Movie Review: Encanto

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B

A really fun and beautiful looking animated Disney film.

What makes this movie work is our main character Mirabel (who may look a bit like this film's co-director, Charise Castro Smith). This is a character that I find it hard not to like. She is a nice, kind person and the kind you would love to have as a friend in real life. Yet she is not too perfect to be believable. She does have a temper and can jump to conclusions about people. This does not stand at all in the way of her being likable because they are faults that all of us can relate to and simple work to make her more human. She is also incredibly relatable due to not only the circumstances she is in but the way those circumstances affect her. We have all felt like the odd man out or that our best efforts simply were not good enough. The fear of letting others down in fact plays a role in this movie beyond just this one character and that is something that makes the film emotionally effective. Even though the story may resemble other Disney movies, all the emotional moments hit home just the way they should. This is because even though the film is filled with Columbian culture, at its heart it is a universal story that anyone anywhere can relate to. As is to be expected from an animated Disney movie, this film is visually beautiful. Like has been the case for Disney films (dating all the way back to the Good Neighbor films of the 1940's), the crew went to Columbia on a research trip and there is no doubt that the filmmakers have perfectly captured the visual beauty. This movie is stunning and even though it looks very much like a Disney film, the Columbian atmosphere helps it stand out.

This may be the first and last time I ever say this, but the most disappointing part of this Disney movie is the songs. These songs (written by Lin-Manuel Miranda of Hamilton and In the Heights fame) are instantly forgettable and are simply pleasant at best. They are neither Disney nor Miranda's best work and even though I just watched this movie a couple hours ago, I am having trouble remembering what some of them sounded like and for the first time I didn't leave an animated Disney movie with a song stuck in my head.  This movie also has simply too many characters in the main family to give all of them they time they need. Because of this some of them feel less developed and more one note than others. I also admit despite the jokes, I simply heard less laughter in the movie theater than I did with other recent Disney films. The humor is not bad at all, but simply not as great as many other Disney movies.  

This is a delightful movie that should delight Disney fans both, new and old.