Wish (Disney, 2023) is an animated musical celebrating Disney's 100th anniversary. The film centers on Asha, a young woman who makes a wish to a literal Star and gains the power to make everyone's dreams come true. The spiritual framework of the film — wishing as a quasi-religious act, stars as wish-granting beings — raises genuine questions for Christian families.
Wish's central worldview is that wishes — desires of the self — are sacred, and that a cosmic star-being exists to fulfill them. The film presents self-determined dreams as the highest good and the fulfillment of personal wishes as the ultimate human flourishing. This is not Christian theology; it is closer to the prosperity gospel or secular self-actualization philosophy — the idea that what you want is what the universe (or a star-being) is obligated to provide.
The biblical worldview is different: Proverbs 3:5-6 — "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." The Christian is not promised that their wishes will come true; they are promised that God works all things for good for those who love him (Romans 8:28) — which often means wishes going unfulfilled in service of something better.
Wish contains no sexual content, no significant violence, and no explicit LGBT content. One character in Asha's friend group is widely read as a coded gay character (Sebastian, who is fashionable and flamboyant), though this is implicit rather than explicit. The film received mixed reviews and was considered a commercial disappointment relative to Disney's expectations. See Wish (2023) overview.
48/100 Caution. Wish is not dangerous, but its spiritual framework is worth a conversation. The idea that wishing upon a star is the path to flourishing is a gentle form of misdirection away from dependence on God. For parents who do watch it with children, it is an opportunity to ask: who do we actually depend on for what we need? A star-being, or the God who made the stars?
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