Some more info from Jennifer Lee's European tour:
โข She confirmed the film will get a long run in theaters.
At a press preview event attended by Digital Spy, Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios and co-writer Jennifer Lee confirmed that Wish will have a long stint in cinemas, in contrast to the speedy Disney+ premiere of other recent projects such as Encanto, which landed on the platform after only 30 days on the big screen.
Source: https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a4428 ... inema-run/
โข The idea for the visual style came quite early in the process.
Of course, the aforementioned visual treatment of 'Wish' was one of the central themes of the conversation. Lee revealed that the idea of wrapping the story in this style came in early stages of development and has been made possible through a combination of technical and creative efforts.
"It was quite early. We had worked with the production design team on Frozen and Sleeping Beauty was a lot of their inspiration in terms of composition and style. And Lisa Keane in particular is an amazing painter and I was drawing on her work even to write Frozen. But there was always a difference between the painting and the result once it was turned into CGI.
As we were talking to this team, we said, 'Would you guys like to do it with us for the 100th film?' We said, 'What if we could do it so that it didn't have to make a difference anymore?' Those beautiful watercolors, his beautiful paintings, could go straight to the big screen. It's been a dream come true. But we didn't even know how we were going to do it when we said we were going to do it. We owe all the credit to our amazing technicians. A few months ago, we even had to rediscover how to do watercolors. And we've done watercolors many times already."
Source: https://www.espinof.com/directores-y-gu ... aravillosa
โข Apparently, Star is obsessed with wool. That explains that book cover where the trees are decorated with it.
"We start from the premise that we didn't create this for kids. We don't write for children. We write from our hearts, authentic characters that we understand. But kids want to be inspired. They look up. They love the older characters who have great lives and they don't want to be mirrored. They want to grow with the characters. So I feel like we don't exclude kids. We don't have a problem with some things that are for adults, although there are things that make it more distracting for kids, like the jokes, rather than the more sophisticated philosophy. I think we strive to look at every scene from various perspectives.
I always say, who am I as this character? And he's a middle-aged man, who am I as a 17-year-old? We think about that a lot, but we never build from the outside in. We rely on people relating to each other at different ages. And for us, the idea is that, you know, Star inspired me a lot, and she has an obsession with wool, and that's very absurd. The concept came from a physicist we met with who talked about quantum physics and string theory. And I thought, "Oh, cool!" and it became wool. So there are layers of conversation that we have. There's the sophisticated thing that's organically integrated, hopefully, with the fun, and that's part of why it's taken us several years."
Source: https://www.espinof.com/directores-y-gu ... aravillosa
โข (
Mild spoiler) It seems it's Queen Amaya who recommends Asha for the job of assistant to the King.
A premise that we are curious to see how it will develop, given Lee's carefulness to emphasize how there is nothing political about the 'fable' in question, a medieval epic in which-at least initially-we see Asha recommended by Queen Amaya for the role of assistant to her powerful consort. A kind of 'Sorcerer's Apprentice' that is just one of the many explicit references to the often mentioned "Disney legacy," ubiquitous in this Wish, from the style - intentionally similar to the strokes and watercolors of the origins - to the symbolism of the "tritagonist" Star, summoned by Asha to help her save her country from darkness and who gives the little goat in pajamas Valentino (and others) the ability to speak.
Source: https://www.cinefilos.it/tutto-film/int ... lee-579047
โข It sounds like Asha will have some failures before achieving her goal.
Asha falls down, but she gets up, she goes forward....
I hope my daughter sees this, that before success there can be failure, even if it makes us feel guilty. Something in which young people will be able to see themselves, but also many adults, who we wanted to follow Asha's path and ask themselves the same questions she did. But also that they would keep dreaming, without stopping for a mistake.
Source: https://www.cinefilos.it/tutto-film/int ... lee-579047
โข Some more info about the earlier version of Star in which it had a human appearance.
To help her, a star. A symbol of hope?
Definitely. I like to see hope in it, even though the star changed a lot during the making. In its first version, it changed shape, became human and could speak, but because I love to think that stars have evolved and have their own language. Then it became simpler, but only in shape, roundish, which we developed after seeing a video of pandas playing and we were inspired by its physical appearance. In general, it represents what Disney gave us, not just hope, but joy and possibility.
Source: https://www.cinefilos.it/tutto-film/int ... lee-579047
โข And is this a mistake or a translation error or what does it mean (the part in spoilers)?
In the insular Kingdom of Rosas, located off the Iberian Peninsula, Asha, a young girl of 17, must rid the city of a terrible darkness that no one else feels, and in order to rebel against the tyrannical King Magnifico, an evil sorcerer, her hated former stepfather, she makes a wish to the stars in a time of need. A real star from the sky named Star responds to Asha's wish.
Source: https://www.cinefilos.it/tutto-film/int ... lee-579047
I can see the anime influences in the star now, that must be why it's so cute. Lee's comparison between Asha and Walt was actually very sweet. Interesting that Amaya is Magnifico's wife--perhaps he did something to her (being his first change into a villain). Overall, the plot kind of reminds me of the Hogwarts Legacy game actually, where the villain's initial motivation was to "remove pain" that develops into an ego-stroking exercise about their growing power. The whole thing with Magnifico's book possibly being a holder of the wishes he's stolen perhaps--maybe it's sort of supposed to be a visual relation to the "storybooks" that open films like Pinocchio, SW, Cinderella, SB, TSitS, Enchanted, etc.? In other words, it'll close the film like one of those books do after Magnifico is defeated and its returned to normal?
Tying into all the dream / wish stuff, I could sort of imagine a plot where a villainess perhaps could use a king's wish for the villainess to love him and then use it somehow to control him like a puppet. 
