Why ‘Wish’ Filmmakers Chose the Same Aspect Ratio as ‘Sleeping Beauty’
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Five years ago, while chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios Jennifer Lee was finishing work on “Frozen II,” she mentioned to her co-director, Chris Buck, that the studio’s 100th anniversary was coming up — and asked whether he’d want to be involved in any projects pegged to the anniversary?
They didn’t have any idea what that animated feature would be but they knew that “we wanted original characters, story and music,” says Buck.
They began gathering stills from every animated feature the studio had done and pinned them to a bulletin board.
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They looked at the breadth of colors and styles. From “Pinocchio’s” Jiminy Cricket to “The Princess and the Frog’s” Tiana to Judy Hopps in “Zootopia,” one thing was apparent — that these and many other characters had all made wishes on stars.
“It feels very obvious. Of course, these characters are wishing on the stars. But it wasn’t until that moment we said, it’s going to be about wishing. I think Walt Disney was yelling in our ears,” Buck says.
And so “Wish,” the studio’s 62nd animated feature, was born. It would honor 100 years of Walt Disney animation both in its storytelling and visual style.
“Wish” centers around Asha, voiced by Ariana DeBose, a 17-year-old who lives in the magical kingdom of Rosas ruled by Chris Pine’s King Magnifico. The king seeks a new apprentice and Asha hopes to work alongside him. Except the king, who spends his days collecting people’s wishes and hopes, eventually shows his true colors and becomes Disney’s newest villain. Asha, meanwhile, makes a wish one night and finds herself encountering Star, after accidentally summoning him.
Visually, the film’s dynamic watercolor art style combines 2D and 3D animation — it was about looking to the past to bring the film and studio into the future. Co-director Fawn Veerasunthorn says they went back and looked at “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Pinocchio.” “They have this gorgeous watercolor storybook illustration going on, and we thought it would be cool to walk right into that set and experience it that way.”
The directors also wanted to copy “Pinocchio’s” multiplane shot that starts with a bell tower and goes into the village. “It made us think about the elegance of how these cameras moved back then,” says Buck.
The kingdom of Rosas is a vibrant magical place. The character designers were inspired by the Mediterranean with North African and Southern European influences, specifically from 1200-1300. “They would show us different color palettes from then and we’d amp it up a bit and have fun,”
says Buck.
And while “Wish” calls back to “Sleeping Beauty” and “Cinderella,” among other Disney classics, Veerasunthorn says they wanted to flip fairy tale tropes, like the deep dark woods being a place of terror.
“Let’s take this setting that people feel apprehensive about and let’s try making it a place of hope,” she says. It’s the place where Asha meets Star and a place where the magic runs wild. With that, they could switch the color palette and make it bright and vibrant. “When we framed anything in the woods, we said, ‘Make it beautiful,’” she adds.
The sidekick was another way the “Wish” team pulled from Disney’s past.
“I hadn’t written it yet, but I remember coming in and saying, ‘Can it wear pajamas?,’” recalled Lee, who penned the “Wish” screenplay. “The idea of was where did our Disney animals get their voices? There might be a nod to ‘Zootopia’ somewhere.”
When dreaming up a talking goat, Lee knew his voice needed to be low. They didn’t want him to be cute and precious. “And there was Alan Tudyk to deliver brilliantly,” Lee says.
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