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Finding something the whole family can watch during the holidays is a perennial challenge. It’s as much a part of tradition as turkey on Thanksgiving and Christmas carols on the radio soon after. This holiday season, Disney is serving up a warm, feel-good family friendly movie called “Encanto,” a Colombian magical realist tale of a family that received special powers after surviving a tragedy. Now, a few generations later, they live together in a magical house and each member develops their own talent, like the ability to control the weather, shapeshift into other people, and talk to animals. Their casita (house) responds to the family’s requests and responds to their moods. Each bedroom is magically tailored to the relative and their magical gift. All except for one, Mirabel ( Stephanie Beatriz ). 

“Encanto” follows the “girl with no apparent gift” Mirabel, who tries her best to fit in a family so extraordinary that her judgmental Abuela Alma ( María Cecilia Botero ) offers only her disappointment at every turn. For Mirabel, it’s tough to stand out when her mom, Julieta ( Angie Cepeda ), can heal wounds with her cooking—more specifically, her arepas con queso, her sister Luisa ( Jessica Darrow ) can lift the heaviest of objects with ease, and her sister Isabela ( Diane Guerrero ) can grow the most beautiful flowers without barely thinking about it. Mirabel notices the family’s casita is starting to show cracks, but no one believes her and downplays her worries as something her estranged eccentric uncle Bruno ( John Leguizamo ) would say. It’s up to Mirabel to find out what’s happening to save both her family and her home. 

Directors Jared Bush and Byron Howard (“ Zootopia ”) and co-director Charise Castro Smith (” Raya and the Last Dragon ”), who bears more than a passing resemblance to the movie’s main character, have created another kind hearted movie about misfits trying to do the right thing. Most notably, there’s no villain in this Disney movie, just a nebulous “unknown” threatening the family and their home. The conflict is minimal at best, which allows for Mirabel to spend more time learning about what she can do despite her lack of powers, but it also leaves the movie feeling a bit meandering. To make up for lost action, the movie shines in its animation and design, really making use of the house with doors to new worlds and musical sequences that allow for a little more abstract artistic freedom. 

Speaking of those musical sequences, I think it’s time Lin-Manuel Miranda takes a break. After knocking it out of the park with “In the Heights,” “ Hamilton ” and “ Moana ,” his 2021 offerings have been a little lackluster. For this review, I finally watched the movie “ Vivo ,” in which he voices the title character as well as handles the song writing duties. Those numbers sounded flimsy and forgettable. In one song, he rhymes “drum” with… “drum.” In “Encanto,” the odds are a little better, more songs fare better than others, but there’s still a sense that these musical numbers are the reheated leftovers from other projects. They sound like his work, but don’t offer anything new or exciting to get stuck in our heads. Isabela and Luisa’s disposable pop songs "What Else Can I Do?" and "Surface Pressure" are cloyingly repetitive. “The Family Madrigal” is a less effective version of the opening song from “In the Heights.” Only Carlos Vives’ rendition of Miranda’s song "Colombia, Mi Encanto" sounds like a memorable stand-out.

Unimpressive songs are an unfortunate thing to befall an animated musical like “Encanto.” Thankfully, there are other elements to enjoy like the movie’s boisterous voice cast that includes Carolina Gaitán , Rhenzy Feliz , Ravi Cabot-Conyers , Wilmer Valderrama , Mauro Castillo , and one-name Latin music stars Maluma and Adassa. It’s also impressive to see an animated Disney movie finally include varying skin tones and hair textures in the same family, while also incorporating Colombian fashion like ponchos, flowing embroidered skirts, colorful dresses and guayaberas as part of a character’s details. Beatriz is magnificent as Mirabel, embodying both pain and love in her voice throughout the film, yet never losing a sense of the goofy playfulness that makes her character so likeable. Abuela’s singing voice comes from the one and only Olga Merediz , another “In the Heights” alum.

Similar to how Pixar’s “ Coco ” paid tribute to Mexican culture, “Encanto” holds many nods to its Colombian roots, from the use of flowers and animals specific to the regions to crafting songs that incorporated their respective countries’ musical palette. In both stories, the matriarchal abuelas have to also go through an emotional journey just as much (if not more) than the younger protagonists in the movie. It’s an interesting development to see both Pixar and Disney Animation move into the world tour phase of their storytelling, but I hope they avoid repeating each other in thematic and narrative elements. 

One difference is that “Encanto” explores the Madrigals’ backstory beyond their household, showing the Madrigal grandparents fleeing their homeland for safety and Abuelo’s ultimate sacrifice in an artistic flashback. The story of a homeland lost and the family who rebuilt in a new land is not an uncommon one for many immigrant families, and by sensitively including it as part of a charming Disney movie, perhaps will give a new generation a better sense of belonging or at least the comfort that others have shared their experience. It may help kids who didn’t grow up with those stories of a “paradise lost” to understand those that did. Maybe that’s an optimistic view for a movie many will flock to in a post-turkey coma, but despite a few missteps, “Encanto” is one of the more charming animated movies to hit theaters this year. 

Exclusively in theaters today. 

Monica Castillo

Monica Castillo is a critic, journalist, programmer, and curator based in New York City. She is the Senior Film Programmer at the Jacob Burns Film Center and a contributor to  RogerEbert.com .

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Film credits.

Encanto (2021)

Rated PG for some thematic elements and mild peril.

Stephanie Beatriz as Mirabel Madrigal (voice)

John Leguizamo as Bruno Madrigal (voice)

María Cecilia Botero as Abuela Alma Madrigal (voice)

Wilmer Valderrama as Agustín Madrigal (voice)

Diane Guerrero as Isabela Madrigal (voice)

Jessica Darrow as Luisa Madrigal (voice)

Angie Cepeda as Julieta Madrigal (voice)

Adassa as Dolores Madrigal (voice)

Mauro Castillo as Félix Madrigal (voice)

Rhenzy Feliz as Camilo Madrigal (voice)

Carolina Gaitán as Pepa Madrigal (voice)

Ravi Cabot-Conyers as Antonio Madrigal (voice)

Maluma as Mariano (voice)

Alan Tudyk as Pico (voice)

• Byron Howard

Co-director

• Charise Castro Smith

Writer (story by)

• Lin-Manuel Miranda

Cinematographer

• Alessandro Jacomini
• Daniel Rice
• Nathan Detroit Warner
• Jeremy Milton

Composer (original score composed by)

• Germaine Franco

Composer (original songs by)

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‘Encanto’ Review: In This House, We Make Magic

Disney’s new film, about a gifted family in Colombia, has stunning animation, a beautifully composed story and spellbinding songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

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By Maya Phillips

For better or worse, Disney has always been in the business of making magic. We all know the worst: the unimpressive secondhand sorcery of formulaic plots, flavorless songs and lifeless animation. But the best — well, that’s the kind of magic that gets passed on for generations.

So it’s not unlike the magic of Casita, the living house of the Madrigal family in Disney’s brilliant new animated film “Encanto.” Forget Alexa — Casita’s a smart home like no other. She speaks in a language of clapped tiles and flapping window shutters, and helps keep things in order.

And she has her traditions: When each young Madrigal comes of age, she grants them a gift and a door to a new bedroom, an impossibly large and elaborately designed chamber themed around a special ability. It all started years ago, when the Madrigal matriarch, Abuela Alma (María Cecilia Botero), and her family fled the violence of their village. After a tragic loss, however, a miracle appeared in the form of a candle that granted the kids their powers. There’s a shape-shifter, a prophet, a healer and more — and then there’s Mirabel (a perfectly cast Stephanie Beatriz), the muggle of the clan.

When Mirabel finds herself in the middle of a mystery about the future of her family’s magic, she goes on a mission to figure out how she can stop the worst from happening. It’s a surprisingly small-scale story: Instead of on a journey, the action unfolds in and around the Madrigal home. But that’s because “Encanto” is most interested in the love and struggles of family, without silly side characters or romantic leads.

The computer animation, some of the best from any major studio in the last several years, presents a dazzling confabulation of hues and a meticulous weaving of precious details — like the embroidery on skirts, the golden-brown crust of a cheese arepa and the selection of native Colombian flora.

In “Encanto” there’s a robust engagement with, and respect for, Latino culture in all of its dimensions. The Madrigal family members’ skin tones range from lighter to darker, their hair textures from straight to kinky-curly. And the grand pooh-bah of the contemporary musical movie score, Lin-Manuel Miranda , provides a spellbinding soundtrack of songs combining salsa, bachata and hip-hop played with traditional folk instruments from Colombia.

The directors, Jared Bush and Byron Howard, last collaborated on another of Disney’s brightest gems of the last decade, the racially aware “ Zootopia ,” and they subtly incorporate an important political message into this film as well. This is a story about displaced people who build a home from nothing. Their history is the source of their magic, and they use that magic to selflessly improve their community, without needing to assimilate into it. Given our nation’s track record on these subjects, to see such a tale in a children’s movie is quietly extraordinary.

