REVIEW: Encanto

It was around Disney's 50th animated feature, Tangled, that this critic first came into film discourse. A lot has changed within the House of Mouse in the years since, and we now find ourselves the recipient of the Disney canon's 60th feature film, Encanto, directed by Jared Bush, Byron Howard, and Charise Castro Smith. What does this latest entry contribute to the library? Turns out, quite a bit.

Nestled in their enchanted house, Casita, the Madrigal family dazzles their community with their fantastical gifts. Elegant Isabella makes flowers grow in her footsteps, young Antonio chats it up with the local wildlife, and Mirabel ... wishes she had a gift like the rest of her family. It's hard to feel important when you're the only one in your family without a superpower, especially with your grandmother constantly shoving you into the corner. But all is not right in paradise. The magic is fading from Casita, and Mirabel is the only one who can keep her family together, but only if she can discover for herself what no one else will offer her freely: her purpose.

There are something like a dozen Madrigals in this cast, a dozen points to this star, each of them distinct from not only each other but also character types as a whole. What precedent is there for a muscle-clad, dress-wearing, donkey herder with anxiety problems? Stereotypes appear only long enough to be dissected and subsequently dismantled, and the whole cast feels fresher for it.

Mirabel is herself a rarity among animated films of all brands. Nerdy teenage girls finally get their day with Mirabel, the rare animated heroine who doesn't look like she fell off the barbie doll shelf. Voice actress Stephanie Beatriz neither disguises nor exaggerates Mirabel's innate geekiness, instead carving a whole human who is insecure but not self-deprecating, warm but not saccharine. We also have Ms. Beatriz to thank for supplying our heroine with a beautiful singing voice, which we have the privilege of hearing across a full deck of musical numbers.

We may have heard catchier tunes from Mr. Miranda (then again I have been singing about Bruno-no-no-no for hours since my viewing), but we've seldom seen musical numbers staged so beautifully. Each number has the characters sliding between vivid stages that seem to be made from light itself. Remember how your jaw dropped watching Elsa dance among the clouds of living ice crystals? There's more where that came from. A lot more.

Where adventure quests are de rigeur for animated films, Encanto chooses to stage all of the action within the Madrigals' "Casita." The film takes a page from the likes of Hogwarts or the castle in Super Mario '64 and keeps all the plot's dungeons within a singular, magical house.

It is somewhat underwhelming that Mirabel never has to travel as far as her backyard to collect her Holy Grails. But even that frustration is thwarted by the quiet genius of this wrinkle. Sure, many of us might climb mountains or slay dragons to save the day, but going one door over to make amends with your sister? That's one ocean few of us are daring enough to cross.

In a way it's refreshing that the plot is propelled forward by Mirabel basically having little therapy sessions with her relatives. Mirabel challenges her family's schema for the perfect familial unit, but Mirabel's honesty and insightfulness may be just what her family needs to become the best version of it's self.

Much like Mirabel's contribution to her family is undervalued, Encanto's offering to the Disney family is a little hard to describe because the film's connection is tenuous. The songs aren't like your usual Disney songs. The story isn't like your usual Disney story. The heroine isn't like your usual Disney heroine. For that, a lot about Encanto is weird. Like an awkward youngest child of an extraordinary family of films, one that maybe we don't quite know what to do with yet. But each new discrepancy also carries something like revelation, something that might bring life and variety to the family. Given little time, I think we'll be happy to welcome this one to the clan.

