STAR POWER

WISH Disney marks its centenary with a feature honouring its heritage…

There are few of us now who would’ve been alive before Disney, and a lot of us grew up with it,’ says Jennifer Lee, the chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS). She is also one of the directors of Frozen, and screenwriter on upcoming feature, Wish, which opens in the studio’s centenary year. It’s an original new musical, with an art style and Easter eggs galore that hark back to Walt’s heyday. ‘In the beginning, I remember someone saying, “Good luck! This is ambitious, but good luck.”’ But that spirit of persevering in the face of a challenge dovetails neatly with the theme of Wish. A wish is ‘a declaration of, “I’m going to try,”’ says Lee.

SOLAR FLAIR

Set in the kingdom of Rosas, Wish sees its young protagonist Asha follow in the Disney tradition of seeking celestial help, only for an actual anthropomorphised star - named, um, Star - to fall from the sky and into her life. ‘Star’s this little ball of energy,’ says director Chris Buck (who co-directed the Frozen films with Jennifer Lee). ‘Star doesn’t talk. It’s all going to be pantomime animation, which, for me, is just kind of animation gold, because I started as a hand-drawn animator, and always loved it when we were able to do pantomime. Star is there to help Asha, but… Asha still has to do a lot of work to make her wish come true.’

‘It’s not the way you’d expect,’ adds fellow director Fawn Veerasunthorn. ‘It’s so chaotic.’

THE G.O.A.T.

It wouldn’t be classic Disney without a cute animal sidekick, and Wish has Valentino the goat (voiced by Alan Tudyk, who’s been something of a good luck charm in recent WDAS movies). ‘He’s kind of the family goat, but it’s really Asha’s goat,’ explains Buck. ‘So Valentino will be with her the entire way.’ He’ll also act as a metaphorical stand-in for one of the film’s biggest themes, given how much goats love to scale mountains. ‘You can reach the peak, and that’s fine. But really, the more important thing is the climbing.’ From the message, to the characters, to the art style, Wish is all about classic Disney. ‘Even just the concept of wishing is something that celebrates our 100th anniversary,’ says Buck. ‘And we’ve all been inspired by the spirit of Walt, and what he’s done with the studio as an artist,’ adds Veerasunthorn. ‘We feel like we’re in a position to [honour that].’

ART AND SOUL

Honouring the studio’s heritage, the team harked back to the concept art for early Disney films for animation inspiration. Wish is CG animation with a watercolour texture (one of several toons prodding the boundaries of the form this year). ‘It almost, in a weird way, feels like you’re going to simpler times where things were hand-drawn,’ laughs Lee. ‘But those weren’t simple times!’ Buck says you get the feeling of handdrawn ‘even though you realise this probably isn’t hand-drawn because of all the detail that we can get in there’.

‘Really, it’s continuing to find ways that we can keep making the hand-drawn [animation] that we love work with the technology that we have,’ says Lee.

FIT FOR A KING

Chris Pine voices Wish’s villain, King Magnifico. But you need a special bad guy when you’re standing in the shadow of Disney’s legacy. ‘What was important was: “How do we make him different? How do we make him his own?”’ explains Lee. ‘So what you really get to watch is the journey of the sort of heroic figure, and his descension, and watching the choices he makes along the way.’ For Lee, an understanding of those choices - over a straightforward bad-to-the-bone character - was key. ‘I think that’s a big part of where storytelling has evolved: the motivation behind it matters to people, in a way that we may have not needed in the past.’ She also confirms that Pine will show off his pipes in his own musical number.

EASTER-EGG

Within the world of Rosas, there are going to be Easter eggs everywhere, from an overt nod to the seven dwarfs, to much more besides. ‘[Our artists will] add things in the backgrounds,’ says Buck. ‘They’ll add things to characters – whatever they do or however they move. Whatever it is, we’ve encouraged our artists to really play with this one.’ ‘A lot of people who work at Disney are Disney nerds themselves,’ laughs Veerasunthorn. ‘But the level of their knowledge… Sometimes I’m like, “Which one is this one?” They’re at the next level. I respect that.’

BRIMFUL OF ASHA

Voicing the protagonist - who’s referred to as ‘a sharpwitted idealist’ - is West Side Story Oscar-winner Ariana DeBose. ‘I already knew she was kind of a powerhouse,’ says Buck. ‘Her energy, obviously her talent when it comes to the singing, the voice – just everything was right. I think we offered her the part right before West Side Story came out.’

‘And she brings so much of herself to this film, to the character – her youthful energy, and her being real about things,’ says Veerasunthorn. ‘She’s not too precious. We really like that.’

WISH OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 24 NOVEMBER.