Tumgik
#disney wish spoilers
kahluah · 5 months
Text
Wish was kind of mid,,,
But then I find out we could have had a shape shifting star boy and an evil villain couple with a cat. I feel robbed!!!
317 notes · View notes
paperbagrat · 5 months
Text
I just watched disney's wish, and... I have some thoughts (especially on king Magnifico)
Obviously, SPOILER WARNING
I find it so funny that they didn't give us the backstory for king Magnifico. It's just, oh yeah, my family was murdered and my town ruined, and I learned magic to prevent this from ever happening again. Done? Done. Let's not mention that EVER AGAIN.
He has literally done NOTHING bad before Asha's interruption. He's a stuck-up narcissistic, sure, but he does exactly what he says, keeps wishes safe. Why??? No idea! Because up until he turns big bad (supposedly from his magic book?), he has no use for them! SO, WHY DO THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE.
The movie is not even 1.5 hours long, and yet IT DRAGS ON. And don't even get me started on the "Asha is actually the fairy godmother, and Magnifico is the enchanted mirror because that's some of the LAZIEST writing I have ever seen in my life.
Anyhow, shout out to Alan Tudyk for not being annoying. The second I saw his character, I thought "yup this is going to be the worst part of the movie." He isn't, he's simply alright.
Great success disney. I have an alternative movie title suggestion for you. It's "HEY, REMEMBER, WE MADE THESE OTHER MOVIES TOO? BUY OUR STUFF. "
326 notes · View notes
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
So like Star is chaotic neutral and I'm so hear for it
74 notes · View notes
a-lilac-lyric · 4 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Wow! If I had a nickel for every time [there was a Disney married couple who looked like they were going to be a villain couple but then actually turned out to be a couple where one is way more self centered and power hungry than the other and starts to distrust their partner, who realized that love is more valuable than power, to the point of threatening them, then later shooting them with evil magic], I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
108 notes · View notes
fanfic-inator795 · 5 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media
My Letterboxd review of Wish (slight spoilers)
19 notes · View notes
delightful-mirth · 1 month
Text
youtube
6 notes · View notes
penguicorns-are-cool · 5 months
Text
Wish reaction (yes spoilers)
So first of all, it's really not bad like idk what y'all were talking about. Like compared to all the good Disney movies, it's pretty mid, but it's still a good movie. They fumbled the story structure a bit, the message is about as strong and clear cut as you'd expect from a children's movie, the songs are kind of mid and while they're very good they just miss the mark, and the comedic timing is kind of shit honestly, but it's still a good movie that's enjoyable to watch and will be fan-theory fuel for a very long time
it's still really good, very anti-authoritarian too, like so very anti-authoritarian
now for the spoilers stuff
It starts with the storybook opening which I don't think fits super well and is starting to get a bit overused in my opinion but it fit well enough and was fun so whatever. It was a good way to establish the level of suspension of disbelief we should have for this film and it does its job so whatever
That exposition song though was amazing and I love it so much omg
also how Asha starts the tour with "Hola, Shalom, and Salaam" like yes 1300s kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula would have Hebrew Arabic and Spanish speakers. And how Asha refers to her Grandpa as Saba. Honestly tho I'm not sure if that's just his name or what cause literally everyone calls him that. Points if that's not his actual name tho. Also just a moment to appreciate the diversity of the main band of characters. Those characters are from all over Afroeurasia. And if anyone tries to argue that it's unrealistic you can just point to the silk road. And also the main supporting character is disabled and uses a crutch.
