50 Fun Facts About Wish

Who voices Asha in Disney's Wish?

Ariana DeBose. Disney approached her straight after West Side Story, the film that won her an Oscar, and the animators studied her own gestures to shape how Asha moves.

Who voices King Magnifico in Disney's Wish?

Chris Pine. Writer Jennifer Lee wanted 'charm, cleverness and charisma' for a king his subjects adore at first, and Pine admitted that singing the villain's numbers made him nervous.

In Disney's Wish, what kind of animal is Asha's pet Valentino?

A goat. Star's magic grants his wish to talk, and the tiny kid turns out to have a deep, low voice, which the writers wanted in place of anything cute.

What is the name of the island kingdom where Disney's Wish is set?

Rosas. King Magnifico founded it after losing his own family, promising a haven where every wish would be kept safe, and people sailed in from all over the world to live there.

In which sea does the island kingdom of Disney's Wish lie?

The Mediterranean. The filmmakers placed the island off the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, so its buildings, costumes and music mix southern European and North African influences.

In Disney's Wish, how often does King Magnifico hold a ceremony to grant one wish?

Once a month. Citizens hand over their wish at 18, so with only twelve granted a year most wait a lifetime; Asha's grandfather is still waiting patiently at 100.

Like many classic Disney fairy tales, Wish opens with which device?

A storybook. Its watercolour pages tell how the kingdom was founded, and writer Jennifer Lee said she loved the idea because it paid homage to Disney's earliest fairy tales while taking its own approach.

Who voices Asha's grandfather Sabino in Disney's Wish?

Victor Garber. He also recorded a solo, 'A Wish Worth Making', for the moment Sabino gets his wish back, but the scene was cut late on and his version survives only as a bonus feature.

In Disney's Wish, what job is Asha interviewing for when the story begins?

Magnifico's apprentice. It is one of the most coveted posts in the kingdom, and the interview goes well until she asks the king a favour he refuses, which shows her what he really does with the wishes.

Star's heart-shaped face mask in Disney's Wish is a nod to which classic character?

Mickey Mouse. Designer Bill Schwab matched Star's expressions to screen grabs from 1930s Mickey shorts, and kept the body a plain round ball as a nod to the bouncing ball every animator learns to draw first.

In Disney's Wish, what do the talking forest animals tell Asha all life is made of?

Stardust. The forest sings it to her in the number 'I'm a Star', an idea the filmmakers took from physicists they consulted about why a star would ever answer a wish.

In Disney's Wish, which of Asha's friends betrays her to King Magnifico?

Simon. The king promises to grant the wish of whoever exposes the 'traitor' who summoned Star, so he informs on Asha, and is bewitched into the king's service for his trouble.

In Disney's Wish, what does Simon wish to become?

A knight. The strong 'gentle giant' of the group, in his writer's words, longs to be a warrior but drifts through his days in a perpetual dreamy state, with a big heart and a bigger yawn.

What appears among the stars during the end credits of Wish?

Characters from earlier Disney films. Dozens appear in sparkling gold in order of release, a roll call for the studio's 100th year that runs from its first feature to Splat from 2022's Strange World.

Asha's circle of friends in Disney's Wish is modelled on which classic characters?

The Seven Dwarfs. The filmmakers gave each teen the first initial, the costume colours and a personality trait or two of one of them, a homage the film's own writer has confirmed.

At the start of Disney's Wish, what is Asha's everyday job in the kingdom?

Tour guide. She greets new arrivals in the opening number, and to find the energy for the song her voice actor invented an alter ego she called 'Janet, the tour guide'.

In Disney's Wish, which of Asha's friends is a baker and her best friend?

Dahlia. She bakes cookies in the king's image and is the group's unofficial leader, the one who stops to assess a situation while Asha charges full speed ahead.

In early drafts of Disney's Wish, which of these characters was a villain alongside King Magnifico?

Amaya. Artists first drew the queen and her husband as a crime-family couple in the mould of Tony and Carmela Soprano, with an evil pet cat, before the story made her the one who turns on him.

Who voices Asha's mother, Sakina, in Disney's Wish?

Natasha Rothwell. Her character pays for Asha's defiance: Magnifico crushes Sakina's wish in front of her family, and discovers that destroying it makes him stronger.

In Disney's Wish, where is King Magnifico trapped when his own magic turns against him?

Inside his staff's mirror. The citizens' shared wish overpowers him, and the vain king who loved his own reflection is left as one, hung on a dungeon wall.

In Disney's Wish, what gift does Star leave Asha before returning to the sky?

A magic wand. Asha's first try with it gives a cart a set of legs, and her voice actor describes the character from then on as a 'modern-day fairy godmother'.

In Disney's Wish, what does Magnifico turn to when his subjects begin to doubt him?

A book of forbidden dark magic. With it he forges a weapon out of his own citizens' wishes, and every wish he consumes leaves him stronger and further gone.

Wish reunited director Chris Buck and writer Jennifer Lee, the duo who directed which Disney hit?

Frozen. Lee was finishing its sequel with Buck when she asked whether he wanted to make something for the studio's 100th year, and the film about wishing grew out of that conversation.

Wish co-director Fawn Veerasunthorn grew up watching Disney films in which country?

Thailand. She has said she grew up there 'seeing the wishing star throughout the Disney universe and wishing to be a part of it'; a film about that star became her first as a director.

Which songwriting duo wrote the original songs for Disney's Wish?

Julia Michaels and Benjamin Rice. Disney musicals usually go to Broadway writers, but these two came from pop, and Michaels won the job with a demo she wrote before the film even had a script.

Which song does King Magnifico sing as his villainous side breaks out in Disney's Wish?

