Interview: How WISH Adds to the Legacy of Disney Musicals

Disney is celebrating its 100th anniversary with its latest movie musical, Wish.

Throughout the last century of Disney magic, dozens of musicals have brought music into the homes audiences around the world. Oscar-winning West Side Story star now joins the ranks of Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Stephanie Beatriz, and more as the star of an animated Disney movie musical.

DeBose plays 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.

BroadwayWorld sat down with the film's writer and executive producer Jennifer Lee, who also serves as chief creative officer of Disney animation, and producers Peter Del Vecho and Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster Jones ahead of the premiere of the film. Read below to find out how Wish adds on to the legacy of Disney movie musicals, what to expect, and more.

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Throughout your time at Disney, you've been involved with both musicals and non-musicals. What do you enjoy about adding musical numbers into these movies?

Jennifer Lee: Oh gosh, I've been a huge fan of musicals my whole life. My first musicals were, of course, through Disney animation and then falling in love with stage musicals. So musicals are just something that I've always been drawn to.

I remember the day Chris Montan came in on Frozen when I was gonna start and gave me the most beautiful introduction to working songwriters. He was there for me all the way through Frozen. It gave me a foundation of a part of it that has become one of the most extraordinary things, which is when story and music mix together. Julia Michaels is a songwriter who works with other artists and help brings their story forward. She was a perfect collaborator because she understood the storytelling that comes with each song as opposed to not just the book. So she was a dream.

Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster Jones: I'll say that in this particular one, working with Julia Michaels was a dream. She is such an amazing songwriter. She is a Disney fan herself and she wrote these songs as a love letter to Disney musicals and she also brings her contemporary perspective. It was such a collaborative process. "This Wish," the Asha song was written very early on before we even finished the script. I think that is the wonder of musicals, how music inspires writing and storytelling, and then storytelling inspires the music and back and forth.

Peter Del Vecho: I've had the privilege to work on a lot of musicals. I would say that I love them because you can experience heightened emotion through song. That just brings you to a very emotional place, and Julia has written beautiful songs for this movie. There really is a wide range of the types of songs she's written.

It's great to see Broadway performers like Ariana DeBose in these films. You've also had Idina Menzel and Jonathan Groff in Frozen. What has it been like working with Broadway performers on these films?

Lee: The respect I have, especially, you know, for Ariana. She sings, dances, and acts, she's incredibly genuine. I think to have a presence on stage, there's an embodiment that I think comes from within the core of who you are. You have to radiate from, you know, one spot on stage to the entire theater. These folks we get to work with have that. What's so amazing is that is a big part of how they're able to cut through in voice. Not every great performer works in the booth for voice acting for animation. The layers that have to come through, the nuance, the subtext that has to come through just in a voice is so important. I think that Ariana brought that in space. I found so much of Asha and her. I think that's what one of my favorite parts about working with a lot of Broadway actors is they really bring that from the core of them.

There are so many fun nods and Easter eggs to other Disney movies in this film. What was it like sort of dropping them in throughout Wish?

Lee: We dropped them in throughout. Foundationally, we started with none of them, other than some certain connections to Walt [Disney], to certain villains we love that were inside the shaping and development of the character and Mickey and all these little things and ideas about wishing and hope, possibility, all the thematic ideas that are part of Disney. But we were really wanting to make our own original story and said, let's start there. And everything that comes has to come organically. As you get further in the production, you just get a little more playful and everyone loves it. I still find things on a shelf, in the background that I didn't expect in each watch. I think the key was that we don't want to take ourselves too seriously. Let's have fun, but let's make sure it's additive to the enjoyment and not taking over.

Since this is the 100th year of Disney, how do you hope Wish adds on to Disney's legacy? What makes it so special for the 100th anniversary?

Lee: I really hope what Wish does is a reminder for all of us, not just to reconnect with that wish that drives our hearts, but also, it's a love letter, to just have fun for a beat, it's a moment to escape, it's a complex world. To know that storytelling, hope, possibility, wonder is always there for us. I hope that where Disney goes in the future is to just keep building on that. 

What do you hope audiences take away from Wish this holiday season?

Jones: This movie was written as a love letter to Disney and when we started to develop it, we were looking at what a Disney movie makes you feel. Words like joy and hope and wishing came to the forefront. That's exactly what we hope people feel when they come out, that they are full of hope and that they know that their wishes, no matter how young or old they are, still exist and it's up to them to say it aloud, to claim them, and then to make them happen no matter what obstacles come across.

Del Vecho: We also want people to go to the theater with their friends, with their family, have that sense of community and experience the movie to collectively together. I know I laugh a lot harder when I'm watching the movie in the theater with other people. I think the range of emotions is best experienced in the theater itself.

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Watch the trailer here: