I have to admit from the start of this review that I am far from the target demographic for any Disney film. If my account here on Hive is anything to go by, it's clear that in almost five years of writing about movies and television shows, and building a community around it, that I have a very strong interest in international creations, where culture and languages have a significant impact on the narrative and filmmaking styles.
Every so often, though, Disney does release something that does slightly lean more into my preference: featuring elements of culture, life, and language into an animation that can often be very creative and setting the bar for other animated productions to attempt to reach in terms of standards. These sadly seem to be becoming few and far between as the company focuses elsewhere in the age of streaming services and huge franchises.
While Encanto isn't terrible, it certainly displays lost potential in its lack of substance due to a scattered number of characters and limited runtime. Very few of its ideas are given enough exposure in order to come into fruition, instead, it often dances around ideas in a formulaic structure and leaving you behind as you begin to want more depth in its characters and story.
Encanto
Encanto's narrative isn't anything difficult to go by: it follows the family of the Madrigals which live up in the mountains of Colombia. Their family, unlike the rest of their small town, are blessed with magical abilities in life, ultimately giving them purpose and defined characteristics that summarise who they are and what they are supposed to do. One character is blessed with incredible strength, and is capable of lifting all things and helping others out as a result. Another character is blessed with the ability to grow beautiful flowers at will, creating large quantities of colour and beauty wherever she pleases. It goes on.
However, our protagonist, Mirabel, is the only family member to have not been blessed with a magical gift. As a result, she's directionless and jealous. There's no purpose for her in life, and she's seen as the outcast both within and outside of her family. If you haven't yet noticed where this narrative is going, you will soon under the typical Disney fashion of pursuing happiness and acceptance of the self in their stories. But we'll get to that later.
These moments of context are often glimpsed over rather quickly, provided to us at the earliest convenience in quick lines of dialogue, but later on we're given a little more depth through the film's musical elements. Characters break into song and dance as they preach their struggles in life despite being blessed with magical abilities. We see that they're ultimately not happy and contain these rather strong expectations from others, they're rarely seen as just people and now suffer from the struggles of such a life.
For the most part, these songs were bad enough to make me question whether or not I could continue watching. I knew there'd be musical aspects, as there always is, but I didn't think Disney -- especially modern Disney -- to make the decision to remove the elements of culture within the music. Sometimes, the music and their rhythms just felt so out of place, pulling you out of this idea of a magical place in the Colombian mountains where all is colourful and all are filled with joy; instead the music often felt generic, pop-ridden messes that you'd find on the declining radio stations that make you turn them off and sit in silence instead.
Though the film still got its point across, it just did so in such a strange way that felt void of soul.
A lack of culture, but strong meaning
In the era of representation, I expected much more culture in Encanto. I expected something beyond simple accents and some architecture. It almost felt as if the filmmakers were afraid to actually make the film a cultural one rather than a westernised approach to some aspects of culture. Disney (Pixar) went in this direction in a prior cultural animated entry named Coco, which from what I recall was filled to the top with cultural themes.
About a quarter through its runtime, Encanto seems to lose its personality a bit. Even the character designs don't feel as vibrant and interesting as they did prior. And the film takes an expected, but rather rushed turn into its core meaning: individualism.
Culture is set aside, and we're instead given a lesson on what it means to be an individual. That ultimately we are not defined by our successes and talents, but it's who we are and how we react to people that matters. It shows us that humanity has taken a direction in which we quickly define people by their achievements and essentially rank each other based on them, rather than seeing the strengths in people that may not be academic, or strong, or musically talented; seeing how a person treats others and uses kindness to connect and make change in the world as an individual.
Ultimately, this becomes a strength, we see how Mirabel uses her kindness, despite being void of any magical abilities, manages to bring people together and strengthen the areas of community and family through it.
Sadly, this becomes lost again as the music kicks in and we're taken out of this immersion and thrown into generic pop music, where the cinematography takes a sudden turn and resembles modern music videos with strong camera angles that twist and turn to the point of near drunkenness. I assume that this was a decision in order to maintain the attention of younger audiences, rather than boring them to death. Though I feel it was a decision that ultimately harmed the film in the end.
Visually beautiful, but nothing that stands out
Encanto's visuals certainly don't raise the bar. Its animation and style is that of which we've seen many times in the past. But it is a very colourful film, and I enjoyed it for that. Even in its most frustrating moments, it still can impress with its use of colours and shapes as it follows the traditional Disney style of frequently changing environments and using style to promote a particular line either in or out of the musical moments.
I almost feel as if the film could've removed the musical side entirely and used the rather large amount of time lost from songs to focus more on the characters and their depth through dialogue. Perhaps giving us more of the environment they're in and witnessing the decline of community and family as it's slowly rekindled by Mirabel's efforts.
Through this we would have had much more insight into the characters and been able to feel more connected to them. To understand them and see who they really are outside of their magical abilities. The use of songs meant a strong focus around their abilities, which seemed strange given the narrative's push to display that we are much more than those.
Sadly, most of the characters are just plot devices. Used merely for a quick laugh or when the narrative needs them. Meaning we don't really see much else from them outside of the songs which are used to display their context and depth as characters. This is where much of the film feels far too rushed, since such songs often carry on for around five minutes. I think some people watching from home may even consider just skipping through these segments after a while.
Lost potential, but still enjoyable
Encanto is far from the peak of Disney's capabilities in the world of storytelling and animation, but it's still an experience that you can enjoy despite its weaknesses. I liked the idea, and the ability to promote community and family connection over the more artificial methods of branding that we've created in society. It just doesn't expand upon it enough, sadly. I feel that watching Encanto just makes you feel that itch to check out other Disney feels that do have that extra polishing and substance; Wall-E being a film that quickly comes to mind.
It's worth mentioning that modern Disney feels are much like their former self, just slightly void of the creativity that pushed them into the spotlight. There's still meaning behind the story, there's still some pretty shots, and there's still those moments that make it clear that the film is aimed at families, for a wide demographic to sit down and watch together. While it may have missed the spot with me, I'm sure it perfectly hits the spot for others. I certainly can't fault it for that.
I'd be happy to see Disney take this concept of culture and expand upon it in future films, however. I feel the area of culture specifically is one that is often overlooked. And I believe Disney certainly has some improvements to make in order to fill that space. Whether that will happen with future entries or not is a big question to ask, particularly when we understand that these films are made by Disney, who ultimately just want to make the largest amount of money possible without really alienating anyone.
