Wish

[twihard]

Jennifer Lee leaned too heavily into an audience’s desire to hunt for Easter Eggs versus telling a good Disney classic story. An insider reached out to me regarding the Wish Easter Eggs. This source attended several audience test screenings of Wish—the first in February of 2023. In the first screening, 5% of Wish was fully animated, with 85% being storyboard animatics. Much of the criticism from the audience spoke to confusion with the overall story and character motivations. It was perceived that the moderator wasn’t looking for story feedback but was more interested in whether they saw all the Easter Eggs. About a month later, another test screening was conducted. Though more of the film had been animated, none of the story feedback from the first session had been incorporated into this version. This particular screening was catered explicitly to “Disney Adults,” who said they visit Disneyland several times yearly. The moderator kept probing into how many Disney references they caught…they caught five.

Source: https://filmthreat.com/features/the-d-f ... th-wish/3/

thank you so much for sharing this informative article!! this explains so much about what is wrong with Disney these days.

I thought John Lasseter was a rapist based on everything I heard in the media. Now it's so shocking to read the truth that he didn't do anything really bad at all. All he did was ...hug ppl? This reminds me of a boss in my workplace who got MeTooed and I found out it was only cuz he wrote a pregnant lady's delivery date on the board. Apparently she got uncomfortable by that and made accusations against him. Now I'm seeing this happened to someone as powerful as John Lasseter and Disney let it happen cuz they knew he was the next Walt Disney and didn't want him to be so powerful. I actually do not like his Disney stuff but I think his Pixar stuff is a masterpiece. It seems so unfair to him and it makes sense now why Alan Menken took his side and moved with him to that new company. Menken knew the truth.

I had to read all five articles even though i was shuddering from fear at seeing Disney be taken over by demons. My heart goes out to Lasseter and all those poor animators like the older white men and the women who do not blindly follow herd mentality who were lied against and fired or blacklisted. I don't understand these DEI ppl who claim they are for equality and rights for all but make up lies against innocents and torture them emotoinally to get them fired or to quit. So evil. It proves they don't want equality but just to be the power themselves and flip the system.

These new movies Disney is making sound so awful from what I read. I heard terrible things about Disney's product now but I never believed it could be as bad as the article said. I think Walt Disney is the one I feel most bad for cuz he would never have wanted this to happen to his company. I hope all the news outlets and channels give this story the attention it deserves (they won't cuz the media is in on it) and that one day Disney can be saved still.

This Jennifer Lee lady sounds like the worst. Hearing she made Frozen explains a lot. Very vile and no undestanding of what being a woman is really like. These women who think womanhood is taking the worst traits of men and claiming this is empowerment really disgust me. Especially the part where she would target other women (or men) who do not blindly follow her so this just shows they aren't really all for female empowerment. They just want power for themselves.

plz everyone share this story and spread awareness. Thank you kind Sotiris for doing your good deed of the day.

[Patricier21]

So if I may ask, per your Username, you believe that twilight is a great example of womanhood and female empowerment? More so than Disney?

[twihard]

So if I may ask, per your Username, you believe that twilight is a great example of womanhood and female empowerment? More so than Disney?

Yes I think Twilight is a great example of womanhood and female empowerment. It was written by women for women. The reason it gets so much hate online is because men can't stand it when women have their own things and feel the need to critique it and make us feel bad for liking stuff. Twilight was a cultural phenomenon and spoke to women all over and that's not even including the male fans. You know Forks New York is a tourist attraction now for Twilight fans who still visit in droves???

Also look at the strength of the Twilight community. There was a Lego set for Twilight accepted because the fandom came together to make it come true with 10000 signatures. The story I read said those 10000 signatures were all made in one day. Most Lego sets that accepted that way have to wait months at best, usually years if even.

As for your last question it depends on which Disney you mean. Cuz current Disney, yup Twilight is way better. It understands that women are not lesser for falling in love and having relationships. Love makes everyone in the world stronger, men and women. This articles I read told me everything that I already knew that Disney believes love makes women weaker because it involves relying on a man. You can't have women being saved by men anymore or falling in love. And the only way to make women look stronger in nu-Disney is by making all the men useless children. Classic Disney or Real Disney that is knows the strength of true love and relationships. Mickey is just as better off for loving Minnie as Daisy is for loving Donald.

