History Fridge / Wish2023

* Magnifico's decision to grant a wish of a woman who wants to make the best clothes in Rosas fits his doctrine of only granting wishes that are useful for him: One more business is created for him to tax.
** It would also benefit him personally because a tailor who makes the best clothes would logically work making the best clothes for the most important and powerful person in the country, that being Magnifico himself.
* Magnifico initially attempts to justify his decision not to grant certain wishes by claiming that the consequences could be "unpredictable", such as regarding the wish of Asha's grandfather Sabino that he be able to inspire others as dangerous because Magnifico couldn't be sure that Sabino wouldn't inspire others to, for example, rise up against Magnifico himself. This ultimately reflects Magnifico's own arrogance and self-centeredness, implying that he fears people would rise up against him because that's essentially what ''he'' would do with such power in their position.
* In Magnifico's VillainSong, the lyric "I let you live here for free and I don't even charge you rent!" may sound like a DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment sentence, but it actually highlights Magnifico's hypocrisy of his benevolence. Previously, he claims that he's good by giving the clothes of Benito to a person who may or may not need them and then volunteering Henry to save a house on fire rather than himself. And his solution for people who lost their homes was just to let them live in the kingdom for free but he never stated anything about actually repairing their houses or fixing their troubles. He bloats his heroics with redundant descriptions that sound natural and helpful but are actually ridiculous once broken down, which is just like how he treats their wishes given to him.
* Despite King Magnifico having other apprentices in the past, only Asha seems to care that there are wishes that will never be granted. However, then you remember that all his previous apprentices had their wishes and the wishes of their families granted as a perk of their employment. Meaning, unlike Asha, they were willing to swallow their pride and then promptly retired once they got their wishes, also keeping quiet about all the ungranted wishes so as to not get on Magnifico's bad side.

* Magnifico's entire system of taking wishes from people, holding them for years, and then occasionally granting one in a massive public spectacle. He could easily just spend a few hours a day granting wishes. In fact, that would be way more efficient if he actually cared about the wishes of the people. Instead, he set up a system that lets him grant an occasional wish and be publicly praised for it while hoarding the rest.
* The Star method of granting people wishes (Star does help you, but you still have to put the work into it) is this when you rewatch the older films. Even in films like Pinocchio or Cinderella, the protagonists are just given the tools needed to help make their wish a reality, but they still need to put in the work (with some help).
* If you compare Star's design with that of Disney's previous incarnation of the Wishing Star, [[{{WesternAnimation/Pinocchio}} the Blue Fairy]], then you realize that the Blue Fairy and Star are, respectively, basically Disney's version of [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Rosalina and Luma!]]
* Magnifico's reasoning for not granting Sabino's wish is that his desire to be "inspirational" could inspire the people to - among other things - start an uprising against their King. While it's meant to show Magnifico's self-centered and far-fetched logic when granting or withholding the wishes, given the many inherent flaws in the system and how he uses it to hoard his power, it's very likely that granting Sabino's wish ''would'' have inspired the people to finally realize those flaws, and fight to change them as Asha soon does. Magnifico wouldn't have hesitated to grant such a simple and benevolent wish if he truly was a good ruler who had nothing to hide, [[VillainWithGoodPublicity but as he is not]], he was [[ProperlyParanoid completely correct]] in his assessment that such a wish would potentially be dangerous to himself.
** This is even more apparent when you look deeper into the wish since it's actually one that cannot be granted: not only would be sketchy as best to force inspiration on other people, but if the wish granted the inspiration it would be the magic to be inspirational, not Sabino. Not only does this reinforce how he doesn't consider the wishes by themselves, but only how they relate to him, it also indicates how he doesn't see the issue in using magic to get people's approval.
* Magnifico refused to grant Sabino's wish on the grounds that he could use his music to inspire people to rise up against him. Due to events resulting from that, that ends up happening, as after he reveals his evil nature and goes off the deep end, [[SelfFulfillingProphecy Asha performed two songs to inspire people to rise up against him]] (her friends in "Knowing What I Know Now" and the whole kingdom in "This Wish (Reprise)").
* Magnifico being fearful of Sabino's wish makes a lot more sense when one considers ''when'' the movie takes place, I.E: the 1200's. This is because Sabino was specifically shown wanting to inspire people through music, and occupations such as musicians and playwriters were much more politically relevant back then. Since most people were illiterate during the 1200's, songs and plays were the main source of not just entertainment but also news, as well as being a common source of propaganda and as a result could be used to inspire outrage and insurrection with ease, and since the masses had no means of fact checking back then and could only take people at their word, that meant that those people could use their songs and plays as a means of spreading slander and falsehoods to their heart's content to instigate a revolution and there'd be nothing to prevent people from believing them, and since Magnifico has no knowledge as to the kind of person Sabino is, he has no reason to doubt that Sabino would do exactly that if he got his wish granted.