But “Encanto” also resists having its magical characters fall into the trope of the model immigrants — that they have only earned their place because of their special abilities. The Madrigal family members belong even when they’re not conjuring roses or transforming the weather. And even with these fantastic feats of wizardry, the Madrigals, with all of their relatable family dynamics, are believably loving, funny and flawed.

If home is where the heart is, my heart’s with Casita.

Encanto Rated PG. Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes. In theaters.

Maya Phillips is a critic at large. She is the author of the poetry collection “Erou” and “NERD: Adventures in Fandom From This Universe to the Multiverse,” forthcoming from Atria Books. More about Maya Phillips

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Encanto Review

Disney’s 60th animated film is a magical, joyful celebration..

Encanto debuts in theaters on Nov. 24.

Encanto is a movie about magic and so in some sense, it feels cliché to say that everything about it — from the music to the animation to the story — dazzles in a way one might consider, well… magical. But this magic is also what sets Encanto apart, as the film marks the first time Disney has dabbled in the trope of magical realism.

And that’s what makes the 60th animated feature one of Disney’s recent best.

Disney's Encanto Images

The story of Encanto revolves around 15-year-old Mirabel Madrigal (Stephanie Beatriz) and her family, who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia in an enchanted, vibrant house. Everyone in the Madrigal family receives a special and unique gift that “unlocks” when they’re 5 years old; these powers are generally based on their personality.

In a snappy, Lin-Manuel Miranda-flavored opening, we’re introduced to the family Madrigal: There’s sisters Luisa (Jessica Darrow) and Isabela (Diane Guerrero), who have the powers of super strength and the ability to make flowers bloom, respectively. There’s Mirabel’s mother Julieta (Angie Cepeda), who can heal people with her cooking, and her aunt, Pepa (Carolina Gaitan), who can control the weather. There’s cousin Dolores (Adassa), who has enhanced hearing; cousin Camilo (Rhenzy Feliz), who can shape-shift; and cousin Antonio (Ravi-Cabot Conyers) who can speak to animals. Abuela (Maria Cecilia Botero, with a singing voice some might recognize as In the Heights alum Olga Merediz) heads the Madrigal crew and keeps everyone in line — for better or for worse.

What's your favorite Lin-Manuel Miranda soundtrack?

Surrounded by a fantastical family, Mirabel is the only one who doesn’t have special powers, despite her quirky and empathetic personality. During a ceremony to reveal Antonio’s gift, she notices that her house seems to be in danger of falling apart. Mirabel’s constant warnings fall on deaf ears as everyone around her assumes she’s acting out due to being frustrated about not having a special gift. Determined to save her family’s home, she’s forced to follow clues left by her estranged cousin Bruno (John Leguizamo), who disappeared after his power of seeing the future made him, well, not the most popular member of the family.

So much about Encanto comes together to make the movie an eclectic and celebratory tale, particularly the stellar voice cast. As Mirabel, Beatriz — who showed off her singing chops earlier this year in In the Heights — brings just the right amount of charm and sincerity to the non-magical teenager. Similarly, as Bruno, Leguizamo manages to balance both the humor and the poignant resentment of someone who harbors years of deep hurt and shame. Darrow and Guerrero as Luisa and Isabela both get particular moments to shine during solo songs that not only light up the screen, but deftly show the hidden complexities these characters carry with them.

Visually, Encanto is a delight, filled with stunning colors, beautiful animation, vibrant music, and a joyfulness that pops off the screen. The story never feels slow or uninspiring, and the film effortlessly blends heart and humor in a way that feels seamless. If you’re a fan of previous works that Miranda has had a hand in bringing to life via original songs, you’ll certainly see a pattern (both thematically and musically) in the tracks he pens for this film and in their deeper meanings of belonging and identity.

Ultimately, both of those things are what helps make Encanto great. Unlike other films, the magic in Encanto isn’t derived from a mystical being or supernatural creature, and it’s not something that’s rooted in pure fantasy. It’s born out of things that are very human and very relatable: needs, wants, drives, dreams, and familial relationships. This foundation helps ground the film in a realistic world, making every character’s choice, fight, win, or setback even more triumphant or heart-wrenching.

Melding family, love, acceptance, and even the breaking of generational trauma, Encanto is a film about finding your true self and learning that you don’t have to necessarily fit the mold that the world — or the people you love — want. It’s about breaking away from unhealthy and outdated traditions and about accepting that building something new doesn’t mean old memories aren’t important. It’s a celebration of the fact that powers may make us extraordinary, but it’s our hearts that make us special.

In the hopes of making something meaningful for both the Latina community and the wider world of animated entertainment, writers Charise Castro-Smith and Jared Bush create a world that, much like Mirabel, embraces its human heart and shines brighter than anything created by supernatural forces.

Disney's Encanto: Visual Development and Concept Art

Encanto dazzles both visually and narratively, with vibrant songs and stellar animation. Stephanie Beatriz leads a superb voice cast who help bring a film to life that is grounded but also feels like a magical delight.

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Review: Disney’s animated musical ‘Encanto’ delivers an empathetic brand of charm

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They’re gifted and they’re kooky, even a little spooky. It’s not the Addams Family but the Magical Madrigals. “Encanto,” the latest Disney Animation film, sweeps audiences away to a colorful, enchanted world of Colombian magical realism, introducing the Madrigal family, who have all been granted extraordinary gifts except one member, our heroine, Mirabel ( Stefanie Beatriz ), who has yet to discover her own magic.

Jared Bush and Byron Howard, who co-wrote and co-directed the Oscar-winning “Zootopia,” have teamed with Charise Castro Smith for writing and directing duties on “Encanto,” while Jason Hand, Nancy Kruse and Lin-Manuel Miranda contributed to the story. The result is an animated musical that’s typically rousing and compassionate, rooted in the kind of therapy-inspired personal lessons about self-worth that often underpin these movies, soundtracked by Latin pop tunes written by Miranda.

The Madrigal family magic was borne of extreme trauma and pain when matriarch Abuela Alma (María Cecilia Botero) lost her husband while fleeing violence in their village. In desperation, she cried out for protection for herself and her infant triplets, and a magical candle raised mountains around a charmed casita, where she has raised her family since. Each Madrigal receives their gift in a coming-of-age ceremony, with powers rangingfrom super strength, high-powered hearing or talking to animals to spinning flowers out of thin air, shape-shifting, future divining, weather controlling or food healing.

The only exception to the magical rule so far is the sweet, smart Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz), who never received her gift and has since felt like the family outcast, bending over backward to earn her place. As she starts to see cracks in the foundation of their beloved casita, Mirabel probes deeper into the family’s magic. She ultimately realizes that all of her family members are caught in the trap of perfectionism, believing that they have to use their gifts in the ways others want them to without remaining authentic to themselves and their desires.

The animation is a vibrantly hued and energetic swirl of almost nonstop motion, and Miranda’s songs skip from genre to genre, from traditional Disney ballads to reggaeton-inspired tunes and even a tribute to Colombia’s own rock goddess, Shakira. The script is fast and furious, packed with jokes and references. There are times where you wish everything would slow down for a moment to allow time to get to know some of the supporting characters better, but the story of “Encanto” is refreshingly, and satisfyingly, swift and contained.

Mirabel’s magic shines through in who she has been all along: a good listener, empathetic and caring. She allows her family members to share their stories and vulnerabilities and creates a safe space for their authenticity. With her diminutive stature, round glasses and curly hair, she’s like a mini super-therapist for her family; indeed, sometimes finding that person who allows you to be yourself, whatever that may be, does feel like the greatest gift of all. It’s a simple but resonant tale, but “Encanto” is a charmed and charming film that just might offer a bit of healing too.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

Rated: PG, for some thematic elements and mild peril Running time: 1 hour, 39 minutes Playing: Starts Nov. 24 in general release

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‘encanto’: film review.

A Colombian teenager has to save her extended family’s magic although she has no special gift of her own in Disney’s animated musical adventure with original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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Disney’s Encanto is, well, enchanting. It’s tricky to make an animated film so infused with exuberant sweetness without it becoming cloying. But this whimsical dose of magic realism set amid the lush greenery of the Colombian mountains benefits as much from the purity of the storytelling as the stunning vibrancy of the visuals. Aside from a quick nod to the inescapable Frozen anthem, “Let It Go,” and a funny throwaway gag about valet parking for burros, there are remarkably few of the usual winking cultural anachronisms designed to pander to contemporary kids. Instead, this is a film that commits to the timeless folklore of its South American setting to a transporting degree.

