Was Wish Really That Bad?

So, the Annie Awards have been announced... you may have heard about that. I only did a blog post about it recently. Anyway, there has been one thing about it that most people have found amusing, and honestly I'd be lying if I said I didn't find it partly amusing myself, and that is that Wish, Disney's big 100 year celebration movie, has not been nominated for one Annie Award, in fact I think the only "major" awards it's been nominated for is a Golden Globe and two Critics' Choice Awards. Honestly, it is a shame because... I didn't think Wish was a bad movie, I thought it was fine. You know, not one of Disney's A-List movies, but it was definitely better than Strange World or The Black Cauldron. Honestly, I didn't even want to put it on my Worst Animated Movies of 2023 list, because I like to be nicer to movies that could have been good or great, but just weren't there. Hmm... I think that explains my feelings towards Ruby Gillman.

All of this, and audience reception towards the movie leads me to wonder, am I wrong? Is Wish actually a bad movie? I'll admit, this is a difficult question, not because the whole idea of "Good" and "Bad" can be very subjective to the point where it hardly even matters, but mostly because it really makes me look at what I consider a good or bad movie, and ultimately, it comes down to my usual standard, a good movie is a movie I enjoy, and bad movie is one I don't. Of course, there are some exceptions, I wouldn't call the Rescue Rangers movie from 2022 a "Bad" movie on the same level as The Cat in the Hat from 2003, but I didn't find Rescue Rangers to be a very funny movie while The Cat in the Hat I found hilarious because of just how awful it was. Ultimately, I use this metric because, it is my belief that entertainment should, you know, entertaining. This leads to me saying things like Jackass Forever is my favourite live-Action movie of 2022, or Mummies is the worst animated movie of 2023. So, I guess the real question is "Do I think Wish is an enjoyable movie"?

Yes, yeah I think it is something that can be enjoyed. That doesn't say a lot though, does it? I mean, what does it even mean to say "It can be enjoyed"? You can say that about anything; "Homestar Runner! It can be enjoyed!", "Dark Souls, it can be enjoyed!", "Horrible Fascist Propaganda, it can be enjoyed. It shouldn't be, but it can.". I think what I ultimately mean is, it's the kind of movie that knowing what you're going to get is gonna be more beneficial than going in blind. It's not something I can morally object to, it's not something I can get angry at, it's a musical fairy-tale fantasy movie, that is kind of what I expected, that is what I got. In my worst of 2023 list I said this; "Encanto was a movie I wasn't expecting to be as good as it was, Strange World is a movie I was expecting to be better than it was, Wish is a movie I expected it to be exactly as good as it was... It reached for good, but it could have been great."

I'd like to say a lot of it has been because Disney has been doing poorly in 2023 and my expectations were lowered because of that, but mostly it's just because I didn't really have any faith that Disney could do a Fairy-Tale Fantasy again. I mean, the last one they did was... I guess Frozen 2? Beyond that, most of the Disney Animated Canon is... despite what Disney would want you to believe, not even Fairy-Tale movies. At sixty-two movies, I'd count only about eleven as Fairy Tale Fantasies, including Wish. Some I don't know how to count, like Alice in Wonderland, The Emperor's New Groove or some of the package films that have fairy-tale stories as one story told within them, removing any movies I am not sure about leaves about thirty-nine movies that I would not classify as Fairy-Tale Fantasies. So, despite the fact they're literally the Fairy Tale company, they haven't actually made that much, and it's been ages since their classic movies.

I'm not one of those movie goers who says that "Modern Disney sucks and everything was better when I was a kid", because that is very much not true, there have been some excellent movies and TV shows made under the Disney branding from the late 2010s onward, but Disney animated movies are definitely different, and this is especially apparent in their modern fantasy films. If Raya and the Last Dragon was modern Disney to a tee, Wish is Modern Disney trying to evoke Classic Disney, and they have undeniably failed at that attempt. Wish failed to evoke anything about Classic Disney, outside of references that made me want to watch Classic Disney movies, and I should set an aside here, when I say "Classic" and "Modern", I really mean, Pre-renaissance and Renaissance onward. Most of the tropes that are common in modern Disney movies were mostly popularized by movies in the renaissance, for example Sisu from Raya and the Last Dragon probably would not have existed as she did without Genie from Aladdin. When I say "Modern Disney", I really mean 1989 onward.