Then we go on to the interview and some appreciation for this song please
And also how when they're singing it Magnifico is controlling the wishes and moving them around while Asha is looking at her Saba's wish and it really shows the difference in the two of them. Magnifico wants to protect his power at all costs while Asha wants to protect her Saba. and omg what a way to subtly show Magnifico's corruption and greed for power. Then when Magnifico has his first mini tantrum about Asha asking him to grant Saba's wish and if he won't grant it will he at least give it back. I think that Asha should've sat with this new information for a bit longer before realizing how bad this was but then we wouldn't have seen Magnifico being a manipulative child about it and it was completely in character for Magnifico to do that which would also make Asha realize how bad it was faster. So like, it messed up the pacing a bit I think but whatever.
that dinner with Saba and Mom was amazing. the denial from Saba and the uncomfortableness of the whole scene and Asha's pain at the whole thing. great scene and it's followed by this song that's just amazing. only critique about it is that at the end when she's singing "to have something more for us than this" for some reason the "this" is like spoken and I think that was a weird choice (derogatory)
And the wish scene was great with the tree that she and her father would sit on, next part though I'm not such a huge fan of. There's the whole thing with her Dad was a philosopher who talked about the stars and later there's like a throwaway line that he believed everyone was made of stars. And I love that actually that whole idea and it has such huge implications for how magic works in every single Disney movie that I will talk about later. but it was so poorly included in this movie. Like all we get are a few throwaway lines about it and the "I'm a Star" song which is honestly kind of mid and is super forced in. As much as I love the idea, I think the movie would've been better if they didn't explain the magic as everyone is a star and instead just didn't explain it and leave it up to suspension of disbelief. It seems like there used to be a lot more scenes that talked about it but they got cut at some point and replaced with "I'm a Star"
Anyway though moving on, I don't like Valentino's voice. yes it's funny to see such a deep voice come from him but it just doesn't fit.
Also star is so funny and cute but omg they don't have to have a new joke in every scene. very few of those jokes had good comedic timing and quite a few of them ruined emotional moments and killed all the tension. Like Star is hilarious don't get me wrong, but we shouldn't be laughing at Star's antics when big dramatic evil is going on it takes away from the drama.
Moving on to Magnifico tho. He's an amazing villain for what he is. He's a pure evil villain, he's an authoritarian monarch whose motivation is power and the thing that pushes him to absolute corruption is his entitlement. He's literally like, stop questioning me I'm a good leader so shut up, and he's using real life authoritarian rhetoric about how now he needs to use desperate measures even if it means using the forbidden magic that'll like eat his soul and goodness or whatever. He's pure evil, he represents a real life evil of authoritarianism, he acts like all the people in real life who have temper tantrums because they feel entitled to more power and don't like it when people point out their flaws or have questions they can't answer. and "This is the Thanks I Get" is the perfect song for that
and some people are doing this song dirty by sharing that one clip that's supposed to be funny and show how much of a man-child he is but only works at all in context. People should be sharing the ending of this song which is so much better in the movie and has amazing animation and is so dramatic and evil. Like throughout this entire song he's just singing about how he's such a good leader and everyone should thank him and never question him while he's also kicking and smashing and killing mini versions of the kingdom's citizens.
Then Asha brings her Saba's wish back and I wish he had a statement or something before about how horrible this was so we could've seen his perspective change right then and there but even so it was such a beautiful scene. And when Magnifico found them and crushed Asha's Mom's wish so much drama so much heartbreak. and Asha's realization of just how bad this situation of Magnifico "protecting" all the wishes was.
Also, we later learn it was Simon who turned her in and I think the movie did him dirty because it didn't show or tell us why he did that until the end. I wish there was sometime when he at least had a line about how worried he was at some point and how desperate he was to believe in Magnifico, just to give us a better idea of his mindset and why he gave Asha up. There could've been a point made here about how the people who buy into the dictator's propoganda do so because they're desperate and how those people are often the easiest to hurt even if they don't realize it.
Also that little reference to Peter Pan, Mary Poppins, and Magnifico crushing true love. I was almost laughing out loud in the theater I swear
Also quick appreciation for Dahlia. She listens to Asha and is like, idk exactly what's happening but I trust you that this is important. Like she's trusting her gut and her gut is right and she gets the whole friend group together and ready to help Asha. I wish the friends got more time though and a bigger role cause honestly I think one of the biggest shortcomings of this movie is the lack of subplots. Asha and Magnifico are the only characters who have actual arcs and backstories and I think that's a crime actually cause that was a great friend group that should've gotten a chance to be at least a little more known.
then that final scene with the opening of the roof and then the plot twist with Magnifico and Simon. Like I actually thought that was Magnifico that plot twist was well done. I do think there were a few too many jokes in that scene that ended up taking away from the tension but overall great scene. and when Magnifico came in and trapped Star while we were under the impression that they were safe for at least a little bit longer.
