Disney’s 100th anniversary movie, Wish, hit Disney+ last week, so my family and I decided to give it a go while we were all together. I was curious about this one, because it kind of came and went from theaters quietly, which isn’t usually how animated Disney musicals fare—did it just need the streaming boost because that’s how everyone watches things now, or was it not that great?

While we did enjoy it for the night, (my three-year-old niece especially liked “the silly goat and star”) it’s not going to be one we probably revisit often, because as much as Wish is trying to celebrate that classic “Disney magic,” it falls short of actually capturing it. Which is a shame, because I feel like all the necessary ingredients were there…it might have just needed a little more time put into the script so the themes could be clearer and the story fleshed out.

To me, the theme that stood out & had the potential to carry the story was in the idea that “We’re all stars,” i.e. everybody has at least a little bit of magic/power/potential in them. Funnily enough, I didn’t actually like the song that stated this theme as it seemed a bit on the nose, but the climax of the film showcases the idea excellently, as the whole kingdom resists together, hoping and wishing even as King Magnifico cuts off their view of the stars they might have wished on otherwise. This is a great realization, but it’s undercut by the fact that none of the characters really felt powerless until the moment before the realization. Their character arcs (or lack thereof) were not tied to the thematic arc. Maybe that’s because there were other themes related to idealism, self-determination, complacency, and authority muddying the waters, maybe not. A film can have multiple themes, but they need to be coherent, and they need to resonate with the characters’ journeys.

Honestly, the characters don’t go on much of a journey here. They all end up pretty close to where they started. Except Magnifico (played very well by Chris Pine). He has a real slide to the dark side, as we’re told how he overcame a traumatic past to found a safe haven in Rosas and master his magic to protect everyone’s wishes and keep the peace, only to watch his fear of losing control make him power hungry and ultimately despotic. That’s a huge character arc, and sounds super interesting. The trouble is, the writers don’t show him being a good king or struggling with his past; they tell us, then immediately show him acting vain and increasingly controlling. Either he needed to be evil masquerading as good to begin with (which would better match his fate at the end of the movie) or they needed to actually explore his trauma and give him potential for redemption at the end. Either way, that would have better aligned what we were told with what we were shown.

And that, I feel like, is Wish‘s biggest weakness: it tells more than it shows. No wonder audiences aren’t connecting with it the way they have with Frozen, Encanto, or countless other Disney films before them. We’re told the kingdom of Rosas has grown and learned something over the course of the movie, but we aren’t really shown what.

And so, despite a lot of fun Disney easter eggs and solid performances from the cast, Wish probably won’t have make much of an impression in the 100 year legacy of Disney.