---
title: "Wish"
year: 2023
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/wish"
fi1m_id: "wish"
imdb_id: "tt11304740"
tmdb_id: 1022796
wikidata_id: "Q113883193"
fi1m_score: 49
critics_score: 46
critics_reviews: 19
published: "2026-09-10"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:04.439475+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Wish (2023)

Directed by Fawn Veerasunthorn, Chris Buck · 1h 35m · MPA PG · Animation, Family, Fantasy, Adventure

## Identity

Wish

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/wish
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** wish
- **IMDb ID:** tt11304740
- **TMDB ID:** 1022796
- **Wikidata ID:** Q113883193
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11304740/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1022796, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q113883193

**Fi1m score: 49** · Critics 46 from 19 reviews

*In a sentence:* A talking goat, a silent star and a villain who is the only one with a tune

> Disney’s hundredth-birthday picture is handsome, brief and almost entirely empty. Ariana DeBose sings well and Chris Pine enjoys being wicked, but the story is a collection of nods to better films, and the songs are gone before the credits finish.

## Synopsis

Asha (Ariana DeBose) is seventeen and lives in Rosas, an island kingdom where every citizen, on turning eighteen, hands their dearest wish to King Magnifico (Chris Pine), a sorcerer who keeps the wishes safe in his tower and grants a handful each year. Asha goes to the palace hoping to become his apprentice and to put in a word for her grandfather Sabino (Victor Garber), who is about to turn a hundred and is still waiting. What she learns about the king’s methods sends her into the woods to wish on a star. The star comes down. Her goat Valentino (Alan Tudyk) starts talking. Her mother Sakina (Natasha Rothwell), her friends from the palace kitchens and Queen Amaya (Angelique Cabral) are drawn in. Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn direct.

## Review

Rosas is an island kingdom with a good deal on offer: on your eighteenth birthday you hand your dearest wish to King Magnifico (Chris Pine), who keeps it safe in his tower and, once a year, grants a few. Asha (Ariana DeBose) is seventeen and wants to be his apprentice, mostly so she can put in a word for her grandfather Sabino (Victor Garber), who is about to turn a hundred and has waited long enough. Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn direct from a script by Jennifer Lee and Allison Moore, and the film was made to mark Disney’s hundredth year. That is what it is about. Nearly every scene nods to an older picture, and the question is whether the film has anything of its own to set beside them. At 95 minutes it does not have long to answer, and it does not.

The look is the best of it. David Womersley, Lisa Keene and Michael Giaimo have painted the backgrounds in a soft watercolour wash, with the brushmarks left in the skies and on the sea, so that for stretches the film looks like a storybook opened wide. The characters are modelled in the round and set into these flats, and the join shows; Asha has a weight the walls behind her do not. Still, when the star comes down over the forest and the light runs out through the trees while Dave Metzger’s score climbs, we felt the small lift we had come for. It lasted about a minute, and nothing later matched it.

DeBose sings with clear, unfussy power and plays Asha as a talker, anxious and over-explaining, which is a change after a decade of heroines who mainly gasp. Pine is better than the film deserves. Magnifico is a vain man who has decided that hoarding is a form of kindness, and Pine gives him a purr that curdles into a snarl, and the one song with a shape to it, in which he lists everything he has done for his ungrateful subjects. We laughed, and then noticed we were laughing at the villain because nobody else had been handed anything funny to say.

The rest of the cast are names on a poster. Valentino (Alan Tudyk) is a goat given speech by a falling star and given nothing to say with it beyond remarks about his own rear. The Star itself is a silent yellow face with arms, charming for one scene and a mascot after that. Asha’s friends, among them Dahlia (Jennifer Kumiyama), Gabo (Harvey Guillén), Simon (Evan Peters), Safi (Ramy Youssef), Hal (Niko Vargas) and Dario (Jon Rudnitsky), make up a gang of seven for a reason you will guess, and only Gabo’s grumbling registers. Queen Amaya (Angelique Cabral) is given a conscience and about four lines to use it. Sabino is the one person whose wish we cared about, and the film treats him as a prop.

