Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

16 Wishes Blu-ray Movie Review

Not THOSE 16 Candles

Reviewed by Michael Reuben April 22, 2012

With the impending release on Blu-ray of the John Hughes classic Sixteen Candles, it's an opportune moment to pick up this overlooked Image release of the Disney Channel's take on the perils of turning sixteen. 16 Wishes turns out to be decently made family entertainment, in which the age of sixteen looks a lot more like eleven or twelve, because the really thorny issues (like sex and hormones) have been magically erased from the picture. Of course, as in Hughes's world, everyone is materially secure, even though 16 Wishes was made well after the financial meltdown of 2008. Not one parent worries about losing a job or defaulting on a mortgage.

And that's as it should be. 16 Wishes is a fairy tale, complete with a modern-day, age-appropriate fairy godmother, who keeps popping up in different guises that allow her to blend in seamlessly with the contemporary U.S. service economy. The moral of the story is that being a kid is pretty great, because being an adult isn't as appealing as it looks. So appreciate your family, because they love you. About the only thing missing is a sign at the end saying, "Now let's all go to Disneyland!" Then again, I didn't scan every frame for a subliminal cut.

Abby Jensen (Debbie Ryan, star of Disney Channel's Jessie and The Suite Life on Deck) starts her sixteenth birthday by shooing away her well-wishing parents (Kendall Cross and Patrick Gilmore) and younger brother (Cainan Wiebe), who just don't understand her need for adult privacy. (In what may or may not be a nod to Sixteen Candles, Abby's younger brother, like Molly Ringwald's in the Hughes classic, is also named Mike, and he too is a dork—but a good-hearted one.) Then Abby consults the not-so-secret birthday Wish List she's had taped inside her closet for years and fills in number 16 with a picture of the school quarterback on whom she has a crush: Logan Buchanan (Keenan Tracey).

Abby vows this day will be perfect, despite the machinations of her long-time rival, Krista Cook (Karissa Tynes), who lives across the street, shares the same birthday and competes openly with Abby at everything. Indeed, when Abby looks out her bedroom window, Krista is ready for her, standing in her driveway next to the new car her parents have just given her for her Sweet Sixteen.

Fate has different plans for Abby, in the form of Celeste (Anna Mae Routledge), a chipper pixie who pops up in multiple identities throughout the film. The first is that of an exterminator who sends a magical CGI wasp into the Jensen household to stir up the equally CGI hornet's nest that, as she then tells the Jensen family, has been building up in their attic for sixteen years (symbolism alert!). They'll all have to move out while Celeste fumigates. Abby's perfect day is already ruined, and not even her best friend, Jay (Jean-Luc Bilodeau), can lift her spirits. Jay, of course, would like to be more than friends, and it's obvious he's wonderful, but Abby just can't see it. (See generally Austen, Jane, Emma.)

Then Celeste reappears as an overnight delivery courier bearing a package of magical birthday candles. Lighting each one makes a wish on Abby's list come true. Before long she has the coolest car in school (much better than Krista Cook's), a befuddled employee of the DMV arrives to hand her a license, and Celeste whisks her away on a shopping trip for clothes and accessories that make every other girl fall at her feet (and a purse that bribes the suspicious gym teacher into adoring submission).

Abby's sixteenth birthday really is perfect—that is, until she lights the candle corresponding to the wish that she be treated like an adult. At that point, the magical fantasy turns serious, and 16 Candles becomes a tween variation on A Christmas Carol, with Celeste playing the Ghost of Birthdays Future. Annie DeYoung's script manages to raise genuine issues about the price of growing up and accepting adult responsibilities, while maintaining the film's light tone and family-friendly attitude. Director Peter DeLuise (son of Dom) never forgets that he's a making a Disney Channel movie, and Ryan is a skilled enough young actress to make Abby's tribulations feel genuine without turning on anyone's tears. We do, after all, want a happy ending, and 16 Wishes provides one so upbeat that it has room not only for a song, but also for outtakes over the credits (and they're pretty good too).

16 Wishes Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

16 Wishes was shot on hi-def video by Michael Lohmann, a long-time cinematographer and camera operator for Boston Legal (and other shows), and it has the professional polish and smooth sheen of a first-rate TV production. The picture on Image's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is sharp, clean and detailed, and the colors are bright and cheerful without over-saturation. There are none of the sharp edges or harsh textures that sometimes mark digital cinema in the theater. This is a stylized and artificial world, but the photography doesn't go out of its way to call attention to the artificiality. The goal of the film's visual design is to convey the unspoken message that our lives could be just as easygoing as the Jensen family's, if only we learn what Abby learns during the course of the story. (It helps to be perky, cute, have no material wants and be surrounded by an adorable family that's fully functional.)

No scene is ever dark enough for deep blacks to be an issue, but the black levels are properly set for the details of clothing, decor and perfect skin to be well delineated. The digital origination and post-processing eliminate such concerns as high-frequency filtering and artificial sharpening. The 90-minute program and its limited extras are easily accommodated on a BD-25 without compression artifacts.

16 Wishes Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

One doesn't expect much in the way of rear channel effects from a tween comedy, but the DTS-HD 5.1 track on 16 Wishes has a few surprises. When the horde of wasps first declares its presence, the fierce insects expand into the entire surround field to great effect. A magic-enhanced car ride that recalls the much longer one in Men in Black provides a rush in all five speakers. Similar moments occur throughout the film and are all the more effective for being unexpected. Dialogue remains clear and well-centered, as one would expect from a film made for TV, and the serviceable score by Canadian composer James Jandrisch (the film was made in Canada) is capably reproduced. The soundtrack includes selections from several songs, but the key one is the original composition that closes the film and is sung by Ryan, "A Wish Comes True Every Day". It sounds great and is frustratingly catchy.

16 Wishes Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Cast Interviews (HD, 1080i; 1.78:1): The stars of the film answer a few questions.
• Debby Ryan (1:32)
• Jean-Luc Bilodeau (1:58)


• "A Wish Comes True Every Day" Music Video (HD, 1080p; 1.78:1; 3:15): Much of the footage for the video was also used at the end of the film, but additional footage shows the recording of the video. The sound is PCM 2.0.


• Additional Trailer: At startup, the disc plays a trailer (in standard definition) for The Fallen, which can be skipped with the chapter forward button and is not otherwise available once the disc loads.

16 Wishes Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In Heathers, a film that could be considered the repressed underside of most high school movies, Veronica Sawyer's Mom tells her, in a moment of uncharacteristic insight: "When teenagers complain that they want to be treated like human beings, it's usually because they are being treated like human beings." Human beings treat each other badly, and Heathers satirically exaggerates the abuse that high school students heap on one another into murder. In 16 Wishes that abusive element is embodied in the person of Krista Cook, who's spent eight years literally trying to destroy her neighbor Abby in every available form of competition (her reasons aren't revealed until late in the film). Though the film solves the problem between Abby and Krista too easily, that's only consistent with its theme that Abby isn't yet ready for the adult world, where everything gets much, much harder. Still, the subject is a serious one, well worth exploring with the film's target audience. Doing so without preachiness is a clever trick. Recommended for family viewing. The trip to Disneyland is at your discretion.