I just finished watching Disney’s latest animated feature, “Wish.”
I agree with most reviews and opinions, “Wish” was made by committee with the usual shopping list of content; bland sidekicks, dumb throw-away jokes, characters look and act like typical Disney characters, especially the heroin, and the fx animation, (technically well-done,) visual pizazz to mask the lack of substance. But this can be said for the last four or five Disney features.
What really struck me about “Wish” is the animation- everything is overacted, every tiny nuance has its own gesture or pose, making the characters move almost constantly. The overdone lip-synch, every consonant painstakingly enunciated, as if the characters speak to the hearing impaired.
It seems the technology of CG animation has given the animators such control that everything must move, all the time. The beauty of animation sometimes lies in the lack of movement, (watch the original, [sadly in this day and age of countless sequels, this must be clarified] “101 Dalmations.” The characters move when they need to, and the subtler gestures work within a held pose.)
But in “Wish” the movement is almost constant; cliché-ridden, distracting hand gestures, non-stop head tilts, shoulders moving up and down. It’s as if the technology is driving the art instead of the other way around.
Let’s hope the Disney brass realize their 100-year heritage and start making films worthy of it.
pamperedfatcat 