YMMV / Wish (2023)

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: A refusal to compromise or understand other people's perspective will come back to bite you in the long term. Magnifico refused to listen to Asha's suggestion about the wishes (instead of hoarding them, he can simply give them back, explain why he won't grant them, and advise the people to work for their dreams themselves) because he wanted to keep the people dependent on him. While he did initially listen to Amaya's warnings about using Forbidden Magic, Magnifico decides to go through with it anyway because he saw the people of Rosas questioning him as an act of ingratitude rather than because they want assurance from him that everything was okay. Magnifico's refusal to compromise or listen to other people's perspectives even if he doesn't agree with them leads him to take a turn for the worst and causes him to lose his throne to an uprising from the people of Rosas, the very thing he wanted to avoid at all costs.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Was King Magnifico a Fallen Hero who once genuinely wanted to make his people happy and safe in Rosas, only to be corrupted over time by the fear of losing control his kingdom and potentially reliving his worst childhood experience? Or was he always a selfish bastard from the start who only cared about the perks of being king, and just uses his backstory as an excuse to not give up those perks? This is not helped by Queen Amaya's views on Magnifico, which swings from "a man who lost all the good inside him" to "a victim of forbidden magic" to "a psychopath who never loved her to begin with".
    • More on that, one has to wonder if Magnifico's backstory is true; it could be a lie to make himself more sympathetic to the people of Rosas and all those who would visit. Some believe that the supposed family and "greedy, selfish thieves" were actually innocent people that Magnifico killed to obtain his magical knowledge and artifacts (including the Forbidden Book).
  • Is Queen Amaya truly as oblivious to King Magnifico's true colors as she claims to be? She does not question nor seem surprised by his cruelty towards Asha and her family at the beginning of the film, she does little to object against his increasingly reckless actions, and only abandons him to join Asha after being directly threatened herself. One could easily see Amaya as fully aware and even complicit in Magnifico's scheme and growing disillusioned when she no longer benefits from it, especially when joining Asha's cause allows her to keep her position after her husband's defeat. The fact that Amaya actually was Magnifico's willing accomplice in the film's earlier development doesn't help, nor does the implication that Magnifico becomes the Magic Mirror of this universe, as that suggests Amaya could become its Evil Queen down the line.
  • Asha opposes King Magnifico's taking wishes from people and only granting the few he deems worthy, saying everyone deserves the right to their wish being a possibility. At the end of the film, she is gifted a magic wand which she will use to become a Fairy Godmother, thereby becoming someone like Magnifico who will have to make decisions as to whose wishes come true thanks to her supernatural assistance. For that matter, Asha not taking the concerns of others into account when deciding what's best for Rosas and acting accordingly - almost bringing the land to destruction in the process - isn't that different from Magnifico's thinking and actions.
• Applicability: After the initial wave of interpretations of Rosas' wish system as a metaphor for government assistance, a new take began circulating Tumblr in 2024 viewing the film as a metaphor for the trend of almost-finished movies getting cancelled and denied release, including by Disney itself.
  • Multiple professional reviews saw Magnifico's imprisonment of the wishes as an interesting - and wholly unintentional - metaphor for The Walt Disney Company itself. As the AV Club put it:
    Nobody on this project seems to realize how Magnifico, in his mad quest to harvest, draw power from, and selectively regurgitate the dreams of his followers, stands in for The Walt Disney Company more ably than heroine Asha ever could. Disney’s entire growth strategy over the last 20 years has been to absorb fantasies made by others—the Muppets, Pixar Animation, Marvel Entertainment, The Simpsons, Lucasfilm. While there’s no doubt the makers of Wish see themselves as dream liberators and not dream takers, Disney is like Magnifico—a monopolist, besieged by an audience increasingly empowered to seek its pleasures in a world of unlimited choice.