Those references do seem to be a point of contention for a lot of people. I've heard the argument that, it should have just been the Seven Dwarfs and the Fairy Godmother and Peter Pan in the movie, and I have to say that I don't agree. I mean, if Disney Dreamlight Valley, Disney Heroes: Battle Mode, even Rescue Rangers 2022 have proved anything, it's that you can't just have your crossover just be a crossover, like yes the hook of Kingdom Hearts and Who Framed Roger Rabbit is that they are crossovers, but there is more to those than just that, because surprisingly "Crossover" is a weak hook. Beyond Disney, look at Jump Force, look at PlayStation All-Stars, look at a lot of the Nicktoons crossovers, Spyro Orange and Crash Purple, you get my point right? If Wish was not a strong movie on its own, it would not be made any stronger by being a crossover.

So... what is the verdict? I think ultimately, Wish is not a bad movie, I mean, compared to Mummies, Luck, Scoob!, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Duck Duck Goose, those are bad movies. Wish does not compare to any of them, it's not horribly bland to an insulting degree, it's not a representation of anything wrong in media, it's not an insultingly made movie, it's just not a really great movie. I don't want this to come off as "Everyone who dislikes Wish is wrong", because I don't think they are. I think a lot of it is being blown out of proportion, like how does Wish compare to Disney's other worst movies? The Black Cauldron, Chicken Little, Dinosaur, The Three Caballeros. I keep hearing people say that "bad movies are better than boring ones", I disagree because that implies that all kinds of "bad" are the same. I just can't muster that much disdain for Wish, compared to The Black Cauldron's sack of crap being dropped on your head, Wish is like a drop of water on your head. I mean, am I really going to get upset at Wish? Sure, it doesn't reach for greatness, but it's not a total disaster either, I'm perfectly fine with that.

The 2024 Annie Award Nominees Have Been Announced

 

I had a lot of fun with the 2023 Annie Award Predictions blog last year, and since I don't have much else to talk about in January, why not do this again? I mean, SAG-AFTRA getting into A.I? Okay yeah that is really bad, like seriously what the Hell? That was literally a massive part of the strikes, this is just stupid. Anyway, last year I did check out the Annie Awards, so I actually am kind of excited for them this year. I don't really care for a lot of discussion around award shows, but in a historical sense, it is kind of fun. So, I'm gonna make my predictions, and as a bonus if I am wrong, or the award winner is one I disagree with, you don't have to read about my complaining about it.

As usual I'm only going to talk about the awards for Features, because I don't watch a lot of TV so this just makes it easier on myself, plus with all the categories, this makes it less to read. If you read my blog from last year you know how this will work, if not, I'll introduce each category, talk about the nominees and who I think will win and who I want to win. You can check out the Nominees for this year here: https://annieawards.org/nominations

With that said, let's talk Nominees!

BEST FEATURE:

All in all I would say that this year's Best Feature awards are looking really strong, literally any movie could walk away with this award and I think everyone would understand. While I think Suzume is a strong, if a bit of a dark horse candidate, I think it will ultimately be down to The Boy and the Heron, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and Nimona. If I had to pick which is most likely to win, it's kind of tough, I mean last year was pretty clear that it was gonna be Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, but this year I think those three have equal chances of winning. Into the Spider-Verse won the award in 2018, but at the same time only two sequels won the award alongside their predecessor, those being Toy Story 2 and How to Train Your Dragon 2. I dunno, I wouldn't be surprised if Spider-Verse was the third franchise in this list.

How did Kung Fu Panda 2 lose to Rango? Anyway, I think Across the Spider-Verse is the most likely to win this one, but you know which movie I would love to see win this award? Nimona, and not just because it's my pick for best animated movie of 2023, I want it to win for more... spiteful reasons? It's pretty common knowledge now that Nimona was allegedly cancelled as a Blue Sky movie because of Bob Chapek's homophobia, and I'm just saying if it does win Best Feature and the Annies, I mean I was already hoping he is kicking himself after how successful the movie became, but this would just add salt to the wound.

