Want to know something hilarious regarding that singing asspull? There's a story that actually pulled this off well and competently: Helck. There's a seemingly joke animal mascot character who a powerful entity bestows upon the main protagonists, telling them explicitly that said joke character will be important and the protagonists are responsible for its development. Said joke character has a lot of comedic, but also in-hindsight genius foreshadowing that it's actually really, really powerful because it keeps on surviving a ton of seemingly slapstick violence...but the story itself has characters be critically injured and even die to similar amounts of damage but the framing of the seemingly joke character at first makes you not notice this. But the protagonists keep on rescuing it and being nice to it despite it basically being unkillable, which is very important. And then when the bad guy is about to win, having absolutely thrashed everyone and more or less genocided an entire population for godlike power...the joke character sings. And the singing cancels out the bad guy's power. And when the bad guy himself angrily asks what kind of asspull this is, the powerful entity arrives and explains that the seemingly joke character's singing is an expression of its growth and development gained throughout its time with the protagonists as they grew and developed, and because it learned about friendship, love, and perseverance along with the protagonists, the song literally emits that to cancel out the bad guy's power which is an expression of despair, hatred, and nihilism. If this same character were to have been plopped into Wish and used that singing against Magnifico...the singing would not work. Because Asha, like you said, didn't really do anything, grow towards anything, or develop anything and there's nothing that implies that said singing could or would do anything because literally nothing was set up earlier as a precedent for it. Disney for its 100th anniversary story wrote something so comically, lazily structured that basic storytelling elements like foreshadowing no longer exists to allude to an ending. A reminder that nearly 30 years ago, Disney was able to utilize similar foreshadowing techniques with Aladdin by alluding early in its story how a genie is a prisoner of its lamp despite its power, and that being used to defeat the villain. Because if that rule wasn't established early on then there would be no precedent for Jafar to become a lamp prisoner as a genie.
Disney has Frollo - a villain who murdered people based on their race, staged a genocide, almost killed a baby, tortured his captain, and eventually even managed to murder the French and burn down their houses in order to find a girl who sexually excited him and rape her. He even molested her. And the same Disney dares to say that Magnifico is the most evil because... he doesn't fulfill people's desires, which is his right?
Frollo is so evil that he isn't even considered among the iconic and entertaining villains like Scar, Jafar, Gaston, etc. He's so vile and terrifying, embodying the ugliest sides of humanity that you just feel relieved when he's finally gone. He's one special case, even among other Disney villains.
Even worse is that Frollo hides behind his religion as a cover to escape judgment. The Archdeacon was the only reason he didn’t outright kill Quasimodo in the beginning.
I feel like, in a way, Frollo is among the most realistic Disney villains. He is the combination of the worst traits in humanity: Racist, ableist, power-hungry, corrupted, deranged and dangerously lustful. Though, I would say he is one of the absolute best Disney villains.
Scar: Conspired with the hyenas to kill his brother and his nephew so he can take over the Pridelands. When he did win and go to power, he starved his own pride and even assaulted one of the lionesses, to the point where they were begging for Simba to return. Gaslit Simba into thinking he's responsible for the death of his own father. Attempted to lie and threw the Hyenas under the bus for the death of Mufasa only for that to be his downfall Gaston: A prideful and arrogant man who wants Belle to marry him by any means. Makes sexist and unwanted advances towards Belle. Bribed an asylum owner to lock up Belle's father so she'd be pressured to marry him. And attempted to kill the Beast and even tried to prevent Belle and her father from saving him by locking them in their own basement. Not because he thought the Beast was a possible danger to the village, mind you, but because Beast was a love rival who had won Belle's heart. He even taunted the Beast for his kindness and gentle nature before he was about to kill him. Frollo: A corrupted judge who orders genocide on people because of their race, was going to kill a baby after he killed the baby's mother, and was going to burn down Paris so he can have his way with a woman he lusts over all while claiming he is a pure man of God. King Magnifico: Doesn't grant everyone's wishes out of fear of having unwanted or unintended consequences that could bring harm to his kingdom and the people and raises his voice when someone questions him about it... King Magnifico is not a villain. Period.
👏 Thanks, now I just want to rewatch the first three. Too bad I canceled the streaming platform where I could watch them. 🥲 Remember when they put so much thought and heart into these films that they became virtually universally appealing works of art?
This is one of the only movies where having any form of twist would work. Don't make King Magnifico the villain, instead have the current main character start to be corrupted because of their want to grant too many wishes, and have Magnifico try and save them. Also, that would be even more surprising since the protagonist has never become evil in any Disney movie.
@@nitrozeus6393 History is written by the victor, and he lost, so he's the villain. Which would be an interesting message for the movie if it was at all intentional.
@@metazoxan2 now that is an interesting message to tell people but the problem is that magnifico is that he does nothing wrong in the film and maybe if they show a darker side to magnifico without the magical book bs
For anyone saying the king should just grant everyone's wish and shouldn't have the right to get rid of dangerous wishes, let me introduce you to the scenario of a young Austrian painter who just failed art school whose wish is to "inspire" people and lead.
Saw someone put it this way: Say a young man's greatest wish is to marry a young woman he's friends with. If Magnifico grants this, he's removing the choice and agency from the girl. If he doesn't, then by the standards of the movie Magnifico is a horrible person.
So let me get this straight, she wants to have his position, critiques how he does things, and ends up on a path to replace him and how everything is done. So by the end, she gets her wish granted by his actions...and after watching the clip of her song leading into her wish on the star, is the most entitled thing ever. She wishes for more than she already does without putting in any actual effort into earning it. It makes it actually seem like he sacrificed himself so she could have her selfish wish.
Well... aren't wishes about that? Like, wishing for something unobtainable without necessarily earning it? The one woman that wanted to fly... what effort did she put into earning that trait?
@@ChRW123 Never watched the movie, but if her wish was granted then people wanting more is even more entitled. If it wasn't, did she get her wish at the end when the girl became the wishmaker or whatever the title was? And especially if it wasn't granted, there is magic in that world, surely someone has a spell for flight that she could have learned...the king might even know it. Please let me know as I didn't see or plan to see the movie to know who had their wishes granted and what kind. If only the wishes that were vague or hazardous to the country were the only ones not being granted, the people really didn't have anything to complain about except to just complain
... *Your comment made me come up with a theory:* What if - her wishing on the star - made him evil? Like, Her wish - turned Him evil so that her wish could be granted in the end. She wanted him gone so she could take his place as the wish granter so that she could grant her own selfish wishes along with everyone elses bad wishes. Then with the people seeing _"how evil he was being"_ - she could manipulate them with a whopping total of TWO songs, to overthrow him. And if she grants every single wish the people has - that would make a TOTAL dependency ON that granting. Whilst he made the people work on their own to grant some of their own wishes _(as well as opting not to grant possibly dangerous wishes)_ - Her wish granting will teach people that they don't need to work for it; that they just need to come to her, that she'll take care of them, that she'll grant their wish for them. *THE PEOPLE WILL COMPLETELY DEPEND ON HER.* This would explain _why_ he turned evil so out of the blue, and went from 2 to 200 seemingly out of nowhere. It would also explain why she was being so vague in her " star wish -whatever- " song: After all, it's said that if you verbally wish on a star, it won't come true: To correctly wish on a star, you have to wish in your mind, which is why her song is an absolute mess - it's a diverson. And the book was either just a scapegoat or a catalyst for her wish. She has more motives to _make_ him evil, than he has for _being_ evil. *Asha is the real villain in the movie, and she is good at manipulating the story.*
I can't believe Disney's Wish failed when Puss in Boots: The Last Wish was RIGHT THERE. Wish is about somebody granting wishes to literally everybody, and one person saying nah grant them all. Just complaining all the way through about a villain that is actually in the right throughout the entire thing, making her come off as a cry baby. Last Wish is about realising that wishes don't matter, and that what you need is what you already have, or can achieve yourself. Goldi wanted a family, she realised she already had one. Puss wanted more lives, he realised that he has a good one. Jack was greedy, he died. Disney's Wish could have simply made Asha want to grant everyone's wishes, but then realising that no one needs them. You don't need some magic spell to be happy, because you already have what you need. It could have been so awesome.
