THE BIG WISH
Australia, 1986, 60 minutes, Colour.
Rowena Wallace, Richard Moir.
Directed by Esben Storm.
The Big Wish is one of the More Winners series, the successor to the successful Winners series produced by the Australian Children's Television Foundation.
This is a fantasy for adolescents - a daring attempt, in a way, to present a fairy tale for adolescents. The film is set in another world and another dimension - with Rowena Wallace and Richard Moir as an eccentric king and queen who become victims of a witch. Their son is given a wish and he comes down to Earth in an ordinary '80s Australian suburb. With his powers and his ability to grant wishes, he becomes friendly with one of the boys in a class. The bonds between the two are interestingly developed - the ordinary boy and the arrogant boy with the magic powers. (This part of the screenplay is reminiscent of Bedazzled, with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and the wishes that are granted - they parallel those in Bedazzled, including the wish for perfection and the man being turned into a woman.)
The film was written by Steve J. Spiers, the playwright and screenwriter. It was directed by Esben Storm, director of the Winners film The Other Facts of Life as well as such films as 27A, In Search of Anna, Stanley, Deadly.
1.An entertaining children's fantasy? For what age group? For parents?
2.The ordinary Australian suburb, school and houses? The contrast with the sets and decor for the other dimension world - and the touch of the fairy tale? Costumes, colour make-up? The special effects for the granting of the wishes?
3.The title, the magical overtones, the big wish for Wilton and his saving the kingdom? For C.J. and his ordinary life?
4.The ordinary world: C.J. and his relationship with his mother, the bonds between them, ordinary house and home detail? His name? At school? His relationship with Katie, her parents? The boys, games, trouble? The poking fun at the headmaster and his seriousness and suspicions?
5.The magic kingdom, the king and queen and their being fussy and silly? The witch? Her advice? The range of goblins? Gobbo and his advice? Their relationship with Wilton? The dilemma, the witch and the secret plot, her eventual unmasking? Gobbo and the threats to the goblins? Extinction for the king and queen? Sending Wilton to Earth? Watching him in his exploits? His going back and forth to Earth? Bringing C.J. with him? The importance of the suspense, the time element, the running out of the wishes, the end of the day?
6.Gobbo and the goblins, their world, slaves, the power of the witch, the indolence and arrogance of the king and queen? The threat to the goblin world? Sympathetic? C.J. and his attempts to save them?
7.Wilton coming to Earth, having to adapt to Earth? The stranger and alien? The arrogant boy? The treatment by the other boys? The encounters with C.J., friendship, adventures?
8.The importance of the wishes - and the effect on C.J., voicing his whim? The various adventures - and the possibilities of what he was turned into? His trying to frame the perfect wish? The irony of his being turned into a girl? Travelling into other dimensions? Going to the kingdom, meeting the king and queen, the exposure of the witch, Gobbo, the adventures with the goblins and their being saved?
9.The kingdom saved, Wilton having learnt a lesson? C.J. having an extraordinary experience - and being able to return, imaginatively, to ordinary life?
