Wish - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Walmart Exclusive SteelBook

2023 marked 100 years of Walt Disney’s entertainment powerhouse. That is a century of entertaining generations of children, delighting families, and creating incredible memories at their theme parks. One would think the studio would pull out the red carpet, gather the masses, and honor its catalog of classic characters like Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, and the scores of others for one grand cinematic event, right? Well… they kind of did that with Wish. A well-meaning little fairytale filled with many nods and winks to Disney classics, but is far from being a classic all its own. 

We meet Asha (Ariana DeBose), a resident of the island kingdom of Rosas on her way to interview for the job of apprentice of King (and sorcerer) Magnifico (Chris Pine). After his homeland was destroyed by war and the dreams of its people destroyed, Magnifico learned magic to create a safe haven for himself and his wife Amaya (Angelique Cabral) and anyone who wanted to live there. As part of his protection racket, residents of Rosas give up the thing they want the most, their one true wish and he keeps them safe in his castle. Once a month he grants a wish and all are happy. But during her interview, Asha discovers her 100-year-old grandfather Sabino’s (Victor Garber) wish will never be granted. When Asha makes her own wish upon a star, she becomes a threat to Magnifico’s reign and his control over the hopes and dreams of the people of Rosas.

To say Disney has had a couple of rough years is a bit of an understatement. Excluding all of their legal issues in Florida, the Disney brand hasn't counted for much ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the entertainment giant banked so hard on streaming. Some good shows and films have come out in that time, but it’s been a struggle their loyal fans excited for their various brands. Aside from Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 and The Little Mermaid, the 2023 box office was pretty much an underperforming dud as the House of Mouse continued its slide into safe mediocrity. 

Wish didn’t help arrest that slide. Met with bad reviews at release and relative indifference from the masses, the film barely eked its production budget back at the global box office. As the film intended to celebrate 100 years of Walt Disney Studios' incredible history of magical creations, Wish is just alright. There’s magic, some fun characters, and I think there’s a message in there about not giving your dreams away to people who will crush them and/or use them for diabolical means, but it’s not a great film. It's fun, but it hinges so much on nostalgic nods and winks at other better films of the deep Disney catalog that it fails to mark its own place within the Magic Kingdom.

While the story is muddy, the songs are frustratingly uninspired. Most of the songs are just clunky long-winded exposition sequences. “This Wish” is a nice tune, but it irritatingly tries to cram too many lyrics in the fewest notes possible. We don’t have anything to the scale of high entertainment as “Be Our Guest” or as achingly heartfelt as “Part of this World.” Magnifico’s villain song is nowhere near as memorable, entertaining, or iconic as Scar’s “Be Prepared” or Ursula’s “Poor Unfortunate Souls.” All other complaints aside, I admit I liked “At All Costs” - it is a hell of an earworm. 

Wish is at least beautifully animated - I will give it that! What felt like a nice touch is that the film is of the more modern 3-D computer-animated sort, but the fine character details and background details look like traditional 2-D. Compared to some other recent animated efforts - from Disney specifically not Pixar - actually had the look and feel of a true Disney film. 

I just wish the film itself was a better way to celebrate 100 years of magic. How great would it have been if they’d done an Avengers-style film that brought back ALL of the classic characters for one big adventure? If you're going to bank on nostalgia, go big! Considering he’s now entered the public domain, that kind of approach would have been an incredible way to reclaim Mickey Mouse for a new generation while truly celebrating all things Disney instead of “Oh look, there’s an apple in green poison. Remember that great movie?” There are some great moments throughout, I’m sure the little ones in the room will be entertained, but for the dedicated Disney loyalists, the nods and winks in Wish to other great films might not be enough to feast on.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 

Disney grants Wish to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray in a two-disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital SteelBook from Walmart. Apparently, this is the only way to get the film on 4K at the moment. The 4K is pressed on the usual BD-66 but weirdly leaves almost a third of that disc space vacant, with a BD-50 serving for the 1080p and bonus features. The SteelBook is a lovely piece and the discs nicely sit in individual trays. The discs load to Disney’s standard language menu before letting you start right into the main feature or proceed to an animated main menu.