Nothing is free in life. And the fact that he start3d using forbidden dark magic and fueling it with other people's wishes just went right over your heads. This is in line with real life. As xys have very easily supported and given their services to a lot of foul ppl in history. Imagine if xys actually had morality, most genocides and wars would never have happened
I feel really bad for Chris Pine. He gave his absolute all into his performance as Magnifico, and hoped that he’d be remembered as fondly as the great Disney villains of the past, like Scar or Ursula. Magnifico was a victim of poor writing. None of this was your fault, Chris. Thank you for trying.
The funniest thing is that the grandfather's wish to inspire the younger generation technically did happen in the exact way that magnifico was worried about
Disney villains in the 40’s and 50’s: get their powers directly from Hell, shapeshift, and kill cute forest animals Disney villains in the 90’s: commit genocide, overthrow good monarchs, and slaughter villages of innocents Disney villains the 2020’s: tell teenage girls “no”
Right? Like it feels like he has been giving and giving, and the people just keep asking for more. Even the kindest and most giving person can grew tired and bitter from the people around them not giving them even the smallest thank you.
@@r-polar5009 Right! When Asha asks about her grandfather’s wish after he and Asha had just started bonding. You can tell he’s genuinely hurt by it. He probably snapped cause he was feeling dejected
exactly! i watched the movie and it genuinely all seemed so forced.. if they maybe fleshed this idea out, it would be basic (and still have the other flaws...) but it would be nice, instead of another "oh no! guy everyone trusts is evil this whole time"
It's the Let it Go problem. When the writers wrote Let it Go, it was supposed to be Elsa's villian song, but the writers felt it was too "powerful and inspiring" to be a villian song, so the whole movie was rewritten arround Let it Go being inspiring rather than Elsa becoming "evil".
I love how basically the lesson taught by making Magnifico into a villain is "Hey kids! If your parents deny you of all your absurd childish demands, they are TYRANTS!" While the lesson that could be taught is "Look kids. Just because your papa didn't give you that candy doesn't mean he's a monster. He is looking out for you." Edit: Spicy discussion in replies lol.
So let me get this straight You get to live in a kingdom rent-free, with a wizard for a king who can do magic in order to sustain the kingdom without money All for the price of giving the King your "Wish" as in your motivation and objectives in life for there to be a chance that the king will fufill that wish But still retaining the ability to have goals and objectives even if the wish isn't granted? Sounds like a good retirement plan Sign me up
This becomes even more hilarious when you take into account this is supposed to be reconquista era spain. For context. The Almohades, a particularly vicious muslim sect that got to power for a small while, thought of themselves as a sort of "world revolution" that would erase all non-muslim faiths... By killing everyone, burning every single library, and razing every single artifact of any era before them so as to literally erase from history any pre-muslim faith so as to be able to manipulate everyone into believing islam was ALWAYS the ONLY faith and therefore there is no alternative. Needless to say they got through power by butchering the ummayad, and promptly lost power when their army collapsed against the Christians and the other muslims immediately took the chance to turn on them. But point is. Do you really think magically granting everyone any wish without checking would be a good course of action when THOSE GUYS are your next door neighbors? Because their wish is literal genocyde of the purest, rawest bloody kind. And judging by Magnifico's skintone and name... He's on their kill list.
I think that if Disney used king Magnifico as the good guy and Asha as the bad guy , they could have made a more entertaining story with a nice twist to it . The fact that In life , not everything will go your way and you will inevitably have to make compromises , which is shown by king Magnifico having to choose the best way to support the kingdom by choosing the wishes that benefit them the most . But In doing so , this makes him not so popular with the citizens because they all want their wishes granted . Hence , Asha a power seeking opportunist , lies to them that if they help her stage a coup against the king , she will grant all their wishes . Towards the movies end , Asha gains power from the wishes she steals from Magnifico , and is taking over the kingdom blah blah blah , but king Magnifico beats her by making a huge speech that life isn’t always about getting what u want , and u sometimes have to make sacrifices and hard work to obtain your goal , rather than relying on others to grant your wish . And so on and on . Obviously my idea isn’t fully fleshed out , but it would have been cooler to see Disney do something like this rather than what they actually did .
Asha doesn’t even need to be doing it consciously. She can think she’s doing the right thing and picture Magnifico as the bad guy. The escalation of both of these sides can lead to the people suffering over their fight over wishes. Eventually leading to their understanding that they were both the villains in each other’s stories.
Yeah that definitely works too , but since Disney fans want an obviously evil bad guy rather than a twist villain or no villains at all . I think it would better help the movies chances if they established who is the bad guy without giving them a backstory that makes them seem like a good guy .
Personally, I think this movie could have been fixed with a few fixes. 1. Magnifico, Or really Magnus or Mag, isn't the king but a friend of Asha who, like her wants to make everyone's wishes come true by being apprenticed to the King. The king is actually a Yen Sid character, King Walt. Similar to Magnifico, He doesn't really grant all the wishes. Not because he wants to stay in power, but because of the "cost" of granting a wish. ("This is the thanks I get" Happier version where Walt sings of how happy he is to see his people happy.) However, the power to grant wishes is taking a bit of toll on him so he puts out signs to find an apprentice. 2. Asha and Mag visit the motherly Seamstress who gives them clothes to look good for for the king who is interviewing them for the position of Wish granter. There is disagreement between Asha and King Walt which leads to her being dismissed and Mag getting the position. 3. Asha is tricked by Mag, who uses Asha's impatience to get her to grant everyone's wish, including his wish to rule Rosas (Actions over words). He then puts the king in the dungeon. 4. Asha, who chides King Walt for him not granting wishes, is warned by King Walt that the price of granting a person's wish is the loss of something personal to that person. (Magnifico loses his empathy, falling to his own desire for power. A seamstress who wanted to make dresses to get money to ensure her child's future LOSES said child, etc.). He even explains that he helps them attain their wish by gifting them chances and opportunities to further their dreams, so the cost of the wish wouldn't be so steep. ("Just a Little magic help") Asha, after seeing this tries to stop Magnifico, but is thrown into the dungeon with the king. 5. Asha has to convince King Walt to help despite his anger and disappointment in his people. ("This is the thanks I get/Actions over words." duet version). She tells him that while he thought he was doing enough, He separated himself from his people, not realizing that there are those who need more than words and faith to believe in someone. 6. Mag, now going by King Magnifico, wants more power so he opens a forbidden book hinted at in the beginning by King Walt, to gain his staff of dark power, (My wish. A dark song where Mag ponders the limits of his wish and how far he can go with it. "This is my wish...And no one will deny me it.") 7. Together, after reawakening the seamstress who is visiting Asha, because motherly instinct, the two of them accend tht tower to stop him. 8. They defeat him, He is sucked into this staff like in the movie. However, in a show of change for Asha, she uses the power of her own wish to save him. ("My Wish. (Asha lullaby.) "This is my wish...and I give it up freely.") 9. Asha, having learned the value of a wish vs hardwork, becomes the Wish granter. Mag is put in the dungeon but it is hinted that he willingly will pay for for his crimes, and King Walt returns to power, with the hint that Asha will take over when he is gone. ("My Wish". (Our wish))
I would have liked it if Magnifico was a manipulative calculating narcissist like Mother Gothel: gaslighting everyone around him and stealing everyone's wishes simply because he takes sick pleasure from toying with people. And what a great twist it would have been if Asha got betrayed by the queen because she had ben in cahoots with her husband the whole time and just acted like she was clueless to detect potential traitors
I always thought that what if he waited for a wish to die and a dead wish would make it ripe and give him power which is why he won’t grant everyone’s wish
I love villains that I can root for. Whether it's a misguided attempt to make things better or a completely just cause, they always come out as more reasonable and... human. I was hoping that Wish made Magnifico that sort of "justifiable evil," but uh... no. They shoehorned a good guy into being a bad guy for no other reason than needing a bad guy.
How cool would it be if Asha was the real villain? After being rejected , she could feel disappointed and mad just like Tai Lung for not being chosen as the Dragon Warrior, so she gets the star and uses it to grant everyone's wishes. At first it seems good and the star and her friends works with her but she becomes more and more selfish ignoring the wishes having bad consequences. In the end something really bad happens because of it and she finally realizes the King was right, learning sometimes we can't get everything we want.