The songs are the real failure, and in a musical that is not a small one. There are half a dozen or so, they arrive on schedule, and each is a list: of wishes, of grievances, of what a hero must now do. The lyrics explain the plot rather than lift it. Jeff Draheim cuts every number the same way, a crane over the crowd, close on a face, back to the crane, so that even the staging blurs into the next. We came out unable to hum one, and we tried, in the car park, out of professional duty.

The comparison the film invites is with the studio’s own past, since it spends its running time pointing at it. Buck and Lee were behind *Frozen* ten years ago, whose songs had somewhere to go and whose two sisters had a real quarrel. *Wish* has a girl, a king and a question about whether dreams should be kept in jars, which is a fine question for a picture book and a thin one for a feature. We were bored by the forty-minute mark, and then puzzled about how a film this short could feel this long.

Most critics have landed near where we have, a shade below the middle, and we see no reason to argue. A child under eight will get a wet afternoon out of it without harm, and the U certificate is honest. Anyone older will be left with Chris Pine complaining in a tower, which is a good twenty minutes and not enough to build a hundredth birthday on.

*Fi1m score 49, published 10 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics find Wish a centenary tribute that spends more time saluting Disney’s past than telling its own story, and the consensus is that it comes up short. The complaints cluster on the script: a thin plot, underwritten characters, a villain given too little to work with, and a habit of gesturing at earlier films rather than earning its own moments. Several reviews describe it as feeling corporate, more an anniversary exercise than a fairy tale. Praise, where it comes, goes chiefly to the voice cast, with Ariana DeBose and Chris Pine singled out repeatedly, and to the look of the film, though the mix of 2D and 3D animation divides opinion sharply. The songs divide critics too, called catchy in some reviews and forgettable in most.

The spread is wide. Empire and Film Stories are the warmest, treating it as an affectionate if formulaic homage, while Vulture is the harshest, finding it lifeless on every level.

## Straight answers

**Is Wish worth watching?**

*Wish* is worth watching only for children under eight with a wet afternoon to fill, and we scored it 49. The watercolour backgrounds are handsome and Chris Pine has fun as the vain King Magnifico, but the story is a string of nods to older Disney films and the songs are forgettable lists that explain the plot. Anyone older will find it short and oddly long.

**How long is Wish, and what is it rated?**

*Wish* runs 1h 35m and is rated PG by the MPA in the US. It is an animation and family film.

**Where can I watch Wish in the US?**

*Wish* is streaming on Disney+ in the US, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV from $3.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How does Wish compare to Pinocchio?**

*Wish* borrows its wishing star from [*Pinocchio*](https://film.one/film/pinocchio) and has little else to set beside it; the earlier film is the stranger, the more frightening and by some distance the better of the two. *Pinocchio* is a genuine fable about a child lied to by every adult he meets, while *Wish* is a birthday tribute with a talking goat and one good villain song. Watch the original first, and the newer film mainly to spot what is being quoted.

**What should I watch after Wish?**

After *Wish*, try [*Pinocchio*](https://film.one/film/pinocchio) (1940, Fi1m 88): The original wishing-star picture, so you can see what is being quoted. Then [*The Princess and the Frog*](https://film.one/film/the-princess-and-the-frog) (2009, Fi1m 72): The studio’s last hand-drawn musical, with songs that go somewhere; and [*Kiki's Delivery Service*](https://film.one/film/kikis-delivery-service) (1989, Fi1m 86): A girl finding her feet, and a talking cat who earns every line.