* In a meta sense, the plot of ''Wish'' as a whole can be seen as a massive TakeThat to Disney's executives, and to entertainment executives in general. Consider: The charismatic, magical ruler, who built his kingdom up (supposedly) by his very self... is in fact a greedy, vain, selfish bastard who keeps people's sense of joy and wonder - the infinite potential of a thousand stories - locked away in a vault. He could distribute them more than piecemeal... but he sees the very idea as a threat to his beloved status quo. And the people who spent their entire lives looking up to his works are left horrified and dismayed by the callousness of it all. What makes this Fridge Horror rather than Brilliance is that the filmmakers probably didn't '''intend''' this interpretation of the story given this was the studio's MilestoneCelebration film, pitched as a ''celebration'' of The Walt Disney Company as a corporation.
** Supporting this, a further parallel can be seen when Asha shows Magnifico some of her drawings, including an impressive page-flip animation of Valentino, but Magnifico only condescendingly compliments her skills and clearly has no interest in it. Disney has frequently been criticized in recent years for moving away from their traditional, hand-drawn 2D animation in favor of CGI, with it often being suggested that the executives have no respect for the celebrated art form that the company was built on. Even the ''directors'' of this film originally considered making it in 2D but decided against it, claiming it wasn't as versatile visually as CGI. (Ironically, this was released the same year as Hayao Miyazaki's ''Anime/TheBoyAndTheHeron'', which was much more acclaimed.)

** Supporting this, a further parallel can be seen when Asha shows Magnifico some of her drawings, including an impressive page-flip animation of Valentino, but Magnifico only condescendingly compliments her skills and clearly has no interest in it. Disney has frequently been criticized in recent years for moving away from their traditional, hand-drawn 2D animation in favor of CGI (in fact, the creators of this very film had originally intended for it to be 2D before the higher-ups decided against it) with it often being suggested that the executives have no respect for the celebrated art form that the company was built on.

* Magnifico initially attempts to justify his decision not to grant certain wishes by claiming that the consequences could be "unpredictable", such as regarding the wish of Asha's grandfather Sabino that he be able to inspire others as dangerous because Magnifico couldn't be sure that Sabino wouldn't inspire others to, for example, rise up against Magnifico himself. This ultimately reflects Magnifico's own arrogance and self-centerdness, implying that he fears people would rise up against him because that's essentially what ''he'' would do with such power in their position.

* Magnifico initially attempts to justify his decision not to grant certain wishes by claiming that the consequences could be "unpredictable", such as regarding the wish of Asha's grandfather Sabino that he be able to inspire others as dangerous because Magnifico couldn't be sure that Sabino wouldn't inspire others to, for example, rise up against Magnifico himself. This ultimately reflects Magnifico's own arrogance and self-centerdness, implying that he fears people would rise up against him because that's [[{{Hypocrite}} essentially what ''he'' would do with such power in their position]].

* Magnifico initially attempts to justify his decision not to grant certain wishes by claiming that the consequences could be "unpredictable", such as regarding the wish of Asha's grandfather Sabino that he be able to inspire others as dangerous because Magnifico couldn't be sure that Sabino wouldn't inspire others to, for example, rise up against Magnifico himself. This ultimately reflects Magnifico's own arrogance and self-centredness, implying that he fears people would rise up against him because that's essentially what ''he'' would do with such power in their position.

* When did the person who wanted "a nanny for [their] horrible children" make their wish? It can't be when they were 18 unless Rosas has no issue with child marriage, so there's a very good chance it was quite some time ago (when the person moved to Rosas) and the children have already grown up, making its return useless. And how many other wishes are now useless due to the passage of time, or even ''death''? A lot of wishes will end up ''not'' making their makers happy upon their return, or will just be floating about without owners -- and could be used by evildoers now that people know what happens when they're crushed.