So this is not the gotcha you think it is. Disney needs to stop inserting activism in everything and making that the focus. The article literally says they care more about shoving messages down our throats instead of making entertainment. And my fav part is that after flop after flop u would think they would learn their lesson but instead they keep doubling down and deciding they're gonna continue hiring activists and making activist pictures that don't work.

[PatchofBlue]

Well, I guess it's time we put this one up again for all those who still think that poor little Lassseter's sins amount to nothing more than "hugging."

Dropping two particularly relevant passages here. I'll add in a trigger warning, I suppose, that the post details some instances of sexual assault.

Pixar’s Sexist Boys Club
https://byrslf.co/pixars-sexist-boys-club-9d621567fdc9

During week two of my internship, I was making tea in one of the company kitchens when the production designer I’d been warned about approached me to introduce himself. When I told him my name, he said, “I already know who you are,” with a sideways grin while he looked me up and down with predatory volition, insinuating that my reputation preceded me. When he said he recognized my surname and my look from his part of the world, the hair all over my body stood up on high alert. He told me he was excited to finally have a beautiful face from his motherland in the studio.

I smiled and nodded, said nice to meet you and scampered off down the hall so fast I burnt my hand with hot tea. Even though his intended compliment creeped me out, in some ways I felt relieved that I was “his type” and might dodge the insults and bullying that he was known to dish out to women he didn’t find attractive. When I turned the corner to my office I peeked back down the hall. Sure enough, he was still standing exactly where I’d left him, watching me walk away with wolf-like intensity.

Over the years, I white-knuckled my way through many unwelcome, objectifying interactions with him, with Lasseter and other men. A big part of me is disappointed in the ways I didn’t handle those encounters. There were opportunities there — for me to push back on men who were flexing and asserting their sexual dominance over me; to establish healthy boundaries and demand that they speak to me with respect and not treat me like a sex object; to ask my supervisors (or the HR department) to help me in holding them accountable for their loose tongues and poor behaviors, and to give the man in question a chance to course-correct. More importantly, I had opportunities to protect other women from being belittled and objectified like that in the future, but I didn’t take them.

My fierce desire to land and keep a coveted job with the one of the world’s most exclusive animation studios — and the fact that I’d been well trained in the not-so-admirable art form of stomaching and absorbing moments of sexual harassment throughout my lifetime — held me back from speaking out. I also recalled how my pleas for help had backfired on me when I reported harassment at my high-school restaurant job, so I decided to follow suit with many other female Pixarians, who would privately warn one another which men to avoid, but otherwise kept their discomfort to themselves.

Pushing back on or reporting this man would have been the more dignified and principled response, but I cannot say with confidence that either path would have been the most beneficial for my budding career in animation. During my five years there, I’d witnessed several women fall from grace after failed attempts to stand up to or question the behavior of a male lead. These women often had a hard time getting cast on subsequent projects after being branded “difficult” by leadership (a sentiment that was usually then echoed by her peers), and were later even laid off or demoted by the company.

But Lasseter didn’t need an intimate setting to make female employees uncomfortable. He gave out countless lecherous looks (or unwanted hugs and touches) to women he passed every day on campus. He was known for kissing on and groping women at studio events and wrap parties, even the wives and girlfriends of his subordinates.

The entire Pixar workforce witnessed the sleazy spin John brought to the studio’s annual Halloween bash. Quite a few of my female friends refused, year after year, to enter the costume contest — even if they’d worked for hours on a prize-worthy outfit — because of how infamously uncomfortable the costume parade became. If Lasseter found a woman attractive when she got on stage, he’d ask her to repeatedly spin around or bombarded her with suggestive comments, turning the event into yet another lewd spectacle. These very public displays were so cringeworthy and inappropriate (to not only the women who braved the stage but also to the general audience) that the company eventually asked a lead animator to take over as the master of ceremonies.

Lasseter’s open sexism set the tone from the top, emboldening others to act like frat boys in just about any campus setting. I’ll never forget the day a director compared his latest film to “a big-titted blond who was difficult to nail down” in front of the whole company, a joke that received gasps of disapproval.