### Reviews we read (22)

- **Empire**, John Nugent (70/100, inferred): The film is a formulaic but affectionate tribute to Disney's classic style and tropes, celebrating the studio's centenary without breaking new ground. The critic praises the nostalgic references and old-fashioned magic while noting flat jokes and a generic script. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/wish/)
- **The New York Times**, Amy Nicholson (65/100, inferred): The film is an amiable, young-skewing trifle that retcons Disney’s back catalog into a single magical universe. The critic praises the premise but notes it functions as a generic prequel celebrating the studio’s centennial. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/21/movies/wish-review-the-sorcerers-disgruntled-apprentice.html)
- **Radio Times**, Laura Rutkowski (3/5): The film taps into Disney nostalgia effectively but fails to become an instant classic like Pinocchio or Encanto. It shines with catchy songs performed well by DeBose and Pine plus cute elements like the star character, yet is let down by an underdeveloped plot and villain backstory. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/wish-disney-film-review/)
- **Time Out**, Phil de Semlyen (3/5): Wish is a so-so centenary celebration with a bare-bones plot that gestures at classics without matching them. It benefits from colourful world-building, a sparky voice cast especially DeBose and Pine, and strong songs, but suffers from uneven 2D/3D animation and a weak goat sidekick. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/wish-2023)
- **The AV Club**, Ray Greene (C-): The film is a mess resembling a corporate anxiety attack more than a centennial celebration, though innovative in its non-fairy-tale source and watercolor-style homage to classic animation. It ruminates on Disney's purpose while feeling wobbly and anxious. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/wish-movie-review-disney-1851037371)
- **Total Film**, Kate Stables (50/100, inferred): Wish is a charming but old-school family musical that is visually pretty as a graceful homage to classic Disney fairy tales yet lacks heart and emotional depth. The animation and performances are highlights, but the story feels nostalgic without sufficient originality or soul. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/wish-review/)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Katie Walsh (40/100, inferred): The film feels like corporate formula and is cobbled together from references to better Disney movies, with a generic script and uninspiring songs. It entertains the very young but falls short for those familiar with the studio’s stronger work; the Star character provides the main highlight. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2023-11-22/wish-review-disney-centennial-ariana-debose-chris-pine)
- **The Telegraph** (40/100, inferred): Wish feels like a corporate identity crisis rather than a fairy tale, with all the ingredients for a princess musical but no spark or humanity to bring them to life. It spends too long on metaphysics and lacks the charm to turn basics into an actual good time. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/wish-review-disney/)
- **Screen Daily** (35/100, inferred): Wish is a strained animated musical that shamelessly plunders Disney’s catalogue in a way that exposes how singular past productions were. A few memorable songs cannot compensate for the convoluted story, bland characters, and cynical callbacks that leave the film feeling like a dim echo of earlier works. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/wish-review/5187990.article)
- **The Guardian** (35/100, inferred): The film is an overstuffed yet underpowered attempt to replicate Frozen's success, feeling like an off-brand rip-off lacking magic and charm. The animation style is jarring, the songs forgettable, and the story a clumsy remix that fails to coalesce into something engaging. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/nov/20/wish-disney-movie-review)
- **Slant Magazine** (30/100, inferred): The film plays like a no-frills Disney princess story with all the right ingredients but no vibrancy or inspiration, resulting in a muted, uninspiring effort. Its allegorical undercurrent about power and dreams is undercut by talking animals and weak songs. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/wish-review-disney-ariana-debose-chris-pine/)
- **The i Paper**, Francesca Steele (30/100, inferred): Intended as a centenary celebration, the film is a forgettable jumble of allusions to past Disney classics with no real soul or originality of its own. The patchwork story, mismatched animation style, and clichéd songs fail to deliver the magic or innovation expected. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/wish-review-disney-lost-magic-2768293)
- **Vulture** (10/100, inferred): The film fails on every level as a lifeless mess of bland brand management, neither evocative of the past nor inventive enough to justify its callouts. The songs, animation, characters, and story all disappoint despite the promising premise. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/movie-review-disneys-wish-is-a-disaster.html)
- **IndieWire**, Kate Erbland: The film hits expected beats but hints at something more subversive, adding modern sparkle to classic lessons with a mild hallucinogenic touch. It balances charm with potential for deeper commentary under the surface. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/wish-movie-review-disney-musical-1234925838/)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Lovia Gyarkye: The critic sees the film as trapped between past and present Disney styles, with a safe conclusion that squanders its promising rebellious formula. DeBose's voice performance and the diverse cast stand out amid the awkward hybrid animation and music. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/wish-review-disney-ariana-debose-chris-pine-1235648321/)
- **Film Stories**, Simon Brew (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the film visually magical with strong voice work and enjoyable musical numbers, but notes the narrative is mildly muddled and overly focused on Disney heritage at the expense of a fully rounded story. It comfortably fits into the Disney canon without standing out. [Read](https://filmstories.co.uk/reviews/wish-review-disney-100-celebration-comes-to-its-big-finale/)
- **The Wrap** (65/100, inferred): The critic calls it a darling film that celebrates Disney's past with strong animation, catchy songs, and excellent voice work from Ariana DeBose and Chris Pine, but finds the screenplay underwritten with thin characters and a story that feels slight and incomplete. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/wish-movie-review-disney-ariana-debose/)
- **HeyUGuys**, Emily Breen (3/5): The review criticizes the film for failing to explore its intriguing premise, with forgettable songs and lacklustre storytelling, though it acknowledges it is visually pretty and ends on a heartwarming note. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/wish-review/)
- **Collider**, Ross Bonaime (4/10): Wish falls short of capturing Disney's magic with unremarkable music and a lackluster screenplay. It attempts to celebrate Disney's history but ends up feeling dated and without creativity. [Read](https://collider.com/wish-movie-review/)
- **Deadline**, Damon Wise (40/100, inferred): The critic views the film as a low-stakes greatest-hits package that fails to live up to Disney's legacy, with overblown songs and a thin, unsubtle plot full of missed opportunities. Ariana DeBose's charming turn as Asha is singled out as the standout element. [Read](https://deadline.com/2023/11/wish-review-ariana-debose-shines-chris-pine-disney-fairytale-animation-1235614133/)
- **/Film**, Josh Spiegel (3.5/10): The critic deems the film a lifeless homage that prioritizes Easter eggs and references to past Disney works over original storytelling, resulting in forgettable songs and shaky logic, despite strong visuals and cast. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/1448566/wish-review/)
- **Den of Geek**, David Crow (3 out of 5): The critic finds it a heartfelt and sweet effort with gorgeous animation and a strong villain arc, but criticizes the weak songbook, simplistic story, and lack of compelling music that prevents it from recapturing Disney magic fully. It's suitable for kids but only adequate for parents. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/wish-review-celebration-100-years-disney/)

