History Headscratchers / Wish2023

*** It can't be scrying/clairvoyance involved, since if he had that power, he wouldn't have had to wait for Simon to tell him that Asha was responsible for Star appearing. (For that matter, Magnifico wasn't clever enough to figure out from the beginning that it ''had'' to be Asha because nobody else knew his true nature at that point.)

** The premise is ultimately similar to ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' or the "Luthor Lottery" in ''ComicBook/SupermanSecretOrigin'' (once a week Lex Luthor invites people to gather outside his company so that he can grant the "wish" of one citizen in Metropolis). While the Games are more potentially lethal, ultimately all three situations see people essentially choose not to fight to change a system that leaves them dependent on others because they've been convinced to accept the ''chance'' that the system will benefit them ''some'' day rather than rebel and lose the opportunity to get their wish their own way until someone else steps up.

* How old is King Magnifico? Sabino is 100 years old, yet it's stated people give away their wishes after they turn eighteen. Either Magnifico is somehow >90 (which is *ew* in that case, considering Amaya's probably not also that old) or Asha's just simplifying the process. Did Sabino move over to Rosas and simply give up his wish after he moved?

** Magnifico was going practice that forbidden magic, not simply read it. And practicing that forbidden magic, even if you're not physically touching the evil book, would pretty much override any protection to begin with.
* Why doesn't Asha or the queen just wish for King Magnifico to be good or to lift the corrupted magic on him?
** It's evident that neither Magnifico nor the Star have Genie-like powers or the movie would be far different. Magnifico only grants wishes that his magic is able to do, which is why the wishes he grants are more mundane compared to other, more fantastical wishes in his room. The Star's magic is powerful, but it makes it clear that it cannot grant wishes, only help people achieve wishes. And forbidden magic is explicitly stated to take hold of a person who dabbles into for all eternity. This all but spells out that Magnifico is BeyondRedemption for there is no known means to break the corrupt magic's hold on him.
*** Given the ''whole populace of the city'' was able to break the power of the dark magic in the end with their wishing, there's nothing saying that he couldn't have been purified that way. Perhaps he ''was'' actually purified, if still retaining his obnoxious ego; it's just that nobody wants to free him.

*** Even if Home on the Range bombed, Disney animation was still in a much better place than it was when Black Cauldron bombed. In the mid 80s, Disney had a relatively small animation department that could only have one animated film in production at a time, which is why they only released a new film every three to four years. In the early 2000s, they were able to release two or three films a year, thanks to a much larger crew of artists and animators, and facilities in Orlando and Paris. Granted Michael Eisener was shutting down those facilities to save money by the time Home on the Range came out, but Disney animation wasn't entirely on thin ice like after the failure of the Black Cauldron. As for Atlantis and Treasure Planet being represented in the credits, Disney DOES know they have a cult status and is willing to appease that limited demographic.

*** There were definitely enough stretches of "dead air" in the credits to include the few that ''weren't'' included, if they simply rearranged the placement of the credits like they would for any of the others.

*** Artist Rachel Bibb, who worked on this sequence, explained on Instagram that due to rights issues they couldn't use any ''Big Hero 6'' characters aside from Yokai.
** A major question here is just how ''inconsistent'' the representation is. ''Black Cauldron'' could conceivably have be omitted as "financial failure," "critical failure," or "very un-Disney," but then there are examples of all three of those which ''are'' represented with ''Treasure Planet'', ''Brother Bear'', and ''Chicken Little'', respectively. (Ironically, ''Wish'' itself ended up qualifying as the first two.)

* How does a sorcerer as powerful as Magnifico not have some sort of memory erasing spell? Why would he let Asha walk out with the knowledge that most of these wishes won't be granted?

** Maybe most people accept on some level, they may never be one of the lucky ones that get there wish. But the possibility that it could still happen for ''any'' of them keeps them content. Kind of like how people still play the lottery, hoping to win a life changing amount of money, even if they know the odds are astronomically small. And it was Magnifico basically admitting to Asha that he just flat out refuses to grant certain whishes, but still keeps them and leaves the rejected with a false hope that they can still be granted one day, along with making it clear the wishes he does grant are the ones ''he'' sees benefit in that leads to Asha being disillusioned with him and his wish granting system. Not just that there are some people that will never have the fortune of their wishes being granted.
** Perhaps, but with the lottery people keep up hope for winning because they can enter over and over. Magnifico's system is like a lottery that you can only enter once, appears to be mandatory, takes part of your memory, and if you don't win a million dollars then you're forbidden from ever making a million dollars. So there's plenty of known reasons for the public to be skeptical of it already.