• Awesome Art: While not universal, the painterly watercolor-like style quickly received praise from certain people, with many quickly comparing it to the Disney short Paperman for how it blends Disney's classic 2D animation style and their modern CGI style together.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The very start of Magnifico's Villain Song comes from seemingly nowhere, with a nonsequitur ("I can't help it if mirrors love my face") and then Magnifico claiming that his genes come from outer space. It comes off as a particularly bizarre boast that doesn't mesh with the tone and era well, though the first line may be foreshadowing for his ultimate fate of being trapped in a mirror.
• Catharsis Factor: It's fairly satisfying when the united power of everyone in Rosas about to be permanently oppressed by Magnifico stands together and overpowers his spell, resulting in Star being freed from the staff while the power then turns on Magnifico himself and traps him inside for what will likely be forever too.
• Cliché Storm: This was deliberately invoked with the film's plot, as it uses a number of tropes found in classic Disney films as part of the studio's Milestone Celebration. However, a number of critics consider this to be to its detriment; that it spends so much time paying homage to the Disney films of the past that it doesn't do much to forge its own identity.
• Common Knowledge: A very common misconception about the "Starboy" concept was that he was meant to be Asha's love interest and a subject of the song "At All Costs". The art book revealed that at least at one point in development, just before the final form was decided upon, he was meant to be a younger version of Asha's grandfather Sabino, who passed away in an early story draft, while "At All Costs" was written to sound like a love song out of context but was always meant to be about the wishes.
• Complete Monster: King Magnifico, the egotistical ruler of Rosas, starts off as a universally beloved ruler who has the power to make the wishes of his subjects come true. In reality, Magnifico abuses this power for his own satisfaction, leaving the vast majority of these wishes unfulfilled as he exploits the people's love for him to stay in power. When Asha calls him out on this, Magnifico spites her in a public ceremony by making it appear as though he'll grant the wish of her grandfather — who has waited almost a century for his wish to come true — only to double around and grant someone else's wish instead. Magnifico goes from hoarding wishes to outright stealing them, absorbing them from innocent citizens who are left in despair and agony as Magnifico essentially steals a part of their souls. Growing increasingly unhinged the more he's challenged, Magnifico brainwashes one of Asha's teenage allies by turning his own wish against him, blasts his own wife for rebelling against him, and tortures Asha in front of the whole kingdom. Finally, using Star as a Living Battery, Magnifico decides to magically plunge all of Rosas into eternal, soul-crushing despair, reasoning that if he can't win the love of his citizens, then he'll just grind them all beneath his heel instead.
• Cry for the Devil: Magnifico may be irredeemably evil, but there are those who sympathize with his backstory at the very least and believe his obsession with power and control really did come from paranoia due to thieves ravaging his childhood home. But that isn't what's actually the most sympathetic part about him. That goes to when he gets trapped in a magic mirror presumably forever with zero chance of escaping. Even as vile as he acted, a fate like that is just horrifying. Worse, nobody cares about that in-universe.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: A number of King Magnifico's fans believe he has C-PTSD from losing his home and family as a child, and it manifested itself in the form of being controlling over his subjects.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Even before the film's release, King Magnifico had fans regarding him as a Designated Villain since his decision to limit the wishes he grants didn't seem completely unreasonable or baseless, a view bolstered by both his natural charm and the fact that it took a bit for the full depths of his malevolence to be shown in previews. These same fans usually downplay or outright ignore his narcissistic, unsavory character and his selfish reasoning for hoarding the wishes in the first place, and also believe that because it's his right to use them however he wants to, since it's his magic, he also has a right to hoard them all in his lair. There's also the rare case of some audience members outright denying that he's a narcissist in the first place. Some even go so far as to make him out to be an innocent victim possessed by the book of forbidden magic who didn't deserve his fate in the end. This is despite the fact that there is little indication that he was being possessed by the book and thus not in full control of the terrible things he did afterward. Even if he was possessed, he only resorted to using the book in the first place because of something he perceived as a threat to him (and only him) and his authority as well as to forcefully make the people of Rosas fall back into line once they began questioning what he was doing with their wishes, hardly heroic or noble reasons, making him already a terrible person from the start. And that's without getting into the Fridge Logic on why he even had the forbidden book stored in such an easily accessible location in his castle to begin with if he supposedly knew from the start how dangerous it was to use.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Of the Seven Teens, Simon is the most widely explored in the fandom due to already having gone through his wishing ceremony before the movie begins, his implied Death of Personality that followed it, and his character arc involving betrayal and brainwashing, all of which are prime fanfic fodder.
