Fans Wish Disney Would Change This One Song
By Parker “Park” Hawley

“This is a**,” remarked TikToker @baba.o.reilly playing the new song “This is The Thanks I Get?!” from Disney’s upcoming movie Wish. “Disney be running out of ideas [because what the f***] is this” said @heathers_number1_fan talking about the same song in their own TikTok post. These posts have 1.6+ million likes and 5.1+ million views combined, and are just two of the 2.7+ million videos under Disney’s new villain song. However, they aren’t the only ones critiquing the song.

Disney’s Wish which was released on November 22, 2023, and due to its losing billions of dollars at the box office in recent memory the company, which just became a centennial, has turned to TikTok to drum up some excitement for their upcoming release. Yet it hasn’t gone the way they wished.

The song was released on October 25th and is sung by Chris Pine’s character King Magnifico, and was written by Julia Michaels and Benjamin Rice. This star-studded group of people working on the song has still not helped its reputation as people have called out Pine’s singing. @iydasyafiqah08, talked about how “we need to stop big companies from hiring celebrities to voice their characters instead of actual voice actors” and how “Chris Pine is struggling [in the song]. No amount of autotune could [save his singing].” But it doesn’t stop there as Michaels’s and Rice’s writing isn’t safe either with fans like @kevinkempt criticizing the song’s writing and claiming it was written by artificial intelligence saying, “‘ChatGPT, [wrote] a villain song in the style of Lin Manuel-Miranda. The villain is a king who is really kind but just does it for people who like him. Also, write a chord progression.’”

TikTok creators aren’t the only ones critiquing the newest of Disney’s 445 villain songs as musical professionals are going after it as well. West Orange High School choir, general music, and piano teacher Mr. Hellyer says that the song is “a bit lazy in the melody” and that the song “musically…isn’t very interesting” and that “after two [plays he] couldn’t really sing it back to you”. Now Mr. Hellyer says that the song may be more lighthearted than iconic Disney villain songs like The Hunchback of Notre Dame’s “Hellfire” because “it’s a way of making him seem softer and less obviously harmful before the reveal of his true, devious nature.’ Kind of like Prince Hans in Frozen.”

Now the context of the song is still unknown and won’t be known until the official release of Wish. However, what is known is that the public image of Wish has taken a hit because of this song. Yet who knows, maybe Wish will gain some traction from this song? But that is a reality Disney can only wish upon a star for.