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The project is led by two of the directors behind Zootopia , Jared Bush and Byron Howard, with co-direction from lead screenwriter Charise Castro Smith, a playwright making an impressive leap into features after TV credits ranging from Devious Maids to The Haunting of Hill House . The other indispensable member of the creative team is Lin-Manuel Miranda , who contributes eight buoyant original songs that blend his passion for traditional musical theater with Colombian music and the rapid-fire wordplay of hip-hop.

Release date : Wednesday, Nov. 24 Cast : Stephanie Beatriz, María Cecilia Botero, Angie Cepeda, Wilmer Valderrama, Diane Guererro, Jessica Darrow, Carolina Gaitán, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Ravi Cabot-Conyers, John Leguizamo, Maluma, Alan Tudyk Directors : Jared Bush, Byron Howard Co-director : Charise Castro Smith Screenwriters : Charise Castro Smith, Jared Bush

The opening number does exactly what a good musical starter should do — it deftly sets the tone, maps out the history and breakdown of the large gallery of characters, and zooms in on the principal figure, Mirabel Madrigal. Voiced with delightful verve by Stephanie Beatriz ( Brooklyn Nine-Nine ), the 15-year-old is a beloved member of the extended family but also something of an outsider, who hides her melancholy feelings of inferiority by being a model of cheery helpfulness.

That same song, “The Family Madrigal,” also introduces their casita, a multistory fairy-tale house with its own magical powers. Its roof and floor tiles, doors and windows all move in rhythm with the music, communicating with the Madrigals in inventive ways and nudging the physical comedy.

Mirabel’s grandmother, Abuela Alma (María Cecilia Botero), has the warmth of the classic salt-of-the-earth matriarch but also a watchful sternness. She is literally the keeper of the flame, a candle delivered to her in a time of tragedy that burns eternally, fueling the family’s magic. Forced to flee her native village with three newborn infants, Alma lost her husband, Pedro, in an attack by bandits. The candle caused the Madrigal house to appear out of uninhabited jungle and has granted a special gift to all Alma’s children and grandchildren ever since, revealed on each one’s fifth birthday.

Mirabel’s mother, Julieta (Angie Cepeda), can heal any illness with her cooking; her sister Isabela (Diane Guererro) is a dazzling beauty who makes flowers bloom; eldest sibling Luisa (Jessica Darrow) possesses superhuman strength; Aunt Pepa (Carolina Gaitán) can control the weather with her feelings; cousin Dolores (Adassa) has extraordinary hearing; and another cousin, Camilo (Rhenzy Feliz), is an irrepressible entertainer with shape-shifting powers.

Only Mirabel has no gift. The anticlimax of her fifth birthday celebration, when the magical doorway with her name on it simply crumbled to dust, still weighs heavily on her 10 years later. On her Abuela too, especially with the gift ceremony of Mirabel’s young cousin Antonio (Ravi Cabot-Conyers) fast approaching. Alma is concerned that the magic — which has cocooned the family for three generations and supported the village community that sprung up around them — may be burning out.

When Mirabel has a vision of the enchanted casita cracking up, she fears the worst, her apprehension shared by Abuela and by Luisa, who begins to find her Herculean feats an effort. She reveals the unsuspected vulnerability beneath her mighty strength in the song, “Surface Pressure,” another standout.

Feeling that her lack of a gift has let the family down — and in need of some uplifting self-validation, in accordance with the Disney rulebook — Mirabel takes it upon herself to investigate what’s jeopardizing the magic, a quest that takes her through hidden passages and vast chambers inside the walls of the house to track down her mysterious Uncle Bruno (John Leguizamo), who disappeared years earlier.

Much of the movie’s considerable charm comes from the fact that despite the magical elements inherent even in its title, the story is basically about the dynamics of any large, close-knit family of contrasting personalities. The majority of the Madrigals’ gifts correspond to qualities often found among more ordinary mortals — the tradition-bound grandmother; the nurturing mother; the impossibly pretty golden-child sister (whose mean-girl attitude is frequently directed at Mirabel); and the selfless, hardworking older sibling, burdened by a sense of responsibility. Mirabel is basically any teenager perceived as unexceptional, who really just wants to be seen and acknowledged for her own special traits.

The characters who have married into the family are equally recognizable types: Mirabel’s father, Agustín (Wilmer Valderrama), is a lovably clumsy dad who dotes on all the women that dominate the household; and there’s a life-of-the-party uncle like Pepa’s husband, Félix (Mauro Castillo), in every family.

As much as the story hinges on Mirabel discovering what threatens the Madrigal magic and endangers their refuge, on a more fundamental level it’s about this big, complicated group reestablishing its harmony, learning to appreciate, even celebrate, one another’s qualities, whether they are extravagant or simple. And it’s about a community coming together to rebuild what’s lost and fortify one another in the process.

Those sentiments are expertly drawn out by the excellent voice cast and evoked in Miranda’s flavorful songs, including two numbers written in Spanish: “Dos Oruguitas,” performed by Colombian singer-songwriter Sebastián Yatra, is a soulful allegorical retelling of the love story between Abuela Alma and her late husband; and “Colombia, Mi Encanto” is a stirring homeland salute sung by national pop superstar Carlos Vives. In a nice touch of artistic continuity, Alma’s singing voice is provided by Miranda’s In the Heights Abuela, Olga Merediz.

The film continues Disney’s reach for more diverse representation in its animated features, following recent titles Moana , Raya and the Last Dragon and Pixar’s Coco , which shares a Latin American setting but is entirely different in its distinctly Mexican sensibility.

The colors of Encanto are sumptuous, as is the marvelous detail in the costumes and production design, nowhere more so than the Madrigals’ truly animated house — a merchandizing opportunity waiting to happen. The natural settings are even more beautiful, notably a river fed by cascades where Abuela takes Mirabel to share her story. And the animal life that’s so much a part of the classic Disney toon is not neglected, with a cheeky toucan “voiced” by Alan Tudyk and a whole menagerie that appears in connection to one character’s gift, including a jaguar, tapirs, capybaras, even cute rats. Luisa’s rounding up of the wandering donkeys gets big laughs.

Disney clearly recognizes the potential to reach family audiences over the holidays with this Thanksgiving release; the touching, tender but ultimately joyous story is going the theatrical route, with a Disney+ premiere to follow in December. Encanto is ideally paired with Far From the Tree , a lovely seven-minute short, written and directed by Natalie Nourigat, which mirrors the feature’s themes of family and the safety of home in its captivating story of a strict but loving raccoon parent struggling to keep its curious offspring from harm.

Full credits

Distributor: Disney Production company: Walt Disney Animation Studios Cast: Stephanie Beatriz, María Cecilia Botero, Angie Cepeda, Wilmer Valderrama, Diane Guererro, Jessica Darrow, Carolina Gaitán, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Ravi Cabot-Conyers, John Leguizamo, Maluma, Alan Tudyk Directors: Jared Bush, Byron Howard Co-director: Charise Castro Smith Screenwriters: Charise Castro Smith, Jared Bush; story by Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Charise Castro Smith, Jason Hand, Nancy Kruse, Lin-Manuel Miranda Producers: Yvett Merino, Clark Spencer Executive producer: Jennifer Lee Directors of photography: Nathan Detroit Warner, Alessandro Jacomini Production designer: Ian Gooding Music: Germaine Franco Original songs: Lin-Manuel Miranda Editor: Jeremy Milton Sound designer: Nia Hansen Visual effects supervisor: Scott Kersavage Casting: Jamie Sparer Roberts

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Washington Square News

Review: Disney’s ‘Encanto’ has the Latine representation we’ve all been waiting for

Released on Nov. 24, Disney’s new animated film “Encanto” presents a welcome depiction of vibrant Colombian culture.

“Encanto,” Disney’s newest animated movie, features a Colombian family and was released on Nov. 24. Receiving scores of 7.7/10 on IMDb and and 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, it is likely one of Disney’s best films since “Frozen.” (Image courtesy of Walt Disney Animation Studios)

Lorraine Olaya , Copy Chief December 3, 2021

Say what you will about Disney, Lin-Manuel Miranda or musicals — there is finally a movie representing me, a Colombian woman, so you know I had to see it. 

I don’t even know where to start. “Encanto” has everything I could’ve wanted — top-notch animation, vibrant colors, realistic representation, heart-tugging and upbeat music, expert attention to detail and love for Colombian culture. 

Disney princess Mirabel Madrigal (Stephanie Beatriz) — yes, I’m referring to her as a Disney princess since Latinas have been long overdue for a real one — is a tough and authentic heroine. The story follows her magical family, the Madrigals, who all received various enchanted gifts or abilities after Abuela Alma (María Cecilia Botero) fled her home and lost her husband due to political violence. Mirabel, the only family member without a gift, is left with the task of saving her family’s fading magic. Mirabel’s devotion to her family and determination to prove that she is just as special as them is a predictable way to drive the plot and reach that Disney happy ending. However, the movie’s themes and specific representation of magical realism — a literary genre popularized by Colombian writer Gabriel García Marquez  — pushes “Encanto” in a new direction. 