Not surprisingly, tactless behavior towards women had a way of trickling all the way down through the ranks. About halfway through my time at the studio, I had a more intimate, disturbing physical encounter with a brazen male employee from outside my department. During an after-work celebration at one of Pixar’s employee-run bars, the coworker smacked and then grabbed my ass with a considerable amount of force while I was waiting for a volunteer bartender to make me a drink. Like a deer in headlights, I froze until my violator stumbled drunkenly away from me. The bar was loud, low-lit and filled shoulder-to-shoulder with intoxicated employees. I looked around, but no one seemed to have noticed what had just happened.

A few minutes after this encounter, I left the work party to head home, equal parts infuriated, shaken-up and perplexed. I replayed the moment in my mind over and over again. I had no doubt been caught completely off-guard, but I couldn’t wrap my head around my utter lack of response to such a deeply disturbing and violating interaction. Similar to the time that a complete stranger covertly stuck his hand under my skirt and grabbed my vagina in a packed San Francisco bar before slipping away into the crowd, a wave of strange heat had come over me immediately after his unwelcome hand made contact with my body.

I have since come to understand that this phenomenon is actually an automatic chemical response to physical aggression. Formally referred to as “tonic immobility” or “playing dead mode,” a sensation of paralysis occurs when the parasympathetic nervous system is triggered; a reaction that occurs in 7 out of 10 women who experience assault. According to studies reported on by LiveScience, this involuntary response literally puts a person’s muscles in a catatonic-like state during which they cannot move, may be unable to speak or become unresponsive.

At the time I wasn’t aware of the science behind all this, and felt confusion, shame and self-blame about not reacting to the incident in real time. Focused on what I thought were my own mistakes that night, I decided not to report the experience the following Monday. I don’t doubt that many similar incidents may have gone unreported in the studio for similar reasons.

And let us all remind ourselves that men like Lasseter have it in with reporters and other powerful people: they know what strings to pull to make themselves sound sympathetic or even victimized. We don't need to make things any easier for them. It's up to us to see through the distortion filter.

[reee9948]

Thank you so much for linking the article! As much as I don't like Jennifer Lee, there was a reason she was chosen to take over Lassester because Disney and Pixar screwed up their public image pretty badly when the allegation against him came out. They wanted to make it up to the public by electing a woman as a cco although I wished they chose a different woman because she isn't doing a really good job as the creative officer.

[Sotiris]

‘Wish’ Hits 13.2 Million Views on Disney+ in Five Days
https://variety.com/2024/film/news/wish ... 235964539/

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

Half of what Elemental did

[PatchofBlue]

That makes the film the No. 3 most-viewed streaming premiere for a Walt Disney Animation Studios film, trailing “Encanto,” which debuted in theaters in November 2021 before streaming on Disney+ that December, and “Frozen 2,” which released theatrically November 2019 an arrived on streaming the following March. Exact viewership data for those titles is unavailable.

This becomes a little less impressive when you remember that Disney Animation has only premiered like five movies since Disney+ went up. But at least it beat Strange World?

[Avaitor]

Yeah, I don't see either of these movies gaining big cult followings. They're just not that good, and I don't think anyone who made either Wish or Strange Magic were that passionate about them. And not because they're "woke" like some idiots will want you to believe without describing what that word actually means.

Say what you will about Luca or Turning Red, but you can tell those were labors of love, projects their directors felt were important. I wouldn't call either favorites, but there's a reason I've seen more passion for either film than these.

[UmbrellaFish]

Avaitor, I mostly agree with you. I think Wish has the potential to gain a following if Asha is inducted into the Disney Princess franchise and remains a part of it. If the franchise pumps out backpacks and dolls of Asha alongside the other Princesses, she’ll remain relevant. Every Princess is somebody’s favorite Princess.

[Avaitor]

Avaitor, I mostly agree with you. I think Wish has the potential to gain a following if Asha is inducted into the Disney Princess franchise and remains a part of it. If the franchise pumps out backpacks and dolls of Asha alongside the other Princesses, she’ll remain relevant. Every Princess is somebody’s favorite Princess.

That's fair, and I don't think you're wrong. Something I've learned is that every Disney movie (at least the animated ones) is someone's favorite, and I'm sure that Wish and Asha have their fans. A couple of people here clearly are. I don't see Wish becoming the next Frozen or even Princess and the Frog, however.

[UmbrellaFish]

Oh I agree. It’s hard to imagine “Wish” getting its own attraction at a Disney park like TPATF now is, 10+ years after its original release.

[Patricier21]

So if I may ask, per your Username, you believe that twilight is a great example of womanhood and female empowerment? More so than Disney?

Yes I think Twilight is a great example of womanhood and female empowerment. It was written by women for women. The reason it gets so much hate online is because men can't stand it when women have their own things and feel the need to critique it and make us feel bad for liking stuff. Twilight was a cultural phenomenon and spoke to women all over and that's not even including the male fans. You know Forks New York is a tourist attraction now for Twilight fans who still visit in droves???

Also look at the strength of the Twilight community. There was a Lego set for Twilight accepted because the fandom came together to make it come true with 10000 signatures. The story I read said those 10000 signatures were all made in one day. Most Lego sets that accepted that way have to wait months at best, usually years if even.

As for your last question it depends on which Disney you mean. Cuz current Disney, yup Twilight is way better. It understands that women are not lesser for falling in love and having relationships. Love makes everyone in the world stronger, men and women. This articles I read told me everything that I already knew that Disney believes love makes women weaker because it involves relying on a man. You can't have women being saved by men anymore or falling in love. And the only way to make women look stronger in nu-Disney is by making all the men useless children. Classic Disney or Real Disney that is knows the strength of true love and relationships. Mickey is just as better off for loving Minnie as Daisy is for loving Donald.

So this is not the gotcha you think it is. Disney needs to stop inserting activism in everything and making that the focus. The article literally says they care more about shoving messages down our throats instead of making entertainment. And my fav part is that after flop after flop u would think they would learn their lesson but instead they keep doubling down and deciding they're gonna continue hiring activists and making activist pictures that don't work.

But Despite its phenomenal popularity, in which a decent amount of the recent Disney stuff also has despite recent flops, what do you have to say about its (still) Overall negative reaction, including those from women, including those who you surely know yourself? The fact that the series puts way more emphasis on Bella and the other females becoming a devoted damsel in distress that either has to rely on or Have literally nothing else in their lives besides their beloved significant other, even more so than Those from Disney? Not to mention that maybe just maybe Disney’s recent approach could be as a result of things like twilight Giving this kind of thing a bad representation, EH?

[DisneyJedi]

I know a lot of folks didn’t like Wish when it came out in November, but the fact it’s only now getting some actual traction after premiering on Disney+ aggravates the crap out of me. It’s so frustrating that I’m fighting every urge to just hop on Twitter and going all, “WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU GUYS WHEN THIS WAS RELEASED IN THEATERS?! ”

Some people claim that nobody is willing to go to see a Disney movie in theaters and yet they’re all on board for seeing Avatar 2, The Super Mario Bros Movie, Barbie and Top Gun 2 (at least four of the most recent highest grossing films the last couple years). Double standard, much?

[Vlad]

I can't speak for the other, but I myself didn't go see it in theaters, because in Romania, they decided to only release a dubbed version in theaters, which I would never go see. I don't know if you guys ever heard a Romanian dub for a Disney movie, but they're all awful....we use the same voice actors over and over and over again, they have no emotion, nothing. It really ruins the experience.

I didn't even watch Strange World, because it simply doesn't interest me; the plot doesn't sound exciting or remotely interesting. As for Wish, I don't think it's a bad movie, but it's not amazing either. It's definitely not woke, but I don't think they put that much effort in it. Someone on YouTube said that the lyrics in the songs sound like they were written by AI, which I thought was weird at first, but now I understand why they thought that. Even though I think that "This Wish" is the best song in the soundtrack, I still don't like all the "yeah, yeah" towards the end. It's like listening to a pop song, instead of a movie musical.

All in all, I'd say that Wish is kinda like Robin Hood, not bad, but not great either, not particularly memorable. I wouldn't give it a rewatch anytime soon.