They tried SO HARD to make him an obviously narcissistic villain. All the vanity and "are sure you're not the problem?" lyrics. And they really failed. As someone who was raised by a narcissistic tyrant Magnifico honestly feels as if someone had read the most superficial characteristics of a covert narcissist and slammed them into an interesting tragic hero. He's supposed to be a return to classic Disney villains... But he's not even a villain. There are so many perfect portrayals villains with narcissistic personality disorder: Frollo, Mother Gothel, Medusa... Disney used to be so good at creating truly dark and twisted characters...
I'm so happy you mentioned Medusa, a lot of people forget about The Rescuers. Madame Medusa was such a manipulative, narcisistic person that even though she has no supernatural powers and is relatively small in stature, she was still very intimidating and a danger to everyone around her. She's such a great villain. Magnifico barely stands up how well she's written.
@@darrelsam419 Medusa's my personal favorite because of how similar she was to my parent. Watching that film as a child was a great thing for me. I wish Disney would stop being overly cozy and go back to real forces of good against actually messed up, realistic depictions of evil. Light against dark. Now the writing is all so bright it isn't actually giving children advice or skills to deal with the problems they'll have to eventually face.
I can't wait to get to the point in our society where people stop using personality disorders as synonyms for "abuser". I don't even have a personality disorder myself, I'm just tired of seeing it.
Having the queen be secretly evil so that the movie has both a classic Disney villain and a modern twist villain would have been a genius idea - which is why I'm not surprised she isn't
@@CrownMe13I mean, when you are most of the violent crime in society and have been most violent leaders in history, are you gonna argue how women are typically villains in real life AND movies?
@@chorizoramen93 yeah ur right, but disney got it pretty much cleared that for some reason they dont like white guys. Not just them news medias too, I don’t understand why, probably to find someone to blame, but this movies passing that kind of vibe.
HES NOT EVEN A VILLIAN. HES OBJECTIVELY IN THE RIGHT??? Like, imagine. Your a king who has eliminated crime, starvation, and sadness from your kingdom. Youve made a paradise. You dont even require people giving their wish up to get in, they do it willingly. Not every wish is a good one, some are mean and awful, and dont deserve to be granted. Then some girl gets to be an advisor, doesnt even wait to use her position to try and get her wish granted, then says that every wish should be granted no matter what.
I hate how Disney forgets what a couple is. I mean, if your HUSBAND is becoming bitter and seems aggressive, why don't your try to talk him out of such ideas? Why not try to discuss it? But they rather prefer the other say: I don't love him anymore lol, I will fight him and not mourn his death. The husband you married and loved??? And he is thrown away like that... Great understanding in psychology
Did you not also see the scenes where she tried to reason with him, even talked him out of the bad direction he was going only for him to DO IT BEHIND HER BACK? Like...did you leave or fall asleep cause you were so disinterested. He literally betrayed her trust and that's grounds for divorce in any marriage.
Not… really? I mean, I hope I don’t know anyone who would divorce their spouse over reading a book without their permission. In any case, even if it isn’t good, those aren’t quite grounds for imprisoning your husband forever in a mirror. At least, that’s what I think. @@dedokodo5
Your husband who YOU KNOW has childhood trauma after being ignored by a star which is why he's panicking again. He has good reasons to. He spoiled you your entire life. This movie is gross.
@@Alex-mh5mu when did he ever get ignored by a star and if he had issues like that he should of spoke about them. He knew what he was doing was wrong that's why he did it behind her back. Trauma doesn't give you an excuse to be toxic, and during the entire movie he wasn't ignored by a star, dude didn't even know what it was like what don't make plot points up.
If that's the case, Asha would be the villain. Magnifico is the villain but Disney (the company) doesn't seem to see the irony of how much like him they are.
Something else about Magnifico that makes him a good person: he doesn’t HAVE to grant anyone’s wishes. He’s choosing to do this because he is a kind and benevolent king.
Outside of any moral compass, a simple lie could have made Magnifico easily out of trouble. "Your grandpa's wish ? Let me check... Yup. Already granted. 'A long life to see his beloved granddaughter growing and becoming a woman.' That one is fairly common actualy. Anyway, the rule is clear : one wish per person ! It is a shame wish magic affect peoples's memory, I give you that."
When you really think about it, if Ashe never went to Magnifico's castle for the apprenticeship, he wouldn't have needed to read that evil book, and get driven mad with power. So, in a sense, she was the one who made him evil in the first place.
@@SantaCometa”Just hating” This quote is nonsense just like the movie. This is the level of gaslighting that makes people justify objectively bad movies. Tell me, why is no one “hating” on the lion king, why is no one “hating” on puss in boots 2? The “blinded by nostalgia” wouldn’t make sense either, since “Pocahontas” is considered to be mediocre while a newer film like tangeled is critically acclaimed. In the end, people just want to have good medias and good escapism. People rarely hate without reason, especially when it comes to entertainment. People aren’t dumb and know what they want, so calling them haters just because they criticize stuff isn’t gonna get you far.
Never even watched this movie but this guy feels better as one of the friendly villains like Megamind. Sure Megamind was evil but he had good personality and found it more sporty when being confronted by Metro Man and never truly did an evil thing except excessive property damage and never seemed to have some ultra bad thoughts.
I like to think that he got so many "apprentice" that only there not to study magic. But to ask him to grant their wishes as an apprentice. Then one day, Asha pulls up, did the same thing like everyone does. And bam, he snapped
Calling Magnifico “the most formidable foes in Disney history” is an exaggeration, a polite stretch. To quote from an actual villain: “You’re not quite evil enough. You're semi-evil. You're quasi-evil. You're the margarine of evil. You're the Diet Coke of evil, just one calorie - not evil enough!”
This had the opportunity to be a callback to the Sorceror's Apprentice animation, where Asha could've lost control trying to grant all the wishes, with Magnifico returning to take control back, showing how power like that must be used responsibly and knowing all aspects.
If you have to tell or prove to an audience that someone is a villain… they probably aren’t. No one had to tell us that characters like Scar and Ursula were villains because they proved it on their own. They did actions that felt in line with their characters and those actions were terrible.
It is the inverse of the common rule... if you see a person going around saying how good they are... they are not. The most recent Disney villains are only "bad" because the narator said so.
Hell even twist villains like Hans (attempted regicide) Ernesto de la Cruz (murderer) and King Candy (usurper) were pretty much clean cut villains when their true motives were revealed and no one would doubt to class them as villains
Honestly, even if magnifico was an authoritarian monarch with a secret police, the free housing alone would probably be enough to ingratiate him to the people, but free housing+ the wishes for some (not even based on wealth and the size of their armies, simply how they can benefit the kingdom) and the fact he's not gonna throw someone in prison for basically demanding something from him without having done anything to really get his favor make it clear that yeah, there's no serious issues with him. When a monarch is the reason for your community's well being and don't even make you charge rent, allowing you to use all this money for food, water etc, it's not weird that he expect devotion. Even per our modern standards, just the free housing make it better than any of our leaders.
Problem on housing: housing costs money, which comes from taxes. Taxes come from the people. Anyone telling you something from the government is free is either lying or badly ill-informed.
Also its not like they don't know the rules of asking for a wish, they know what they are doing, he isn't abusing them or anything so shouldn't complain, and some of the wishes like flying or conquering a land are that dumb that he is actually making them a favor, letting them forget it and go for another thing
Also, he was willing to choose a commoner as his apprentice to pass down his magic ! He didn't even care about keeping the magic in the royal family ! Considering the King and Queen don't have any children, the crown would have likely been passed down to Asha along the way. It's also implied Asha's father was a friend of the King... Asha's father was good man who liked to wish upon stars too. If Magnifico was truly terrible, or egoistical, you would think Asha's father would have noticed. And at least warned his wife or his father against him. Yet Asha's family is completely trusting of him, and Asha idolizes him at first, so they must have only ever heard good things of him out of Asha's father. He's probably known Magnifico quite well, so did Amaya. How was Asha somehow the first one to question Magnifico, or see his "evil" ways ? Would have actually been better if it was revealed Magnifico was the reason behind Asha's father death, if he had him executed because he tried to question his hegemony over magic. Then Asha would have a legitimate reason to hold a grudge against him and start an uprising.
