Encanto – Review

Encanto

Co-directed by: Jared Bush, Byron Howard and Charise Castro Smith

Runtime: 102 minutes

The best thing about seeing a Disney animated film is the simple and inexplicable happiness it provides, no matter what the story. Encanto tells the story of a magical Columbian family that begin to notice cracks in their magical house and their own family relationships. We are introduced to Mirabel (voiced by Stephanie Beatriz) the only member of the Madrigal family without special powers, dealing with feelings of exclusion, lack of purpose and the mystery of their breaking magical casita. Like any Disney film, Encanto left me sighing in contentment and with feelings of a good time, but this film ultimately doesn’t break any new ground in major ways or have a clear story arc throughout.

As is always important for a Disney film, we need to talk about the beats! The music in the film, composed by the amazing Lin-Manuel Miranda, just oozes pride in his culture every step of the way. This is clearly a man who prides himself on getting representations onto the screen and through his music this absolutely shines through. As a very white person, I won’t comment on what this music could mean to the Columbian culture, but I can simply say the music was incredible and taught me a lot about this culture. The clear stand out songs, if you want to prepare yourself before viewing, is the excellent big sister song “Surface Pressure” and the cheeky “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”. Both songs are absolute “bangers” with really beautiful underlying messages for kids and adults. Disney films always have that wonderful quality of singing to us, deep in the soul, and these two songs achieve that in spades. “Surface Pressure” shows the perspective of a burdened older sister, asked too much and burdened with protecting her younger sister. This underlying narrative, combined with sexy donkey backup dancers (not kidding) makes for an excellent number at the start of the film. “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is a fun take on gossiping about hated relatives with a fun Miranda spin throughout. It is clear that you are going to hear about Bruno, despite the title.

The animation was absolutely stunning, leaving me looking at screenshots of the detail in their hair, beautiful Columbian skirts and background hidden easter eggs. Each character had a great deal of personality and this came through in their individual design. Bruno, a character despised by the family, had this crazy-yet-loveable charm in his design while Dolores was absolutely beautiful.

The major issue in this film was the lacking of an overarching villain. This isn’t necessarily a flaw as the storytelling gave room to focus on the family but it felt a little lacklustre with the Abeula being the biggest deterrent for Mirabel throughout. This doesn’t feel untrue to the storyline, but it felt like a poor choice considering the lack of representation on screen. Do we really want to vilify our grandmas who try to preserve culture and protect the family? It just felt like the wrong move, not necessarily a bad one. I may also stand alone in this but it also felt like Mirabel was robbed in this film after all her hard work to bring the family all together. She was clearly one of the most hardworking, loveable and caring characters in the entire movie, and while there was some redemption, it hardly felt like enough.

Through Lin-Manuel’s excellent score and Disney’s stunning animation, Encanto beautifully expresses the Columbian culture in every single frame. Mirabel is the character we want to root for as she deals with the fracturing house and family. It pretty much ticks the boxes of everything we want in a Disney film:

• Strong and likeable lead
• Excellent songs
• Beautiful animation
• Soulful message for kids and adults

However, this film does fall short with the lack of a clear protagonist which does lead to some issues with pacing and storytelling. Encanto is a fun film that will leave many song earworms in your head for days to come. Now excuse me while I listen to “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” on repeat.