Trivia / Wish (2023)

• All-Star Cast: Among the film's cast are Ariana DeBose, Alan Tudyk, Chris Pine, Victor Garber, Natasha Rothwell, Evan Peters, and Harvey Guillén.
• Box Office Bomb: Budget: $175–200 million. Box office: $63,938,650 domestic, $252,570,989 worldwide. The film performed worse than Encanto ($96 million domestic, $256.8 million worldwide) and only marginally better than Raya and the Last Dragon ($54 million domestic, $130.4 million worldwide). And both those movies were released during the COVID-19 Pandemic with briefer theatrical windows; Wish had an open-ended run, a much larger marketing campaign, and the biggest merchandise push for a Disney film since Frozen II — which likely compounded losses as toys, clothing, and accessories lingered in stores well past Christmas. (For reference, the non-Disney animated features Trolls Band Together and Migration, released in the same holiday period, both inched past the $100 million mark domestically by the end of their runs, while the fantasy musical Wonka got to $218 million.)
• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • In the European French dub: Lambert Wilson as King Magnifico, Isabelle Adjani as Queen Amaya and Gérard Darmon as Valentino.
  • In the Italian dub: Popstar Gaia as Asha, TV personality Amadeus as Valentino and actor Michele Riondino (speaking) and voice actor Marco Manca (singing) as King Magnifico.
  • In the Japanese dub: Former Nogizaka46 member Erika Ikuta as Asha, singer Masaharu Fukuyama as King Magnifico, Takeshi Kaga (better known as both Chairman Kaga and live-action Soichiro Yagami) as Sabino, former Takarazuka Revue actress Rei Dan as Queen Amaya and singer Saho Aono as Hal.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Dahlia uses a crutch to walk. Her voice actress, Jennifer Kumiyama, has arthrogryposis and uses a wheelchair.
• Milestone Celebration: The film was intended as a celebration of Disney's centennial anniversary, hence wishes coming true being its main theme; the idea of wishing upon a shooting star references a prominent part of Disney's Vanity Plate.
• No Export for You: Due to sanctions against Russia (and Belarus) in the aftermath of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the official Russian dub of the movie was not produced, licensed, or released in Russia and Belarus. The dub was (officially) released only in the CIS region and Baltic countries, and utilized mostly Kazakh-based actors.
• Orphaned Reference: The opening verse of "This Is The Thanks I Get?!" has King Magnifico claim his genetics come from outer space without any further elaboration. This is likely a left over from earlier scripts where his character had a stronger connection to astrology.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Chris Pine plays a villain, rather than the heroic characters he usually plays. However, this isn't the first time he plays a handsome, charismatic authority figure who provides wish-fulfillment to those who follow him or a royal who is more charming than sincere.
  • Harvey Guillén, who usually plays the optimist comedic type character, as seen previously in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, plays the cynical Deadpan Snarker Gabo.
• Production Posse:
  • The third collaboration between director Chris Buck, writer and executive producer Jennifer Lee, and producer Peter Del Vecho, following Frozen and Frozen II, where Lee served alongside Buck as a director.
  • This film marks Alan Tudyk's eleventh role in a Walt Disney Animation Studios film.
• Similarly Named Works: Wish is also the name of the largest ship in the Disney Cruise Line fleet. Wishes was also the name of a popular nighttime spectacular at Magic Kingdom before it was replaced by the possibly even more popular Happily Ever After.
• Spoiled by the Merchandise: Storybooks were released a month before the movie.
• What Could Have Been:
  • When "This Wish" was performed at the 2022 D23 Expo, it was originally called "More For Us".
  • The sneak peak at the 2022 D23 Expo showed the animation having a lower framerate, akin to the other similarly animated movies that came before.
  • The filmmakers had considered making the film traditionally animated at one point.^note meaning it could've been Disney's first traditionally animated feature film since Winnie the Pooh (2011) However they decided against it due to the limitations of traditional animation compared to CGI animation. They later considered animating Star in 2D, but also decided against it because "2D had too many limitations in terms of camera movements and characterization." Though they would compromise somewhat by giving the 3D animation a 2D-looking aesthetic.
  • According to some of the concept art from the film's "Art Of" book, Star was originally going to be a shapeshifter with a humanoid base form, basically be a mix of Peter Pan and the Genie in terms of personality, and was designed as a younger version of Asha's grandfather. Remnants of the shapeshifter element are kept with the red yarn Star uses, while it was redesigned to be a Cute Mute.
  • Queen Amaya was originally going to be a villain in an Unholy Matrimony with King Magnifico, running the kingdom of Rosas as a crime family not unlike The Sopranos. She was also going to have a Sphynx cat called Charo as her pet.
  • At this point in development, Magnifico wanted the wishes (and eventually Star) because he literally hungered for their power, eating them from time to time. The concept of him eating wishes would last well into development.
  • Initially, as seen in this storyboarded sequence, Asha's family and others lived in "The Hamlet" hidden in the woods to keep their wishes their own, writing them on strips of fabric and tying them to the Wishing Tree seen in the final film. Sabino then inspired Asha to keep going and fight against Magnifico, and died of sickness/old age not long after this scene. The filmmakers decided it would be more dramatic if everyone admired Magnifico, with only Asha becoming aware of the truth and trying to convince others of it. Asha's family living in the forest is leftover from this phase.
  • A deleted chase scene featuring talking Star and evil Amaya had Star transform into several different creatures to escape, including a cameo of Olaf from Frozen. It was changed as development shifted to Asha problem-solving on her own and Star becoming a silent character, as well as Amaya becoming heroic.
  • Also in this phase, Dahlia was the character who believed in Magnifico wholeheartedly until his Jumping Off the Slippery Slope, then turns on him and helps the others (including Simon) during a search in a dungeon for the captured Sakina and Sabino. There they encounter an eighth teen friend for Asha, Flazino, who was serving as Magnifico's apprentice, learned the truth the hard way when his wish was crushed, and had information on how he might be defeated; he was seen as one friend too many.
  • A toy of Valentino has lots of dialogue not heard in the film and also suggests he was going to be a fainting goat at some point. He also had more of a thematic role than in the finished film, constantly trying and failing to climb but never giving up.
  • A storyboarded alternate climax had Magnifico demanding Asha reveal Star (whom he'd never seen, and was busy trying to free the wishes with Gabo and Dahlia's help) and her trying to pass off Valentino as Star; Valentino then has the talking animals try to attack him. Magnifico eating wishes to confront the stampede resulted in him going One-Winged Angel with Volcanic Veins and Power Echoes; even defeating his own guards easily. This was changed to make Magnifico smarter and more threatening and to have Asha and Magnifico battle alone.
  • Sabino originally sang "A Wish Worth Making" after reclaiming his wish; no specific explanation has been given for it being cut (according to co-director Chris Buck "the film tells you what it needs").
  • The short Once Upon a Studio was originally announced as being attached to this film (Asha prominently appears in its ending), but a month prior to release it was aired on television instead. The only country in which the short and film were released together was Japan, until the Wish home media releases included the short as an extra feature.
• Word of Saint Paul: The author of the tie-in book A Recipe for Adventure speculated Gabo is the way he is because he's a disappointed optimist.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: This Variety article mentions how "This Wish" was written before any of the script had been written.

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