Then Magnifico takes star, makes the sky cloudy so no one can wish on stars, takes away all the wishes, and traps every person in the kingdom and starts holding them down and draining them or whatever. like look at that the monarch has turned authoritarian and is now holding everyone down so they can't resist so easily and can't even hope cause they can't see the stars to make a wish. And then they make a wish anyway cause they're all together and can make new combined wishes. I love how the revolution happens here cause it's not pretending to portray an actual revolution or anything it's very metaphorical and is just trying to say that we're stronger together than alone and if we all stand together we can rise against authoritarianism and corruption.
Only thing is that afterwards Amaya becomes the queen and while I love Amaya I don't like that. the entire movie is showing how monarchy lends itself to authoritarianism and this monarch got corrupted so easily look at that then at the end there's just a new monarch. I saw something about how there was an earlier concept where Amaya was evil too and I would've honestly preferred that. Like they didn't have to show the new government or leaders and I think it should've been left open-ended especially if the other option is gonna be just a new monarch.
I also didn't like how they went out of their way to say Magnifico was completely irredeemable. Like I get that he was never gonna have a redemption arc and this is a childrens movie with a pure evil villain so it's not gonna have nuance, but I think the idea that someone can be pure evil is kind of dangerous and they could've said he no longer has the capability to be a good leader or something.
Now into the implications about magic in Disney. I'm pretty sure that canonically all magic in all of Disney comes from Rosas. Because in every Disney movie with magic there's always a connection to stars. Cinderella says a dream is a wish your heart makes then there's the big Disney song, "when you wish upon a star." In tangled the sundrop flower is a drop from the sun so it comes from a star. Peter Pan is in Neverland and to get there you fly towards the second star to the right and there's pixie dust which based on Wish I'm pretty sure is just stardust. So now with Wish it's telling us that yes, all magic comes from stars and also all living beings are stars. And it also told us that Rosas at this point is the only place you can go to get your wishes granted magically and I don't think that's a coincidence. I think that based on this we can just say that if there's a magic thing in Disney and it's not explained why it exists or where it came from, we can assume it came from Rosas and the stars.
Also I've seen people talking about the original concept ideas about evil couple Amaya and Magnifico and shape-shifting star-boy love interest. I love the idea of evil villain couple and it would've helped with the authoritarian message for Amaya to also be evil and it would've just been so cool to see. And as for shape-shifting star-boy love interest. I think it would've been cool to see shape-shifting star-boy but I love that Asha doesn't have a love interest and this is in no way a romance. I wish that the friends got more attention and I think star-boy would've taken away from that. Can't wait to see y'alls fanart with star boy and Asha tho
Anyway though the movie was pretty good and I expect to see some fucking fan theories. I think that this is gonna be like Encanto in the sense that in theaters people are shitting on it and saying it's bad but once the movie hits Disney+ it's gonna blow up. I've been wanting to see a Disney movie take place in the Mediteranean for a while and this did not disappoint. Like don't expect a Disney masterpiece Disney is still neglecting their animation quite a bit and it's showing, but don't expect trash either like you will enjoy watching this.
9 notes · View notes
spicylove4ever · 5 months
Text
So I went to watch Disney's Wish...
Tumblr media
...And here are what I thought all throughout the film (CAREFUL, SPOILERS):
So we are getting again the intro with a book with some story-telling. I like it. Really. It's a good classic. It did set really neatly what was happening there.
So the kingdom was formed around a Wizard-Tower who came there because of Magnifico's (where does that name come from?) reputation of wish-maker.
So this is Asha, who works as a regular tourist guide, and introduces us to the whole wish stuff via song. So the wish is literally handed to the king and you don't even remember it.... The way she put it on the song does sound like the usual propaganda.
