I’m always excited when a new film in the animated Disney Canon is released! It’s such a grand event for me!
But it’s even a grander event when the film is a milestone number in the Disney Canon! I remember the hype when Tangled was released as it was the 50th film in the Disney Canon. Fast-forward ten films and we’ve arrived at the 60th film in the Disney Canon, Encanto! What do I think of it? Read on to find out!
Spoilers ahead!
Encanto takes place in Columbia (or at least a place inspired by Columbia) in an ambiguous time period. The Madrigal family is quite well-known in their neighborhood due to being a multi-generational family, all of whom (well, mostly all) possess a magical gift of some sort.
One of them has super strength, one of them has super hearing, one of them heals physical injuries with food, etc. Only the teenager, Mirabel, voiced by Stephanie Beatriz, wasn’t given a gift, much to her disappointment. One day though, she notices cracks starting to develop in their house and realizes that the family’s gifts and unity is being threatened. It’s up to her to discover why this is happening and how to save her family.
Overall, I thought the film was pretty good! It had great animation, great voice acting, and I loved most of the songs (Surface Pressure is my favorite)! I also really liked how Mirabel’s sister, Isabela, voiced by Diane Guerrero, is portrayed as incredibly beautiful while being darker-skinned!
This is probably the best film in the Disney Canon since Moana!
The only issue I have though, is a big one, unfortunately: the writing is sub-par. This is sadly nothing new as the past few Disney Canon films have exhibited the same problem. It seems that either the writers are rushed to meet a deadline or are held back creatively. Whatever the case may be, this film needed a few more tweaks in order to make it an amazing film.
I wish there was more explanation of why the cracks appeared in the house when they did and not before. I wish there was more information about why the family was fleeing in the beginning of the film. I wish that Bruno…
Ahem…I wish that Bruno, voiced by John Leguizamo, did more in the film. And I especially wish that the film had an actual villain, sadly another trope the recent Disney Canon films have exhibited.
I also have mixed feelings about the number of characters in the film. I like how they portrayed a multi-generational family and I think they did an overall good job telling us who is who. But, I also feel there are characters whom I barely got to know. For example, I don’t know anything about Agustín, voiced by Wilmer Valderrama, other than he’s accident-prone and allergic to bee stings.
While it may seem that I had a lot of complaints about the film, I honestly really liked it! If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend that you check it out!
The Animation Commendation 
I can agree with some of this to a point, but I also like the fact that they aren’t handing us all of the plot points and background story as it lets us fill in the blanks for ourselves, which helps us make the story more personal since we usually fill those blanks with things that are familiar to us. I also like. It having a true villain as it shows that sometimes the things we’re fighting against aren’t physical, which again is much easier to apply to our everyday lives. If Abuela had been an actual villain, as opposed to the trauma she experienced and inadvertently passed to her family, it would have been a very different story.
Also, in relation to the cracks, don’t forget that Bruno’s been hiding in the walls and patching the cracks for years, so they’re not new. I like the interpretation I read recently that Mirabel sees the cracks because her gift is breaking down barriers, whereas Abuela’s gift was creating them.
That’s an interesting interpretation about Mirabel’s gift! And yeah I guess you’re right about Bruno.
I guess story-wise, I wanted more told to me and less for me to fill in myself, lol!
That’s fair. 😂
Actually it’s very hard to find out because in the movie, there is no antagonist or bad guy in the film. The only thing that can be considered as an antagonist is the unknown threat to the family’s magic. Which is very interesting because Despite there is no villainous or mischievous guys in the film, but there was something that this family was all fighting against. And it was up to Mirabel to find out. So if we have to identify the form of the antagonist it might Abuela’s fear, fear of loosing loved ones, loss of hope and of the magic.
Ok Actually, there is a mischievous and villainous sensation in Encanto. It means in the movie there might be a bad guy. And it’s clear the villain might be…… Dolores. Ok I know it sounds weird, but look. First it happened in the breakfast table, Abuela is asking Dolores if they have a date, so as she hears she said “Tonight. He wants 5 babies” and as before she puts her head down, while pausing it, you can kinda like see a mischievous eye sight while Dolores looking at Isabella. She might be lying and she might also be inventing the 5 baby thing.