“Encanto” stands out from other Disney movies. It has complex, diverse characters involving an intimate mystery within a magical world. What piqued my interest was learning how the magical world functions as well as about the complicated familial relationships. Plus, there was so much attention to detail in the animation and storyline. Everything was executed to perfection. 

Despite the spontaneous jumps into songs, “Encanto” wasn’t as childish as I thought. Especially after “Raya and the Last Dragon,” I was expecting a similar tone that catered to a younger audience. But the jokes were genuinely funny, while the movie’s plot included real problems and darker undertones, offering an unanticipated contrast. 

Throughout the movie, viewers are immersed in the personal pressures that are a part of the Madrigal family. Each character struggles with the pressure to meet expectations. Mirabel is an outcast for not having powers, while her relatives have to use their powers for the good of the family. There is a crushing weight on their shoulders to make Abuela proud and a constant pressure to be good enough. According to Abuela, they each have a responsibility to use their gifts to help the town. But in the case of Tío Bruno (John Leguizamo), his gift hurt the family and wasn’t useful to the town, causing him to be ostracized. Mirabel is the one to first suggest the family free itself from the pressure to be perfect all the time, challenging the way it’s always been.

As much as I hate to love Miranda, I can’t deny how good the music is. He paid special attention to Colombian music genres — salsa, merengue, vallenato, guaracha and cumbia — and there was even a moment where they played the beginning of “En Barranquilla Me Quedo,” a song by Colombian singer, songwriter and composer Joe Arroyo. The original orchestration is enough to give you chills, with strings swelling in the end credit music. Sebastián Yatra’s “Dos Oruguitas” had me in tears, and Carlos Vives’ “Colombia, Mi Encanto” is a bop. The music was created to pay homage to the Latine sound, and I was fully left in awe. 

Not only is the music accurate; so are the Colombian architecture, landscape, flora, food, clothing and more. There were so many tiny details, from hand gestures, to the Colombian sombrero vueltiao, to Mirabel’s father, Agustín Madrigal (Wilmer Valderrama), using the word “miércoles,” the version of “mierda” that Colombians use around kids. Also, there were little moments where the colors of the Colombian flag — yellow, blue and red — were hinted at. 

The representation is beyond me. The movie has a mostly Latine cast including Maluma, Diane Guerrero and Wilmer Valderrama. We got the whole spectrum of Colombians, from darker- to lighter-skinned, and from straight to textured hair. Mirabel’s sister Luisa (Jessica Darrow) is physically and visibly strong. And Mirabel herself is just a girl with glasses who doesn’t possess overwhelming beauty or strength.

It’s one thing to represent Latine people and culture, but it’s another to empower Latine people to craft their own narratives. “Encanto” does just that. There are so many Latine people in both the cast and the production. It has given them the voice and platform to celebrate both Colombian and Latine culture. 

There are no words to express how grateful I am for this movie. After so many years of associating Colombia with Pablo Escobar, drugs and “Narcos,” “Encanto” finally allows for a celebration of Colombia — its people, culture, family and love.

Growing up, the only person who somewhat resembled me in the media was “Betty, la Fea,” or “Ugly Betty.” I was that little kid with glasses, braces and tangled curly hair. I was never considered pretty according to the entertainment industry’s standards. There were no heroines who looked like me that weren’t deemed ugly. 

On top of that, movies and shows always had protagonists and characters who weren’t Latine or Hispanic. Latine people were only portrayed as stereotypical cleaning ladies and other one-dimensional characters. Latine representation has existed, especially with movies like “Coco,” but they’ve typically portrayed Mexican culture. And outside of “The Emperor’s New Groove,” there’s consistently been a need for representation of Central and South America. “Encanto” is special to me, as a Colombian, because it was about time that a movie accurately portrayed my culture and heritage. 

Please, please, please go see “Encanto,” I haven’t seen a Disney movie this good in years. Despite whatever you may have against Disney, it’s worth supporting the first crumb of real Colombian representation.

Contact Lorraine Olaya at [email protected] .

Lorraine Olaya is a senior majoring in English with minors in Creative Writing and French. She is a native New Yorker, born in Queens, but also doesn't...

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Jacob is a square • Feb 18, 2022 at 9:50 am

clock This article was published more than  2 years ago

Disney’s ‘Encanto’ has a simple but powerful message: It’s not what you do, but who you are that counts

Mirabel Madrigal has a problem — or maybe she is the problem.

The 15-year-old heroine of “Encanto,” Disney’s the latest shoo-in for an animated-feature Oscar nomination, belongs to a very special family. Years ago, when her grandmother (voice of María Cecilia Botero) was forced to flee her home with infant triplets, she was “granted a miracle,” though by whom and why is never explained. First part of that miracle? A magical house, high in the mountains of Colombia, that is almost a living organism. Second: Every member of the Madrigal family — not including in-laws — is given a special ability as a child. Mirabel’s mother (Angie Cepeda) can heal injury and sickness with her cooking. Aunt Pepa (Carolina Gaitan) controls the weather via her emotions. One sister has super-strength, while another is effortlessly graceful, gorgeous and can summon flowers from thin air. But Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz) has no gift.

Her grandmother reminds her of this often.

When the house’s foundations start to crack, and her relatives’ gifts begin dimming and disappearing, Mirabel decides to track down the problem. What follows is delightfully complicated; it’s a quest in which our heroine never leaves home, and the enemy — if there is one — isn’t who you’d expect. Even if the story lacks logic at some points, when you keep in mind that the whole saga started with an unexplained miracle, it’s easy enough to forgive the lack of cohesion. The characters deepen marvelously as the story goes on, and it becomes clearer that the blessings received as children have now become burdens. If you can manipulate the weather, for example, there’s a lot of pressure to keep things sunny. And the film’s overarching message, while one we’ve heard before — people are worthy of love because of who they are, not what they do — is simple yet powerful.

The visuals are lush and lovely, down to such tiny details as the reflections in Mirabel’s glasses. (In an important step for representation, she’s the first bespectacled Disney “princess.”) Her adorably rumpled curls beg the questions: What product does she use to keep then from going frizzy in the Colombian humidity? Directors Jared Bush, Byron Howard and Charise Castro Smith rely heavily on close-ups: Watching Mirabel’s “performance” is a joy on par with watching a master actor at work. The slightest movement of an eyebrow or the twitch of her mouth conveys so much meaning that it’s easy to forget you’re watching someone who doesn’t actually exist. Combined with Beatriz’s excellent voice work, the character animation makes Mirabel a welcome addition to the pantheon of Disney heroines.

While Germaine Franco’s score is outstanding, the original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda don’t have the catchiness or the power we’ve come to expect from other Disney films. They’re also incredibly similar, though inarguably weaker, than Miranda’s earlier work. The big number “Waiting on a Miracle” sounds so much like “Burn” from “Hamilton” that it feels plagiarized. Some of the songs also feel unnecessary; they don’t move the story along or deepen our understanding of the characters. It’s like Miranda was trying to make a quota.

Anyone who has ever felt left out by their family will see themselves in Mirabel. (Frankly, anyone who has a family will recognize — or identify with — someone in this movie.) While Mirabel is at the center of “Encanto,” the story is really about the Madrigals as a whole. What makes a family? Who belongs in what role? How can familial approval be something that both heals and hurts? It’s a creative, fresh take on a story that is much more complex than your standard fairy tale.

PG.  At area theaters; available Dec. 24 on Disney Plus. Contains mature thematic elements and mild peril. 109 minutes

‘Encanto’ Review: Disney’s Lush and Lovely Animated Fairy Tale, Fueled by a Tasty Batch of Lin-Manuel Miranda Songs

Like a follow-up to "Frozen," it's a magical fable of girl power, in this case about the only member of her Colombian family who feels like she doesn't have it.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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“ Encanto ” is a lively, lovely, lushly enveloping digitally animated musical fairy tale. It’s the 60th animated feature produced by the Walt Disney company, and to borrow a phrase from the old Disney TV series, it’s set in a wonderful world of color — a rapturously imagined, rainbow-gorgeous village tucked inside the misty green mountains of Colombia, where the members of the Madrigal family lead a magical existence. The ornate designer tiles of La Casa Madrigal, their idyllic mansion, turn into a synchronized army of domestic helpers, and each family member is endowed with his or her own superhuman gift. Actually, one of them has no gift. That would be the heroine, Mirabel (voiced by Stephanie Beatriz), who is just like us — which means, within her family, that she’s the odd girl out.

Directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard (the co-writer and co-director of “Zootopia”), with Charise Castro Smith as co-director, “Encanto” has been visualized with a vivacious naturalistic glow (swirling flower petals, eye-candy pastels) that, at moments, is nearly psychedelic. The songs, by Lin-Manuel Miranda , are syncopatedly infectious, word-weavingly clever, and unabashedly romantic; they keep the film bopping. And the whole picture is intricate and accomplished enough to make the era when your average Disney house animated feature was several tiers below that of Pixar seem like ancient history. Yet for all the dazzle on display, none of it would mean much if “Encanto” didn’t present its heroine’s moving journey in a way that kept surprising you. That’s the key to enthralling animation — it stays one jubilant beat ahead of the audience.

It may be ironic, but it’s certainly undeniable that a key force that turned girl power into an engine of popular culture was Walt Disney Studios. You could, if you wanted, date the age of contemporary girl power back to two Disney films: “The Little Mermaid” (1989), with the self-actualizing retro moxie of its title heroine, and then, the following year, “Pretty Woman,” which put its stamp on the age of hip princess feminism as surely as “Sex and the City” did eight years later. The Disney animators kept the girl-power torch burning in everything from “Brave” to “Sofia the First,” but it was in “ Frozen ,” the 2013 global megasmash, that Disney forged a girl-power epiphany. Elsa, the princess who could freeze anything in her orbit, was like a superhero endowed with powers she experienced as too strong; she was a primal metaphor for the doubts a girl can feel about unleashing the fullness of her own being.

“Encanto,” while neither as grand nor as haunting as “Frozen,” is very much a follow-up rhapsody on what it feels like for a girl to reach for abilities that will unleash her true self. Mirabel, with laughing saucer eyes and the vibe of a brainy freshman at Stanford, is kind, spunky, and self-sufficient, and she accepts her place within her family — or, at least, works awfully hard to. But she’s like the only mortal in a clan of X-Men, and for her that’s dispiriting.

Her mother, the doting Julieta (Angie Cepeda), has the ability to heal people’s ailments with her cooking, but Mirabel’s siblings and relatives tend to be self-obsessed superstars of their own imaginations. Like, for instance, her comically hulking, low-voiced sister Luisa (Jessica Darrow), who has super-strength but defines her existence entirely through that attribute, or her Aunt Pepa (Carolina Gaitán), a tempestuous sort who carries a mini rainstorm over her head, or her shape-shifting cousin Camilo (Rhenzy Feliz), who suffers from a weak identity, or, most prominently, her sister Isa (Diane Guerrero), a haughty “perfect” princess who can make flowers bloom anywhere, which means that she never loses an opportunity to flaunt her flowery narcissism.

All these powers and personalities will come into play, and we’ve seen enough fables of superheroism to presume that Mirabel will ultimately locate her own magical destiny. But “Encanto” is subtler than that. The magic of the Madrigals is real, but it’s got a dark backstory (they were refugees whose fate was changed by a miracle and is now sustained by a precarious burning candle). Their magic flows into the town, infusing and protecting the entire community of Encanto. It’s a kind of utopia. Until, quite literally, it starts to come apart at the seams.

When the candle begins to flicker, and the Madrigal house starts breaking into fissures and cracks, Mirabel, now under the suspicious eye of the family matriarch, Abuela (María Cecilia Botero), takes it upon herself to investigate, and the movie turns into a domestic psychological detective story. A key figure is Bruno, Mirabel’s uncle, voiced with winningly insecure aplomb by John Leguizamo. His ability to see the future got him ostracized — because he kept getting blamed for the tiniest bit of bad news. But Bruno holds the key to what turns out to be an emotionally engrossing puzzle.

An important clue, Mirabel is told, lies in her trying to get along with the obnoxious Isa. But why would that solve anything? Their spiky and rousing duet, “What Else Can I Do?,” gives us a rapturous hint. That’s one of eight original songs Miranda wrote for the film, all of them good, several of them gems, like the strong-woman Luisa ripping through the exhilaratingly knotty wordplay of “Surface Pressure” or the ensemble number “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” which has a riff catchy enough to rival Camila Cabello’s “Havana.” The whole movie has a mercurial, mood-hopping free-form vibe that, at its best, suggests Disney with a touch of “Yellow Submarine.” When Isa begins to see the light, instead of beautiful flowers she produces a cactus. Prickly, but at least it’s her. That’s the kind of movie “Encanto” is. Is there a villain? For a while, it sure seems like it. But it turns out that the most dastardly thing in this canny and touching fairy tale is to ignore the love under our noses.

Reviewed at AMC Lincoln Square, Nov. 8, 2021. MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 99 MIN.

• Production: A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release of a Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures production. Producers: Yvett Merino, Clark Spencer. Executive producer: Jennifer Lee.
• Crew: Directors: Jared Bush, Byron Howard. Co-director: Charise Castro Smith. Screenplay: Charise Castro Smith, Jared Bush. Camera: Alessandro Jacomini, Daniel Rice, Nathan Detroit Warner. Editor: Jeremy Milton. Music: Germaine Franco, Lin-Manuel Miranda.
• With: Stephanie Beatriz, María Cecilia Botero, Diane Guerrero, Angie Cepeda, John Leguizamo, Jessica Darrow, Wilmer Valderrama, Carolina Gaitán, Maura Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz.

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Encanto review: disney animation is familiar, but still heartwarming & magical.

Though it can't quite break out of the Disney mold, Encanto is greatly aided by a unique story, a delightful cast of characters, and a vital message.

Over the course of 59 animated movies, Disney has worked out the perfect formula for tugging at an audience's heartstrings: create an earnest and relatable main character, weave equal amounts of joy and melancholy into the story, and sprinkle in some catchy tunes. The studio's 60th feature,  Encanto , follows this formula down to the letter, making for a familiar tale. And yet, it's hard to resist the charms cast by directors Byron Howard and Jared Bush, as well as co-director Charise Castro Smith (Bush and Smith wrote the screenplay, based on a story from all three directors, Jason Hand, Nancy Kruse, and Lin-Manuel Miranda). This original tale, which already holds plenty of magic within its plot, is the perfect dose of comfort food for families at the end of this trying year. Though it can't quite break out of the Disney mold, Encanto is greatly aided by a unique story, a delightful cast of characters, and a vital message.

Encanto starts out with a helpful bit of exposition to introduce viewers to the eccentric Madrigal family. Years ago, matriarch Abuela Alma (María Cecilia Botero) was blessed with a miracle in the form of a magical house, a practically sentient building that gifts special abilities to each of Abuela's descendants. Abuela's children and grandchildren all received gifts with no issues... until Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz), a plucky, eager girl who just longs to make her family proud. For some inexplicable reason, Mirabel is the only Madrigal without any special gift, thus making her an outsider within her close-knit family. Her efforts to be useful to Abuela sometimes lead to more problems than intended, but when the Madrigals' house starts to lose its magic, Mirabel just might be the only one who can save it.

Related:  Byron Howard, Jared Bush, & Charise Castro Smith Interview: Encanto

In many ways,  Encanto resembles another recent Disney animated feature: 2016's  Moana . Not only do both movies center on a vibrant young girl eager to save her home, but they also include music from  Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. Plot-wise,  Encanto manages to stand out on its own. The Madrigals are fascinating characters and their magical existence seems to extend out into the real world too; as an audience member, it's easy to be enamored with their house and powers. The filmmakers clearly had a lot of fun developing each Madrigal gift, which range from super-strength to the ability to talk to animals.  Encanto is bursting with bright colors and beautifully rendered visuals, particularly when it comes to the house at its center. With tiles that drag people along like conveyor belts and stairs that turn into slides, Howard, Bush, and Smith have implemented plenty of clever quirks with the help of art directors Camille Andre and Mehrdad Isvandi.

Encanto also scores some points by not having a traditional villain. Mirabel's conflict — her desire to prove her worth even when she has no powers to speak of — is compelling, but feels similar to other unlikely protagonists. However, in trying to work out what's wrong with the house, Mirabel pulls other internal conflicts out of her family members, most notably with her sisters Luisa (Jessica Darrow) and Isabela (Diane Guerrero). Both girls seem pleased with their gifts, but the pressure to be perfect and useful rankles. By digging into that,  Encanto  finds some real-world relevance that is bound to hit home for some viewers, despite all the magic that surrounds the story.

With a songwriter like Miranda on board, it was a given that  Encanto 's music would be catchy. And indeed, the rapid-fire lyrics and toe-tapping beats fit in quite well with Miranda's past work. At the same time, it's hard to say if any of them will fit in among the best in Disney's history. Certain songs will elicit stronger emotions than others from audiences, and Howard, Bush, and Smith have done well in crafting fun montages for each song.  Encanto 's music is good, but not entirely necessary. There's plenty of heart within the story itself, and save for a few exceptions, such as the song that plays during flashbacks to Abuela's past, the musical element doesn't add much to the movie. Nevertheless, younger audiences will get a kick out of the familiar Disney song-and-dance routine, and even some adults will probably bob their heads along.

