Disney's Wish was not a great success, to say the least. Released in the animation giant's centenary year in 2023, it grossed only $254.2 million on a budget reported to have run up to $200 million. Critics didn't like it either, with many feeling it was generic and too reliant on corporate nostalgia. Time hasn't softened those opinions. Today, the movie's score on Rotten Tomatoes languishes at 48%.
Ever since the movie's release, there have been those who think Wish would have been better if Disney had stuck to its original, more romantic concept for the film. Now a group of independent artists is bringing that idea to life. They've just released the trailer for Asha & Starboy, their own hand-animated musical vision of what Wish could have been.
Early concept art for Wish depicted the character of Star as a shape-shifting young man with golden hair and a flowing cloak. As shown in the Reddit post below, he was conceived as a potential love interest for the film's main character, Asha. The movie's main song, At All Costs, was going to be a duet between them.
But in the end, Disney made Star a literal star: a cute but silent ball of wish-granting energy. There was no duet, and no romance. Instead, the movie became the story of Asha's personal journey. Many Disney fans felt that the original, more fairy tale-like idea had more personality and potential.
What do you think Asha and Starboy’s love story would have looked like?from r/disneyprincess
Directed by voice actor Griffin Puatu and animator Gabriele Camicioli, Asha & Starboy reimagines Wish as a musical romance with an original score, complete with that duet. It also makes Queen Amaya a villain alongside King Magnifico, again as she was originally imagined before she was turned into a supportive character in Disney's final film.
Instead of Disney's modern 3D CG style, the short film uses hand-drawn 2D animation. The excitement around the reveal of Disney's Oswald at D23 this year shows how much Disney fans have been clamouring for that. Sure enough, there are comments on the trailer from people who are already saying that it looks better than Disney's film.
"The irony is that fan fiction is actually better than the Disney version," one person writes. "Who knew a 57 second trailer could already be better than a 1 1/2 hour movie made by one of the largest, most successful filmmakers ever?" someone else writes.
After the success of Coyote Vs ACME, Asha & Starboy might be another chance for animation lovers to rejoice at the resolution of what they see as historic wrong committed by a behemoth of the industry, albeit on a very different scale. Will someone now do something similar for Hexed, which has faced its own controversy over changes made to the original story concept? If you're inspired, see our guide to the best laptops for animation.