Everyone does everything willingly, he's taking nothing from anybody so also that alone makes him a good guy. He does nothing wrong through the entire movie and gets punished anyway. It's disturbing
I already noticed what was going to be the problem when the villain is the guy saying "don't grant all wishes". That is usually the lesson both the protagonist and antagonist learn at the end of the story. Aladin: Wishes gone wrong. Bruce almighty has a funny scene where he grants everyone's wishes/prayers, so half of the US won the same lottery. Some people wish for others to die. Some wish for power. This "villain" regulates which wishes come true to prevent these doomsday scenario's, everyone is fine with that, except a dumb protagonist
Having King Magnifico as a good guy and Asha as the 'villain' to start, not out of malice but out of ignorance. She ends up doing something to try and suddenly grant all the wishes that leads to a disaster that could force Magnifico to use that corrupting book to stop it all which ends up slowly turning him evil. Asha leans a lesson and tries to redeem herself for what she does and sees the cost of it all and not only do they have to stop Magnifico but also it can be where the Queen could end up working with her in hopes of trying to save her corrupted husband. Wow... that was so hard achieving what Disney wanted to do with only a few little story changes while making the characters both make sense and giving off a better lesson in the end without needing to assassinate anyone's character and have them act illogical or against what their character has shown for it to make sense.
But this doesn't gel with the story we ended up with, where Asha just wants all the wishes returned to their owners and wouldn't just "do something to suddenly grant all the wishes." And Magnifico works better as a villain if he chooses to use the corrupting book even when he absolutely did NOT have to.
Thei choice of skincolor and gender said enough. They didnt care about a moral, just woke-ism And that's sad because your idea for what could have been is a hundred times better than what they could think of with a professional team
@@29elines21 What does it have to do with wokism? Even if Asha was a "straight white man", it doesn't change the fact that Wish was a huge wasted potential because of the plot. Don't look for pathetic excuses to justify Wish's flop, because Wokism has nothing to do with. The film bombed 'cause Disney and the writers (who've ironically written Frozen) didn't take risks and stuck with a very classic and forgettable movie.
I love your reflection on this one. There wouldn't be actual villains but just "antagonists" one trying to stop the other for doing what they think is wrong. Asha would also be a more relatable protagonist because she made a mistake, like everyone. And when you see the sneek peeks and behind the scenes, you just realize Wish had such a potential, but was ultimately wasted because of I don't know the reasons. That's sad when you think about it... Edit: Guess I figured out that Wish didn't work because Disney forgot to take risks
don't forget we also had a racist villian who murdered a mother, nearly killed said mom's child and kill innocent people to find a girl he wants to (censored) her all while painting himself and his actions to be holy and without sin
Cruella was genuinely evil. SPOILERS: She stole the puppies and turned a girl into a fully conscious mannequin with no way to turn back until someone else buys the coat which is extremely expensive and if someone does buy the coat they're gonna be struck with the same misfortune.
She really is, because the magic mirror wasn't even evil in Snow White, in the first place. He was just telling the Queen the truth, and she's the one who snapped and decided Snow White had to die. Meanwhile, Asha becomes the Fairy Godmother, who... gives a tortured girl about four hours of freedom before she's got to run home and go back to servitude.
Disney's most "intimidating villain" has to be the girl for thinking she's the special little main adorkable character stepping in the life of a king that tries to stop people from comitting atrocities with their life threatening wishes.
I also like to believe he can't guide wishes into how he'd like, the person wishing has to do it or else it remains uncertain what way it will become real
Exactly! Like i was watching the movie and literally couldn't understood why the king was wrong till he actually used the book, where he ONLY used it because he felt threatened, and like the king didn't want to grant the old dudes wish because it might cause a chain of events of jealousy and envyness amongst his citizens but he's somehow wrong??? How? How is he wrong to not grant a wish that gave a chance to cause that event?
The main issue I saw with Magnifico, and the movie in general, was that, in the beginning, it appeared as if a larger, complex idealogical conflict was being set up, with Magnifico’s belief of protecting people from the heartbreak of not having their wishes granted (by removing them entirely) coming into conflict with Asa’s belief that wishes are too precious to be removed, and that everyone should have them, regardless of whether or not they come true. In the end, the movie could’ve really been a heartwarming story about Asa helping a scared, traumatized man realize that, in the end, his way of “saving people” was stealing something precious away from them, where Magnifico would’ve been more of a redeemed antagonist, rather than a straight-up “villain.” Unfortunately, somewhere along the way the movie decided that it didn’t like that anymore, and decided to completely destroy Magnifico’s character with that stupid evil book, turning him into a complete two-dimensional character just for the sake of having a “villain” instead of following thought with what it had set up.
YO, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND I relayed these feelings to my family members I watched the movie with and they all were like "well it's a kids movie yaknow what are you gonna do" and I was so ready to get heated bruh. I was genuinely REALLY fucking invested once we saw the two in conflict for the first time, but any moral grey area was just entirely dropped and I just ended up feeling bad for the man, because 90% of this was just an evil book and desperation.
It genuelly would have been fucking touching to see that, specially considering how so many have the stances on redemption, psychological help and second chances, but NOPE
The thing is, Magnifico takes 1 wish from people that is not even their core or their reason to exist, so really the guy is just applying his one law and thats about it. Asha has no reason to exist in this story, she's fighting... nothing. And for the most selfish reasons. This movie had to be all about him, the other characters were bland and accessory, including his wife which left me bitter
6:45 Asha bringing the star makes creatures alive and starts granting random shit and magic. It makes animals sentient and so. It is straight up altering the natural order of the world. And magnifico already doesn't trust Asha (with good reason) so he considers her a threat and he requires extra magic to face a potential danger who has a star.
@@evanholloway1692 he literally never shows any reason or motivation or even will to become the most powerful in anything. All he wanted is to have his kingdom and keep order in it to prevent bad shit from happening
The star is also a threat too since it's childlike to paint asha and the star as good guys is crazy it would of been much better if asha was the villian but even more complex is neither asha or the king is the villian but asha and the star due to their ignorance of wish granting winds up granting the wish of an opportunistic maniac and now has the same powers as the king and the star. Now asha and the star have to undo their mistake and save the king as the villian gotten powerful enough to imprision the king in the phantom zone. The villian can even be the queen that would of been so much cooler but no of course not if I was the writer at Disney ill be getting paid mad money for carrying that money but hey the Hollywood strike happened for the reason so the top talent probably left too.
It's so easy to fix too. Just have him be a sorcerer who stole a wishing star out of the sky and has been forcing it to grant his selfish wishes. His crown, his army, everything he's got because of that star will disappear if he loses it. So of course he's going to chase our protagonist to the ends of the Earth to get "his star" back.
Yeah! Disney: A king who studied magic and got good bc of his own effort < female protagonist gets magic star bc she's the "hero", zero effort Disney: "Seems about right"
@@itheparrott Seriously, making Magnifico a villain is such an easy thing to establish to the point that I can't believe Wish's failure to do so wasn't apart of some major secret troll move by one of the writers. You could make him not grant wishes because the wishes empower him, you could make him manipulate people into giving them to him, you could make him not give them a choice in the matter, you could make him not be completely honest about the matter, you could... You know, not have him go crazy BECAUSE he's irreversibly corrupted by a magic evil book that damns him for eternity. They make Rosa come off as more villainous in her scene of trying to tell her family about Magnifico's actions. She explains Magnifico's reasons, her grandfather agrees with them, she insists telling Grandpa about what his wish was, her Grandpa firmly states that he doesn't want to remember a wish that isn't going to get granted and then she goes 'Fuck you, I'm getting your wish back and forcing it on you despite you clearly telling me you don't want to experience that pain!'.