On top of everything else, each voice actor for  Encanto rises to the occasion to make a truly memorable cast of characters. The MVP of the movie is, expectedly, Beatriz, who once again proves herself to be incredibly skilled at voice work. She brings a lively, kindhearted touch to Mirabel. It's easy to root and care for her in her journey of self-discovery. Each member of the Madrigal family has at least one moment to shine, though John Leguizamo also deserves a shoutout for his work as black sheep Bruno. Botero also nails the fine line Abuela walks in caring for her family and wishing absolute perfection from everyone. All told, Disney likely has another hit on its hands. With  Encanto arriving in theaters just in time for the holiday season, it should be the perfect bit of entertainment for families looking for something to do. Everyone could use a bit of magic these days, and  Encanto certainly fits the bill with its heartwarming, if still familiar touch.

More: Watch The Encanto Trailer

Encanto   arrives in theaters on Wednesday, November 24, 2021. The film is 99 minutes long and is rated PG for some thematic elements and mild peril.

Key Release Dates

‘Encanto’ Review: Disney Animation’s Latest Is a Heartwarming Celebration of Family

Disney Animation makes plenty of films for families, but ‘Encanto’ puts family at the center of the story.

Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), like most major animation studios, makes movies for families. Animated films are expensive, they take about 4-5 years to make, they need to appeal to a wide audience, and that means pulling in families. Doing this for decades has reinforced the notion that animated films are family films, and yet they’re rarely about families. Look at the last decade of WDAS pictures and while family is a part of the plot, they’re not really what the movies are about. Encanto changes that by making a family film that’s entirely about family. Directors Byron Howard , Jared Bush , and Charise Castro Smith use a big, joyous musical framework to explore how the expectations of family can distract us from what really matters in our familial relationships. With catchy tunes, gorgeous animation, and a lovely story, Encanto is another winner from Disney Animation.

Alma Madrigal ( María Cecilia Botero ), her husband, and their three children fled persecution, and in their most desperate hour, prayed for a miracle. The miracle not only repelled those who sought to bring them harm, but also became the basis for an enchanted town in the mountains of Columbia. The miracle not only provides a magical house for the Madrigals but also gives each of them a unique power when they turn a certain age like the ability to change the weather or heal others. That is, every Madrigal receives a gift except Alma’s granddaughter Mirabel ( Stephanie Beatriz ). Mirabel tries to keep her spirits up and be a supportive family member, but when she discovers that the magic may be fading, she resolves to figure out the cause and save the Family Madrigal.

RELATED: 'Encanto': New Song Clip Introduces Audiences to the Familia Madrigal Through a Song

Not to spoil anything about Encanto , but I love that the movie isn’t about Mirabel discovering she had a gift all along because that kind of works at cross-purposes for what the movie is trying to do. As Mirabel investigates, she learns that these “gifts” have become almost curses for the family members who have them. Her sister Luisa ( Jessica Darrow ) has super-strength, but that has manifested as Luisa feeling like she always needs to be strong, never complain, and always carry the burden. Her other sister Isabela ( Diane Guerrero ) is “perfect”, but Mirabel learns that such a perception has made Isabela feel like she can never be creative or do anything other than create beautiful flower arrangements with her powers. And as for her uncle Bruno ( John Leguizamo ), he disappeared and now no one even talks about him because his ability to see into the future caused so much strife.

I don’t know what you would call this problem (“toxic talent nurturing?”), but it’s a thoughtful approach where family identity becomes tied to what you can do rather than simply being a member of the family. That’s a tricky line to walk because it’s not like Mirabel is the “black sheep”; she’s not a screw-up, and she’s incredibly supportive and empathetic, but she’s also considered an “embarrassment” when the metric for being a good Madrigal is what you can do for the family and the town rather than being a good sister or daughter or cousin. For any family member who has ever felt outshined because they weren’t as “talented” as a sibling or cousin, Encanto comes in with a warm hug and says, “You are enough because family is enough.”

That comforting, heartfelt vibe flows through the entire film. The color palette is stunning, and it kicks into overdrive during the musical numbers where you can feel the animation team really letting loose and taking advantage of the medium where a traditional musical would be bound by setting. Encanto has no such problem and provides some the best musical numbers Disney has produced since The Princess and the Frog . With music by Lin-Manuel Miranda , who never met a tune he couldn’t get stuck inside your head for weeks on end, Encanto still feels like its own musical entity rather than mimicking the music he produced for Moana or Hamilton .

It’s probably a cliché by now to say that Disney made a family movie with heart, but I don’t know what to tell you. They did it again. Encanto simply works as a great movie for families. I wish my in-laws could take their kids and grandkids to see it right now because I know they’d all have a great time and probably tear up a time or two. It may not be a groundbreaking statement to uphold the value of family for the sake of family, but Encanto manages to do it without forcing an antagonist or doubling back on its thesis that Mirabel doesn’t need a superpower to be special. At a time when people are trying to argue that they’re “brands” and they’re constantly trying to prove their “value” by making the catchiest social media post, it’s really nice that there’s a movie that says you have value not because of a talent but because family means never having to be in a talent competition.

Encanto opens in theaters on November 24th.

KEEP READING: 'Encanto' Character Posters Show off the Magical Powers of Familia Madrigal

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Encanto Reviews

One of Disney's most magical animated movies yet

Full Review | Jul 26, 2023

A heartfelt watch that families will undoubtedly latch onto.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 25, 2023

To cap it all off, the story by Jared Bush, Bryon Howard, and Charise Castro Smith focuses on empathy perfectly. It’s a wonderful watch for the whole family.

Full Review | Feb 10, 2023

What makes this particular instalment of Disney dream-weaving a little bit different is texture. Pulling from a colourful Central American tradition that features brilliant cotton and woollen embroidery, we can almost feel the threads of every garment...

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 5, 2022

By exploring the traditional and non-traditional nature of family, their most common modern go-to theme, they keep connected to their familiar and beloved roots while taking audiences on unfamiliar journeys.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 26, 2022

It is in its overall focus that Encanto grasps at richer themes about how the family's magic is only part of what defines them.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 23, 2022

Absolutely a must if you’re into this sort of thing, and it’s a very easy, engaging sit even if you aren’t.

Full Review | Aug 20, 2022

The screenplay has dark undertones, as all good magic realism does, but this is rooted in the troubled social history of Columbia.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 16, 2022

Encanto is one of the most aesthetically arresting and epically emotional animated features of the year, complete with a cast of colorful and captivating characters who are sure to become new fan favorites.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Jul 14, 2022

Vibrant, rich, tender, sincere and lively.

Full Review | Jul 8, 2022

A fun and dazzling musical adventure that celebrates the power of familia.

Full Review | Jun 23, 2022

At its best when it's intimate and warm, Encanto's fast-paced adventure sequences and rampant physical comedy can be hit or miss. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jun 22, 2022

An impactful view of generational trauma told through impeccable songs, beautiful animation, and a moving story.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 4, 2022

ENCANTO is a visually stunning animated film with wonderful songs and score, a deep, resonating emotional core and just a very positive, charming vibe to it.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Mar 15, 2022

Love the music and the cultural urgency and accuracy of Encanto. The richness, poetry, [and] resiliance of the Colombian culture... makes Encanto such a refreshing thrill.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 4, 2022

Encanto is a Disney film that delights without smashing expectations. Its easy to forget that the target audience for this genre are simply interested in fun and wonder, something that this movie delivers in spades.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 3, 2022

Gorgeously animated, relatable narrative, and admirable themes!

Full Review | Original Score: B | Feb 27, 2022

"A spirit of communal celebration persists even after a first-act ceremony takes a turn for the ominous, and fleeting moments of chisme between cousins provide the movies breakneck pacing with instantly relatable doses of Latino-family bonding."

Full Review | Feb 21, 2022

Surface Pressure unlocked the movie for me and made it more compelling than what I thought it would be - the inevitable discovery of Mirabel's gift... it's a discovery borne out of a family's denial.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 18, 2022

Disney deserves some credit for abandoning its typical formula with Encanto. You wont see a princess sing songs about personal actualization. The film celebrates community and doesnt even have a villain.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 17, 2022

• Entertainment

Encanto Movie Analysis Essay Sample

Disney’s new movie, Encanto, is a story of how one person’s actions can affect everyone around them. In the film, one of the main characters, Mirabel, is looked down on by almost everyone in her family and the town outside because she doesn’t have a “gift” like the rest of her family. The “gift” was first given to Mirabel’s grandmother, Abuela Alba, after her husband, Pedro, passed away, and since then, each new member of the Madrigals has received their own gift, such as Isabela’s ability to grow flowers or Camilo’s ability to shapeshift. When her family’s home and magic start to weaken, Mirabel learns that her estranged uncle, Bruno, had a vision about her effect on the family before he disappeared, so she seeks to find the vision and a way to save her family’s miracle. In Encanto, Jared Bush and Byron Howard used symbolism, dialogue, and conflict to illustrate that everyone should have a place in their family.