## Details

- **Director:** Fawn Veerasunthorn, Chris Buck
- **Director:** Fawn Veerasunthorn, Chris Buck
- **Screenplay:** Jennifer Lee, Allison Moore
- **Story:** Allison Moore, Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn, Jennifer Lee
- **Editor:** Jeff Draheim
- **Music:** David Metzger
- **Production design:** Michael Giaimo, Lisa Keene, David Womersley
- **Producer:** Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster-Jones, Peter Del Vecho
- **Cast:** Ariana DeBose as Asha (voice); Chris Pine as King Magnifico (voice); Alan Tudyk as Valentino (voice); Angelique Cabral as Queen Amaya (voice); Victor Garber as Sabino (voice); Natasha Rothwell as Sakina (voice); Jennifer Kumiyama as Dahlia (voice); Harvey Guillén as Gabo (voice)
- **Runtime:** 1h 35m
- **Certificate (MPA):** PG
- **Release (the US):** 22 November 2023
- **Genres:** Animation, Family, Fantasy, Adventure
- **Budget:** $175 million
- **Box office:** $255 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQPeGiCH7A0

## Where to watch in the US

- Disney+: streaming, uhd
- Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, uhd
- Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $9.99, hd
- Apple TV: buy $19.99, hd

*Checked 2026-09-10.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, UA, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Critics' Choice Awards 2023: Best Animated Feature (nominated)

## If you liked this

- *Pinocchio* (1940), Fi1m 88: The original wishing-star picture, so you can see what is being quoted. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/pinocchio.md)
- *The Princess and the Frog* (2009), Fi1m 72: The studio’s last hand-drawn musical, with songs that go somewhere. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-princess-and-the-frog.md)
- *Kiki's Delivery Service* (1989), Fi1m 86: A girl finding her feet, and a talking cat who earns every line. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/kikis-delivery-service.md)
- *Ernest & Celestine* (2012), Fi1m 84: French watercolour animation done with conviction rather than as a nod. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/ernest-and-celestine.md)
- *Encanto* (2021), Fi1m 80: A family, a house and songs that carry the plot instead of pausing it. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/encanto.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/wish