--The Professor

Comments

ALGDecember 6, 2021 at 4:56 PM
My daughter is a Disney aficionado, and this one just didn't resonate with her quite like other Disney classics (e.g., "Alice in Wonderland") and recent Disney soon-to-be classics (e.g., "Coco") have. That may change with time but, like you, she found "Encanto" occasionally "weird." Interesting review, nonetheless! I haven't seen the film, but you've evidenced that it is worth at least a look.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Fine, I Will Review The Percy Jackson Show (again)

I have wondered if I was the only one who thought that "Sea of Monsters" was the weakest of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians pentalogy, but I have seen my reading echoed by other book loyalists. This second installment is perhaps penalized partially because it marks several major junctions in the larger series. This is, for example, the part of the series where the scope of the adventure really starts to enlarge. We know going in that there's an angry, deceased titan out to destroy Olympus, and that he's amassing an army, and so we need a sense that this threat is growing stronger. But this also marks a turning point in how series author, Rick Riordan, chooses to develop his main character. And so, season 2 of the Disney+ television adaptation faces similar crossroads. Season 3 of this show is already filming as we speak, so its immediate future is already spoken for, as far as production goes. But stylistically, this second seas...

REVIEW: MERCY

Everyone who was despairing that Star-Lord and Taser-Face never got their showdown, your moment in the sun has come. In MERCY , out this weekend, future Los Angeles has adopted a justice system in which criminals are weighed before an AI judge. Those on trial are allowed the full disposal of public surveillance and digital footprints in order to clear their name within a 90-minute timeframe. And this is the situation in which recovering alcoholic and policeman, Chris Raven, (Chris Pratt) find himself as he is charged with the murder of his wife, and he is left to make his case before the commanding Judge Maddox (Rebecca Ferguson) or face execution. The movie's buoyed up by a respectable ensemble cast, including Kali Reis, Annabelle Wallis, Kylie Rogers, Jeff Piere, and Chris Sullivan. Pratt and Ferguson are both up to the task, but we've also seen more memorable work from both of them. The movie knows ...

REVIEW: Mickey 17

Coming into Mickey 17 having not read the source material by Edward Ashton, I can easily see why this movie spoke to the sensibilities of Bong Joon Ho, particularly in the wake of his historic Academy Award win five years ago. Published in 2022, it feels like Ashton could have been doing his Oscars homework when he conceived of the story--a sort of mashup of Parasite , Aliens , and Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times . Desperate to escape planet earth, Mickey applies for a special assignment as an "expendable," a person whose sole requirement is to perform tasks too dangerous for normal consideration--the kind that absolutely arise in an outer space voyage to colonize other planets. It is expected that Mickey expire during his line of duty, but never fear. The computer has all his data and can simply reproduce him in the lab the next day for his next assignment. Rinse and repeat. It's a system that we are assured cannot fail ... until of course it does. I'll admit my ...

REVIEW: SCARLET

There isn't a story on the books that can't somehow trace its genealogy to the works of William Shakespeare. Such is the nature of inspiration and archetype. But the latest film from anime auteur, Mamoru Hosoda, is almost an adaptation of, rather than a homage to, Shakespeare's Hamlet , carrying over character names and even a few iconic lines. Yet it's not what Scarlet borrows from Shakespeare that gives the story its weight, but what it adds--and I'm not just talking about the giant thunder dragon in the sky. The Prince of Denmark in this story is reimagined as Princess Scarlet. This film sees her failing in her quest to avenge her father and being doomed to wander in some sort of desolate afterlife. Her only consolation is the idea that she might find her treacherous uncle somewhere in this wasteland and see her vengeance fulfilled in this world. But her quest sees her crossing paths with someone else, a medic from a ...

REVIEW: West Side Story

Slight spoiler, the first shot of Steven Spielberg's West Side Story adaptation opens on a pile of rubble, a crumbled building wrecked to make way for new development. I amusedly wondered if this was maybe an accidental metaphor, a comment on this new adaptation of the stage show supplanting the legendary film version in 1961. There's not a lot about the 2021 film adaptation that deviates largely from the blueprint of the 1961 film or the stage musical on which it is based. That blueprint, of course, being the romance between two teenagers on opposite ends of a gang rivalry in 1950s New York. A few songs get swapped around, the casting is more appropriate, but there's no gimmick. We have to assume, then, that at the end of the day, Spielberg just wanted to try his hand at remaking a childhood favorite. Filmmakers, take note. Follow Spielberg's example. When revisiting an old text, you don't need a gimmick. Good taste is enough. ...