This Is the Thanks I Get?! Its writers began it bright and upbeat so he would not sound like a villain at once, then darkened it bit by bit as his narcissism takes over.

The score of Wish quotes the first five notes of which classic song?

When You Wish Upon a Star. The tune returns after the credits, when a mandolin picks out its opening notes as though the song were only now being written.

In Disney's Wish, which song does Asha sing as she makes her plea to the stars?

This Wish. She sings it on her way to the Wishing Tree, where her late father used to take her to watch the night sky, and her plea brings a star down to answer.

In Disney's Wish, what does Asha wish for when she sings to the night sky?

More for her people. Her lyric asks for 'something more for us than this', a wish made on behalf of the whole kingdom, and it is strong enough to bring a star down to earth.

Wish's extra-wide frame is a tribute to which Disney classic?

Sleeping Beauty. Wish copies its 2.55:1 shape because the artists regard the 1959 film as the peak of Disney's visual style and shared its aim of getting the drawing onto the screen.

How did the makers of Disney's Wish seriously consider animating the film before settling on computer animation?

Entirely in traditional 2D. Writer Jennifer Lee said hand-drawing was discussed 'in multiple directions' early on, but the team chose computer animation with a watercolour look to keep the artist's hand without its limits.

Jennifer Lee began Wish in 2018 soon after taking which job at Disney Animation?

Chief creative officer. Within days of hearing her idea, Chris Buck had pinned a still from every film the studio had made along a hallway, and the pair noticed how many characters wish on stars.

At which event did Disney reveal the title of Wish in September 2022?

D23 Expo. The crowd at Disney's own fan convention also got the first taste of the music that day, when the film's lead sang one of its songs live on stage.

In early concept art for Disney's Wish, Star was a glowing, shape-shifting boy inspired by which character?

Peter Pan. Designer Bill Schwab drew a 'part magical, part glowing' human whom fans nicknamed Star Boy, a possible love interest for Asha, before the wordless ball of light won out.

Why did the voice cast of Disney's Wish miss the film's Hollywood premiere in November 2023?

The actors were on strike. Their union announced a deal only hours before the screening, but the 118-day walkout did not formally end until 12:01 a.m., too late for the carpet.

Which actor, known as Disney Animation's 'good-luck charm', voices Valentino in Wish?

Alan Tudyk. His earlier parts for the studio include a rooster, a toucan and a weasel, and one of the film's directors says he keeps handing them line readings they had never thought of.

Disney's Wish opened in US cinemas for which 2023 holiday weekend?

Thanksgiving. Disney likes to plant an animated family film in that holiday corridor every year, so its 100th-anniversary musical opened on the Wednesday before the long weekend.

In Disney's Wish, what form do the citizens' wishes take once they are handed to the king?

Floating bubbles. Hundreds hover in the castle's observatory, each with its owner's dream playing within, and the effects artists set them drifting around the king in a slow waltz.

In Disney's Wish, what happens to citizens once they hand their wish to King Magnifico?

They forget it. The king sells this as a kindness that spares people the ache of an unfulfilled dream, but most wishes will never be granted, and their owners cannot even know what they are missing.

How did analysts describe Wish's $255 million worldwide run?

Box-office bomb. Against a budget of up to $200 million, Deadline put the studio's loss at about $131 million, even after counting what the film earned from streaming and home video.

The king's castle in Disney's Wish was inspired by the Torre del Oro, a tower in which Spanish city?

Seville. The 13th-century riverside watchtower has twelve sides, so the designers gave Magnifico's castle a twelve-sided tower of its own, the observatory where he hoards the wishes.

Wish opened in third place in the US, behind a Hunger Games prequel and which other new release?

Napoleon. Ridley Scott's R-rated war epic, released the same day, narrowly out-earned Disney's PG family musical in their first five days, each taking a little over $30 million.

As King Magnifico turns villain in Disney's Wish, his magic shifts from blue to which colour?

Green. The film's designers call it Disney's colour of deception, the shade the studio gave villains from Maleficent to Ursula, so his spells sour from cyan to acid green as he worsens.

Wish was the first Walt Disney Animation Studios film rated 'Rotten' on Rotten Tomatoes since which one?

Chicken Little. Every film the studio released in the 18 years after that 2005 comedy was rated Fresh, a run Wish ended with a score that settled at 48%.

The voice of Wish's King Magnifico had sung for Disney before, as a prince in which live-action musical?

Into the Woods. He played Cinderella's Prince in the 2014 film, and for his duet in Wish the two singers never shared a booth: the heroine's part was recorded first and his was added later.

Wish's first five days on Disney+ were Disney Animation's biggest since which earlier film?

Encanto. Disney counted 13.2 million views for Wish in April 2024, and Nielsen measured more than a billion minutes of US viewing in those five days, a second life after its cinema run.

In Disney's Wish, what does Asha's pet Valentino wear throughout the film?

Pajamas. One of the directors imagines Asha's mother, a seamstress, knitted them, and he ends the film dreaming aloud of a city where all mammals are equal 'and wear clothes', a wink at Zootopia.

Which Disney short film played before Wish in Japanese cinemas?

Once Upon a Studio. The short, which gathers 543 figures from the studio's back catalogue for a group photo, made its US debut on television instead, but shared the bill with Wish in Japan.

The Wishing Tree in Wish copies a tree Walt Disney daydreamed under as a farm boy in which state?

Missouri. The family farm was in Marceline, where young Walt spent hours under a big cottonwood he called his dreaming tree; in the film its twin is where Asha runs to make her own wish.

In Disney's Wish, a talking bear called John is a nod to which earlier Disney film?

Robin Hood. Little John is the bear in the 1973 film; in Wish a deer thanks him for not eating it, and John answers, 'You're welcome, Bambi.'