Haven’t seen the movie yet, but his motivations and tactics sound completely reasonable. If someone’s wish was something awful, not only can he just choose not to grant the wish, but they forget that they ever wanted that terrible thing in the first place! That’s a total win-win that I doubt the movie even acknowledges
One of the wishes looked like the guy was conquering something - uh, what - or who - is he conquering? Is he conquering that city? An uninhabited island? A very much inhabited island where he becomes one of the oppressors that so many people living there went to the island to escape? This movie is ridiculous. The 'villain' is a straight up hero who does what is best for everyone and created a city from scratch and gives people free homes where they can live in peace and safety - He and those he made the city for are REFUGEES, he came from a place torn apart by war and terror and mayhem and wanted to give people a safe place to live, so he worked hard, studied, and honed his magic abilities until he became powerful enough to make that a reality. He had NOTHING handed to him - he worked and worked and WORKED not just for himself, but to benefit other people, and then this spoiled little brat came in demanding that he grant all the wishes - especially hers and her family's - and refused to understand anything from his point of view, and we're supposed to agree with HER. She didn't work for anything! Even throughout the movie, she does very very little, everything just sort of happens to or for her without her input. He worked for decades to become strong enough to make a home for his people, to keep it safe, to provide for everyone, and he gives people joy and hope and a safe place to live. None of the people who have had their wishes taken are sad - a little disappointed when it's not granted, sure, but sad? Depressed? Living in fear? Absolutely not. He gave them everything and they still wanted more. He wasn't a villain, he was a hero. I almost want to believe they wrote this with AI because I really don't want to believe any person thinks this garbage would be a good idea...but then, they wrote Raya. So.
@@moonstruck8245 @moonstruck8245 Your reaction is exactly the same as mine. I just watched this movie and I'm literally disgusted by it. I would never want a child to see this movie because its morality is so twisted. Magnifico had built Rosas from the ground up, welcomed everyone to his kingdom with open arms, provided for his subjects, didn't collect taxes, and granted their wishes. He doesn't deceive anyone either. Everyone knows that they forget their wishes if they aren't granted and choose to make their wishes anyway. It's also a win-win. People either get what they want and are happy, or they stop wanting what they can't have and are also happy. Then Asha comes along, with all the wisdom of a 17 year old girl who has lived a sheltered life in a literal utopia, and tells the guy who made the utopia that he is doing it wrong. Magnifico earned his power, he studied magic, built Rosas from the ground up and has been granting wishes for (at least) 3 generations, but Asha knows better. This should have been a lesson in hubris, but somehow they made Magnifico the bad guy, even though everything he said was completely reasonable and nobody is suffering under his rule. He doesn't even do anything that can be called evil prior to being corrupted by the book (and that was Asha's fault). All he does is help people and try to protect them, even though he gets nothing in return and doesn't even feel appreciated, and he really isn't. Once he is corrupted and trapped in the mirror his subjects, who know he is under the influence of dark magic, who he has shown nothing but kindness and generosity to for decades, decide to torture him. He's completely powerless, he's at their mercy, his mind isn't even his own, and rather than try to find a way to save him, rather than mourn him, rather than show even the tiniest shred of human empathy for the man who did so much for them, they gleefully torture him. He's already suffering a fate worse than death and they choose to make his existence as unpleasant as possible just to cause him additional pain. His wife even calls him an "it" as she gives the order. Why on earth would I want people like this to have their wishes granted?
This could work much better as a story from Magnifico's point of view, where he's a tragic hero corrupted by dark magic while trying to save his kingdom and forever trapped in a mirror while a young woman runs the kingdom he built into the ground as she has no idea how to run a kingdom or handle granting wishes, and she eventually turns to him in the mirror for help, setting him up at the magic mirror, and Asha starts to lose it from the pressure, going evil herself and leaving the kingdom to go marry into another one. She takes the mirror with her, and bam surprise prequel. The seven dwarves are the descendants of her friends, living out in the woods after the kingdom fell to ruin. I know it's a bit fanfictiony, but it's better than wish was. Or it could another route, where the king is corrupted by dark magic and the city turns on him and Asha realizes he's been corrupted and uses the Star or whatever to heal him and they then work together to grant wishes with her compassion covering for his strict views. It'd be kinda the same no real villain but it'd be more nuanced than this
2:20 Yeah? I mean, if he doesn't grant the wish, its not like you can't do it yourself? It's like denying a wish for a billion dollars, it's not like the only source of money is a wish.
My theory is that Wish is Asha's propaganda about how she overthrew the "evil king Magnifico" and took over the kingdom. She is changing the story to paint herself in a good light and him in a bad and crazy light. We may never know the true story because Asha's been incredibly thorough at wiping it out, but we know that she is the true villain. There are several other stores that I can only explain as propaganda from the winning side. If the bad guys aren't doing bad things and the good guys aren't doing good things (or are even doing bad things) it's clearly being written with a skewed perception intended to alter the audience's opinions.
@@Goldenfoxy12341 I've seen Twisted, and it's an excellent example of what the non-propaganda version might be like, but Aladdin doesn't /feel/ like blatant propaganda/lies. The best example I can give you is the Mistborne trilogy. I know a lot of people love it but I was horrified by the atrocious actions of the main characters all while being told that they are these perfectly good and benevolent beings. The first book is fine and I really loved it but the second and especially third book ruined everything for me. The only way I finished the trilogy was by telling myself I'm reading blatant propaganda designed to make Vin and Ellend look good.
It kind of is actually, though I’d say it was Queen Amaya who orchestrated the coup and Asha is merely her faithful lackey doing all of the grunt work. It’s kind of like how the Byzantine empress Irene of Athens overthrew and blinded her own son (if Magnifico is indeed the Magic Mirror from Snow White, I wonder how he ended up like that? 😱 ☠️) while contemporary historians sang her praises.
The greatest issue for me is the lack of urgency in the wishes. The idea of a powerful monarch who has the power to solve all of his kingdom's problems but chooses not to because he thinks they don't deserve it, or that he should be rewarded more for caring for his people before himself (which is, you know, the very purpose of monarchs and rulers as a whole) is very open to topical interpretations. Instead, Rosas feels like a utopia even without the wishes. All the people's desires are tertiary needs, related to passion and aspiration instead of basic survival, and most of them involve either impossible, frivolous things (like the lady who wanted to fly) or skills they could easily practice without magic (like becoming a tailor, a musician, a knight...). Nothing like "I wish we had enough money to save our house" or "I wish we had food on the table". Nothing that would make the presence of a near-omnipotent witch-king such a balm. This could have easily been solved by an angle that's about that, about how people need more than just the basic things to survive, and Magnifico acting like the kind of entitled parent that thinks "as long as your parents give you a roof on your head, food, drink, clothes and a basic education then you're not abused". It would also be a very topical and powerful angle and seems like what they were going for... but again, it's too shallow and edgeless to work. Also Shan Yu is FANTASTIC. NO SLANDER ON SHAN YU.
And Disney also dared including a left-leaning joke at the end of the movie… I don’t remember what was said, but it made me roll my eyes. The joke was made when the protagonist got her wand and became the next ruler.
It would've made more sense if the people of Rosas were _really_ struggling and barely scraping by, if Magnifico actually _did_ charge them rent (the fact that he doesn't would make him a life-saving messiah for tons of people). I think Robin Hood handled this better 50 years ago, having the Sheriff of Nottingham barging into people's homes ordering everyone to cough up and even stealing from the blind. But as is, with everyone getting to live rent-free in a utopian paradise, giving up your wish seems like a small price to pay someone who seems to be running a pretty tight ship.
I don't understand how giving the wish makes the wisher forget it, but then destroying that same wish (that they forgot about!) makes the wisher depressed. Depressed over what, exactly?
@@Kate303x Exactly, this movie has so many plotpoints that i'm confused how anyone with basic reading comprehension read the script and thought it was ok, and its for the 100 aniversary of disney, they could do so so so so SO much better, but they instead made a lazy cash souless movie. Disney thinks they don't need to work and do their movies anymore because of the branding, why else would they be bringing so many classics into live action
They should have gave him motivation to seek more power. For example, he could not revive dead people, and a kid asked him to bring back dead parents, he could not handle it so he turned to the evil book for more power in hopes of fulfilling the wish.
Here's a neat idea. When Asha and Star are granting the ungranted Wishes with Star, somebody Wishes they were King. Asha and Star grant the Wish without thought, and then double back with a "wait, what?". Suddenly Magnifico gets magically launched out of his castle and this schmuck is put on the throne in his place. Magnifico is pissed and now he HAS to break into his own castle and pull out the 'Evil Book' in order to undo the Wish that took his kingdom from him. There, Now there's an entire point to the whole "This is the Thanks I get?" musical.