One example of literary elements the directors of Encanto show is symbolism. Each gifted character has small symbols on their clothes, such as Isabella’s flowers, Luisa’s weights, Camilo’s chameleon, etc. Since Mirabel doesn’t have a gift, she has all of her family’s symbols embroidered on her dress (Bush). This shows the viewers Mirabel’s love for -and desire to be included in- her family. She is especially patronized by Abuela, though, because Abuela was the most upset when Mirabel didn’t get her gift. This is also part of why Abuela and Mirabel have such a strong connection. When Mirabel tells Abuela that the casita started cracking, Abuela denies it and says “the magic is strong” (Bush). However, after Mirabel decides to “save the miracle,” she hears Abuela talking to her deceased husband in front of the candle about the fading magic, and asking him to help make it strong again (Bush). As Mirabel and Abuela argue more, the candle begins to melt and the magic keeps fading, which causes the house to crack. Eventually, Mirabel and Abuela fight in front of everyone. The candle disappears completely and their house crumbles. It is not until they make up and understand one another that magic returns.

The directors additionally use conflict to show the theme of Encanto. Mirabel repeats, “make my family proud” throughout the film, which shows that she thinks she has to work harder than everyone else to help the family. This internal conflict with herself and also external conflict with everyone that makes her think she is less special than everyone else in her family produces Mirabel’s self-doubt and perfectionism. We see perfectionism in many of the characters, but one of the main ones is Isabella. She is seen as the perfect flower that never does anything wrong, but when Mirabel pressures her to talk, Isabella grows a cactus and says she was only going to marry Mariano “for the family.” The viewers, Mirabel, and Isabella herself, see the buried pressure and trauma she kept because she tried so hard to please Abuela.

As well as symbolism and conflict, Encanto has important dialogue to help show the theme. When Mirabel is young, Abuela says, “You are a wonder, Mirabel Madrigal. Whatever gift awaits will be just as special as you,” but Mirabel is constantly reminded that she didn’t get a gift, so she feels left out and alone when Abuela says something similar to Antonio. Later in the film, Bruno tells Mirabel, “My gift wasn’t helping the family, but I love my family,” which shows the viewers a different side of Bruno than what other characters expressed.

Encanto shows viewers that one person’s actions can affect everyone around them. People need to remember that each member of a family is important. Mirabel learns that despite everyone’s constant reminders, she doesn’t need a gift to have value because she is “just as special as anyone else in [her] family” (Bush).

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THE MOVIE CULTURE

Encanto Movie Review & Summary: Disney Brings its Magic to Enchanted Columbia

Set against the beautiful backdrop of Columbia, Encanto follows the magical story of the Madrigal family whose members miraculously receive magical gifts which they use to serve the people in their community called “Encanto”. 

Encanto Movie Cast

• Stephanie Beatriz as Mirabel
• María Cecilia Botero as Abuela Alma
• John Leguizamo as Bruno
• Mauro Castillo as Félix

Encanto Movie Review

Nothing beats a good Disney animated movie when it comes to blending great music and comedy with some beautiful visual respite for the eyes. If anything adds to the magic of a beautiful looking Disney animated movie, it is the fusion of various cultural nuances in its storytelling. Talking of magic, for its 60 th animated feature film, Disney sets foot on the birthland of Gabriel García Márquez who deserves his fair share of credit for popularizing magical realism.

The story of the family starts when chased by soldiers on horses, Alma Madrigal (María Cecilia Botero) and Pedro try to escape with their three children. Soon, Alma loses her husband. Still being chased by her pursuers, the light of her candle acquires miraculous magical qualities. The light gets rid of the bad guys and then, emerges a living magical house, the Casita, along with a magical town surrounded by tall green mountains. The candle’s light becomes the protector of the Madrigal family and the townsfolk who look up to the family.

Over the years, the magical candle also generously gifts each member of the Madrigals with a unique magical gift. From super-strength to the ability to see future visions, you name it and the Madrigals have got it. Even if they don’t have any ability right now, it’s possible they would soon be gifted with it as the family continues to expand. But not everybody is gifted with magic in the Madrigals. Alma’s granddaughter, Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz), is the only one to never receive a gift from the magical candle. Being the mysteriously non-gifted and the odd member of the family, Mirabel continues to struggle to fit in.

Soon, she finds out that the magic is fading away and their house is breaking. Mirabel sets out to find the mystery behind the fading magic, save her magical family and in turn save the townspeople who depend on them. 

‘Encanto’ beautifully exhibits the Columbian setting of the film with vibrant, bright and colourful images bringing the Latin American flora and fauna to life on the screen. The movie also pays tribute to the historical heritage of the country. Even though ‘Encanto’ does not delve too deeply into the culture of the country it is set in like ‘Coco (2017)’ did, the film does enough to bring out the magical features of the country in a magical way.

The picturesque natural backdrop of mountains with the ample greenery and few endemic faunas, the portrayal of a close-knit family headed by a matriarch, and the importance of traditions and family values places at the centre of it, are all small checkpoints for the film on the way to paint an authentic portrayal of the Latin American culture.

Encanto is a Visual Spectacle

Set in a small town, the magical setting of the film provides ample opportunity for the animators at Disney Studios to work their way towards grand and fantastical visuals throughout the film. Rich visuals mixed with rich culture makes the best treat for the eyes and ‘Encanto’ proves it quite well.

The music by Lin Manuel Miranda adds to the visual experience. Each song feels quite different from the other and is quirky, refreshing and belongs to the kind one might want to bob their head to. Almost every member of the Madrigals gets a song to sing and that adds some variety to the music while also becoming a tool for better characterization. The music is good yet not the best coming from a Disney production.

Beyond the technical brilliance which the movie achieves, what the film really banks its money on is the emphasis it puts on the importance of familial relations and reconciliation of individuality with the interests of the larger family. At its core, ‘Encanto’ is a story of a family which comes together and stands strong in the face of great danger.

Mirabel, the odd one, becomes the uniting force for this family, familiar with magic, to realize that the real magic lies in their love for each other. The story is emotional and something a lot of people might relate to. Mirabel is the quintessential protagonist who struggles to find a place with the people around her (in this case, with her family) and often feels left out.

In the end, ‘Encanto’ is not only the story of Mirabel trying to find her own magic (it’s a surprise, or maybe not) but the story of a magical family, living in a magical house, realizing that the true source of magic lies within them. In Mirabel, many millennials living in large families might find their reflection.

As much as the story is about Mirabel, the most relatable character, the story is more about the Madrigals as a family. Alma Madrigal, who went through her fair share of suffering to take the family to where it stands today, provides a mirror to many people who have had similar experiences. Alma’s great love for her family is also rooted in her fear of losing what she holds dearest.

‘Encanto’ tries to portray a family which was uprooted from where they originally belonged and when they began to believe that everything will go well forever, their greatest fear found new ground. In ‘Encanto’, the story of many families which have migrated to newer and unfamiliar places, in hopes to start afresh, is brought to life in the animated form with the vibrant visuals and melodious music of a Disney animated film. 

With the praise aside, ‘Encanto’ really lags behind in the story department. In its entirety, Disney’s latest animated production has very little to offer in terms of story. It feels more like a one-liner stretched out to make a film. The story is a bit too simple with nothing much interesting or new in it. Even though there’s a hook for the viewer to hold onto, up until when things finally reveal, the reward, in the end, is less than satisfying. For ‘Encanto’, more than what the story is, how it plays out becomes the selling point.

The Movie Culture Synopsis

Some great voice acting, stunning visuals, catchy music and detailed artwork makes ‘Encanto’ fun and entertaining to watch. If backed by a better story, the cultural setting and its nuances with the emphasis on family relations and values could have provided the film with the opportunity to be nearer to the marvel that became of ‘Coco (2017)’ .

However, if there are any reasons one could find which are good enough to not watch a Disney animated creation, there are none to find here. ‘Encanto’ is what Disney does best great visuals, great music and great fun. 

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Encanto Is the Best Disney Animated Film Since Frozen

We already know that Walt Disney Animation’s Encanto will probably be turned into a Broadway musical at some point, but watching the early scenes in Jared Bush and Byron Howard’s film, you might find yourself wondering whether that Broadway show already exists. Everything from the sets to the dance numbers feels like it must have originated on a stage. When characters sing, they sing to the camera: frontal, direct, with big gestures seemingly intended for a live audience. The central setting, a sentient house where the floorboards and roof tiles and staircases and window shutters magically throb and flutter and flap about on their own, feels ready-made for some crafty production designer to work their mechanical-theater wizardry. We can even hear the actors taking a breath before belting out passages from one of composer Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Original Cast Album–friendly tunes. There’s an eager to please–ness to the first half of Encanto that feels odd, maybe even off — a theater-kid energy that can at times be overbearing and artificial.