I wouldn't be surprised if Boy and The Heron Won, giving Studio Ghibli their second Best Feature award since Spirited Away, but I think it will ultimately go to Across the Spider-Verse, and I would prefer it go to Nimona. Oh yeah, there's also some Turtle movie in the list, I don't know.

BEST INDIE FEATURE:

Um... I didn't watch any of these movies so I don't really have any predictions or opinions about this one. Last year I did have some views because looking back on it, I was definitely way to hard on 2022, that year had a great selection of animated movies, and it showed with the fact that I managed to watch two of the five nominees for this category that year. I was surprised Marcel The Shell With Shoes On took home the award, but I was super happy it did because that was my favourite movie of the year.

I guess if I had to pick I'd probably pick Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia, but that's like the only nominee I've heard about. I dunno, maybe Four Souls of Coyote or Robot Dreams or The Inventor or White Plastic Sky will take home the award and I'll look like a fool, but I won't be surprised if Ernest & Celestine take the award this year. They lost to Frozen in 2013, so did the Wind Rises actually, so I wouldn't be surprised if this is the movie most people expect to win this award.

BEST FX - FEATURE:

Oh boy, this one is gonna be tough. Well, not really but this is a pretty varied category this year. We have Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Elemental, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Vere, Suzume, and a film called The Peasants. I think Across the Spider-Verse is the most likely to take this one home. The live-action mixing and different art-styles really makes it stand-out amongst the rest of the nominees. I think I would like Suzume to win this one, because I do think it deserves at least one award, and probably won't win one, but I think it will go to Across the Spider-Verse. I mean the first movie didn't get nominated for effects in 2018, so this is their chance to make up for that.

BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION - FEATURE:

Oh boy this one is pretty tough. I don't think Nimona will take this one, it's probably the least likely to win this award in my opinion, though it would be awesome if it won. I think this one will come down to Elemental and Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken. Though my track record is hilariously off with this award, considering that last year I thought that Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio was least likely to win this award, since Turning Red and The Bad Guys both had two nominations in the category, but what do you know, I was wrong.

As an aside, I'm so happy The Amazing Digital Circus got nominated for Best Character Animation - TV/Media. Dark horse candidate truly, but hopefully it takes home the award.

BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION - LIVE-ACTION:

Cocaine Bear got a nomination in this category, so screw it, GO COCAINE BEAR! I want to live in a world where I can say "The Annie Award winning movie Cocaine Bear"!

BEST CHARACTER DESIGN - FEATURE:

As much as Elemental is a strong contender for this award, I do think it will be down to Nimona or Across the Spider-Verse, again. I think these movies will be neck and neck for a lot of awards this year. Both films were very stylized with a comic book feel so it does seem likely one of them will take the award. I looked up Robot Dreams to see what it looks like, I don't want to be rude, but it doesn't really look like it will be taking home the award, if it does I will genuinely be shocked. As for the final nominee, Merry Little Batman... I don't have many thoughts really.

BEST DIRECTION - FEATURE:

It's tough to really pick for this category because I've only seen three of the five nominees. On the one hand I do think it could be down to Nimona and Spider-Verse again, but at the same time The Boy and the Heron is also a strong candidate, Miyazaki definitely deserves that award too. On the other hand, Robot Dreams could have had amazing direction but I wouldn't know because I didn't watch it. I guess I'll be fair and give it a little leeway with this category, it isn't like the big features are shoe-ins for this category either, but it seems more likely to me that Nimona, Spider-Verse or Boy and the Heron will take home this award.

Also, that Turtle movie is nominated again... hmm.

BEST MUSIC - FEATURE:

I have nothing for this category... umm... I guess I'll pick Elemental as my most likely to win and Suzume as my preferred winner. Spider-Verse, Ninja Turtles and Boy and the Heron will probably also have a chance but uh... yeah I'm pretty useless with this category.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN - FEATURE:

Okay, let's not talk about Nimona and Across the Spider-Verse again and talk about the other nominations. Elemental does have a chance, and removing the other two movies, I think it is most likely to win. I jest a lot but I do say Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is also a strong candidate, and The Boy and the Heron is probably my other preferred winner of this category. You know, I think Ruby Gillman might have also stood a chance in this category, just not in any other category.