Insert Ashe and Star going on an adventure to go rescue Magnifico from his exile and help him get his Kingdom back. At first he's welcoming and understanding, but we see little bits of bitterness leak through on the journey back. They grow closer on the journey back, but something is wrong, he seems conflicted. They finally sneak him back in to the Castle where he is able to separate from them and perform the whole Thanks I get song as they look on with horror. Some of the best villain stories are where the hero accidentally helped create/enable them. That's a great twist
My problem is basically what are his or Asha's metrics for what counts as a "good" or "bad" wish, as those could be *incredibly* hard to measure, which is why I kind of support Magnífico being more cautious because Asha's just too hands off saying "yeah let's just ignore bad wishes" But how you measure that? There must be wishes that are openly bad like "I want this certain person dead" "I want that everyone caught cholera" "I want every woman in town to be always naked" which can be quite easy to brush off There are others that can be easily abused like "I want to see through walls" which can be easily abused to spy people While others may disguise their true intentions by agreeably sounding wording like someone asking "I want to be able to make the most delicious ice cream" just to use their ability to get kids trust to do bad things to them Look at the woman who wanted to fly, it's a frivolous wish but let's be nice and grant it to her, what about if she can't control it, fly too high and falls to the ground and accidentally kills herself or someone else, what about if she grows greedy or lecherous and use her powers to steal stuff or spy on people? What about if some people form a gang or secret society and ask for carefully worded wishes throughout the years so they could successfully overthrow Magnífico and install a brutal dictatorship in its place (which could have been a good addition to Magnifico's backstory to justify his control freak nature by making him catch the conspirators on time and becoming paranoid of other conspiracy) Magnífico can't (as far as I know) read minds so he'll always have to trust for the best and hope people doesn't twist their wishes With all this stuff in mind I'll favour a more cautious approach like Magnifico's rather than an almost neglectfully carefree approach like Asha's to granting wishes, the idea on itself is pretty messed up by how easily even a simple wish can backfire and none other show exemplified it better than Fairly Odd Parents
Would be intresting if wish gets part 2 that actually handles this. First off she LITERALLY GRANTS every single wish, does not even look at it. Everything immediately goes to shit due to either a malicious wish or (well meaning/non malicious) that was atrociously worded wish causes some sort of massacre (eg. Someone who tends to "think before they act" going I want everyone at school to think like me , that person dies due to unrelated causes and everyone... thinks like him and becomes brain dead.) She does not think much of it as she is too busy granting more wishes but afterwards she realises WHY the king was selective about his wish granting after the next wish is "I hope everyone in the kingdom dies a slow painful death and goes to hell" a wish she was very close to automatically granting...or has automatically granted but managed to stop it from finishing (due to the slow nature of the death in question). She was included in this wish. Due to poor mentinance/bad alchemy or whatever the wish granting whatever slowly turns into a monkey paw. It first starts off with weird quirks like "you fly but the flight is a bit difficult, dangerous and extremely loud" And eventually turns ridiculous shit like "Ok you can fly but you become a demonic entity that feeds on people's dreams or "obsessive love" and has a tendency to steal shiny things, also your inmediate family is now dead" it will literally add things that have nothing to do with what you asked just because. People stop asking for wishes in fear of what is going to happen to them or the community untill this is fixed. Anyone caught asking for them would be ostricised and harshly punished... especially the wish affected somebody else negatively. [Que the main action / inttesting part of the movie where she has to figure out how to fix the wish granting whatever the fuck] [Maybe add a plot twist that it actually has something to do with a dark power (either interfering with the wishes or actually is what granted them all along)... like some sort of Jinn which is now unsatisfied/uncontrollable because reasons related to the King] [They rescue the king and everything gors back to normal] The movie gains a theme about "over permissiveness"
We have an entire Cinderella movie on how easily magic can be abused. Like there was a reason the fairy godmother chose to help the girl who wanted freedom from her situation rather than the woman who abused her.
Asha doesn't even want what's best for everyone. The only reason she wanted the job was so HER FAMILY could get what they wanted. All she did after that was a temper tantrum because she wouldn't get her way
So I don't know if it's just these scenes or it took me this long to notice, but at around 10:50 a lot of those clips look like the pre-renders you'd see when they're testing the animation but don't want to wait on a full light render. It's like they literally cut the production and development as it got closer to the end and just threw all the partial renders together in with the rest of the movie.
This movie was already made much better decades ago: it’s called Aladdin, where the evil villain abuses wishes in a short-sighted means to take a shortcut to power. The hero moderates his wishes and uses his last one for a truly selfless act. Unlike Asha, whose only motivation is selfishness because she throws a fit her grandfather’s wish specifically won’t be granted.
Sad that using your power responsibly and for the good of others rather than for pure personal gain is now looked down upon by Disney. As evidenced by this movie
Yeah that one villain in Aladdin where he turned himself into a Genie with infinite power but he's also bounded by the genie rules and sealed in the genie bottle or whatever. Cuz of consequences the villain was too greedy
And what if instead of whatever that was we had the villain centered around the "main message" which is to pursue your dreams instead of waiting for them to be granted? And if everyone pursued their dreams instead of having them granted there would be no one left to satisfy Magnifico's ego(which one would expect to develop if you had control over who's wish is granted and which not) which he doesn't want. It's not the best idea. The worst actually, but still better than whatever happened there
I'm just puzzled by Shan Yu being described as "boring." He's calm, because he's a freaking war lord with a record of defeating his enemies. Calm, patient threats are often far deadlier and far more threatening than blazing ones
An his momentary anger is what gets him defeated. Mulan knows that she can't straight up beat him in a fight. So what does she do? Remind him that she's the reason his entire army is dead, and we can see Shan Yu begin to lose his cool, and start to chase after her in pure rage. This allows her to lead him where she wants him to go. Shan Yu, if he were in a his calm state, would simply ignore Mulan and kill Shang and the Emperor right there, so making him angry was the only way to defeat him.
I don’t think he’s boring tier, I just don’t think he’s an interesting character. He lacks any personal connection with Mulan. He is intimidating though.
He's boring cause he doesn't have any unique characteristics. He doesn't do or say anything special. We don't see his grand conquest just scaling the wall. There's no real monologue or scenes about him. He just simply exist for there to be a plot. They never cut to him just to see him. Just once so he can tell his goons to do the talking instead. He doesn't show his ambition. He's just straight forward and does everything he needs and nothing more. We know nothing besides he's invading. His final confrontation is also just him rushing. Atlantis final confrontation had the bad guy actually talking and taunting showing his personality.
@@magnusm4 "He's calm, because he's a freaking war lord with a record of defeating his enemies. Calm, patient threats are often far deadlier and far more threatening than blazing ones"
I have never, in my entire life, heard somebody say that Shan Yu was their favorite Disney villain. In fact, most people forget that Mulan even had a villain other than just "the Huns". He serves the story fine, but he's boring and has 0 character other than "sinister and evil".
So, basically, Encanto did it better. Abuela (or Alma Madrigal) was a woman who suffered incredible trauma, provided an entire community of people with a safe home and the magical powers of her family to improve their lives, held a great amount of power over everyone as defacto leader of her house and home (which unfortunately had negative effects for the town and her loved ones), was so wrapped up in herself that she could not see how she was doing wrong by her family and home until it was pointed out by the protagonist and, finally, had a redemption where the protagonist took her place and she accepted the mistakes she had commited against her family because of her past and missuse of social power. It's absurd to me that Magnifico would somehow be singled out, treated like a villain and punished with eternal magical jail when he does nothing more villainous than what Alma did and SHE got a redemption and a happy family. This dude doesn't even get his wife's support or sympathy...
It's worse because his most evil actions were committed after he's been corrupted by an evil book that we're explicitly told curses you to forever be evil.
@@A.Z.S.GXZ777or maybe because the movies are made by completely different writers and Encanto just had an actually solid theme whereas wish was over-processed?
Being a formidable villain to Disney before: - they're selfish and ruthless, despite being full of personality - they don't care how many get hurt in pursuit of their goals - they're downright cruel in their ways. Being a formidable villain to Disney now: - he's in a position of power - he disagrees with the protagonist
The movie would have worked if they hadn't portrayed the kingdom as an utopian scenario but rather a dystopian one. Like, on the surface, everything works and is stable, but absolutely dull because everyone gives away what makes them human. And the movie kinda did go in this direction with that one friend that betrayed Asha. But other than this one character, no other person in the whole kingdom suffered from giving away their wishes. They just lived a happy life in a cool kingdom and hoped to be the lucky one. No one even assumed that everyone would get their wish granted. It was just like a lottery system.