I will buy the Blu-ray, because I'd love to own Once Upon A Studio in a physical form, and also, the bonus features themselves sound pretty cool.

[PatchofBlue]

Yeah, I don't see either of these movies gaining big cult followings. They're just not that good, and I don't think anyone who made either Wish or Strange Magic were that passionate about them.

I might be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, especially Wish. I think it's a little more enamored with the optics of a Disney movie than the chemistry of why they work, but Ariana Debose especially seems to GET what it means to be a part of the Disney tradition. She doesn't read like an Emma Watson type to me. I see her tear up singing "This Wish" at Disneyland and I think that she's genuinely grateful to be signing her name to the Disney legacy, and I can't help but be happy for her, EVEN AS I'm thinking to myself that I don't think the song is particularly strong.

Strange World is an interesting case to me because while Wish has some very clearly discernible flaws that are on the whole easy to articulate, Strange World's original sin is ... just being boring, mostly. Like, I don't think it's as simple as the plot or characters not gelling, and it frustrates me that I can't really put a name to what I think would have improved the film, all while thinking it has a lot going for it on paper. I think it's interesting having a 40-year-old Dad as a protagonist in a Disney film, and I like that they had a strong diverse ensemble cast without trying to make a platform out of it. I don't even mind the character designs the way some people on this board do, and I even think that the animation of the world itself is actually something to behold, which is not a small achievement for a film whose entire stage is built on a computer.

[The Disneynerd]

Strange World is an interesting case to me because while Wish has some very clearly discernible flaws that are on the whole easy to articulate, Strange World's original sin is ... just being boring, mostly. Like, I don't think it's as simple as the plot or characters not gelling, and it frustrates me that I can't really put a name to what I think would have improved the film, all while thinking it has a lot going for it on paper. I think it's interesting having a 40-year-old Dad as a protagonist in a Disney film, and I like that they had a strong diverse ensemble cast without trying to make a platform out of it. I don't even mind the character designs the way some people on this board do, and I even think that the animation of the world itself is actually something to behold, which is not a small achievement for a film whose entire stage is built on a computer.

overall agree with your points. What makes Strange World way worse for me than Wish is, while Wish had a plot and a message, a very, veryyyyyyyyy vague and basic message, Strange World had literally no real conflict or message attached to it. Its as if they asked AI to make a scifi movie in the veins of Treasure Planet and Atlantis and AI would then puke those Character designs and story synopsis out. The movie offered nothing new to the WDAS filmography (except those horrible character designs). Im also happy for Ariana Debose, her passion for the Studio is admirable

Also i needed an excuse to bring this up here. It was on my Fyp on instagram and at this point im just gonna accept that this is canon Asha may not be as intimitating as Gaston, but shes still a disney villain https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5URznyq ... VxMHppcg==

[Farerb]

Also i needed an excuse to bring this up here. It was on my Fyp on instagram and at this point im just gonna accept that this is canon Asha may not be as intimitating as Gaston, but shes still a disney villain https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5URznyq ... VxMHppcg==

Everyone was happy and living without paying rent and this girl came in sang a song and ruined it all.

[Sotiris]

Also i needed an excuse to bring this up here. It was on my Fyp on instagram and at this point im just gonna accept that this is canon Asha may not be as intimitating as Gaston, but shes still a disney villain https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5URznyq4xU/

Interesting comparison. If you think about it, Asha embodies the narcissism and entitlement of a certain faction of modern-day activists and protesters who think it's their right to create social discord and destroy everything in their path to get their way without any regard for how their actions affect others.

[PatchofBlue]

overall agree with your points. What makes Strange World way worse for me than Wish is, while Wish had a plot and a message, a very, veryyyyyyyyy vague and basic message, Strange World had literally no real conflict or message attached to it. Its as if they asked AI to make a scifi movie in the veins of Treasure Planet and Atlantis and AI would then puke those Character designs and story synopsis out.

Strange World had a very strong green message, another thing that stoked the furies of the alt-right. I don't think that was incidental because this idea of leaving a better world for the rising generations was reflected in both how we treat this world we live on and the relationships we build with our kids, which feels like a variation of a theme we see in something like the Jurassic Park/World films.