Encanto

In their latest animation outing (the 60^th animated feature film ), Encanto provided a fresh take at a Colombian perspective through magical realism and slightly toxic family dynamics. With a full Latino cast behind the belt, songs created by Hamilton creator, Lin Manuel Miranda, and with the trailers delivering something that looked like it could be touching, uplifting and vibrant, Encanto looked like a fun experience. When it was released in theatres, casual viewers and critics seemed to be impressed and just like that, a new magical Disney film was brought into the limelight. In a village sectioned off from the rest of Colombia, a family; the Madrigals, helped preserve the land through a miracle gifted to them years ago which blessed their house (named Casita) and their children with special powers which are used to help out the community. However, one child in particular, Mirabel (voiced by Stephanie Beatriz) was not given a gift and feels left out by her ‘perfect’ family. However, it soon becomes clear that the magic is dying, which is causing the house to crack, and the rest of the Madrigals start to lose their gifts. With Mirabel seemingly being blamed for this, she decides to track down Bruno (voiced by John Leguizamo), a past member of her family who was shunned and disowned due to his visions seemingly creating disastrous futures and hopes that he will be able to tell her how to fix the magic and save the family, therefore making her feel like an actual Madrigal. The recent resurgence for Disney has led to a lot better films in the past few years, and while it definitely doesn’t feel as  ever-lasting as some of the other classics, it honestly doesn’t have that many things wrong with it to keep it from being that kind of fantastic film.

From the original trailers, the film definitely looked like it had potential, but even as the info kept coming, it felt as though the movie would focus heavily on its animation, personality, music, and characters to carry itself as it didn’t feel like the movie had much of a narrative going into it. Upon viewing it, its safe to say that this movie doesn’t really follow that expected of a film structure; it doesn’t rely on a big-world ending threat, it doesn’t feel like a movie that has an over-arching plot, there’s no villain or antagonist, it doesn’t even really have a climax. However, this doesn’t necessarily make the movie ineffective; if anything, the fact that the film works despite this shows praise to how it handles its themes, emotional turmoil, and simple storytelling. The basis for the story written by directors Jared Bush and Byron Howard (along with assistance from Jason Hand, Nancy Kruse and Lin-Manuel Miranda) is very much emotionally driven, it thrives off its characters emotional issues and how much this one event dramatically altered how they lived their life in the past, present, and even the future. Because of this and since the movie doesn’t follow any cliched plot-lines (like it looked like it could have from the trailers), its not clear where the movie’s going when you start it; its aware of what to keep focus on and what to leave to the audience’s imagination as it’s a movie that really takes from magical realism (something very popular in Colombian literature). The script for this film written by Charise Castro Smith and Jared Bush is really strong with how it balances its key themes and ideas, with multiple well-fleshed out characters, a world and universe that feels lived in, and ideas that are expansive but are very well explained in a tight fashion without losing its emotional touch. Its ties to how a person copes with a traumatic background and even how a genuine good person can become toxic in how much they try to feel worthy of said miracle works really nicely with this movie, and because its lacks a traditional story, it avoids traditional flaws that could easily come about from this set-up. What is an issue is that it can sometimes feel a little quick-paced (mainly in terms of some of the revelations and musical numbers) and its one of those movies where there’s a lot more under the surface that at face value; which is great, but it runs the risk of not working for everybody, mainly those who like films with three-act structures and more plot-based stories.

It’s a movie thats clearly dripping with personality and warmth, and a lot of that comes from its cast. It makes sense that a film all about the Colombian culture should feature an all Colombian-born cast, and that really breathes a lot of life and cultural passion into this movie, because clearly everybody in this movie is having a lot of fun voicing and singing their parts, which everybody does really well. The fact that this family are like superheroes in this environment yet are more focused on passively assisting people as opposed to fighting crime is already a fun change of pace, but the dynamics that this creates actually leads to a ton of great potential. The movie tackles a lot of struggles that can come from basically any family; an older siblings need to protect and share burdens resulting in a ton of stress, a middle child’s need to please and be ‘perfect’ in order to gain acceptance, and the youngest feeling left out and unimpressive in comparison to the rest of their family. It makes sure that everybody in this family gets some semblance of screen-time so the audience can get to know them, and much like what Coco did, despite the limited screen time, everybody in this family is very likeable. It avoids the trope of making any of them bad people or incredibly one-note, each feels more fleshed out than they are initially conceived to be; Mirabel is a very likeable lead and is able to leap off the screen with personality and plenty of sympathy thanks to her delightfully un-perfect design and Stephanie Beatriz’ wonderfully expressive vocal performance, her sisters voiced by Jessica Darrow and Diane Guerrero get some good development in the film, the grandmother voiced by Maria Cecilia Botero has a lot more to her than expected, even the house, despite not having a face or voice, has a lot of personality in how they animate it to move and ‘express’.

Nowadays, animated Disney films are going to look great, so they need to have a specific niche in order for them to stand out, and this film’s tie to Colombian culture is that exact niche. Disney films are introducing and visualizing more cultures in their films, and it has led to some great imagery and unique locations, and Encanto is no different. The richness and vibrancy of the color palette for this film feels especially distinct from others Disney animation, something about the lighting and specific tone makes it feel incredibly earthy, warm, and indigenous. The character designs for everybody are also spot on; they feel incredibly distinct through their looks alone and the animation works wonders in making them incredibly expressive and physically active. Its energized and passionate animation that also works well in sweeping flashy moments and dramatic, soft, and slow moments, which the films balance out really nicely also. It’s a movie that isn’t afraid to sit still with no music and let a moment sink in, it can be very emotionally effective when it wants to be (especially during a specific song number during a flashback). Speaking of which, this movie has a lot of great numbers thanks to the talent of Lin Manuel Miranda who already proved his capabilities to work with Disney with Moana. These songs feel pretty different from the traditional Disney norm and feel much more like Lin’s style, which is a benefit in this regard. All the songs are very catchy, tell the story and don’t feel without purpose, and despite the faster paced lyrics and melody, are incredibly well performed and definitely ones that will get your feet tapping (We Don’t Talk About Bruno will never leave your head).

Encanto is just one of those movies were everything seems to be just right. Despite what look like flaws on the outset aren’t going to be problems for everybody, and the amount of pros that this film carries makes it one that has a lot of good old-fashion Disney attributes, but is still definitely a contemporary movie with a lot of modern advantages. Everything that the movie does feels like what this kind of story requires, and nothing feels out of place or ill-fitting. It wanted to bring something a little unique to the table for Disney animation, and while it might not reach the same level of simple timelessness that some of the classic Disney films have, it is a pretty great entry that people should definitely check out. Its emotionally engaging, a lot of the characters are likeable and get some good development, the music is great, the visuals are very impressive and memorable and it’s a product that is more than what it looks like on the outside and provides some nice deep meanings behind its initial pretty surface (would you believe that this movie talks about immigration effectively). Its one that feels like people will get into and one that is going to have enough of a standing to have references and acknowledgement in the rest of Disney’s trademark (that house has to be a Disney Land attraction), but either way, its good to see that Disney still knows how to capture the magic. Check it out for yourself and witness Encanto in all its miraculous glory.