An Earnest Defense of Passengers

I've heard a lot of back and forth over what the purpose of film is and what we should ask from it. Film as a social amenity kind of has a dual purpose. It's supposed to give the population common ground and find things that people of varying backgrounds and beliefs can unify around. On the other hand, film also creates this detached simulated reality through which we can explore complex and even testing ideas about the contradictions in human existence. In theory, a film can fulfill both functions, but movies exist in a turbulent landscape. It's very rare for a film to try to walk both lanes, and it's even rarer for a film to be embraced upon entry for attempting to do so. Let me explain by describing the premise of one of my favorite movies, Morten Tyldum's 2016 film, Passengers . A key piece of this film ’s plot revolves around the main character, Jim Preston, a passenger onboard a spaceship, who premat...

Elemental: Savoring Pixar's Fading Light

I’ve only been doing this writing thing for a short while. But in that space, I have been surprised at many of the developments I’ve gotten to witness unfolding in the popular film landscape. It was only five years ago, for example, that superhero movies were still thought to be unstoppable. Here in 2025, though, we know better. But the wheels coming off the Marvel machine accompanied a shift in their whole method of production and distribution, and it didn’t take long for the natural consequences to catch up with them as verifiable issues started appearing in their films. Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) No. The development that has most surprised me has been critics and their slow-motion break-up with Pixar. The only way I know how to describe what I’ve seen over the last five years … imagine that your roommate has been stuck for a long time dating a girl who was obviously bad for him, and after he finally breaks up with her he gets back into the dating ring. All the girls he takes out ...

The Belle Complex

As Disney fandom increasingly moves toward the mainstream, the discussions and questions that travel around the community become increasingly nuanced and diverse. Is the true color of Aurora's dress blue or pink? Is it more fun to sit in the back or the front on Big Thunder Mountain? Is the company's continued emphasis on producing content for Disney+ negatively impacting not only their output but the landscape for theatrical release as a whole? However, on two things, the fandom is eternally united. First, Gargoyles was a masterpiece in television storytelling and should have experienced a much longer run than it did. Second, Belle's prom dress in the 2017 remake was just insulting. While overwhelmingly successful at the box office, the 2017 adaptation is also a bruise for many in the Disney community. Even right out the gate, the film came under fire for a myriad of factors: the auto-tuned soundtrack, Ewan McGregor's flimsy accent, the distracting plot ...

REVIEW: ZOOTOPIA 2

Any follow-up to the 2016 masterpiece, Zootopia , is going to be disadvantaged. Cinema was still a year ahead of Jordan Peele's "Get Out" when Disney released one of the most articulate explanations of race, allyship, and accountability ever put to film. Now that everyone knows how good, even "timely," a Disney pic can be, how do you surprise everyone a second time? The insights in this sequel won't spur any new chapters in your sociology 101 textbook. Though honestly, neither was the deflection of white saviourship that novel back in 2016. We more or less knew how racial profiling and biases played out in the landscape. What surprised many of us (and validated the rest of us) was the idea that these ideas could be articulated so eloquently in a children's film. It seems that the studio tried the same thing here with Zootopia 2 that it did with Frozen II six years ago. I think a lot of people wanted that m...

A Patch of Blue: Sidney Poitier, Representation, and The Virtue of Choice

Way, way back (about this time last year), I premiered my piece on the responsibility that younger viewers have to engage with older cinema --specifically the films of old Hollywood. There was a lot of ground that I wanted to cover in that essay--literally an entire era of filmmaking--so most of my talking points had to be concise, which is not how most writers prefer to discuss a thing for which they have passion enough to design and maintain their own blog. There is a bounty of discussion when it comes to film history and the people who made it. Today I'd like to take the opportunity to dig a little deeper into one such island: that of legendary actor and trailblazer, Sidney Poitier. Dwandalyn Reece, curator of the performing arts at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, described Poitier , “He fully inhabits both sides of that personality, or those tensions, of being a Black person i...

Films and Feelings

Search This Blog