** Both the Hunger Games and the Luthor Lottery had plenty of dissenters before Katniss and Clark began tearing down the defenses, since the Capitol and Luthor had to keep up vast propaganda programs to keep most of the public thinking positively of them or too afraid to protest. Magnifico doesn't seem to have much of a propaganda apparatus for most to swallow "losing your memory is good" besides Asha giving tours.
*** However, Magnifico also has the advantage of living in a more primitive culture than Snow and Luthor; he doesn't really have any competition before Asha learned the truth, so he didn't ''need'' to do more than focus on the positives and stop anyone considering the negatives.

** The group effort required to stop Magnifico and the individual effort to achieve their own wishes require different levels of power; everyone agreed that they wanted rid of the king that lied to them at that point, but it's doubtful that enough people would be able to invest the same effort in working as a group to grant more individual wishes, requiring everyone to work at their dreams on a case-by-case basis.

* How is forgetting your wish after Magnifico takes it away permanent? If someone wishes for something like healing a sick family member, wouldn't they remember it as soon as they saw their family again after the ceremony? Or if they have an interest in becoming an artist, couldn't their daily life cause them to reexperience the spark of inspiration that led to them wanting to become an artist? In addition to that, how come no one appears to take preemptive measures to remember their wish, like writing it down or telling a friend before the ceremony?
** Without having seen the movie, the meaning behind forgetting a wish is probably that you lose the passion and ambition inherent to the wish. For example, Asha could just tell her grandfather that his wish was to become a inspiring musician, but he can’t strive to fulfill that wish because the inspiration to do so is part of the wish itself.
* Why does Star leave Asha with a wand at the end when the people of Rosas do not need a FairyGodmother, since they're going to actualize their wishes themselves? And why should someone as inexperienced and inept with magic as Asha have the same kind of power to decide which wishes get granted (because inevitably she will have to make those kind of choices) as the well-trained King Magnifico had when the whole point of confronting him was to take that power from him?
** The wand seems to grant small scale magic and it's implied Asha will be doing similar to what Star does - helping people see their wishes granted, not granting them directly. It's kind of an extension of what she was already doing in the movie in trying to get the wishes back so citizens could pursue them themselves.

** Presumably he just uses them as a dogsbody, given what Amaya mentions on the way up the stairs (keep the fire warm for his tea, acquire items for him, no asking questions or to see the wishes). Given the Teens imply apprentices are more likely to get their wishes granted it's possible that Magnifico has dismissed them before because they weren't as interested in the job itself as he hoped. On a Doylist level, it's a device for Asha to see the wishes and be able to ask Magnifico questions that get the plot moving.

** A major question here is just how ''inconsistent'' the representation is. ''Black Cauldron'' could conceivably have be omitted as "financial failure," "critical failure," or "very un-Disney," but then there are examples of all three of those which ''are'' represented with ''Treasure Planet, Brother Bear'', and ''Chicken Little'', respectively.

* Why does Star leave Asha with a wand at the end when the people of Rosas do not need a FairyGodmother, since they're going to actualize their wishes themselves? And why should someone as inexperienced and inept with magic as Asha have the same kind of power to decide which wishes get granted as King Magnifico had?

* How is forgetting your wish after Magnifico takes it permanent? If someone wishes for something like healing a sick family member, wouldn't they remember it as soon as they saw their family again after the ceremony? Or if they have an interest in becoming an artist, couldn't their daily life cause them to reexperience the spark of inspiration that led to them wanting to become an artist? In addition to that, how come no one appears to take preemptive measures to remember their wish, like writing it down or telling a friend before the ceremony?

** The premise is ultimately similar to ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' or the "Luthor Lottery" in ''ComicBook/SupermanSecretOrigin'' (once a week Lex Luthor invites people to gather outside his company so that he can grant the wish of one citizen in Metropolis). While the Games are more potentially lethal, ultimately all three situations see people essentially choose not to fight to change a system that leaves them dependent on others because they've been convinced to accept the ''chance'' that the system will benefit them ''some'' day rather than rebel and lose the opportunity to get their wish their own way until someone else steps up.