"Why should you decide what's best for the kingdom!" ".....Because I'm the king and that's literally my job?" "Well...why shouls you get to choose who's wishes come true?!" "Again, I'm the king....also the only who CAN grant wishes." Yes, because that's truly so Evil. This movie is so obviously AI generated
True. If I built an ENTIRE KINGDOM from the ground up, all by myself. And I'm willing to grant the wishes of some people, going by the fact that i'm the only one who knows how to. It's pretty obvious that *I* am the one who decides the rules. Simple as that.
No it’s not fair, it’s not fair that you don’t make every wish come true no matter how vague or bad it is. It’s not fair that you as the only person that can grant wishes you take responsibility to ensure only the best wishes get granted. It just simply isn’t fair you make an exception and grant my families well-meaning but vague wishes.
@@kylezdancewicz7346hey man, remember that one time Prismo grant the Lich wish because he's indiscriminate on granting wishes? Spoiler, it doesn't end well.
@@xavreim6957 Prismo was also like a monkey's paw so when the Lich wishes for the extinction of all life he never specified when, Prismo could have pushed it off til the universe was already on the brink of destruction
For those who are confused about how “wishes” work in this movie, Pretty much it’s a humans motivation to want to do something, however, once the king takes that wish they no longer want to do that thing they wished for, and go about their lives, however, if the dream is crushed, they become sad because they realize that they’ll never be able to do it.
You know what could have made for a REAL and pretty awesome twist villain? Asha's grandfather. What if Magnifico is 100% correct about vague wishes being super dangerous due to how easily the vagueness can be twisted into something horrific, and Asha's grandfather was the true villain all along who intentionally made an extremely vague wish that, thanks to the vagueness of its interpretation, is effectively unlimited wishes. After all, "inspire the next generation" how? Impact them negatively. And cruelly. And selfishly. And darkly. What if "King Magnifico" wasn't the real Magnifico, but an imposter who overthrew an objectively super evil Magnifico and decided in an act of unmatched self-sacrifice to take upon the role of a wish granter, but responsibly? "True" Magnifico thus could indeed be an incredibly formidable Disney villain because he'd be like Aladin's Genie regarding unlimited power, but evil. What if "True" Magnifico groomed his family as tools to overthrow the "good imposter" Magnifico to reclaim his ill-deserved power, and he tempts Asha as her grandfather with everything she wants via wish magic. But, due to Asha seeing responsible wish granting contrasted with her evil grandpa's unhinged wish granting, she refuses.
Technically her grandfather _did_ get his wish granted because his wish inspired Asha who: potentially made a wish that caused the king to turn evil, convinced the entire city to go against this suddenly "very evil" king, overthrew him; taking his place as the wish granter, which probably gave both her, her grandpa and the rest of the family - *a royal status,* whilst ensuring their continued power by making people entirely dependent on Asha's wish granting.
Magnifico was hinted to have a tragic backstory that drives him to protect people and try to make them happy, while an earlier version of the movie had both him and his wife as a kind of evil power couple that hunts down the star, who was initially taking the form of a boy Asha's age. Here's my idea: Magnifico was originally a kid from an island nation that was at war with another country for many years, resulting in extreme poverty, starvation and misery for the citizens. Upon wishing on a star, the kid is met with a fallen star-being that offers to grant his wish, which ends up being an end to the war. However, this causes both sides to annihilate each other and the kid is left as the only survivor while the star departs. Heartbroken, the kid decides to abandon whatever dreams he had in order to find a way to prevent this from happening again, so he trains in the way of magic for many years. Renaming himself "Magnifico", he establishes the kingdom of Rosas as a safe haven for all refugees and outcasts and marries a woman named Amaya, who is secretly an aspiring witch that wants to learn Magnifico's trade as to become all-powerful. To this end, Amaya spends years ruling alongside him in order to enhance her own magic, as well as enjoying the perks of ruling a kingdom and being the queen of one of the most powerful sorcerers in the land. When the star (who is a young boy in this version) falls and is found by Asha, the royal couple are alerted to this and Magnifico, understandably traumatized and guilt-ridden, endeavors to prevent another tragedy from happening while Amaya, like a modern day Lady Macbeth/Iago, preys on her husband's emotional state and convinces him to use a forbidden book of magic he kept locked away to make himself powerful enough to capture the star and seal his powers away. However, Amaya plans on killing the star, devouring his heart so as to absorb his magic and slay Magnifico in order for her to be the sole enchanter and uncontested ruler in Rosas (some of you might've already guessed who Amaya is meant to be). I think I might develop it more but that's what I have so far.
Brilliant! As soon as you brought up Lady Macbeth and Iago, I knew you were cooking something good. How is it that a bunch of Internet randos with no resources and influence can imagine *infinitely* more interesting scenarios based on this fundamentally simple premise than a giant media conglomerate like Disney, which has more money than God and could hire the most talented and creative people in the universe? It's genuinely baffling.
@@shadowking9739Both this and the very likely scenario that the people who actually have an idea of what they're doing are getting shut out by an infinite blanket of stupid
Sounds great. Disney is just too weak to write an evil female character anymore, and they definitely don't want to write a man being manipulated by an evil woman.
To understand why the king used the book. It was a last desperate decision. In his origin his whole life was destroyed. He has seen some stuff and from those experiences he build a save kingdom he loves and cares about. Now enter Star. He sensed this new unknow power and fears that if its not dealt with it could potentially destroy his kingdom and its gonna be a repeat of what he already suffered from in his youth. So he asks the town to help but they only care about tbeir wishes beeing granted and not about the kingdoms safety. So feed up with it he decided to use the book as a last attempt to stop the threat. Still wish the movie could have done a lot of stuff different.
The true antagonist is the protagonist. Think about it, Magnifico became evil because of her, she said she wants to grant all wishes but doesn't see the consequences of it, atleast magnifico sees it.
Maybe this sounds weird but I think it would have been better if there had been a "Goosebumps" twist in the middle of the story. Asha steals ALL of the wishes, Magnifico warns her to knock it off, and all the wishes come true (even the ones that contradict each other) Like what if two or more people wished to be "the most beautiful person in the world",which one gets the wish because only one person can get "first place". What if a "Mr. Bad Touch" wanted to kidnap kids? What if the lady who wanted to fly ended up becoming arrogant and rob banks? What if someone wanted ALL dogs to go extinct? Point is, I wanted Asha to understand that just because she disagrees with the King's methods doesn't mean he's wrong and she's right.
I wanted this to happen so badly. It would be nice to have a modern Disney movie that actually teaches an important lesson to kids and helps them understand that their parents aren't evil for denying them unlimited Roblox money and candy for breakfast.
Exactly! This movie could have been the perfect way to teach kids that in life you can't always get what you want. They could have portrayed the king as a "villain" in the first act and have Asha realize he is right by the end of the movie. This would have worked so much better.
I wanted her to free all the wishes after stealing them so badly just so she could go beg him to put things back in order because the wishes destroy the world
@@Alex-mh5mu That would have been one way to make the movie better. She could have learned through that choice that not all wishes should be granted and that the king was right.
"Point is, I wanted Asha to understand that just because she disagrees with the King's methods doesn't mean he's wrong and she's right" I hate having to keep explaining this but in the actual movie, it's Magnifico who thinks Asha is wrong and he's right because he disagrees, even as Asha is trying to reason with him. He's the close-minded one, and he has no good excuse for why he doesn't return wishes he knows damn well he's never going to grant.
I personnally didn't mind the absence of villains in recent movies, as they were more stories about dealing with your own shit & stuff, with no actual villain but more self conflict or learning lessons matters, I honestly love those plots. I REALLY loved Encanto. Though I love villain characters too, I don't enjoy ones that are mean just to be mean, if they don't have a point at being mean, they're bad villains for me.
Saying King Magnifico is a villain is like antagonising a really really kind person for disagreeing. This poor, poor man just wants the best for his kingdom, a paradise for everyone, and he got dethroned just because of not granting bad and/or dangerous wishes.
