Encant-ation

I knew the broad outline of the plot before I watched Disney's newest animated movie, Encanto: in a family with magical powers, one young girl without powers is the one who must save the magic for all of them. But I didn't know the casting, I didn't know whether it was a musical or not, and I didn't know the exact setting. Discovering all that (and more) along the way enhanced my enjoyment of the film.

In recent years, Pixar and Disney animation have been striving for more cultural diversity in movies like Coco, Luca, Moana, and Raya and the Last Dragon (which I still need to get around to). Now, with Encanto, Disney continues the push. The Colombian setting informs the film from top to bottom. There's a sprinkling of Spanish dialogue throughout -- and even a montage with a song entirely in Spanish. (And this is a movie for kids, so no subtitles.) But there's really no language barrier here at all for an English-speaking audience.

Indeed, the movie is maximally inviting, particularly when it comes to the visuals. Encanto is bright and cheery and colorful, even more so I think than the Wreck-It Ralph movies (which had license to use all the colors of all video games). I also think it really maximizes animation as a format, to the highest degree for Disney since perhaps the Genie character in Aladdin. Musical numbers are staged in ever-transforming, non-literal environments. The camera moves freely and with the fluidity of an auteur director trying to achieve the perfect "long, single take." Encanto is in every way a feast for the eyes.

It's a pretty strong feast for the ears too. Lin-Manuel Miranda is back to provide the songs as he did for Moana. These songs arguably aren't as catchy, but they certainly are dense. With rapid-fire lyrics, very complex rhyme structures, and powerful Latin grooves, I feel these songs would reward repeat listening in the same way Hamilton fans have pored over those tunes. The cast is exceptional throughout, both in the performance of those songs, and overall. Stephanie Beatriz is a real standout as the lead character, Mirabel. I wrote of her appearance in In the Heights that people who know her only from Brooklyn Nine-Nine would be amazed; get ready to be amazed all over again, because you would never know they didn't find an actual teenage girl to voice this role.

If there's one weaker element to Encanto, it might be the story overall. There are strong threads of Cinderella here; this is not the movie for you if you can't stomach a child being treated unjustly by her family. It's almost ridiculous the levels of denial that the family Abuela sinks to in crapping on poor Mirabel -- so much so, in fact, that I wondered if the writers might be trying to slip some subliminal message about climate change into the movie somehow. (Sort of tilt your head and squint at the story, and perhaps you'll see it?)

Overall, I very much enjoyed Encanto. I'd give it a B+. It deserved better than its pandemic-deflated box office numbers, but hopefully it will be more widely seen and appreciated now that it's streaming on Disney+.