Wish

[Lele]

I saw plenty of ads for this on Youtube and Instagram.

[Sotiris]

Disney pulled out all the stops for the promotion of Wish. Not just with commercials and ads, but a ton of events, contests, and partnerships. People just love to use marketing as a scapegoat whenever a movie they like underperforms.

[PatrickvD]

There’s only a handful of examples where Disney intentionally dropped the ball with marketing because they knew they had a bad film on their hands. That’s not what happening here.

Wish is definitely receiving the royal treatment.

I think Disney can still deliver hits, but the public is more critical. Inside out 2 already has more buzz than Wish for example.

[Mooky]

Tom Bancroft calls Jennifer Lee out for her comments about hand-drawn animation:



(Posted in this thread because her comments pertain to the production of Wish.)

[Lele]

I'd say movies like Tangled, for the hair animation, and Moana do indeed look much better in 3D - I don't think the gorgeous parts with water in Moana would have looked nearly as good in 2D. But for Frozen and here 2D would work better, there are many moments where I really don't like how their faces look in 3D, and for Wish somehow it got worse especially for background characters.

[Pokenonbinary]

Disney pulled out all the stops for the promotion of Wish. Not just with commercials and ads, but a ton of events, contests, and partnerships. People just love to use marketing as a scapegoat whenever a movie they like underperforms.

Period!!!

I have myself used that in other movies, but sometimes it's true that movies don't get much promotion, for example the first Shazam movie had the teaser one year before the release date and the official the month it released


Btw I've seen many negative reviews from normal people in twitter, it's JOEVER

[ElMaximo13]

Wish is now sitting at 53% on Rotten Tomatoes. Let’s just pray the score doesn’t sink any lower.

[Pokenonbinary]

Wish is now sitting at 53% on Rotten Tomatoes. Let’s just pray the score doesn’t sink any lower.

It's going to the 40s when the normal critics add their reviews

The movie is finished unless its another Mario where general audience liked the movie

[RyGuy]

I'd say movies like Tangled, for the hair animation, and Moana do indeed look much better in 3D - I don't think the gorgeous parts with water in Moana would have looked nearly as good in 2D. But for Frozen and here 2D would work better, there are many moments where I really don't like how their faces look in 3D, and for Wish somehow it got worse especially for background characters.

That's an astute observation. I wonder why they couldn't just combine the two media. The technology has been around for ages and surely it has to have improved from when they experimented with it in films like Treasure Planet (like wasn't B.E.N. all CG?) and now.

I won't see WISH until tomorrow but perhaps that is what they were aiming for?

I started out as a 2D purist and over time the 3D has grown on me. But the one thing that really divides the two for me is that (and yes this is subjective) 2D seems to keep a certain timelessness that 3D does not. If you watch something like the Lion King, it still feels pretty fresh. On the other hand, if you want Tangled (and I'm not bagging on it; it's one of my favorite WDAS films) parts of it just look super primitive compared to newer films.

[Mooky]

I would agree with the water effects, but not with the hair. Disney was more than capable of creating lush, bouncy, and flowing hand-drawn hair, both above and under the sea. The hair in Tangled was more of a prop than actual character's hair anyway and apart from combing scenes, it was used like you'd use a rope or a pulley. Which is something I'm certain any competent 2D animator could have pulled off (see that animation of a snake chasing Tarzan only to end up stuck).

(I also remember reading that one of the initial development ideas floated around for the movie that eventually became Tangled was to have a CG hair on the 2D main character.)

I agree that the medium should be dependent on the story being told and there's no reason both mediums can't be used together or interchangeably. Movie based on a comic book? Use 2D animation or stylized CG animation to replicate the look and feel of a panel spread. Movie based on a fairytale or a legend? Best suited for 2D animation to replicate the feel of an illustrated storybook. Movies about toys, bugs, cars, animals? Use realistic but not photo-realistic CG animation. Play with styles, visuals, themes. Both Wreck-It Ralph movies were such a missed opportunity visually and could have utilized different looks for different video game worlds/internet sections.

I wonder though, if Wish ends up flopping, will Disney somehow find a way to blame that on hand-drawn animation as well? Will they conclude that because the movie "looked 2D" audiences chose not to see it?

[Sotiris]

I would agree with the water effects, but not with the hair. Disney was more than capable of creating lush, bouncy, and flowing hand-drawn hair, both above and under the sea.

Ariel and Pocahontas alone should be enough proof that long, luxurious hair can be done in 2D exceptionally well. The water effects in films like The Little Mermaid or Pinocchio dwarf anything I've seen in 3D films. And that's because I don't consider photorealism an artistic goal that animation should strive for. I honestly do not see the point or merit of having landscape that looks indistinguishable from what you find in a National Geographic documentary. Animation is the illusion, the impression of life. You don't have to see every blade of glass or every strand of hair like you do in real life. Why would you even want that to begin with? Besides, there's already a medium that captures that more easily and successfully; it's called live-action.

I agree that the medium should be dependent on the story being told.