  • Dahlia is also very popular among the Seven Teens due to her kind personality, being a very positive depiction of a disabled person in an animated movie, and, thanks in part to expanded material like the tie-in book A Recipe for Adventure that explores her personality, history with Asha, and overall backstory, being one of the most developed of the Teens next to the aforementioned Simon.
• Evil Is Cool: Before the release of the film, King Magnifico was popular due to his cool design and sinister, power-hungry character, with many saying he gives off the vibes of the traditional villains of Disney's past movies. His Villain Song being seen as pretty cool sounding also helps. When people give reviews or general thoughts on the movie, it's not uncommon for Magnifico to be cited as one of the strongest elements, if not the highlight of the whole film.
• Fan Nickname: Star's humanoid form as seen in concept art is universally called Starboy by fans.
  • Rosalina and Luma, the names respectively given to the Blue Fairy, Disney's previous incarnation of the Wishing Star and the Wishing Star from this movie.
• Fandom-Specific Plot:
  • There is a lot of fanfiction that feature Amaya as evil, like her husband allowing Magnifico to still be evil but happily married. It helps that she was originally meant to be a villain.
  • Post-canon stories where Magnifico has a redemption arc are very common amongst the fandom, along with plots where Asha learns the downsides of wish-granting and concedes that she better understands what Magnifico was dealing with and he may have had a point about the overlooked dangers that magically granted wishes can bring.
  • Canon rewrites to follow the scrapped concept art, such as Star's humanoid form or Amaya being evil alongside her husband, are also very common. Less common, but still prevalent, are fanfics where Asha is Amaya and Magnifico's daughter as well as a prospective apprentice.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content:
  • It is widely agreed by Disney fans that the original Peter Pan/Genie inspired humanoid concept for Star seen in the film's artbook would have been more interesting than the anthropomorphic star in the final film. To a slightly lesser extent, the concept of the above-mentioned humanoid version of Star being Asha's love interest is another concept that many fans wish was kept, both due to romance plots involving the main character being a staple element of the particular classic Disney movies that Wish was trying to evoke the feel of and due to romance in general having become far less common in post-Tangled Disney animated features.
  • In the film's art book, it is revealed that Queen Amaya was originally a villain in an Unholy Matrimony with King Magnifico. Many fans wish this had been kept for the final film, especially since Disney has never had such a couple before. It probably doesn't help that Amaya's actions in the third act seem to reflect elements of this original approach.
  • When the storyboarded original version of the climax — in which Valentino led a stampede of talking animals against Magnifico, who ate the wishes and took on a One-Winged Angel form in response — was revealed, some fans commented that they preferred it to the actual climax and, contrary to what the filmmakers believed, saw Magnifico as more threatening than in the finished film.
• Fanwork-Only Fans: Due in part to numerous examples of Fan-Preferred Cut Content, there's a definite trend towards stuff exploring those rather than canon material/characterizations in the film's fanbase, leading to comments that the movie really has a "spite fandom" that is trying to create a superior version.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: To an extent − the film flopped spectacularly on the domestic market (62M$) but had a more respectable run in Western Europe (especially France) and Japan, where its performance was more in line with what you’d expect from a big Disney release. Japan even had a poster for SPY×FAMILY CODE: White made to mimic the poster for Wish.
  • In particular, the Japanese internet adores Magnifico, and the Draco in Leather Pants sentiment towards him is taken much further. The lyrics to "This is the Thanks I Get?" were translated to something along the lines of "How rude, how ungrateful." Due to Japanese society putting a huge emphasis on politeness and gratitude, the Japanese feel as though Magnifico was the true hero of the story because he just wanted some gratitude.
