Wish

[D82]

Chris Pine as the villain though... I mean, I like him, but I wouldn't imagine him playing a villain. I guess he may be like Prince Hans.

I have a hard time imagining him as a villain as well. However, I think he played a bad guy in his most recent movie, Don't Worry Darling, but I haven't seen it, so I don't know it for sure. I like Chris Pine too, I think he's very charismatic. I'd prefer he wasn't the villain, but perhaps he'll do a good job. If his participation is confirmed, it most likely also means the villain will be a new character and not a past Disney one, as some fans speculated.

[Farerb]

Skye Roberts suggests that Wish will have a multicultural cast and won't be focused on one county or one racial group (so the Kingdom of Rosas will be similar to Avalonia from Strange World):
https://youtu.be/8v2vzRVuzlk

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

Skye Roberts suggests that Wish will have a multicultural cast and won't be focused on one county or one racial group (so the Kingdom of Rosas will be similar to Avalonia from Strange World):
https://youtu.be/8v2vzRVuzlk

She's basing that off the addition of Chris Pratt, though.

[Farerb]

She's basing that off the addition of Chris Pratt, though.

But when I think about it, it actually makes sense.
They can't do films about specific cultures anymore because they're afraid of being accused of being insensitive to that culture or being accused of cultural appropriation. They won't make films with only white people cause then they'll be accused of not being inclusive, so the movies will just have everyone getting along and the culture represented will be that of modern USA.

[UmbrellaFish]

I’m not sure if I’ve shared this theory here or not, but I think the Kingdom in this movie is meant to be like some… fantastical ancient mother civilization. Kinda like Atlantis (but not like the last time they did Atlantis). Which could justify hodge podges in architecture, costuming, languages, ethnicities. This is supposed to be *the* Disney wishing star and I think the civilization in this movie is meant to predate all the other Disney movies.

[D82]

Skye Roberts suggests that Wish will have a multicultural cast and won't be focused on one county or one racial group (so the Kingdom of Rosas will be similar to Avalonia from Strange World):
https://youtu.be/8v2vzRVuzlk

That's what I've suspected from the beginning. We'll see if her theory turns out to be right or not.

I’m not sure if I’ve shared this theory here or not, but I think the Kingdom in this movie is meant to be like some… fantastical ancient mother civilization. Kinda like Atlantis (but not like the last time they did Atlantis). Which could justify hodge podges in architecture, costuming, languages, ethnicities. This is supposed to be *the* Disney wishing star and I think the civilization in this movie is meant to predate all the other Disney movies.

That's an interesting theory. The first impression I got from the D23 presentation was that it wasn't even set on our Earth, but maybe it's that I've seen too many Marvel multiverse movies.

[carolinakid]

“The” wishing star to me will always be the beautiful wishing star in Walt Disney’s Pinocchio (1940).
People can wish on any of the stars in the heavens, but “the” wishing star is the one Geppetto wished on for Pinocchio to be a real boy.

[Lele]

If they want to make the place multicultural the setting still looks far too european.

Why not make a movie with clear ancient asian or ancient african architecture and setting and put different races into it?

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

At 48:33, Grace Randolph in her Q&A for today's BTT Live (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ES5owdZmAo) says Bob Iger, despite being dealt a punishing blow to Disney with the parks from Ron DeSantis by way of dissolving their Reedy Creek district, isn't likely to remove the LGBTQ representation from Wish because she claims the movie is completed. But she thinks we may not see any Wish characters at the Disney Parks and hope Iger doesn't give in to Ron DeSantis and cut that stuff out or stop Asha from being in the parks.

[Farerb]

If they want to make the place multicultural the setting still looks far too european.

Why not make a movie with clear ancient asian or ancient african architecture and setting and put different races into it?

I think they want it to be a vague fictional European kingdom like Rapunzel's kingdom, but one which has diversity in it, like we see in the remakes or other modern fantasy movies/shows.

I think we started speculating on where this movie takes place based on Asha's ethnicity and the architecture, because we are used to Disney films being more or less authentic to the locations in the movies they were making up until this point. We fail to understand that the trend in Hollywood in general is to not take authenticity into consideration anymore, and just do the story they want to make, but with a diverse cast.

And when I think more about it, it makes sense that they want their 100th anniversary celebration movie to have representation for all ethnicities.

[blackcauldron85]

But she thinks we may not see any Wish characters at the Disney Parks and hope Iger doesn't give in to Ron DeSantis and cut that stuff out or stop Asha from being in the parks.

Strange World didn't have its characters in the parks either...same reason??

[carolinakid]

No, I would think the film was such a stink bomb that 99% of parks guests wouldn’t know who the hell these people are. And of course, they no doubt didn’t want to spend the money on actors and costumes (would they be face characters or masked characters?) on meet and greets or parade floats on characters few guests have even heard of. That woke flop is best forgotten for everyone’s sake. Solo mi opinión...

[blackcauldron85]

The costumes are made well in advance, though... The Black Cauldron, Atlantis, Treasure Planet all had costumed characters in the park... Home on the Range is the only other one I can think of that didn't.

[carolinakid]

That’s correct.... then I assume they either just didn’t want to or know how to promote the film via characters in the parks. In all honesty, blackcauldron , I don’t think the gay angle had anything to do with the non existence of the film’s characters in the parks.