Sticking to their tried and true, Disney delivers Wish to 4K UHD disc with their standard HDR10 treatment. While I thought it was odd that they didn’t max out the already small disc space (since there are no extra features on the 4K disc, leaving most of 20 gigs on the table is wild), I’ll say it’s an impressive effort. For calm scenes without a lot of visual razmataz, the bitrate fluctuates a bit but for the big spectacle scenes and songs the bitrate surges nicely. Fine lines in detail and textures in the animation are impressive. There was a lot of care given to maintaining a 3-D style but also giving it a traditional hand-drawn 2-D feel. Looking at the 1080p version those little details don’t quite pop a nicely. The HDR10 grade is a lovely highlight for this disc. Bright and bold colors give primaries all of the shine and pluck they deserve. The glow of Star and the light emanating from the floating wishes cast lovely color accents that the 1080p SDR version doesn’t quite muster. All around a lovely transfer, but I’d be curious what this could have looked like if more of the disc space had been used.

On the audio front Wish enjoys a genuinely nice Atmos audio track. With Disney titles, it’s always a bit hit or miss. In this case, the audio hits the mark. Dialog is clean and clear throughout without any issues. The soundscape is nice and expansive giving surround channels plenty of attention with wishes, animals, and a cute little star zipping throughout the scenes. Height channels help locations feel nice and big, Magnifico’s laboratory feels tall and spacious with a nice echo. Song numbers really pick up the audio action giving all of the channels an ample workout while delivering some nice LFE low tones. Maybe not enough to rattle the subs, but it never sounds anemic or distant like some of the more infamous Atmouse tracks out there. I did have to nudge my volume a tad, but again, nothing as severe as previous releases. 

On the bonus features front, Wish comes in with a decent assortment of nice extras. Nothing that’ll exactly blow your hair back, but not nothing or drivel disc filler. I’d say one of the most interesting pieces are the deleted scenes as they showcase a lot of the work that went into nailing the story and feature elements and characters that were changed entirely for the final film. The most expansive piece is the 100 Years in the Making: The Story of Wish. At over an hour, it interviews a number of the key players in the making of the film and their involvement with this project. It’s a bit of a fluffy puffy piece, a lot of “wow Disney is so great” but it does have some interesting material about the writers' and animators' approach to creating the look of the film; it's well worth the time. 

• Sing Along With The Movie 
• Once Upon A Studio (HD 8:48)
• 100 Years in the Making: The Story of Wish (HD 1:04:14)
• What Makes Disney Disney
• The Wish Equation
• Looking Backward to Go Forward
• Where Dreams and Reality Collide
• Asha Means Wish
• The Return of the Disney Villain
• Star is Born
• Those Who Stand Beside Me
• When Wishes Come True
• Wish Disney-Classified (HD 6:27)
• Outtakes (HD 2:54)
• Deleted Song “A Wish Worth Making” (HD 2:54)
• Deleted Scenes with Introduction (HD 22:02)
• Song Selection

100 years of Disney. The magic of the past hasn’t diminished, but the modern glow just doesn’t have the same sparkle. Wish is a nice enough film, but it doesn’t have the pluck to make it a genuine classic. Which is a shame given the centennial celebration of the studio. It’s a fine film, it has its moments, but it’s not the greatest thing to come from the studio at a time when so many of their releases have failed to live up to expectations. On 4K UHD disc, the film looks lovely with a nice HDR10 transfer and an Atmos audio mix that is lively and attentive. Bonus features may be a bit puffy and fluffy but they are informative and worth checking out. I didn’t love the movie, it was entertaining enough, but this is a technically solid disc worth calling Recommended