• It's Not Supposed to Win Oscars: A common argument made by defenders of the film (and at least one of its animators) is that being the Milestone Celebration Disney Animated Canon film, it makes sense for it to be a Cliché Storm of tropes from the Fairy Tale-inspired films in particular with Black-and-White Morality, and that the numerous Company Cross References are expressions of love and admiration for the creatives who made those films and a treat for Disney mega-fans. There have been several counterarguments in response to this, such as the overreliance on references coming at the expense of better developing the story and characters, and that said story ended up too complicated for the Black-and-White Morality not to feel forced. Another common defense is that viewers were asking too much of a children's movie, which sticks out because traditionally Disney animation fans love to argue for the artistic merits and maturity of their preferred films.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
  • One of the most common criticisms of the film is that it largely follows the basic Disney animated film formula without much variation and comes off as very bland and safe. While the film is deliberately made to be a throwback to the classic Disney films to commemorate the company's 100th anniversary, many fans and critics were hoping for something more original and ambitious, and that the constant references to previous movies come at the expense of establishing anything unique.
  • Many fans and critics rolled their eyes once it was clear Asha was another upbeat and Adorkable female protagonist in the vein of Rapunzel, Anna, Moana, and Mirabel. While they were already becoming tired of the "quirky and dorky female protagonist" archetype due to its prevalence in Disney animated films since The New '10s, Asha was the breaking point for their tolerance since she lacked the Hidden Depths and Character Development that made her predecessors loved - nothing about her nature or wants changes over the course of the story, and the latter are vague to begin with - with them calling on Disney to break away from the archetype and create more varied female protagonists.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Many Disney fans were excited by the promise of King Magnifico being an "actual", straightforward villain. This was the first time in nearly a decade a Disney film had a straightforward antagonist as opposed to twist villains, posthumous villains, minor obstacles, generic natural forces with no character, or no central villains.
• Love to Hate: King Magnifico is greatly loved for being a well written and vibrantly animated villain in the style of classic Disney staple films, Chris Pine's excellent voice acting, his fantastic design and the effects of his powers.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "The Villain Is The Main Girl's Depression Or Something". ^ExplanationOn September 17, 2022, Disney Animation Promo posted a tweet of a Variety Article saying that the movie will feature "one of the most formidable foes in Disney history" and Internet Reviewer Schaffrillas Productions posted that the villain will be depression and self doubt due to Disney's recent trend of having the main characters deal with personal emotional problems. This led to people on Twitter and the Schaffrillas Productions community make jokes about Asha facing the villain depression. The first teaser for the film and everything released subsequently went on to confirm that King Magnifico is a straightforward Big Bad akin to the Disney Villains of old, much to the joy of fans, thus discrediting the meme.
  • wish.com The Movie ^Explanation The film shares its name with an e-commerce platform that is notorious for the large volume of knock-off or otherwise poor-quality products sold there, and the former even had a blue logo like the film that remains its most well-known. When the mixed reviews dropped, unfavorable comparisons to earlier Disney movies were inevitably made.
  • "This is the thanks I get?!" ^Explanation Magnifico's Villain Song, whose title is often applied as a reaction to the film's tepid reviews as a Review Ironic Echo.
    • "I let you live here for free and I don't even charge you rent." ^ExplanationA lyric from "This is the Thanks I Get?!" that has received a vast amount of ridicule for essentially just saying the exact same thing twice, just worded differently.
    • Thirty-Something Millennial Parent/Pet Owner Anthem ^ExplanationTeenagers and twentysomethings on TikTok feel that the petulant lyrics of the song sounds like a stereotypical thirty-something millennial "Disney adult" complaining about their life and have preemptively taken this song to make memes mocking millennials such as "Millennials on their way to put this song under videos of their iPad babies" or "Millennials making videos about their heckin doggerino"
  • "When it comes to the universe, we're all shareholders." ^ExplanationA lyric from "I'm a Star". Similarly to the above line, it's been criticized not only for how ridiculous it sounds but how it unintentionally brings to mind the Walt Disney Company's mercenary tendency to put (potential) profits from merchandising, theme park tie-ins, etc. of their films above their actual quality — this film being Exhibit A.
