Disney’s Wish Movie Ratings: Audience and Critic Scores Revealed

Walt Disney Animation Studios might have wished upon a star for a better reception to Wish, the animated musical celebrating the studio’s 100-year anniversary. Directed by Chris Buck (Frozen) and Fawn Veerasunthorn (head of story on Raya and the Last Dragon), Wish pays homage to the 62-film Disney Animation canon that began with Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. Set in the magical kingdom of Rosas, Wish tells the origin story of how the wishing star upon which so many Disney characters made a wish — from Pinocchio to Peter Pan to The Princess and the Frog and everything in-between — came to be.

Wish debuted with a 64% “fresh” on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, but its critical reception has since settled at 49% “rotten” on the Tomatometer. “Wish earns some tugs at the heartstrings with the way it warmly references many of the studio’s classics,” reads the critics’ consensus, “but nostalgia’s no substitute for genuine storytelling magic — no matter how beautifully animated it might be.”

That’s Walt Disney Animation’s lowest Rotten Tomatoes score since 2001’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire received a 49% approval from critics. (Only two Walt Disney Animation Studios films, 2003’s Brother Bear and 2005’s Chicken Little, fared worse with critics at 37%.) This means the end of the studio’s 15-film, 16-year fresh streak: every Walt Disney Animation Studios film since Meet the Robinsons in 2007 received a positive response from professional reviewers, an era that saw the release of such films as Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, Zootopia, Big Hero 6, Moana, and Encanto.

Verified moviegoers granted Wish an 82% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is behind audience reaction to rival family film Trolls Band Together (92%) but higher than the studio’s previous Thanksgiving release, 2022’s Strange World (62%). That was Disney Animation’s lowest since Ralph Breaks the Internet (64%) in 2018: audiences were more favorable to 2019’s Frozen II (92%), 2021’s Raya (97%), and 2021’s Encanto (93%).

In Wish, Asha, a sharp-witted idealist, makes a wish so powerful that it is answered by a cosmic force — a little ball of boundless energy called Star. Together, Asha and Star confront a most formidable foe — the ruler of Rosas, King Magnifico — to save her community and prove that when the will of one courageous human connects with the magic of the stars, wondrous things can happen.

The cast includes Oscar-winner Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) as Asha, Chris Pine (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) as Magnifico, and Alan Tudyk (Star Wars: Rogue One) as Asha’s talking goat, Valentino. Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn direct from a script by Jennifer Lee (Frozen, Frozen II) and Allison Moore (Night Sky). The Wish soundtrack is from Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Julia Michaels and Grammy-winning producer/songwriter/musician Benjamin Rice, with a score by composer Dave Metzger.

Disney’s Wish is now playing in theaters.