And not all wishes are granted. Well, that is not necesarily evil, since in fair terms, not everyone gets what they wish for.
Her grandpa is 100 years old.... coincidence with this being the 100th Disney movie? Don't think so.
Asha is going to a job interview to be the king's assistant or aprentice. It seems she wants that job because the perks of it are wishes granted for all the family most of the time... and her grandfather has been waiting since he was 18 (like everyone who is not born on that kingdom).
She manages to make a good impression to the king. Nice done, Asha, I might get tips for job interviews from this.
Ladies and gentlemen, second time in history of this studio that the villain (not a spoiler, everyone knew thanks to the trailers) and the heroine have a duet song. And this time, the dude is even being genuine.
She even got to see the wishes Magnifico guards. She did made a good impression..... only to screw it asking for stuff when she hasn't even been given the job yet. Call me crazy but is not particularly wise to make such requests on the first day, not to mention, on the very job interview.
Turns out the King reveals he has a strong and strict filter on the wishes. To the point most of the wishes are never granted. Again, that doesn't have to be bad.... but the evil part of this man shows its face when it's revealed he goes too far deciding which wish is "good for the kingdom or harmless". I mean, the old man just wanted to inspire through playing the lute, but since Magnifico doesn't know what he wanted to inspire, he's out. No wish for him. Little bit paranoid, this man.
Also, she tries to bargain to convince him to at least to return the rejected wishes so at least people could have their wishes still in their hearts. Again, too soon, and again, this man is really set on his way to a merciless degree.
Ok, made Asha had an honor seat on how he crushed the grandpa's last hope of having his wish granted by giving the chance to another person was too mean.
By the way, is just me, or does the Queen's dress have a certain resemblance to Elsa's white dress?
Next song. Basically, Asha wonders what to do with all the information she has, and ends making a with to a star. The exact words "I make this wish to have something more for us than this". IT WORKED.
So a light shines in the sky and it goes to Asha to reveal some sort of golden pokemon little creature.
Magnifico interprets that strange light as "there is magic here more than mine, I must destroy". He nearly goes to the Evil Book of Spells, but we are revealed his wife Amaya is 85% of his self control by convince him using that book is a BAD IDEA.
Wait, why are we getting a forest magical animals song? That song feels too gratoitous. Why is the star making every animal and half the trees in the forest able to speak and sing? Just to make an exposition of how we all are connected or something? I don't know, but all this felt weird to me. Wait, did that bear just called the deer Bambi?
Wait, she's coming back to recover just her families' wishes? I thought she wanted more for all the people. Well, I guess it's a normal thing to do, but still. I guess they could have put more emphasis on her wish to help her grandpa on the song to understand why she priotizes.
That star is no mate for a sneak mission. It just made a chicken coop into a version of Be our Guest. I'm serious, it really had the vibe and chords.
While she convinces her friends on the castle staff to help her sneak into the King's studio, the King gathers the people to tell them to go to him with any lead about the shining light they saw last night. But then people start to make questions about the meaning of what they saw in the night, which then scalated to the point they started to question Magnifico. He DOES NOT TAKE IT WELL.
TIME FOR DARK MAGIC. Now, with the best song in this movie, this man turns completely into a villain. And a scary one. No kidding, the second he uses that book, he starts going down like a brick. It was awesome. I guess I missed intimidating villains.
Asha arrives to her house and gives her grandfather's wish back (she only got to pick that one, since she had no time for the other). Moving moment, but then Magnifico arrives. Oops.
The King then proceeds to punish Asha with the destruction of her mother's wish. BUT THEN HE REALIZES HE CAN CONSUME THE POWER OF THE WISH TO GAIN POWER. From desire to be the idol of the city to straight power hunger with no bounds. One add problem, THE WISHING STAR CAN BE ANOTHER SOURCE OF POWER. DOUBLE OOPS.
Asha and her family manage to run, but Asha then decides to go back and get the rest of the wishes, with the help of her friends.