    • "Watch out, world, here I are." ^ExplanationAnother line from "I'm a Star" that has become infamous and widely mocked for its poor grammar, out of desperation to rhyme with the previous line, "Ooh, I'm a star!" It has been compared to video game mistranslations from The '80s and '90s like "CONGLATURATION !!!", ''I feel asleep!!", "All your base are belong to us." and "YOU'RE WINNER !"
  • The Magic Mirror is now a Tumblr sexyman. ^{Explanation (spoilers)}A Freeze-Frame Bonus near the end of the movie implies that Magnifico, who ends the story trapped inside his own staff and permanently possessed by dark magic, will eventually become the spirit of the Magic Mirror from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The fact that a significant portion of the fandom had unwittingly been simping for the Magic Mirror for the last few months did not go unnoticed.
  • "Throw caution to every warning sign!" ^ExplanationA line from Asha's "I Want" Song "This Wish," which many have ruthlessly mocked for being completely nonsensical Word Salad Lyrics. It's obviously a riff on the idiom "throw caution to the wind," but it's not clear what they were trying to do with it.
  • “I would also like to give a shout out to my fellow nominees, who will henceforth be known as the guys who lost to fucking Adam Sandler!” ^ExplanationAfter the failure of this movie compared the Netflix original Leo, which had a far better reception from critics and audiences alike, an Independent Spirit Awards speech from Adam Sandler gained popularity on TikTok mocking Wish’s terrible performance.
  • "To all FAKE animation fans who crapped on Disney's Wish: YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO THE COMMUNITY!! PACK YOUR BAGS AND GET OUT!!! #JusticeForWish #WishIsUnderrated" ^ExplanationOne particularly incensed Disney fan posted this on Twitter to try and defend the movie, saying that the underperformance of the movie and tepid reviews "ruined Disney's 100th anniversary celebration" which he blamed on "anti-Disney trolls". This led to a LOT of snark from animation fans on Twitter, including other Disney fans who felt that he was exemplifying all the worst cliches about Disney fans, who turned the post into a copypasta. It also lead to the movie getting an ironic fanbase like the one for Morbius (2022) saying that the film is actually a secret masterpiece that will one day be Vindicated by History.
• Misaimed Fandom: The reasoning behind Draco in Leather Pants and Ron the Death Eater treatment for Magnifico and Asha respectively is often stated to be based in Be Careful What You Wish For and that "not every wish should be granted", similarly to Bruce Almighty. The actual dilemma is not only that the king arrogantly believes he alone should decide, via self-serving and very sketchy logic, which wishes are worth granting or "safe" to grant, but also that he is keeping all the ungranted wishes rather than simply returning them to the people who gave them to him. Were a wish deemed unsuitable to be granted by his magic, there is nothing stopping Magnifico from returning the wish and the memory of it to its owner, explaining his reasoning, and assuring them that they can work towards it themselves, but he doesn't do this because he's developed a god complex and wants to keep the masses dependent on him.
• Moe: Star is irresistibly adorable to look at; even a few detractors admit as much.
• Moral Event Horizon: King Magnifico crosses it big time when he uses Star as a Living Battery to absorb the power of all the wishes in Rosas, planning to reduce his people to abject, miserable slaves with no hope of ever escaping his rule, while also magically torturing Asha and furiously blasting the masses of his own subjects when they begin to unite against him with star-powered wishes.
• More Interesting as a Villain: The consensus is that Queen Amaya lacks proper development for her choice to join Asha's rebellion nor enough sufficient motivation for her complicity in her husband’s reign despite her sincerely caring for the people of Rosas and knowing what he does in regards to the wishes isn’t right, and so she ends up feeling like a wasted presence in the actual movie. Most fans prefer the original concept where she was a villain along with her husband, finding the Unholy Matrimony approach significantly more interesting.