BEST STORYBOARDING - FEATURE:

Another Robot Dreams nomination... There is always one movie that gets a bunch of nominations that I haven't seen, I'll have to add Robot Dreams to my watchlist. I think I'll say that Nimona, shockingly, if my preferred pick, but as for likely pick... I want to say Nimona as well, but Suzume is also a strong contender in my opinion.

BEST VOICE ACTIONG - FEATURE:

Lets see, we have David Hornsby in Merry Little Batman, Tresi Gazal in Migration, Chloe Grace Moretz in Nimona, Hokuto Matsumura in Suzume and Jack Black in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Is that the first nomination for the Super Mario Bros. Movie? Really? Wow, I thought it would have gotten a couple more by now. Anyway, I'm hoping for Nimona to take home this award, though I wouldn't be shocked if it went to Jack Black. I don't think I'd agree with it though, Jack Black's performance was one of my criticisms of the movie, but still I wouldn't be surprised.

BEST WRITING - FEATURE:

Damn, Nimona's gotten a lot of nominations... or... NIMONA-tions... eh?

Anyway, another Robot Dreams nomination, and Suzume is getting a surprising amount of nominations too. The Boy and The Heron is also likely to win, and more Turtles. I can't really pick one, so I'll just pick Nimona and Suzume.

BEST EDITORIAL - FEATURE:

Finally we have best editorial, which the nominees are... pretty okay. This is Leo's first nomination for an award, which is weird considering all the buzz it got, but I guess being better than a mediocre Disney movie only gets you so far. Elemental has another nomination, and it has a pretty good chance of winning. Again, Nimona and Spider-Verse are neck and neck for this award, I think I'll actually have to give it to Spider-Verse, everything that had to be edited together in that movie was pretty impressive. Oh, and that Ninja Turtles movie got nominated again... so that's neat.

I just realized, I said I would share my thoughts on last years winners. I don't think I ever got around to that... whoops. Well I won't be promising anything this year, I may live-tweet the ceremony but barring that once everything is finished, it'll be finished. The awards will take place on February 17th this year, so hopefully I'll be able to catch them.

Ultimately, I think most of the awards will go to Nimona or Across the Spider-Verse, those movies were both just really good, and should get a bunch of awards, and I can't think of any movie that I think shouldn't have been nominated. For as much as I say I'm done with Ninja Turtles, I'm happy it has some nominations, I'm surprised some movies only got nominated once, like Ernest & Celestine, Ruby Gillman and Leo. Still, not much left to do but wait and see, maybe I'll be surprised. Until then, I'll see you in February.

Also, I am absolutely rooting for The Amazing Digital Circus!

Ruby Gillman Could Have Been Great!

I think Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken is my favourite movie of 2023 to talk about. Truly, it is such an interesting thing, no piece of cinema released in 2023 has taken up more of my mental process. It is not anything like Nimona, Across the Spider-Verse, or even Elemental, and I don't mean that is terms of quality, story, cinematography or critical and commercial reception, no I mean that in the sense that, Ruby Gillman was such a disappointing mess that at least half of my thoughts about this movie concern whether or not I even like it.

The problem with Ruby Gillman is not new to cinema, we have seen movies filled with missed opportunities before, but watching it makes me feel like the filmmakers actively tried to avoid the interesting parts of the story. I've talked about this quite a lot already, I've done three separate blogs about Ruby Gillman, first was the First Impressions blog, then one where I compared it to Elemental to try to analyze why one movie was a sleeper hit and the other was slept on, and most recently I ranked it as the fourth worst animated movie of 2023. However, it just sits there, in the back of my mind, gnawing at my brain, the simple fact that this movie is truly one of animations greatest "Could have been" stories, I'd argue up there with The Thief and the Cobbler and The Modifyers, Ruby Gillman is a "could have been" that... somehow "is", and if that doesn't make sense, you're not alone, I just wrote it and I don't quite understand it.

