Wish

image for Wish

Short takes

Not suitable under 5; parental guidance to 7 (violence, themes, scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Wish
  • a review of Wish completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 21 December 2023.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 5 Not suitable due to violence, themes and scary scenes.
Children aged 5–7 Parental guidance recommended due violence and themes.
Children aged 8 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Wish
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Thematic elements and mild action
Length: 95 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

There is nothing more important than a wish, or so King Magnifico (voice of Chris Pine) believes. He knows firsthand of the haunting desires that drive the heart and how easily dreams can be destroyed. He spends years studying and training to become a sorcerer and finally, fleeing cruelty and injustice, Magnifico and his wife Amaya (voice of Angelique Cabral) find the perfect uninhabited island to create a kingdom, called Rosas, where everyone is welcome. In exchange for the opportunity to live in a friendly place, free of persecution and unhappiness, Magnifico asks each immigrant to offer up their deepest desire, which he will personally safeguard and, every so often, allow one wish to be granted. Seventeen-year-old Asha (voice of Ariana DeBose) is hoping to be chosen as the King’s apprentice and, in the process, is hoping to ensure that her grandfather’s wish will be granted. When she learns that Magnifico is not who he seems and that he has no intention of ever granting most of the wishes, Asha beseeches him to give the ungranted wishes back to the people who made them, arguing that they should, at the very least, have the opportunity to make their own dreams come true instead of forgetting the most beautiful part of themselves. Disgraced by the King, Asha turns to the stars that she has always seen as beacons of inspiration and possibility. She makes a powerful wish for her people and is answered by the very star she wishes upon. Her selfless act allows the people to feel hope again, but King Magnifico will stop at nothing to maintain his power and prestige. With the Kingdom turned against her, Asha must find a way to set the wishes free and return them to the people who are missing an integral part of themselves. Aided by Star and her baby goat Valentino (voice of Alan Tudyk), Asha must prove to all of Rosas that she is not the enemy and that their long-lost dreams are more important and powerful than they could ever have imagined – perhaps even more powerful than Magnifico himself.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Regret; Injustice; Long lost dreams; Persecution: Tyranny; Sorcery.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Asha is attacked by flying bugs that swarm around her.
  • Magnifico describes how his family’s lands were destroyed by selfish and greedy thieves.
  • A suit of armour collapses and a character kicks the head away.
  • Magnifico crushes Asha’s mother’s wish in front of her and her mother nearly collapses from the grief and pain that this causes.
  • Asha knocks a dresser over to trap the King, while Star ties up the guards with string.
  • Magnifico crushes the wishes of others to take their power, to cause them pain or to punish them for questioning him.
  • Magnifico turns on Amaya and points his spear-like staff at her throat.
  • Magnifico ties up Asha and throws her to the ground.
  • A character crushes Asha’s magic stick and threatens her.
  • Magnifico sucks the Star into his staff and tosses Asha aside.
  • Magnifico blasts Asha with his staff and knocks her to the side.
  • Asha sings as Magnifico continues to blast her with his staff.
  • Magnifico tries to hit people with magical blasts from his staff. They are either knocked aside or pulled out of the way.
  • Magnifico is sucked into and imprisoned within his own magical staff.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Magnifico turns to forbidden magic which transforms him into a demonic-looking King, with angry features and evil, green, glowing eyes. He has no compassion towards anyone and seems ready to kill or control whoever he needs to. There are tiny wooden dolls of townspeople fleeing from his power which he casts aside and stomps on. He alters between looking normal when he is presenting himself to his subjects and looking sinister and menacing when he is dealing with Asha. The images and scenes may be distressing for younger children.
  • There are shadowy images of monsters resembling Magnifico, including evil faces and sinister silhouettes, which are cast on a wall. Some look particularly creepy and disturbing and may frighten young viewers.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • While not scary, Asha shares the story about how her father passed away when she was younger, how he taught her about the stars and how much she misses him.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • A character says (in relation to the King), “Now that is someone I would really like to kiss”. And she tries to kiss a statue of him.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • No coarse language was noted but there is some crude humour and a few instances of the word “butt”.

In a nutshell

Wish is a musical fantasy adventure, celebrating 100 years of Disney magic and playing tribute to the famous wishing star. The film features beautiful music and songs, a fast paced but largely predictable plot and excellent computer graphics set against some more traditional 2D backgrounds. This is a family film suitable for all but the youngest of children.

The main messages from this movie are that we are connected to the stars, that their power resides inside each of us, that we need to give ourselves permission to allow that light to shine; and that we need to nurture our dreams, work towards fulfilling them and find the courage to share them with the world.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Courage
  • Hope
  • Cooperation
  • Wonder
  • Determination.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the importance of believing in their dreams and working hard to fulfil them, rather than handing them over to someone else or casting them aside.