• Older Than They Think: A lot of people unsatisfied with the songs blamed them on the hired songwriters coming from the world of Pop music rather than musical theatre, but at least as far back as Peggy Lee's work for Lady and the Tramp in 1955, pop songwriters have handled Disney Animated Canon song scores.
• Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading: The film writes Dahlia and Asha as very close friends that share just about everything together, with Asha often relying on Dahlia for advice and encouragement. On her end, Dahlia hates to see Asha upset and is the first to risk everything to help Asha retrieve the wishes, helping her sneak into the castle and personally distracting King Magnifico herself. Asha also speaks her last words in the climax to Dahlia, and she's the first one besides Asha to stand and start singing. Merchandise like a nightgown with the two of them staring at each other and a doll pack of the two of them only fanned the romantic reading.
• Ron the Death Eater: As a counterpart to giving Magnifico the Draco in Leather Pants treatment, some viewers point Asha as in the wrong for opposing him. Some even go as far as to take advantage of the vagueness regarding which wishes are good and bad to argue that the end result of her actions could be an Inferred Holocaust. A common example of her perceived selfishness is her asking him to grant Sabino's wish right after they sang a heartwarming duet together and all but passed the interview, claiming that she's abusing nepotism (and Magnifico was seemingly genuinely hurt by this). It doesn't help that the Teens assume she's vying for the position just to get her family's wishes granted, which some viewers took at face value, or that she never saw anything wrong with Magnifico's wish-granting system (despite it being obvious he'd never grant all wishes) until he wouldn't grant the wish of her relative. Still, Magnifico's selfish reasons for hoarding the wishes and his pettiness during the wish ceremony after she merely questions him, far outweighing the "crime", need to be taken into account.
• Rooting for the Empire: There is no shortage of viewers who, whether they admit to his faults or not, believe Magnifico's rule (before he uses the book anyway) is what is best for the kingdom of Rosas and that Asha should have left well enough alone. The people are safe from the dangers of the outside world under his watch, and clearly happy with the state of things given how prosperous the kingdom is - and despite his selfish reasons for picking some of them, Magnifico grants the heart's desire of as many as fourteen people per year. As well, the only character clearly depicted as "less than" without their wish is Simon (itself muddled by his being the analogue to Sleepy the dwarf); it isn't until Star arrives and Magnifico is trying to investigate the possible threat (which as far as he knows it may actually be) that anyone but Asha questions things. With things going so well and the possibility that it could go all downhill without him, many root for Magnifico to maintain the status quo he worked hard to build.
• So Okay, It's Average: While the movie's not terribly made, the consensus is that the movie focuses too hard on just referencing Disney's past works and paying homage to them with no original ideas at hand, like how Asha is yet again another Adorkable girl protagonist who speaks in quips. At best it's seen as a “serviceable,” simple movie, and not much more.
• Squick: Dario eating a snot-dripping cookie that Safi just sneezed on.
• Strawman Has a Point: The movie paints Magnifico as narcissistic and self-interested in why he's selective about which wishes he grants, but many viewers and commentators have found that his reasons, while self-serving, do go hand in hand with ensuring peace and stability for his kingdom, which a king should strive for. While this doesn't excuse him hoarding the wishes he chooses not to grant rather than return them to their owners, much less what he does later in the story, many people find it hard to vilify him based on how he uses his powers early on, especially prior to him using dark magic and later breaking wishes.
• Tainted by the Preview: Being Disney's Milestone Celebration film, it was the most extensively promoted Disney Animated Canon film since Frozen II; unfortunately potential audiences' response to footage proved too negative to overcome once the mixed-at-best reviews dropped, contributing to the film's disastrous American box-office.
  • Once the first American full-length trailer dropped, King Magnifico came across to many viewers as less the classical Disney Big Bad promised by the filmmakers and more an Anti-Villain who has a point, with nothing to indicate that his trying to stop Asha is motivated by evil intentions. Combined with the already-apparent Disney Cliché Storm of the storyline and characters and skepticism over how well the hybrid 2D/3D animation came off (with a lot of comparisons made to Sofia the First, a Disney Junior show, or Direct to Video movies)^note To the point that a WDAS member had to explain that YouTube's compression rate meant a lot of detail inadvertently didn't come across online, posting a picture comparing a screenshot from the YT trailer with an official publicity still, enthusiasm for those not heavily invested in Disney media was deeply mixed.