But this villain doesn't give chances and enhances his game by revealing a secret lab (very similar to Snow White's stepmother's lab) where he makes a magic staff. The queen sees this and tries to talk him out of it, but then he threatens her with the staff and orders her to stand down. Ouch. Someone just broke his wife's heart.
Asha gathers her friends, except for the one who told Magnifico about her, who gets his wish of being a guard granted, but the king also turns him into a minion. Ominous again.
Also, they invite the queen to their rebelion.... by a message from a talking mouse. A good move, since by having the queen by their side, it makes all of this less illegal, even if they have good reasons.
They make a good plan to lure the king away from the wishes and release them, but it blows up because he sent his new minion in disguise. That was a good trick and twist. Magnifico gets to consume all the wishes AND the star.
I liked that when they were researching for a way to stop him on his evil book, the queen Amaya suggested they look for a way to change him back, it seems she still loved him, but what he turned himself into was way too bad to not do anything. But it was no use.
Magnifico has grown way too powerful and he has them all against the ropes... he even has shown himself to the whole kingdom.
And how do they defeat him? Asha calls all the people to make a wish... and it's with a song. For some reason, it worked, and the bad guy is absorved into his staff and all the wishes and the star he absorved are released.
Everything is good, Amaya is queen reignant, and Asha gets a magic wand and it's the apprentice of magic, and future "Magical Godmother". She even has a hoodie that makes her look like the Cinderella one.
Well, the movie's good points were mainly the villain, his wife, and all the cameos of the other Disney movies (there were way more than the ones I listed here). But the rest of it felt a little weird for me.
It was too cheesy at times, especially the final battle when they all made the wish.
19 notes · View notes
themultiversetheory-x · 5 months
Text
Wish Is Certainly The Most Movie of All Time Sorry (not elaborating)
5 notes · View notes
picturejasper20 · 5 months
Note
Hey! To explain the 'Everyone was made of Stars' thing from Wish, they basically just took a cool science fact: The fact that everything and everyone is made up of atomized stardust from stars that went supernova billions of years ago.
Yes, i'm aware , i just don't understand how that does works as a metaphor in the movie nor explains why they have to defeat King Magnifico in such a rushed and dissapointing manner.
5 notes · View notes
thewarinourstarwars · 4 months
Text
I can't believe the Inazuma arc of genshin impact does the wishes of the people plot better than Disney's Wish, my god
1 note · View note
muppetfreak · 4 months
Text
Mr. Riordan, it is truly a pleasure getting to experience your second draft.
7K notes · View notes
roberrtphilip · 5 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
If happiness was a tangible thing, it would be you.
2K notes · View notes
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Bazeema
31 notes · View notes
starleska · 1 year
Text
i think ‘Big’ Jack Horner is Disney, and here’s why
many of us have had the pleasure of seeing the incredible Puss in Boots: The Last Wish by now, and were blown away by its clever writing, enchanting animation and emotional character arcs. yet there is one character who booted the trend of having a reason for his behaviour, and outright refused to experience any growth whatsoever.
let’s talk about ‘Big’ Jack Horner, and why i think he’s supposed to represent Disney:
Tumblr media
‘Big’ Jack Horner isn’t just an antagonist in The Last Wish - he’s a villain. a self-obsessed, exploitative, murderous, petty, cruel bastard of a man whose awful behaviour isn’t just motivated by personal slights or childhood trauma: he sincerely enjoys hurting other people. whether it’s cheating his goons (’The Serpent Sisters’) out of a fair payment for their services or being excited about shooting a puppy in the face, there’s no denying that Jack delights in causing others pain and suffering. but what does he have to do with Disney?
let’s answer that question with another question: do you think that Jack, when placed next to the other antagonists - Goldi, The Three Bears, even Death - sticks out like a sore, plum-coloured thumb?
