A Simple Wish

Anabel Greening, a young girl living in New York, wishes for a fairy godmother of her own. What she gets is Murray, a male fairy with good intentions but little experience and no working magic wand. Anabel's wish is for her father Oliver, a cab driver who has auditioned for a leading role in a Broadway musical, to win the part, since failure would mean the family leaving the city. Murray's attempts to help go wrong, and Oliver ends up turned to stone. At the same time, the fairy convention is under threat from the witch Claudia and her assistant Boots, who steal the fairies' wands. Murray and Anabel have until midnight to put things right.

Michael Ritchie directed the film, the fifteenth of the fifteen features he directed, following The Scout in 1994. Jeff Rothberg wrote the screenplay, and Bill, Sid and Jonathan Sheinberg produced. Martin Short plays Murray, Kathleen Turner plays Claudia, and Mara Wilson plays Anabel, with Robert Pastorelli as Oliver, Deborah Odell as Jeri and Francis Capra as Charlie Greening among a credited cast of 38. The film was released on July 11, 1997 and runs 89 minutes.

The production, a Universal Pictures and The Bubble Factory release, had a budget of 28 million dollars and took about 8 million dollars worldwide, a poor return. On IMDb it holds 5.4 out of 10 from around 6,200 votes, and on TMDB 5.5 out of 10 from 179 votes. A critics' rating of 4.5 out of 10 from 19 reviews places it close to the audience scores.