  • In the final weeks leading up to release, Disney promoted the film on platforms like YouTube and TikTok by extensively previewing the musical numbers, focusing on "Welcome to Rosas", "This Wish", "This Is the Thanks I Get?!", "I'm a Star", and "Knowing What I Know Now". Rather than launching the next "Let It Go" or "We Don't Talk About Bruno" viral hit, they spawned the memes mocking the lyrics listed above, which only got worse when some fans went as far as spreading conspiracy theories accusing Disney of using AI to write said lyrics, if not the movie's entire script.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Queen Amaya had the potential to be a good supporting character if she were given more screentime. It's actually a nice touch that she lied enough to throw off King Magnifico's suspicions, then immediately went looking for a way to stop him and save her kingdom. The movie would've benefited from spending a quiet moment alone with the queen and with Asha talking about how hard it will be for her to take action against her own husband, but instead, she just quickly flips to the side of the good guys. Her Angst? What Angst? also doesn't make as much sense as it otherwise might with this lack of development. Deleted material reveals that when the original concept for her as a co-villain was scrapped, she had the plot/emotional arc functions of two other characters (Dahlia, who became disillusioned with Magnifico after a confrontation with him, and Flazino, a Deleted Role who served as Magnifico's apprentice before being imprisoned and thus had inside information on him and his powers) grafted onto her, which could explain some of these problems.
  • Sabino's wish going ungranted by Magnifico is the lynchpin of the whole conflict because Asha loves him so much, so some viewers were frustrated that he did and mattered so little — he (and Sakina) are blatantly put on the sidelines by Asha midway through the second act and the payoff of his story turns out to be a post-credits gag. Online commenters have asked why he wasn't the one who led the crowd in the "This Wish" reprise to banish Magnifico, which would have been a far more dramatically satisfying development given why his wish wasn't going to be granted. As it stands, he came off to some viewers as lazy for giving up a wish that was so easy to realize under his own power (as most of the wishes turned out to be). Again, he was supposed to be a much more significant character. In early development that made it as far as storyboards, he inspired Asha to fight Magnifico and reclaim wishes while they were hiding out, and died soon after - with Star's humanoid form actually resembling his younger self. In later drafts, he was captured and imprisoned in the dungeon alongside Sakina, though it's not clear if he survived to the end. Even in the finished film he performed "A Wish Worth Making" after Asha retrieved his wish for him. That was cut at the 11th hour because, according to Chris Buck, "the film tells you what it needs" - which implies that the filmmakers didn't think the resolution of his character arc was important (although the fact that he composed and performed it immediately might have had audiences questioning why he never tried to do that before he gave up the wish).
• Unexpected Character: The closing credits include illustrations of characters from almost every film in the Disney Animated Canon. Almost all of the 1940s package films were excluded except for The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, which is where the "unexpected" part comes in. It was also very out-of-left-field for Big Hero 6 to be represented by Yokai/Professor Callaghan, when Baymax is more popular (Rachel Bibb, an artist who worked on this credit sequence, explained on Instagram that they didn't have the rights to use Baymax's design). Fantasia 2000 was represented by "Our Hero" the flamingo from The Carnival of the Animals, Finale, even though Disney usually goes with the Sprite from The Firebird Suite.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Magnifico's Freudian Excuse is immediately invalidated once he rejects granting Sabino's wish because he felt his ego was damaged by Asha questioning him, but the people who like his character sympathize with him both because of said excuse and also because they believe his belief that Ignorance Is Bliss has some merit, even when he literally turns Rosas into a dystopia at the end in response to people questioning him.
• Woolseyism: The Latin American dub alters the "I let you live in here for free" line to "With me you live free", thus removing redundancy.

---