disney trying to get back the genZ boys

[Smugpugmug]

And the lyrics are terrible, when King Magnifico and Asha sing together for the first time in the room with the wishes that song was originally meant to be a love song and Disney had the writers change it to better fit the story (it didn't work). I could go on but basically this movie is a hot mess, it touched on some really interesting ethical questions but in the most shallow way possible.

Hiring people who mainly write pop songs to do the score was such a bad decision and why the music sucks so much.

Sorry couldn't help myself when I said I wouldn't get into it

 

[Madteaparty001]

How on Earth is Asha the villain? The system as established was not in the best interest of the people - whether they knowingly agreed to it or not (which I don't think they really understood the whole picture). The slightest challenge to Magnifico's status quo sent him off the rails. I'm not necessarily trying to defend the movie here and you are free to not like it, but I think that's a pretty bad read that Magnifico's system was just fine until it got jacked up by some kid.

I will defend the look, which I think is the best part of the movie. It harkens back to 2-D animation, which iw shy it has a sort of flat look. That was welcome to me! The hazy, dreamy color pallette also suits it. Look, I'm not saying it's the best movie or anything - It's pretty average in the Disney movie canon, but I am still surprised by how harsh people are toward it. Can't anything just be "okay" anymore?

Someone wrote up a great summary as to why Asha is the villain in a reddit thread that discusses film theories, I'll quote it here (edited for clarity):

"If you ask most people why King Magnifico is a villain it's because of three reasons

1. He doesn't grant every wish
2. People forget their wish when they give him it
3. He uses people's wishes to empower himself

With the Trailers saying that the first one alone is what makes him a villain, but in the opening song Welcome To Rosas, Asha confirms that the second one is public knowledge with the line "you won't even miss (your wish)", and also confirms that he typically grants 1 wish per month, with Magnifico later stating that his granting of 14 the year prior was a high amount, meaning literally anyone could just do some basic math to figure out the first, and Asha being shocked by it is more of a case of her being an idiot who never thought too hard about it, and as for the third, if it's one of the ones he was never going to grant anyways, who cares?

And while some do interpret his line of only granting those he deems best for Rosas as being those that benefit him, Welcome To Rosas list some of the wishes he's granted, including giving a guy really long hair, making another a good dancer and even helping someone visit outer space, none of which provide any benefit to him, him making someone a knight in the trailers does, but that is only one out of four, but Asha and the Star do cause some chaos throughout Rosas in the Trailer, and if we interpret those as wishes been granted, it seems that what Magnifico is doing is more along the line of risk assessment, as a guy with long hair is not gonna cause trouble like a giant chicken would.

It's also worth pointing out that unlike other wish granting Disney villains like Dr. Falicer, Ursula & Jafar in the Aladdin Sequel, if Magnifico grants your wish, there's no catch, no downsides or negative consequences, you get exactly what you want in the way you wanted it, and if he doesn't grant your wish, there's no real negative effects, you still get to live a long fulfilling life

This Is The Thanks I Get? gives us more info on Magnifico, clearly showing that's he's raging narcissist, but while that is a flaw, it doesn't automatically mean "Evil", especially when he goes into detail about how he gets the praise he craves, he literally built Rosas from the ground up, has spent his days constantly helping others (even if he does so by making use of his subjects now and then) and literally granting wishes, even if it's not every wish. The people are happy and healthy, and the kingdom is safe, prosperous and even tax-free (depending how you interpret the "not charging rent" line). Not having a wish granted seems like a very small price to pay, especially when most of them seem to be frivolous.

But Asha has her own flaw: Entitlement

And the way she goes about satisfying it definitely makes her a villain, for context, in Welcome to Rosas, she makes it clear that she wants both her and a her grandpa's wishes granted soon, she also makes it clear that she takes great pride in the idea that everyone's wishes gets granted in Rosas, the song also confirms that the youngest you get to turn in your wish is 18, and Asha is currently 17, meaning that when Magnifico reveals his wish granting process to her, she literally just found out there's very little chance of her wish being granted before she even makes it, and as the king's apprentice she could learn how to grant wishes herself, but that would likely take years, and she wants her and her grandfathers wishes granted now, and she wants Rosas to be the way she envisions it, and to do that she:

1. Breaks the King's laws regarding Magic
2. Causes chaos throughout the kingdom with it
3. Starts inciting dissent amongst the populace
4. and Actively rebels against the King with intent to Overthrow

Even if you want to argue that the first 2 are accidental because she didn't know how Star would respond, the last 2 are deliberate choices on her part, with the song This Wish having complained that no one cares to listen to her, expressing dissatisfaction with her lot in life, and wishing for more... all over some ungranted wishes."

Someone pointed out in the thread that the group song Now We Know makes for a better villain song then This is the Thanks I Get and I agree. I think another big point against the King being the villain is when you compare him to classics like Scar, Ursula, Jafar, etc. who have a long history of being bad and doing bad either openly or in the shadows, the king just doesn't, he only turns truly villainous when over taken by dark magic.

I pointed out several movies that were just okay: Luca, Soul, Onward, and Turning Red. My DH will defend Onward with all he's got because of the Guinevere storyline, it reminds him of the van he had as a teenager and he thought the send off was spectacular. I think most people aren't saying these movies shouldn't have been made, just that they failed to reach the heights that Disney had set the bar for in their golden era which I talked about in my last post. When you have intended straight to streaming movies such as the Zombies franchise outdoing box office releases in both song quality and popularity it makes people feel like something's off.

 

[BrianL]

All of that presupposes that everything was just fine with the status quo, but the whole point of the story is that people are better off keeping their wishes so they can work to make them come true on their own. So, it was right to challenge that, even if Asha may have at first jsut wanted her wish granted. The universe sent Star to help correct things, so it is the gods or what have you who took action to correct things. It's pretty straightforward.