“A love letter to Walt Disney personally”: the big FILMSTARTS interview about Disney’s cinematic Christmas fairy tale “Wish”

While still working on ‘Frozen 2’, Oscar winner Chris Buck was tasked with developing an animated blockbuster specifically to celebrate Disney100. A few years later, ‘Wish’ by Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn is now released in German cinemas:

In the magical kingdom of Rosas, all residents must convey their greatest wish to King Magnifico (voice in the original: Chris Pine), who keeps it safe – and regularly grants one of these wishes as part of a grand ceremony. But going through life without wishes is also a pretty joyless affair – at least until 17-year-old Asha (Ariana DeBose) discovers a star fallen from the sky that has the ability to give people their wishes back…

FILM START:

Chris Buck: All we knew initially was that we wanted to tell an original story with new characters and new music. We then hung a picture of all our feature films on the wall, so that we had 100 years of Disney history in front of us. There were all these different colors and designs, but one constant stood out: characters kept looking up at the stars and making a wish. Then we felt the presence of Walt Disney whispering in our ears, “It’s wishing! It must be about wishes!”

Wish

By
Chris Buck,
Fawn Veerasunthorn

Of
Ariana DeBose,
Chris Pine,
Alan Tudyk

Starting date

November 30, 2023

Performances (633)

FILM START:

Chris Buck: First of all, we made sure the story had a solid foundation and stood on its own. That was a lot of work – and then came the fun of adding all these nods to our history. We have a list: there are more than 100 hidden references to Disney history. Some are clearer than others. For some, fans will have to look hard. An Easter egg was installed especially for me – but they had to show it to me, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have discovered it either: I was the animation supervisor for the character of Grandmother Willow in “Pocahontas” – and now she is in one of the forest scenes can be seen in the background. It’s a challenge to find it, but it’s there!

FILM START:

Fawn Veerasunthorn: It is not a requirement to watch Disney films in advance. I think ‘Wish’ stands on its own two feet – and if you haven’t seen any Disney films lately, hopefully it brings back the magic and fun of those films.

FILM START:

Fawn Veerasunthorn: It just looks beautiful on the big screen, you can really feel the texture of the paper pages and watercolors. We wanted to honor the studio’s history while taking advantage of modern technology. So on the one hand we were inspired by the storybook look of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Pinocchio”. But at the same time we use CG techniques to really immerse the audience in the images. Hopefully you will feel something familiar and comforting and also feel fresh and new at the same time.

FILM START:

Chris Buck: Yes. The computer naturally wants to make things as realistic as possible. But over the years we’ve discovered how we can still use technology in the best way possible to serve our artistic vision – and then suddenly all the new technical possibilities feel fresh and exciting again.

FILM START:

Chris Buck: Many of us have been working from home during the pandemic. So we watched a lot of things just on computer screens. It wasn’t until we got back to the studio that we could suddenly see our work on the big screen – so the idea occurred to us: “Okay, let’s really make the most of the widescreen format!” I’ve been using it since “Sleeping Beauty and the Prince.” from 1959 are no longer used.

Fawn Veerasunthorn: Yes, the 2.55:1 format is really extremely wide, but that mainly challenged us to think about every single frame in the film. Wherever you put the film, it should always look like a painting.

FILM START:

Chris Buck: Yes, that was a journey. But once we got to this simple version of the star, we realized it was another nod to an important part of our history: the bouncing ball that every animator learns at the beginning of their career. Squeezing and pulling apart works. And then our character designer gave him a heart-shaped mask around the eyes and mouth – and that’s reminiscent of Mickey Mouse. And the final step was to take away his voice – and make him communicate only with mime. So for me, Stern is also an expression of the magic of our animators – you can see the talent of a really gifted animator when they can give a character like Stern all these emotions even without a voice.

FILM START:

Chris Buck: And everyone is united by the love of Disney – which is also why so many people wanted to work on “Wish.” It’s also a love letter to Walt Disney and all the animators who came before us…

“Wish” can be seen in German cinemas from November 30, 2023!