Walt Disney Animation Studios is celebrating 100 years of delivering spell-binding animated movies with unique storytelling to audiences young and old around the world, adapting and creating original fairy tales that are all about making wishes come true. What better way to celebrate that century-long message than to create a new movie aptly named Wish.
Wish dives into the origins of the bright star in the night sky that has been present in almost every Disney movie, there to grant the wishes and desires of the characters who speak to it. The lore of the star goes even deeper than that, however. Here’s everything we know so far about Wish, including its release date and most recent trailer.
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Latest Official Trailer for Wish
Wish Movie Release Date
Wish is set to release in theaters on November 22, 2023 – just in time for Thanksgiving. Development on the film started in 2018, with the animation style originally intended to be in traditional 2D as a way to honor Disney’s roots in hand-drawn animation. Walt Disney Animation Studios ultimately decided to blend watercolor illustration with CGI animation due to the limitations 2D animation alone imposes on artists.
As Wish executive producer/writer Jennifer Lee explained to IGN back in September, “What happens in hand-drawn is that you have the incredible hand of the artist, but also limitations in what you could do on screen. What happened in CG is you'd have incredible, boundless opportunities, visually, that elevated it — even to the point for some — into realism, which is not what we wanted to do. The more important thing to us was to have a way to find technology that can do everything. Connect to the true vision of the artist, but bring in technology that could finally take away limitations.”
Wish Movie Cast
During the 2022 D23 Expo, Ariana DeBose (Hamilton, West Side Story) and Alan Tudyk (Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, Zootopia) were announced to have been cast as Asha and Valentino, respectively. Asha is a 17-year-old girl who makes a wish to the stars after sensing a darkness in the kingdom that is oblivious to everyone else, and Valentino is Asha’s pet goat who gains the ability to talk after wishing to communicate. At CinemaCon 2023, Chris Pine (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Don’t Worry Darling) was revealed to be the voice of the charismatic King Magnifico, the ruler of Rosas who takes the wishes of people from all over the world and keeps them in wish bubbles, giving them a false sense of hope that their wishes will be granted. Angelique Cabral (Life in Pieces, Big Sky) was revealed on September 18 to be the voice of Queen Amaya, King Magnifico’s wife and sounding board.
The rest of the cast was revealed in the official trailer for Wish, including Victor Garber (Titanic, Legally Blonde, Argo), who voices Asha’s 100-year-old grandfather Sabino; Natasha Rothwell (Sonic the Hedgehog film series), who voice’s Asha’s loving and supportive mother Sakina; and Jennifer Kumiyama, who voices Asha’s disabled best friend Dahlia, who is an accomplished baker and unofficial leader of their tight-knit friend group, which comprises Simon (Evan Peters); Gabo (Harvey Guillen); Safi (Ramy Youseff); Hal (Niko Vargas); Bazeema (Della Saba), and Dario (Jon Rudnitsky). Each of Asha’s friends have personality traits that are inspired by the dwarves in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Disney’s very first full-length animated feature.
Wish Story Details
The initial marketing for Wish revolves around the origins of the star that has been present in most Disney movies for the last 100 years. The story of Wish goes even deeper than that.
Wish takes place in the Kingdom of Rosas off the Iberian Peninsula between 1200 and 1300, where Asha senses something off about King Magnifico, who has the power to take and grant wishes – even though he does more of the former than the latter. When Asha makes a passionate wish to the stars in the night sky in a time of great need, an actual star named Star falls from the sky and answers Asha’s wish. Together, they team up to face King Magnifico and fight for a better future in the kingdom.
Looking for news about other upcoming Disney movies? Check out everything we know about Frozen 3.
Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. She has contributed her work to various publications, including Digital Trends, TheGamer, Twinfinite, Mega Visions, and The Escapist. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.
