heroine and her troupe of friends. Magnifico, voiced by Chris Pine, has the sharp looks of a hero but deviousness of someone who is hiding something, and based on the Wish trailer, might have a great villain song complete with the iconic green colors seen in villains like Scar in The Lion King, Ursula in The Little Mermaid, and even Oogie Boogie in The Nightmare Before Christmas.
“To get to write a villain was daunting and delicious and scary. But to start to understand that what makes Magnifico unique was that we could start with, there’s reasons behind his want, you can say they’re kind of beautiful, what he wants for people, but that’s not the measure of a character, it’s when they’re tested and how they respond and how can they handle stress.”
Designing a Visual Homage to Disney Animation
At the core of the creation of Wish was the idea of paying tribute to the art that came before, and with this film directors Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn made it a mission to pull from the past while creating something new and unique.
Directed by Oscar-winning Chris Buck (director of Frozen, Frozen) and Fawn Veerasunthorn (head of story, Raya and the Last Dragon) both represent different generations of the studio, collaborating to bring a unified vision of the 100 years of Disney.
Buck joined Disney as a hand-drawn animator under the guidance of Eric Larson, one of the studio’s Nine Old Men, the famous core group of Walt Disney animators. Veerasunthorn grew up in Thailand idolizing movies like Beauty and the Beast and joined the studio as a story artist on the original Frozen.
Together, they set on taking elements from classic Disney stories and bringing their essence to the new project, taking note of the consistencies in visual styles, whether it be backgrounds, objects or characters.
Veerasunthorn says, “We always set out with the two main goals: One is how do we celebrate the legacy of the studio? And the other is how do we pave the way for the future, look into the future. So the legacy part is in the look and feel of this movie, the watercolor look, the DNA of wishing upon the star. But we have an all-new original fairy tale. And we have a pop songwriter, Julia Michaels and Ben Rice that bring in these contemporary tunes to the Disney movie.”
Buck adds, “There were a lot of things. Characters looking up at the sky, characters wishing on stars. We’re like, ‘it’s in the Disney DNA.’ And so then it just kind of kept snowballing from there, the whole wishing and wishing on a star and creating a character, bringing a star down, what would that be like? So all those kinds of fun things happened just from that initial thing of really looking at kind of what Walt had created.”
“We always went back to Walt. We studied a lot of his history and how he grew up and how he got into the film business and why he and all these things. And those were so instrumental.”
–Wish Director Chris Buck
As Walt Disney was one of the main inspirations for Wish, a lot of research was done on his life outside of the studio.
“We always went back to Walt. We studied a lot of his history and how he grew up and how he got into the film business and why he and all these things. And those were so instrumental, at least in the early stages. And they really just kind of helped us along the way, too,” says Buck.
The visual language of the film took from many Disney classics, including the grandiose hand-painted backgrounds of Sleeping Beauty, which filmmakers say adds to why Wish was meant to be seen on the big screen.
“Sleeping Beauty has always been, we knew it’s one of the most beautiful films the studio has ever done and then one of the biggest. And we thought, ‘well, it sure would be nice to celebrate this movie, the 100th anniversary, with a big film,’ something physically big on the screen. And so Sleeping Beauty, not only the aspect ratio, but then also just the design work is so gorgeous,” says Buck.
Veerasunthorn says, “We studied the composition of those illustrations at the turn of the century. The specific way they frame things with the archway or leaving a lot of space on the we dissected that and then we give that presentation to story artists who are involved in the early stages, and then that informed layout. Because any time you pause in this film, our hope is that it’s a painting.”
Buck adds, “Then we went back to the original artists that inspired Walt. Sometimes they weren’t even artists that actually worked on the films, but just artists that inspired the artists who did work on the films. So we went back to the source of the source and it was great to do that. And we kept going back and just seeing what were the amazing things that they did. Because obviously they would probably look at today and go, ‘my gosh, you can do so many things with the computer, things we can never do.’ But there are also things that they did that just have that heart and soul and passion that really speak, that really say ‘Disney’.”
And as for the two directors working together on this? They had a great time learning from one another and being weird.
Buck says, “Well, Fawn I loved because, again, we know each other from the first Frozen, she boarded on that and so I already knew she was a great artist, she was a great thinker. She did a lot on Frozen also, she just really helped us kind of work on some tough sequences. So I already knew she had so much, that she cared so much about the story and the characters and brought that all the time to everything.”
Working with Veerasunthorn and showing her the new departments and the artists who she didn’t interact with when she was in a specific department broadened her experience.
She adds, “it’s been a dream working with Chris. We knew each other from Frozen, but almost like from afar. And I admired him from Tarzan. So we had Frozen, Frozen, getting to work closely and we had similar sense of humor. That’s what’s delightful about it. I’m kind of weird and he’s kind of weird too!”
“I didn’t realize she was as twisted as I am!” adds Buck.
A Wish for Joy and Hope
As the 100-year-old studio puts the final touches on their newest creation, a look back at the work that has been accomplished and a look forward at what can be, those that had the opportunity to work on it speak of the experience as one of pride and honor as it goes out into the world to be seen by audiences who will compare and contrast it to the compendium of all that is Disney, and for the creators, hopefully enjoy the unique voice it has.
Producer Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster Jones says, “from a thematic point of view, it’s always been a movie about joy, but also about hope, because that is what Disney means to most of us, right. When we think about Disney, we think about joy, we think about hope.”
Del Vecho says, “I hope it gives them a sense of hope. I think it’s something that’s very much needed in the world. I hope they enjoy taking their friends and family to the theater to see it on the big screen, because it’s been a while since we’ve been able to do that. And we made this movie to share with people, to get that sense of community back, and I hope this movie reconnects people.