of course he does! but why? well, let’s look at Jack on a surface level. Jack is a monolith of a human being. not only is he physically huge and intimidating, he is the inheritor of an enormous pastry fortune and operates in the manner of a mob boss, with countless resources and a whole variety of powerful magical items at his disposal. indeed, Jack employs a crack team of bakers/assassins called ‘The Baker’s Dozen’ to carry out many of his tasks. although Jack does harm others himself, it is because of these resources - including the people who work for him - that he is able to bypass many of the obstacles faced by our protagonists in an honest and character-developing way (e.g., the Pocket Full O’Posies in The Dark Forest). Jack doesn’t need to have a character arc the way the other characters do, because he is so wealthy and owns so much.
but Jack’s reason for owning so much and being obsessed with magic and magical items isn’t through intellectual curiosity, or a traumatic backstory where he needed to learn how to wield magic. do you know what Jack’s covert motivation for owning all of the magic in the world is?
it’s money.
Tumblr media
when we get the flashback of Jack’s childhood, dancing for the entertainment of an audience using his nursery rhyme, we see him becoming jealous of Pinocchio - and we see Gepetto in the back, absolutely raking in the cash. if we consider this flashback as that crucial moment within which Jack decided to become what he is today - and the presence of our off-brand Jiminy Cricket inclines us to think so - then we can understand that Jack decided that from that moment forward, he would own all of the magic. 
let’s go back to The Baker’s Dozen for a moment. this team of highly-competent, multidisciplinary artisans do everything for Jack, whether it’s baking the pies which make him rich, or laying down their lives at his service. we aren’t given an in-universe reason for why they do this. yes, Jack is feared, but he is still the subject of mockery due to his humble beginnings as a nursery rhyme character. it certainly isn’t due to being treated or paid well. however, if we view the Baker’s Dozen as a metaphor for overworked, exploited artists whose views are routinely dismissed by the money-hungry, powerful corporation who owns their craft...things start to add up, don’t they? considering historic allegations of worker abuse at the hands of Disney, having Jack Horner literally step on their spines and encourage them to flex takes on a whole different meaning. 
Tumblr media
it doesn’t end there. do you recognise the items that Jack pulls out of his Mary Poppins bag when his Baker’s Dozen are being destroyed by the Pocket Full O’Posies - the items that he calls ‘the big guns’? it’s the broomstick from Fantasia, the spinning wheel from Sleeping Beauty, the size snacks from Alice in Wonderland, and a knock-off Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio - all references to some of Disney’s earliest and most famous films.
still don’t believe me? well, let’s recap more of the items Jack has in his repertoire:
a hook-hand (referencing Captain Hook in Peter Pan)
a trident (referencing King Triton in The Little Mermaid)
poison apple bombs (referencing The Evil Queen in Snow White)
a glass slipper (again referencing Cinderella)
remember what happens when the knock-off Jiminy Cricket (interesting that there are so many Pinocchio references specifically, huh?) is horrified that Jack is losing so many men? Jack says he isn’t worried about losing the manpower, because he has a bottomless bag full of magical weapons. Jack literally gets his power off of the backs of his workers. sounds a lot like a big company justifying worker layoffs and exploitation because they have so many properties and are too big to fail, doesn’t it? 
hell, Jack doesn’t even know what half of these items do! when he’s using the unicorn horns as ammo, he is surprised that they cause people to explode in a shower of confetti. viewing Jack through this lens, it’s difficult not to think about enormous corporations gobbling up properties and churning out content with little to no regard for their artists (looking back at The Baker’s Dozen - some of whom do perish in the fight with the unicorn horns) or what the properties are about. we haven’t even touched on Jack coveting the Wishing Star, a recurring motif in countless Disney movies as representing magic, dreams, and boundless creativity. 
Tumblr media
now, i hear you saying, ‘but Star! why would DreamWorks bother writing their bad guy as a metaphor for Disney?’ believe it or not, this isn’t the first time that DreamWorks have done this. in case you didn’t know, Lord Farquaad is a caricature of Michael Eisner, former chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company. the production of Shrek was actually quite troubled; animators who were perceived as having failed on other projects were ‘Shreked’, or sent to work on Shrek, instead of working on other (presumed to be more lucrative) films. of course, DreamWorks was co-founded by previous Disney CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, hence the animosity towards Disney and its works evident in the Shrek franchise. this is what formed the story of Shrek: an ugly, crude outsider character taking on the clean-cut moralising of a dictator hell-bent on a so-called ‘perfect’ world, all created against the creative backdrop of a painful separation from Disney and a great deal of pent-up rage. 
