Asha and the Lucky Star”: for the centenary of its studios, Christmas Disney plays class struggle

Andersen’s famous tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is revisited in subtext, in an unflattering but most political form.

We’re not cutting out the traditional Disney Christmas with, this year, Wish – Asha and the lucky star which celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Big Ears studio, Wednesday November 29. A celebration that tastes like grimace soup, as the artistic conception of the film is disappointing. But he surprises in a sort of surprisingly political rereading of Andersen’s tale The Emperor’s New Clothes, by extrapolating the story and the moral in a Marxist sense, which we did not expect from Disney. A reason which could explain the very mixed reception of the film at Uncle Sam.

The king is naked

Since his early childhood, Magnifico has had the gift of making the wishes of those close to him come true. Once he becomes an adult and king of the kingdom of Rosas, he reigns over subjects delighted to see their wishes granted in the best of all possible worlds. Until the day when young Asha, seeing that her grandfather’s wish has not come true, turns to the stars to make her request. The cosmos responds to him by sending Star, a little magical being who will help him face the formidable enemy who opposes his wish, and who is none other than Magnifico himself.

At first glance, wish (wish in English and original title of the film), has nothing to do with The Emperor’s New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen. It is in the subtext that the assimilation is transparent. The moral of the original tale is a denunciation of the vanity in the acquisition by an overlord of an ornament of such finesse that it turns out to be transparent, even non-existent, a decoy: “the emperor is naked“. This is what happens to King Magnifico who reveals himself under the guise of a benefactor, the worst of despots, once his secret is discovered and revealed by Asha. In its second part, the scenario takes a resolutely political turn, pitting certain subjects filled with hope of seeing their wish granted, excluded from the promise consecrated by their overlord. The king, and no longer the emperor, is naked.

Digital animation

If this twist is a nice surprise from the writers Chris Buck (also director), Jennifer Lee (co-writer of Snow Queen) and Allison Moore, the production in computer-generated images is catastrophic. A failure which does not show up when viewing the photos or the trailer, but which in length is glaring from the first images. The lack of substance in the character graphics is disappointing, as is the case for the settings. A choice antithetical to the neo-medieval aesthetic of the tale which would have benefited if it had been treated in a more “loopy” style. Thus, the film does not compare to the wonders that Haya Miyazaki has just served us on a silver platter in his recent The Boy and the Heron, which highlights traditional and sketched animation.

Thus the architecture of Rosas, inspired by the town of Matera in Italy, one of the oldest cities in the world, with a pyramidal structure where antiquity, the Middle Ages, and baroque intertwine, is reduced to a construction that the it looks like it was made of Lego bricks. But the height is reached with Star, the little ball of cosmic energy who helps Asha – clumsy avatar of Jiminy Cricket (Pinocchio) – to which the designers/artists gave manga graphics. Its blissful expressiveness is derived from Pikachu from the Pokémon universe, oh so lucrative and selling, even thrilling for the youngest audience. A lack of taste, Disney must be turning in its grave.

The sheet

Gender : Animation
Director: Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn
Actors (French voices): Océane Demontis, Lambert Wilson, Gérard Darmont, Isabelle Adjani
Country : UNITED STATES
Duration : 1h35
Exit : November 29, 2023
Distributer : The Walt Disney Company France

Synopsis: Asha, a 17-year-old girl with a lively mind and devoted to those close to her, lives in Rosas, a kingdom where literally all wishes can come true. In a moment of despair, she sends a wish to the stars which will be answered by a cosmic force: a small ball of infinite energy named Star. Together, Star and Asha will face the most formidable of enemies and prove that the wish of a determined person, combined with the magic of the stars, can produce miracles…