Magnifico: what the movie tries to portray: he is selfish and commanding, only granting wishes he sees fit what he does: grant only a selected few wishes to prevent calamity Asha: what the movie tries to portray: heroic woman wanting to make every wish come true for everyone what she does: wants to take over the king's role to grant the wishes of ONLY her family who's the bad guy again?
As some one who hasn't seen the film, I get the feeling that disney either forgot how or really didnt want to go back to traditional always evil villains. Just by looking as his design that looks more like a classic disney prince and listening to clips of "thanks i get" which sound so up beat and cheery for a a villain song, it genuinly seems like they were struggling to not make this guy a complete twist villain, either by scrambling to remember how they made evil vilains vefore or my personal head cannon, they were throwing a tantrum the entire time about not being able to completly make this guy a twist or sympathetic villain like a kid being forced to eat their vegetables.
It's really bad when the Disney ripoff Anastasia made a much better villain song than most of their latest songs combined. In The Dark Of The Night is a banger despite some weird lyrics.
@@magnusm4 I would give anything for a studio to imitate Disney from the 1990s today. In the past, this vibe was provided by Don Bluth, as well as the first DreamWorks animations. But after that, no one tried to imitate the Disney of that time, not even Disney himself.
King Magnifico felt more like a neutral charter. I haven't watch I'm do anything evil really. By the end his dark magic that controls his desires, really didn't make him that evil. I feel like if a couple people died from the dark magic. Then ill give him a second evil point. To me sadly Huns from Frozen felt slightly more evil then this King. Also 9:50 i would also agree that would had been a fun Twist to see the Queen betray the kings to support her husband.
Honestly, a lot of things could have been fixed if they made it so Asha was already his apprentice. It gives her emotional stakes, it makes the whole "can I have my grandfather's wish" feel nuanced as opposed to feeling like she's using him, and also makes any attempt at betrayal feel more meaningful.
Given how many references to the studios past films they constantly made, having the main protagonist literally be the sorcerers apprentice would’ve been perfect! Yet another missed opportunity
And there’s also no legitimate reason to grant her grandfathers wish. If someone’s deepest desire is to inspire those around him, he’s going to naturally inspire them by the way he lives his life. Magnifico could have easily said “It’s a good wish, genuine and without malice. I don’t need to grant his wish because if you ask those around him they’d likely have nothing but good things to say about him. He’s already inspired you to better yourself and strive to be my apprentice. His wish has already come true and I didn’t need to do a thing.”
@@bezel95 Honestly, they should have killed the grandfather. Have him have died without getting his wish granted. She now has investment in this wish. Magnifico says no stating its too late but only to hide the fact that such a wish could lead to people following their own dreams and not relying on his magical lottery. She goes through journey, realizes she is her grandfather's wish realized as she was inspired by him and inspires others. Sets the wishes free and happily ever after.
Or pace it better so that she gets the job, and then the falling out between her and Magnifico happens on her first day on the job (would also give Magnifico better reason to show her the wish room than if she was still just a random applicant).
Favorite quotes: "Buckle up people, I have some serious insanity to cover" "Man this guy's gooder than Jesus" "No matter which way you slice it, you can't possibly call him selfish" "This movie is about as complicated as a Rubik's Cube painted all blue" "Congratulations Asha, you killed Mr. Beast"
@@Alex-mh5mu yeah this movie was probably made by real people because a AI would have made something decent with all the material and good movie they have access too. Ahh yes the most heinous villain ever a self obsessed man who has all the power but can't handle it so he should give it up to a women... No Ai would make that.
You know what would be a good twist villain? The protag having to realize that they're the villain of their own story, and the antagonist having to sacrifice themself to make that realization happen. Then the protag spends the rest of the story repenting and understanding the antagonist's intentions, thus leaving them a changed person with a new worldview. There we go, just thought of a structure for a narrative. But nah, we can't treat our protagonists like they did anything ACTUALLY wrong. Or in this case, take any meaningful narrative actions that drive the plot
No, no, no. That’s too interesting, thoughtful, and human. It also might make people-particularly passionate and idealistic young people eager for revolution-pause, re-evaluate their own assumptions, and ask themselves, “Are we the baddies?” That’s _definitely_ not allowed. Into the magic mirror with you!
@@edoboleyn NOOOOOOoooooooooo.............-------!!!!!!! *Fades from existence But seriously though, it really annoys me how afraid disney is of taking risks
@@edoboleyn the Nostalgia Critic actually explains that in his Lorax review. It’s okay for the protagonist and antagonist to be morally ambiguous. Life is about moral ambiguity.
Another idea that could’ve worked for this movie is that they could’ve turned him into a tragic villain. As he starts off to be a selfless ruler whose only wish is to help his people live happy lives while also being responsible to make that happen for everyone’s safety, but some people keep pushing him into making their dreams come true, which instills a lot of pressure onto him, as he starts to lash out to the people closest to him as he only feels like a tool to get what they want, not a person who has thoughts and feelings as well. It gets to the point where he just snaps, modifying “this is the thanks I get?!” From an egotistical stand point to a point of breaking down as he begins to lash out towards his subjects, instead of granting them their wishes he instead turns their deepest fears into reality, with the kingdom becoming hell on earth for everyone except the king as a lesson to never push him around again. “I am your king! I am your ruler! Not the other way around!” Asha could’ve been changed as well in the movie, whereas she felt as though the king is being biased towards certain people, and she doesn’t understand why he’s acting the way he is (not knowing the pain he’s going through), playing into a more naive hero role as she views him as the bad guy trying to be a control freak. By the end of the movie when the fire has been settled, she ends up seeing the King’s wish, as his one wish was just for everyone to be happy, as he ends up having a mental breakdown of how everything went so wrong, he just wanted everyone to be happy, only to realize he wasn’t happy with himself. There are two ways the movie could end. Ending 1: King Magnifico decides to retire from being the wish granter and let someone else worthy of it, as he primarily focuses on ruling his kingdom, (it could be Asha or someone else), as the kingdom heals from the damage the king caused, some people will be unhappy for all he’s done to them, but he wishes to find redemption from his mistakes Ending 2: asha decides to grant a wish for the king, leading him into having a happy life, as the king realizes that the burden of being a wish granter is not one person could do alone, and that it’s okay to ask for help from time to time, and he decides to make Asha his assistant and help him with his wish granting as an equal, eventually helping everyone work hard for their dreams. The moral of the story being: it’s okay to ask for help, don’t put the weight of the world on your shoulders, let others help you through your burdens.
It's wild to me how Dysney had the chance to make their first twist hero in Magnifico and completely miss it. Imagine a scenario in which the girl got what she wanted, only for the kingdom to be turned to ruin. With the star being this neutral monstrosity that only care about more wishes to be granted. And then she would have to ally with Maginfico to stop the destruction and regain control of the whish granting, stoping the star as the villain.
I think the reason he turned out so confused is it seemed like they were trying to make a sympathetic villain, but given the discourse around Disney villains lately, they just tried making him an unabashed bastard, with the same premise for his motives, while stripping potential complexity and nuance.
Yeah, it's as though they were starting out to make him redeemable (with that mention of his past, they seemed to be setting up a payoff where he realized he had become just like the "selfish, greedy thieves" who destroyed his life as a child, giving him a My God What Have I Done moment) and then, halfway through, started listening to the "we want a REAL villain again!" crowd, and smushed the two together in a very clumsy way. I'd rather they followed on from the first part...then we could have had our cake and eaten it too. We could have had all the classic-Disney-villain trappings, but actually gotten to see how fear and trauma MADE a villain that way, and seen him find his way back as well.
2:09, and he’s right given that later in the movie Asha sings a song which inspires the people to overthrow the king and is herself inspired by her grandfather. So his wish literally happens in the form of a mob overthrowing Magnifico, just like Magnifico said.
@@TwilightChomperEnthusiast It might have been intentional dramatic irony. Like, had Magnifico simply been honest to his people that he can't grant every wish and return to anyone any wish he couldn't, this wouldn't end up happening. He ends up inadvertedly not only causing the uprising he feared, but becoming the threat he swore to keep everyone safe from.
There’s a fan animatic that reimagines Asha finding Starboy as Magnificos slave and the one who REALLY grants the wishes. I love this idea because you could keep the start of the movie pretty much the same, but we would instantly understand Magnifico as evil, and it wouldn’t matter how much “good” he’s done because of the inherently evil method he used to achieve it all.