The most important questions of "Could have been" stories are "What" and "Why", specifically "What could it have been?" and "Why was it not?", and what makes Ruby Gillman such an interesting "Could Have Been" is the idea that nobody sets out to make a bad movie, so when I say "Ruby Gillman could have been great", it actually kind of hurts to have to ask "Why was it not?". It feels obvious to me what the movie should have been, and it seems obvious to others, but why wasn't it obvious to the filmmakers?

I think a good question to ask in this case is "How could Ruby Gillman have been great?" and the answer is pretty simple; it has the right pieces. A fish out of water story where the main character is... pretty much literally a fish out of water, and seeing them have to balance their identity with having to adapt into a new society that is foreign to them, that is a really good story idea, and it has been used to great effect in many ways. This story immediately is identifiable, relatable, and poignant. So many people, thanks to their ethnical background, their gender identity, their disabilities, or even just because they struggle with identity completely, can relate with a character like Ruby Gillman, someone who is caught between two identities. It helps a lot that Ruby's friends and family are interesting enough to really add layers to this concept. How does being in a relationship with a human affect her relationship with her family, how does her family affect her relationship with her friends, how would the reveal that she's a Kraken affect her relationship with her friends, how does it effect the relationship she and her family have in her town?

I guess in some ways one could argue that they had scraps of this idea in the movie, with how wanting to embrace the fact she's a princess affects her relationship with her mother, but that does not really feature heavily in the movie. Honestly, even the Princess stuff could have been good, because it could have added an entirely new layer of drama, she not only has to balance her human life and her Kraken life, but she also has to do it while struggling with her own identity, this is a really fantastic plot for a movie. Short and sweet, Ruby Gillman should have been a movie about a teenaged girl struggling with her identity, we did not need mermaids, we did not need a war, and although a giant kaiju battle is welcomed, it was not wholly necessary.

When I talked about this movie on my worst of 2023 list, I brought up that, this movie seems to have an identity struggle of its own, not knowing what kind of movie it wants to be. I've heard the meme about Elemental being written by an A.I. trying to remake Zootopia, which is, first off not at all true Elemental and Zootopia are two different stories, and second of all, really unfair on the face of it, because Elemental knew what story it was telling. Ruby Gillman seemed to want to be Turning Red, except with hints of The Princess Diaries, and maybe a bit of Luca. Well those are three completely different stories, it's like making music and wanting to mix Madness, System of a Down, and Bruce Cockburn, like you really need to find the pieces of these elements that fit, and it really did not feel like Ruby Gillman had those fitting pieces. It had the right pieces, not the right connectors.

A Tumblr user by name of mauraders4evr made an interesting post about the biggest problem with Ruby Gillman, you can read it all here, but to paraphrase, the movie's concept is missing the "And Then", the part that adds to the subversion and makes viewers invested in it. Personally, I agree with this sentiment, but I want to add that it did feel like Ruby Gillman knew it was subversive, but not what it was subverting. The movie has little more subversion than "Mermaids are evil actually".
"It's The Little Mermaid, because the villain looks like Ariel!"
Okay, is that it? I'm sorry but uhh... Disney did this kind of subversion better... back in 1991... by making the hunky and heroic looking Gaston, a character who looks like they'd be the typical Disney hero, a villain. Subversion is about more than playing with our expectations, it's about taking concepts and tropes and flipping them around.

I don't think this movie needed to be subversion, I think it needed to be more grounded. My comparison to Elemental wasn't just to look at why Ruby Gillman bombed when Elemental became a surprise hit, I did the comparison because Ruby Gillman, could have easily been the movie Elemental wanted to be, a movie about identity, relationships outside of your own kin, and what those relationships truly mean. Ruby Gillman could have been the great movie that was hiding in Elemental's weaknesses. The greatest tragedy with Ruby Gillman, with any piece of entertainment really, is not that it's bad, it's that it could have been so much more.

Also, while it's on my mind, why did they have the joke about them hiding their identity by saying they were Canadian? Was it because of Turning Red?