November 18, 2023 (Advanced Screening) –

This was a delightful movie. It certainly was a fine way for Disney to celebrate its 100th Anniversary. There were a few obvious references to the past both in the art style, the character designs, and other little things, and I enjoyed that.

The story was based on the wishing star idea. And I would assume also the song used in Pinocchio, When you wish upon a star. From the trailer you can pretty much get the story. I liked the characters, if this had been a longer movie with a bit more depth, I would have had more character development for the side characters. But I had fun with this.

The music was lovely, the main song is the star (no pun intended, but appreciated, haha) of the songs that were in the movie. It’s certainly heard the most. Some of the other songs were a bit on the nose, but they were enjoyable. There was one more but I’ll get to that later.

I loved the animation combination. Seeing the classic Disney watercolor style and the CG together worked well for me. I know some aren’t a fan of when art styles are so different from one another in one feature, but I liked how they looked and worked off of each other.

It was a movie about hope and believing on oneself. I certainly would suggest it as a quick 90 minute burst of Disney appreciation.

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Mid-Credit Scene: No, but the throughout the entire credits, there are golden line drawings of many Disney animated movies from the past century. It was a joy to see the characters that I’ve grown up with just saying hello for a moment.

End-Credit Scene: Yes. There is a short scene at the end that gives a wink to the song that inspired all this. And it is quite a lovely rendition. They it all ends with the full Disney 100 logo that it usually at the beginning. It was a wonderful way to end the movie.