(Los Angeles) From Cruella de Vil to Scar, Disney has produced many of cinema’s most memorable villains. But in the studio’s recent cartoons, evil characters were conspicuous by their absence.
To the dismay of some fans, the heroines of Frozen 2 or Raya and the Last Dragon thus fought abstract forces of evil, such as distrust of others or xenophobia, rather than divas obsessed with fur or regicide uncles.
That trend is about to be bucked with Wish: Asha and the Lucky Star, an animated film that celebrates Disney’s 100th anniversary with dozens of nods to its vast legacy, and takes the opportunity to reconnect with his passion for evil characters.
“Fans are like, ‘Give us a bad guy! A real bad guy like in the good old days,” Chris Buck, the co-director of the film, told AFP.
The studio therefore hopes to please its audience, with a character who hides his dark side behind a “handsome” facade, adds the other director, Fawn Veerasunthorn.
The cartoon follows the adventures of Asha, a courageous 17-year-old girl who will have to fight against King Magnifico, a monarch who is as seductive as he is deceitful.
Seemingly benevolent, this sovereign with magical powers is capable of granting the wishes of his subjects and anyone who ventures into his kingdom.
But when Asha applies to become his apprentice, she realizes that Magnifico only grants wishes that serve his own selfish interests.
“He starts off being charming,” Ms. Veerasunthorn continues. But over the course of the film, “we see how he transformed into a villain.”
“Disney villains are weird and fun, and sometimes outlandish,” adds one of the film’s producers, Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster Jones.
“But they also have their reasons to be evil,” he adds, promising the return of a great classic beloved by fans, the famous “bad guy song.”
Orchestrated by one of the creators of Frozen, the film was explicitly conceived as a tribute to the centenary of the studio created by Walt Disney.
In search of inspiration, the team initially accumulated photos taken from all the films produced by the company for a century on a board.
The process brought out a common point between many cartoons: from Pinocchio to Moana, Disney characters often make wishes facing the stars. Enough to provide a basis for the scenario.
When Asha appeals to the sky to make a powerful dream come true, she accidentally brings to life a mischievous star, whose mischievous character is reminiscent of one of Disney’s oldest characters, Mickey Mouse.
The evil Magnifico borrows from the evil queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and from Maleficent, the fairy from Sleeping Beauty.
This cartoon draws on the studio’s legacy in many other ways.
Visually, Wish uses effects reminiscent of the watercolors taken from the children’s stories that inspired Walt Disney to produce Snow White, his first feature film in 1937.
We also obviously find animals gifted with speech, as in Bambi or Aladdin.
This time, Valentino, the little goat who accompanies Asha on her adventures, is also dressed in pajamas. And this is no coincidence: because during his childhood, Walt Disney sometimes dressed the animals on his farm in clothes.
Overwhelmed by their teams’ suggestions for celebrating the big-eared company’s rich history, the directors ended up creating an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of all the nods to previous films.
“I don’t know how many there are, but […] it’s a long list,” Mr. Buck smiles.
