Walt Disney Animation is celebrating Disney at 100 this fall with the release of "Wish." The next of the upcoming Disney movies draws inspiration from the House of Mouse’s century of beloved animated titles, including building upon the components for which the studio is most famous. Between fun music numbers, magical happenings, talking animals and memorable villains, "Wish" has all those Disney trademarks. And it almost had another, but the filmmakers decided to leave it as a rough sketch.
When I spoke to "Wish" producers Peter Del Vecho and Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster Jones on behalf of CinemaBlend, I asked them why Chris Pine’s King Magnifico doesn’t get an animal sidekick like many classic Disney villains before him have had. I’m talking about the Iago to Jafar, the Flotsam and Jetsam to Ursula and so forth.
When I spoke to "Wish" producers Peter Del Vecho and Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster Jones on behalf of CinemaBlend, I asked them why Chris Pine’s King Magnifico doesn’t get an animal sidekick like many classic Disney villains before him have had. I’m talking about the Iago to Jafar, the Flotsam and Jetsam to Ursula and so forth.
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00:00But I wanted to ask if King Magnifico ever had a sidekick in the production process.
00:07There was a very early version where they had a cat, if I remember correctly.
00:12Because cats are evil in Disney movies.
00:14Yes, but we lost that for various story point reasons.
00:18It became superfluous, so currently no.
00:23Did it call back to Cinderella? I'm getting those vibes, perhaps.
00:28I mean, definitely Lucifer is such a staple character, right?
00:32But yeah, it was a little bit of that, of celebrating all of the animal sidekicks.
00:38But it just didn't make sense because Magnifico has Maya, who is a pivotal character in the movie.
00:44And a lot of the interactions happen with her.
00:47I don't remember a cat sidekick at all.
00:52I do remember going back in and it was really important for them to get that arc of Magnifico where in the beginning you think he's benign and then he turns bad.
01:04They really wanted to see that turn to bad.
01:06So I do remember coming back in and doing a couple of sessions of really hammering down his evilness.