Are Disney Animated Movies Over? Our Thoughts On The New Wish Movie Trailer
This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s fall editorial intern Hannah Yarrington. Find her on Instagram at @513hny. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
With Walt Disney Animated Studios being around for a century now, we have seen a substantial change in animation styles and stories throughout the years. Most of the Disney movies we grew up on were 2D, hand-drawn animation with dramatic soundtracks and dynamic characters. But with their recent animation style, in which they’ve used 3D, fans have been crying out for Disney to go back to their original style. So now, with their 100-year anniversary, Disney is releasing the movie “Wish,” which mixes both 2D and 3D animation. But this was not the hit Disney thought it was going to be when they released the trailer, and there has been much discourse on why Disney just can’t seem to get it right anymore. So, are Disney movies getting worse? Let’s dive into it.
Wish Movie Summary
If you haven’t seen the “Wish” movie trailer yet, I implore you to watch it yourself. But a general summary of the movie is that it follows a young girl named Asha who lives in the Kingdom of Rosas, who makes an incredibly powerful wish to the stars and must confront the King of Rosas, who is very upset that she has tampered with the way he has things running in the kingdom. It’s not a terribly complex plot from first looking at it, but it looks like it could be fairly interesting, depending on how they spin it with the villain. But other audiences were super underwhelmed with the story, especially for this type of anniversary, and they thought it was too copy-paste of other movies as it includes just about everything we’re used to seeing with Disney.
Main Character’s Personality
The main character, Asha, sports the same personality as many other heroines in other Disney movies we’ve seen as of late. Deemed “adorkable,” this personality was first seen in Tangled with Rapunzel, where she was sort of awkward and clumsy, but it made sense due to what she’s been through and grown up with. However, we saw it again with Anna, Moana, Raya, and Mirabel, and now, Asha. That is six characters now with this weird, quirky personality that I believe is supposed to be so young girls can relate to them better. However, women are much more complex than that, and children are smarter than we think and are still able to understand the many nuances that Disney animated movies have had in the past.
I’m not saying that past Disney movies with a female main character were necessarily better or less problematic, but at the very least, each woman was different, and I didn’t feel like I was watching the same girl who was just put in various settings.
I have also seen people upset about our supposed villain of the story, the King, who is voiced by Chris Pine, and are worried that they are going to turn this into a twist villain story. But there isn’t much to go off of from the trailer, so I’m hopeful Disney will return to their traditional villain archetype.
Animation Style
With the animation style being a mix between 2D and 3D, it’s bound to have some quirks. Instead of going full in with the 2D animation, the producers of this movie were worried that 2D was going to hold them back from some of the elements they wanted to put into the film. I can understand this, but I think it didn’t translate well, and from the parts we’ve seen, it almost looks unfinished. Some say it looks like the characters are 3D with a weird film over them and are just acting in front of a green screen. Personally, I don’t necessarily hate what they did with the animation, and I give them credit for trying something new. But I did hope that they would make a standard 2D animated film at least this once for their anniversary, but that just isn’t the case.
I think the main consensus here is that fans want something different from Disney. Many of us miss the nostalgia of old Disney animated movies. They had character and personality, and they may be trying too hard to be funny when not every fairy tale has to be silly to get the viewer’s attention. All in all, Disney has lots to think about and consider going forward in order to save themselves from the hole they are currently digging.
Are Disney movies getting worse, in your opinion? What were your first impressions of the “Wish” trailer? Let us know!