It's incredibly rare that the type of story favors, let alone requires, computer animation. Only Wreck-It Ralph comes to mind, and even that could have had the "real world" rendered in 2D or live-action. In fact, it would have made more sense if it did. And you're only saying that stories about toys, bugs, and cars are better suited for CG because of Pixar. But 2D has been doing those kind of stories for decades to great success. Do you honestly believe that The Brave Little Toaster or Susie the Little Blue Coupe would have looked better in CG? The truth is 2D animation trumps CG animation in almost every respect and is better suited for any type of story or genre. The sole reason 2D is not preferred over CG is its perceived unprofitability.

Movie based on a comic book? Use 2D animation or stylized CG animation to replicate the look and feel of a panel spread.

Why use stylized CG when 2D is inherently better equipped to replicate such a look? And stylized CG is still just CG; it's not the same as a CG/2D hybrid.

I wonder though, if Wish ends up flopping, will Disney somehow find a way to blame that on hand-drawn animation as well? Will they conclude that because the movie "looked 2D" audiences chose not to see it?

The thing is it didn't look 2D to people. All the complaints I've read about the animation is that it looked unfinished/pre-rendered/outdated CG. The public is not stupid. They may not know about non-photorealistic rendering, but they can tell what they are looking at is not 2D. And sure, Disney may equate Wish's look to 2D animation and subsequently use it as an excuse as to why the film underperformed, but at this point it doesn't matter. It makes no difference to fans of 2D animation. It's not like if it were a success they would have grenlit a 2D movie. They would have just made more films in this stylized CG. As someone who is not a fan of this look, that's a positive outcome in my book.

[Lele]

I'd say movies like Tangled, for the hair animation, and Moana do indeed look much better in 3D - I don't think the gorgeous parts with water in Moana would have looked nearly as good in 2D. But for Frozen and here 2D would work better, there are many moments where I really don't like how their faces look in 3D, and for Wish somehow it got worse especially for background characters.

I started out as a 2D purist and over time the 3D has grown on me. But the one thing that really divides the two for me is that (and yes this is subjective) 2D seems to keep a certain timelessness that 3D does not. If you watch something like the Lion King, it still feels pretty fresh. On the other hand, if you want Tangled (and I'm not bagging on it; it's one of my favorite WDAS films) parts of it just look super primitive compared to newer films.

I agree, but I think unfortunately this will always, or at least for a long time, be true for 3D animation as the technology behind it can always be improved, while for 2D there isn't really much technological improvement. And the different styles of 2D drawing can be always appreciated like people appreciate paintings, even when the style is outdated. It's hard to look at outdated CGI the same way.

I wonder though, if Wish ends up flopping, will Disney somehow find a way to blame that on hand-drawn animation as well? Will they conclude that because the movie "looked 2D" audiences chose not to see it?

It would be dumb considering the success of Across the spider verse or even Arcane who use the same technology of combining 2D and 3D, but lately Disney is doing a lot of dumb things. Although it's true both Arcane and ATSV are much more aimed towards adults so maybe that plays too.
Now that I think about it, pretty much all recent popular shows and cartoons among kids are in 3D.

[Refael]

Who edits the videos for Disney on social networks? It is certainly not someone who has an appreciation or knowledge of the classical heritage. they were wrong. In 1990 they placed The Rescuers. And not The Rescuers Down Under. It's a bit worrying.. there is no supervision
https://www.facebook.com/DisneyAnimatio ... cale=he_IL

[Sotiris]

Box office updates.

‘Wish’ To Rise Disney Animation’s Star Over Thanksgiving With $75M Global Opening
https://deadline.com/2023/11/wish-napol ... 235630318/

‘Napoleon’ Steps On Disney’s ‘Wish’ With $32M+
https://deadline.com/2023/11/box-office ... 235634036/

‘Wish’ Debuts To $49M WW
https://deadline.com/2023/11/napoleon-w ... 235637258/

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

‘Wish’ To Rise Disney Animation’s Star Over Thanksgiving With $75M Global Opening
https://deadline.com/2023/11/wish-napol ... 235630318/

I wonder if Deadline is still lowballing, considering the article also says ticket presales for Wish (most likely in its 3-day debut) are 60% higher than Elemental's.

So maybe its 5-day debut will be in the $60-$70M range, depending on what the film's CinemaScore is, and I'm very curious to see what it is after the early access screenings this weekend.

[ElMaximo13]

Rotten Tomatoes score is now 51%. Walt will be turning in his grave pretty soon.

[Farerb]

Rotten Tomatoes score is now 51%. Walt will be turning in his grave pretty soon.

It's not the first Disney film to receive a rotten score.

[Farerb]

It's now at 51%. It keeps going down.

[Farerb]

‘Wish’ To Rise Disney Animation’s Star Over Thanksgiving With $75M Global Opening
https://deadline.com/2023/11/wish-napol ... 235630318/

[DisneyJedi]

I genuinely hope that people don’t use the RT score as their deciding factor on whether or not to see Wish. Part of me legit believes that the “critics” are absolutely biased and I question if they even actually watched it.