[singerguy04]

It's a good question. Most likely, the did make the costumes, but I tend to think that Disney knew they had a dud on their hands early on, but it was too late the pull the plug. That helps me grasp that lack of advertising and merch overall. Does anyone have any casting calls from that time maybe?

I'd really hate is DeSantis effects what comes to WDW, but he wouldn't have any say over the rest of the parks. Maybe we'll just see Asha in California and Paris. It wouldn't be the first time we saw park specific characters.

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

Ron’s literally threatening to force Disney to censor inclusivity in any of their upcoming content to make it about white men: https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/statu ... 4878892032

You may not think he has the power to do that, but clearly this quote scares me into think he does. And that makes me worried for the LGBTQ elements in Wish, the existence of the Tiana series, and the opening of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in Disney Parks in America.

[Disney's Divinity]

I think it's more likely Chapek pushed for a WDAS film that featured a LGBT character to misdirect from his homophobia which started the controversy and hopefully calm everything down, but probably had no desire that the film with the LGBT character would be successful or promoted very much. Sort of a have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too strategy. Of course, by doing nothing to promote the film, its floppage helped lead to his ouster, so... Maybe he skewered himself on his own petard by not supporting it properly?

Of course, with Iger there now, I noticed Ethan is on the 100th anniversary poster. @D23: Giving into fear of these clowns gives them more power. Disney is going to keep doing Disney, DeSantis has already done his worst and their creative decisions are not something he holds power over. If anything, I think it's likely for the best they dissolved the district. What with Florida becoming more and more deranged as the years go by, it was always going to be a sword of Damocles situation as far as conservatives' threats that they would do this would always be hanging over Disney's head. Now they've done it and there's nothing else they can do except whine on social media now.

Although you saying he wants the new content to be about White men makes me laugh because both WDAS' and PIXAR's most recent films featured main characters that were White males (Searcher Clade and Buzz Lightyear) and they both underperformed, so...

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

I think it's more likely Chapek pushed for a WDAS film that featured a LGBT character to misdirect from his homophobia which started the controversy and hopefully calm everything down, but probably had no desire that the film with the LGBT character would be successful or promoted very much. Sort of a have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too strategy. Of course, by doing nothing to promote the film, its floppage helped lead to his ouster, so... Maybe he skewered himself on his own petard by not supporting it properly?

Of course, with Iger there now, I noticed Ethan is on the 100th anniversary poster. @D23: Giving into fear of these clowns gives them more power. Disney is going to keep doing Disney, DeSantis has already done his worst and their creative decisions are not something he holds power over. If anything, I think it's likely for the best they dissolved the district. What with Florida becoming more and more deranged as the years go by, it was always going to be a sword of Damocles situation as far as conservatives' threats that they would do this would always be hanging over Disney's head. Now they've done it and there's nothing else they can do except whine on social media now.

Although you saying he wants the new content to be about White men makes me laugh because both WDAS' and PIXAR's most recent films featured main characters that were White males (Searcher Clade and Buzz Lightyear) and they both underperformed, so...

Fair point, Divinity. I'll keep what you said into account. But, still, we must stop Iger from being forced to cave to extremists through censoring content of the LGBTQ in future films, because since he allegedly did that while Pixar was making movies, I feel nervous that he'll do it again.

[Lele]

If they want to make the place multicultural the setting still looks far too european.

Why not make a movie with clear ancient asian or ancient african architecture and setting and put different races into it?

I think they want it to be a vague fictional European kingdom like Rapunzel's kingdom, but one which has diversity in it, like we see in the remakes or other modern fantasy movies/shows.

I think we started speculating on where this movie takes place based on Asha's ethnicity and the architecture, because we are used to Disney films being more or less authentic to the locations in the movies they were making up until this point. We fail to understand that the trend in Hollywood in general is to not take authenticity into consideration anymore, and just do the story they want to make, but with a diverse cast.

And when I think more about it, it makes sense that they want their 100th anniversary celebration movie to have representation for all ethnicities.

That’s really silly to take a european kingdom and fill it with different ethnicities and say the goal is representation. Why not make an asian or african kingdom filled with different ethnicities? Feels hypocritical. Taking a non european setting would be more interesting and more logical if their goal is to stop making movies about and remove white people, but they do it while keeping their setting?

[UmbrellaFish]

Disney has honestly just done a poor job of introducing new characters to the parks lately. Speaking about Orlando only, Mirabel was only introduced to the parks last year, and as part of a “character calvacade” (basically a small parade, so no meet and greets). You can’t meet Moana unless you pay for an exclusive Christmas or Halloween party ticket and suffer through long lines. Mei Lee’s panda form is begging for a fur costume and they’ve only just announced that she’s coming to Shanghai. But not the US and the movie’s been out for a year. I don’t get it! And these movies, certainly Encanto and Moana, have been very popular. So no, I don’t think we’ll see Wish in the parks but it’s most likely because something is going on with the character department.

The only movie which came out relatively recently that seemed to have costumes ready for it *at release* was Onward (*I do think Mirabel was meeting in Disneyland during the movie’s premiere, or very close to, but why it took her so long to come to Orlando, I don’t know?) The main characters were at the Hollywood premiere, I think? I thought that was so odd. I mean who chose to make huggable meetable version of awkward teen elf characters over the giant, fluffy red panda???