Tumblr media
the irreverent, crass and sometimes adult humour of Shrek was a middle finger to Disney’s high-censorship control on animation. this is why Lord Farquaad (which you may have noticed sounds a bit like ‘Fuckwad’) is so obsessed with Duloc being ‘perfect’, and why he couldn’t stand the freedom of the fairy tale creatures who are the heroes of the first Shrek movie.
in fact, this kind of meta-commentary permeates the Shrek franchise: 
The Fairy Godmother from Shrek 2, despite being a fairy tale creature herself, is highly prejudiced against characters who break out of their perceived social norms: i.e., Shrek marrying Princess Fiona and getting his Happily Ever After. she is an expansion of the control left over by Lord Farquaad, and rich because of her monopolisation of fairy tale creatures and their stories. 
Prince Charming in Shrek the Third fails miserably to capitalise on these themes, but we’ll get back to him! 
Rumpelstiltskin from Shrek Forever After tackles the gluttony of franchise reboots, and how soulless and rooted in corporate greed attempts to reboot often are. whilst not necessarily Disney-specific, Shrek Forever After follows the box office bomb that was Shrek the Third: a movie which noticeably fails to write a compelling narrative approaching any of the themes of the previous two films. the writers learned from their mistakes and wrote a movie which satirised their own selling-out of the franchise, becoming hollow and unnecessary and ‘perfect’ - the very thing they were making fun of in the earlier Shrek films.
there is one more area i’d like to touch on: Jack Horner’s source material. we know that Little Jack Horner is quite obscure: an 18th-century English nursery rhyme involving a boy who pulls a plum out of a pie with his thumb, and congratulates himself for his fortitude. but did you know that from its earliest conception, Little Jack Horner was associated with foolishness and dishonesty?
Tumblr media
it’s true: the simple yet inexplicable nature of the poem was lambasted for being infantile, and quickly became the subject of revision, moralisation, and even political satire. it is no mistake that to ‘be under one’s thumb’ (as many of the characters in The Last Wish are to Jack, both literally and figuratively) means to be under one’s decisive control. the choice of Jack Horner for the villain of The Last Wish is a clever one, because we could easily have ended up with a sympathetic Jack, whose ostracisation as ‘not even a fairy tale’ may have led to a justifiable motive, even for his specific brand of cruelty. but instead, the writers of The Last Wish have gone one step further; they’ve transformed a source affiliated with idiocy and deception into a metaphor for a global multimedia conglomerate...all while portraying him as simultaneously terrifying, powerful, and ridiculous. 
it has been over a decade since Shrek Forever After was released, and Disney has changed dramatically in that time. a global giant, Disney now owns more enormous money-making properties than ever thought possible, and consistently capitalises on nostalgia for its early properties to make more money and accumulate power. since breaking out of its exclusive licensing agreement with Disney in 2016, DreamWorks has had no official connection to Disney, making the ground for mockery and satirisation of the company which spawned the studio all the more fertile. ‘Big’ Jack Horner is not just a glamorous return to form for the dreadful, unapologetically evil villain which Disney has eschewed in modern times - he’s a hulking, egocentric monster whose avarice rivals that only of the corporation he’s inspired by. 
Tumblr media
and those are my thoughts on ‘Big’ Jack Horner! of course this is by no means the definitive interpretation - we should all just have fun with the movie and come up with whatever theories we like 🥰💖 i’d love to hear your thoughts on him and The Last Wish in general - he’s definitely one of my favourite bad guys to be released in the past few years!
thanks so much for reading, and have yourselves a wonderful day 🥰
7K notes · View notes
Text
not people saying they would've preferred that star be asha's male love interest instead of the cute sidekick. like guys. that star is in a committed relationship with ray the dead firefly
858 notes · View notes