Wish finally revives the classic Disney villain — but he’s missing something vital

polygon.com:

When Disney revealed that its 2023 animated movie Wish would have an actual, literal big bad, a certain conglomerate of hardcore Disney fans rejoiced. For the past decade, Disney movies have avoided traditional baddies, but King Magnifico — whose whole schtick is that he’s lying to his people for his own gain while using dark, forbidden magic — seemed like a return to form. With a charismatic performance by Chris Pine, complete with a big villain song and an overwhelming ego, he’s a verifiable checklist of favorite Disney villain tropes.

…Which is probably exactly why his arc feels so empty.

[Ed. note: This post contains significant spoilers for Disney’s Wish.]

For decades, Disney was known more for its villains than its heroes. But the studio has largely replaced traditional villains with surprise twists, like Frozen’s Hans, or more abstract sources of conflict, like generational trauma in Encanto or entrenched bureaucratic prejudice in Elemental. Some fans have made it clear that they want a revival of Disney villains in the mode of The Little Mermaid’s Ursula the Sea Witch, The Lion King’s Scar, and Sleeping Beauty’s Maleficent: cackling baddies with dramatic monologues and catchy songs, who plot against the hero from the get-go.

But Magnifico doesn’t get to be a distinctive bad guy like his predecessors, because every one of his character traits comes from a cooler Disney villain who did it better the first time. He thinks he’s the hottest shit — so does Gaston. He thinks the people of his kingdom don’t appreciate him, like Jafar. He wants more power and control, like Scar. He’s openly lying about helping others while tying them into contracts that only benefit him, like Ursula.

It’s not that Disney villains aren’t allowed to have similar personalities. There are only so many family-friendly motivations you can give a big bad, so sometimes Disney villains overlap. But Magnifico is a little bit of everyone, without much flavor of his own. None of his