Even as you review her lyrics of the song “We don’t talk about Bruno”, her lyrics started changing. “He told me that the man of my dreams will be bechrothed to another. It’s like I hear him now.”, but now at the final what you didn’t notice is that the fish lady switched unto Dolores and even lyrics said “He told me that the man of my dreams will be just out of reach bechtothed to another… another..And I’m fine, And I’m fine, And I’m fine, And I’m fine” Something tells me that she wasn’t fine at the dinner.
Also if you go to Google translate Dolores in Spanish will be a meaning English meaning Pains.
Yeah the family did make the film feel a bit overstuffed character wise and they didn’t do enough with Bruno, still a pretty solid 60th feature
Yeah, I totally agree. A pretty solid 60th feature!
From the trailers I got the impression that this film was trying to be Coco. Was that the case?
No it wasn’t. I feel it was mostly a fail on the marketing team that made people think this was trying to be Coco.
About the colorism part- as somebody who was always mostly attracted to white girls/women that is great to hear. It gets frustrated when it seems the “more beautiful” non-whites are seemingly always drawn with fairer skin compared to their family.
Yeah, it definitely is rare to see!
I absolutely loved this movie – glad you enjoyed it too! The music was fantastic (Surface Pressure was my favorite too). I thought the themes and characters felt very realistic and relatable – the way they might show themselves to the family and the public one way but actually feel something different inside.
My husband felt the same way about the plot as you. While there were a few bits that could have been stronger everything else was so beautiful that (for me) it didn’t matter. I think I’ve watched it 5 times already.
Glad you enjoyed it so much! Did it make your top 10 favorite Disney Canon films?
Disney Encanto follows Mirabel, the only one in her family that is not granted a magical gift. But no matter what she continues as hard as she can to fit into her otherwise extraordinary family. You see in the movie Abuela Alma had a hard time passing through anything that wasn’t magical. When Mirabel had something very important to say, Abuela doesn’t pay anymind infact, Mirabel was the first in her family to notice that Casita was beginning to crack, and even if she attempted to warn Abuela about it, no one listened and the tragedy consequently surprised everyone. And Mirabel the only one without a gift proved herself to be the only sensible one in the family. That’s when she decided to search in Bruno’s room, where she can find the answer to save her family. That’s when she discovered some shards of glowing green glasses etching on them. Which shows the vision that Bruno kept seeing. The Casita crumbling right through the ground with Mirabel standing front and center. Giving of the appearance that the downfall of the madrigal’s home will somehow be Mirabel’s fault. She’s clearly unable to interprete what this vision means, but only that it’s her fault that the madrigals and Casita’s downfall, no matter this ominous discovery she continues as hard as she can to continue her mission in order to save Casita and her family and she ended up finding Bruno and that’s when he explains that he left because his dark visions kept changing and he doesn’t know what to do anymore. So Abuela, the family, the Audience are led to believe that the destruction that is appearently gonna befall the Casita was gonna be caused in someway by Mirabel. There was also a scene from when Mirabel discovers that Casita in force does in fact crumble. Now I think that there’s a mistake there, because what the movie was trying to do is to make us believe that it was completely Mirabel’s fault and it actually was which I will explain later. But look Mirabel and Bruno work together by using Bruno’s visions and Mirabel’s positive mindset and the two of them do push together by making a vision and it shows that a good future is coming and Mirabel saw herself hugging Isabella which visibly confuse Mirabel. Ok as long as Mirabel knows that she and Isabella don’t get along too well and as they hugged together, they now love each other. So the vision that they did together is not the solution to the family’s problem. It is a symbolic representation of the solution to the family’s problem. Because the vision is telling Bruno and Mirabel to bring the family together to unify them rather than divide them. And that’s exactly what Mirabel was trying to do, she provided the hope specifically. So if you think Mirabel is the problem well you’re wrong because we figured out that it was not Mirabel’s fault. Even the vision of Bruno seeing Mirabel the reason of Casita’s downfall, it is merely a vision of Mirabel loosing hope after being mistreated by Abuela Alma for not being special.
Guys actually there is a secret about Encanto that you guys didn’t know. Eventually, there TWO Miracles in Encanto.
The 1st: The Candle 🕯 itself created by Abuela Alma’s love for Abuelo Pedro.
The 2nd: Mirabel, born of casita, colors, everyone’s.