We’re back in the cinema for a Disney animated classic! Apart from the poster in the cinema lobby, I’ve seen nothing in the way of promotion or discussion involving this movie. Nothing. Nada. Nichte. Niente. Nichto. Raya and the Last Dragon and Luca have set a high bar for animation this year, but Encanto… over to you.
Encanto tells the story of a young woman, Mirabel Madrigal, living in a secluded, but magic, house with her entire extended family. Every one of her family members has a special gift that they received from Abuela Alma’s miracle candle when they came of age. Mirabel’s sister Luisa is really strong. Mirabel’s other sister Isabela can make beautiful flowers appear. Mirabel’s mother Julieta can heal people’s injuries through food… the list goes on, and it’s pretty impeccable. But Mirabel can do nothing; on her ceremonial day, the miracle passed right over her, leaving her without a special ability. Rough; but I’m sure there’s a talented gift inside of her somewhere, right? Anyway, while we worry about that, Mirabel begins to notice that the magic house is cracking, and it’s a race against the clock to figure out why.
Disney can do huge complex themes in their sleep – there’s an animated short at the start of Encanto that deals with generational parenting, and I like to think of the animators at Disney being like, “want us to cover complicated discourse in a cartoon? We’ll do it in five minutes. We’ll do it with no words, and we’ll do it with racoons! Easy.” As Encanto starts, it sets up Mirabel as one of the most mature and shaded Disney characters in recent years – I’m talking Mulan-territory, or Mulan-adjacent, with dutiful awareness and noble responsibility. I always seem to gush over how animation technology improves with every passing movie, so allow me to note Mirabel’s facial expressions as the pinnacle of today’s animation; they are so varied and so precise. Mirabel also wears glasses – a woman of my own heart, and I can relate to how she’s always pushing them up and making sure they don’t break. With her cousin Antonio receiving an ability to talk to animals at the start of the movie, it’s a blessing and a curse for Mirabel, because she wishes the best for her family naturally, but it’s also a reminder that something went very wrong with her, and she may never find that something that makes her special. I thought the movie was very clever in its structure, including a real-time flashback of the sad night Mirabel didn’t get a miracle, after her family and the celebration for Antonio had already been established – usually Disney movies like to start with the heavy; like, I’m pretty sure Frozen opens with the problems that see why Elsa is locked away first. Tarzan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and more, all tragedy first.
It’s a transfixing first act, and you think you know how the movie is going to go, with Mirabel adventuring to find that she’s had a gift inside her all along, or that having no gift makes her special in her own way, or something like that. But no, Mirabel’s sisters are struggling, and it seems Mirabel will help her family one by one, teaching them like no one else can, how to be more than just their powers. Atop of this, is the mystery of what is happening with the house, and how Mirabel is going to save Abuela’s magic before it runs out. At this stage, I didn’t have a whiff of how this movie was going to resolve itself, so I hunkered down for something like Knives Out, and waited for Disney to surprise me all over again. I also admire how the movie plays almost exclusively inside the house, barely venturing off the premises; not that it’s exactly limiting, when the house is full of exceptionally transportive rooms, that go from jungle landscapes to dark caves. As cliche as cliche’s go, the house is nearly the best character of the movie – think the water in Moana, or Carpet in Aladdin, but this’ll challenge them all, because a house is an entire house!
So I’m going along, until the climax of the second act, where Mirabel believes she will never be good enough for her grandmother and accuses Abuela for being the true cause that the magic is failing… yeah, that’s a headscratcher. By this point, it’s clear that the magic is failing because the inhabitants of the house are unhappy, and while Mirabel has been helping them, the house is on the mend – Abuela can’t see the big picture, but I don’t think that makes it her fault, and I don’t compute how Mirabel would think it’s her fault either, based on the information we’ve seen from all our characters. Then, the movie’s resolution is for Abuela to reiterate why the miracle was important to her in the first place, but that has nothing to do with why the magic is failing now. The Madrigal girls feel like they aren’t worthy beyond their gifts, and we haven’t seen the grandmother directly not value her children – maybe this is an obvious issue that hasn’t been vocalised, or Abuela does value her grandchildren beyond their powers and the message isn’t getting through (or am I victim blaming). The best example is Bruno, who doesn’t flee due to his mother’s ‘reign’, but because his gift brings misery to everyone. Everyone. The solution would be to help Bruno harness his gift and bring him back into the fold. Isabela also doesn’t want to marry that guy, but she’s told nobody, so it isn’t just grandmother who’s disconnected. My point is that I don’t think we’ve seen enough of the grandmother’s action or beliefs either way, to conclude that this staunch matriarch is stressing out her family. I took it that the grandmother is very proud, and probably pushes her family to test their powers, probably indirectly putting pressure on their self-worth through their gifts admittedly, although we don’t really see that either. And Abuela has a similar chip on her shoulder as Mirabel does, because the magic didn’t work for Mirabel. Am I missing something?
I don’t want to be insensitive to people who have been displaced by conflict – settling into a new home and overcoming the mental anguish of such an event must be tough. I wouldn’t wish losing a husband, and raising three kids on your own in an unfamiliar world on anyone. And it’s important to value other people’s perspectives; I myself, left out Abuela’s hardship when writing how this movie doesn’t begin with a main character’s tragedy, brushing over Alma’s experience incorrectly. But functionally, I think Encanto’s narrative gets lost in allegories of protection and miracles, or at least, I’m lost in the allegory because it isn’t very clear. That scene where Abuela is retelling her past reminded me strongly of Toy Story 2, where Jesse recounts her time as a valued toy and her heartbreak, explaining why she’s been so standoffish about Woody leaving Al’s apartment; Jesse’s experience may ‘influence’ Woody’s decision in the short-term, but it isn’t put in the movie to ‘fix’ Woody’s problem, of if he should stay or try to get back to Andy. One reading of Encanto is that you can’t build anything solid out of magic; you should achieve your accomplishments through hard work – which is fine and true, but isn’t it so off-brand for Disney to discredit magic; I don’t think I want Disney telling me that. It’s almost communistic in messaging, really – wouldn’t we be better off if nobody had any unique talent, and all your stresses in the moment can be blamed on establishments formed generations ago – Encanto is kind’ve ugly if you think of it like that. But more locally, I think the movie is aiming for a different spin on a familiar message, that ‘you are more than your flaws’, making it ‘you are more than your talents’, which is a very interesting idea, but I don’t know if the movie quite gets there. In the end, I think the movie settles in, boiling the message down to the old moral of ‘be yourself’ – and while everyone is dancing at the construction of their new home, I don’t want to not be behind it; I’ll put my objections to the side. It was touching that Mirabel’s family give her the doorknob because she has united them again as before.
The end credits reveal that Encanto had five writer contributions, and I think it shows – the middle portion of the movie does not completely stick to what the beginning and the end are doing (but then Raya and the Last Dragon had eight writer credits, so the implication that there were too many writers at the desk goes out the window). You tried, Encanto, but for me and my personal experiences, I’ve got to give the points to your predecessors for the Disney animated movies of the year. Yet Encanto is so vibrant and full of life, that although I don’t think it works, I’m gonna boost it up half a star.
3.5
P.S. Now that the COVID disruptions have settled in or passed, can we please only have one Disney animated feature a year? The same goes for Pixar too, please? I find it thins the prestige when the movies are too often.
P.P.S I also love a Disney feature with fresh songs (thanks, Encanto), but sadly none of these songs worked for me at all beyond the first one.
Leave a Reply