Then, something startling happens. The film and its aesthetic open up. The performances become more unhinged and unpredictable, and the camerawork begins to defy gravity and logic. And we realize that the performative, Broadway-bound quality of the film’s earlier scenes was intentional. To some extent, the characters were performing, trying to keep up appearances.

Encanto follows a Colombian family named Madrigal, each of whose members possesses a unique magic power, the result of a miracle bestowed on the matriarch Alma (a.k.a. Abuela, voiced by María Cecilia Botero) after an early tragedy in her life. When he or she comes of age, each family member passes through a ceremony to discover their “gift.” There’s brawny Luisa (Jessica Darrow), who possesses superhuman strength; emotional Pepa (Carolina Gaitán), who can control the weather; princess-y beauty Isabela (Diane Guerrero), who can summon mountains of flowers at will; sensible Julieta (Angie Cepeda), who can apparently heal anything with her cooking. Everyone lives together happily in the family’s magical house — la casita — each given a room that opens up onto a world in which they can freely exercise their powers.

All except young Mirabel (voiced by Stephanie Beatriz), who went through the usual initiation ceremony only to discover that she wasn’t gifted with any special powers. She’s still traumatized by the experience, even though she tries to paint a brave face on it. (“Maybe your gift is being in denial,” one kid quips.) She can tell that she disappointed Abuela, and in a relentlessly perfect family bound so tightly to tradition, her ordinariness feels like more than just a fluke. It might even be a threat. For the Madrigals, magic is not just a handy ability but also a source of community and continuity, the very thing that has kept them going for so long. What’s more, they’re constantly reminded that the village that’s been built around their wondrous casita also relies on their powers.

Needless to say, there will be a place for Mirabel — this is Disney, after all, and they don’t make movies about un-special people — and we begin to suspect that there’s more to her story when she senses the house starting to spring cracks and some others’ powers flickering. When she tries to warn everyone, they assume she’s jealous, or hysterical, or both. I won’t spoil what happens next, but it’s worth noting that Mirabel’s journey is a surprisingly intimate one, and on her emotional quest, she doesn’t stray too far from the place of wonder where her family lives.

That in turn places a lot of weight on the film’s visual and musical strategies. Miranda’s songs are typically catchy and clever, and unostentatiously varied — they dabble in hip-hop, pop, salsa, acoustic ballads, and more, without ever feeling like they’re coming from different worlds — though who knows if there are any Frozen -level hits in there. (That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if some attention focused on the delightful “Surface Pressure,” a punchy little number which has Luisa singing about all the demands placed on her because of her strength: “ Under the surface / I feel berserk as a tightrope walker in a three-ring circus. / Under the surface / Was Hercules ever like, ‘Yo, I don’t wanna fight Cerberus? ’”) Special mention should also be made of Germaine Franco’s alternately jaunty and melancholy score, which rarely feels like incidental filler and works nicely in tandem with Miranda’s more boisterous numbers.

What makes Encanto so enchanting may well be this smaller-scale narrative, as the Madrigals’ inward journey gains an unusual, downright Sirkian power when crossed with the familiar Disney spectacle, and as the aforementioned theatricality of those earlier scenes gives way to something more cinematic. Here, the gee-whiz light shows, the cascades of sand, the swirling skies, and explosive bursts of colorful flora all serve to underscore a tale of self-doubt, family expectations, and the smothering need to maintain one’s façade. That may seem incongruous, but it winds up being enormously moving; I cried like a broken baby throughout the final third of the movie. It should not automatically thrill us when it turns out that the makers of an animated film have given serious, nuanced thought to their visual strategy, and yet we see so much uninspired animation coming from the studios nowadays that it does. Encanto might be the best Disney animated film since Frozen .

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Encanto review – blandly frictionless Disney fairytale that misses the magic

Walt Disney’s 60th animation boasts songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda and a fine voice cast, but it’s hampered by contradictory messages and a lack of sparkle

T his musical, boasting a lively voice cast and original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda , has been promoted as the 60th “canonical” film from Walt Disney Animation Studios. But however well-meaning, this milestone movie could almost represent a creative crisis for Disney – it feels like yet another step down the cul-de-sac of bland, algorithmically generated entertainment: more Stepford content from the dream factory. There are some nice moments and sweet show tunes, but Encanto feels like it is aspiring to exactly that sort of bland frictionless perfection that the film itself is solemnly preaching against, with a contrived storyline that wants to have its metaphorical cake and eat it.

Our heroine is Mirabel Madrigal: a smart, introspective, bespectacled teen living with her extended family in a magic house with a mind of its own in an idyllic village in a magically created valley somewhere in Colombia (“encanto” means enchantment or spell). She is voiced by Stephanie Beatriz, who recently had a small role in Miranda’s musical In the Heights but is probably still best known for playing the supercool tough cop Diaz in the TV comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine .

Mirabel’s grandma is the formidable matriarch Abuela (voiced by María Cecilia Botero), who lost her husband many years ago, and for whom this magical house was mysteriously created at the time, apparently rising up in defiance of this great sadness. And all of her children and grandchildren turn out each to have a magic power, of which Abuela is intensely proud. Mirabel’s mum Julieta (Angie Cepeda) can heal people with her cooking, and I guess only a pedant would ask why she doesn’t heal Mirabel’s eyesight. Mirabel’s sister Isabella (Diane Guerrero) is a perfect Instagram-style princess who can make flowers bloom with her sheer loveliness. Her other sister Luisa (Jessica Darrow) has super-strength and can lift buildings. Her aunt Pepa (Carolina Gaitán) can control the weather and cousin Dolores (Adassa) has super-hearing. This is a pretty heteronormative household but her cousin Camilo (Rhenzy Feliz) can shapeshift because he doesn’t know who he is yet.

But wait. There is one person who doesn’t have a gift and that is poor Mirabel herself. Yet when a sudden, terrible crisis occurs and all the members of the Madrigal family look like losing their powers, it is Mirabel who must step up and save everyone and everything – by tracking down the family’s missing uncle Bruno (John Leguizamo) whose own gift of prophecy allowed him to foresee this awful eventuality and Mirabel’s own part in the fightback. And … well … maybe this family of fanatical overachievers need to see how their supernatural superiority is a neurotic group symptom of unhappiness. Maybe they need humble Mirabel to bring them to a new enlightenment. So are their gifts a good thing or a bad thing? They didn’t seem like such a bad thing in the film’s opening two acts: these gifts seemed to be part of everyone’s innocent well-being, abilities lightly and modestly worn. And as the rescuing of these powers is the plot motivation, it is an uncomfortable turnaround for these powers to be represented as something to be opposed or surmounted – a paradox which the film does not acknowledge or resolve – especially as we get a pretty broad hint that they may in any case be magically restored. This is a flavourless, unsatisfying film.

• Animation in film
• Walt Disney Company
• Lin-Manuel Miranda
• Family films

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Encanto Movie Review : A colourful celebration of black sheep

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Users' Reviews

Refrain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks, name calling or inciting hatred against any community. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines by marking them offensive . Let's work together to keep the conversation civil.

Shalom 777 days ago

Best Disney movie I've ever watched. It's better than Frozen 1 and 2

nayanachangmai 796 days ago

Absolutely great movie I loved it with my all heart❤

Miheet Shah 804 days ago

very good movie

User sharma 811 days ago

Amazing Film Filled With Great Emotions And Lessons That Bring Big Surprises<br/>Encanto is an amazing film full of teachings that brings big surprises and great emotions to the public. You&acute;ll be thrilled with the many beauties and magic in this film.

SHUBHADARSHANI W 815 days ago

Visual stories.

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Movie Review: ‘Encanto’

by Alyssa Aldape | Jan 12, 2022 | Opinion

(Credit: Disney / 'Encanto' Publicity Still Photo / https://tinyurl.com/43rbfjnp)

By now you have heard of or seen Disney’s newest movie “Encanto.” Or, at the very least, you have seen a lot of content unpacking the movie.

One example I’ve seen on my very niche, progressive Christian timeline is an enneagram breakdown of each character, which I strongly urge you to stop doing.

Why? First, I thought the cardinal rule of the enneagram – aside from talking about it incessantly – was never numbering people before they can number themselves.

Second, it feels oddly racist. I’m not sure how, but I’ll find a way it is tied to white supremacy.

I was excited for this movie to come out, as it was the second of two movies representing Latine culture. The first being “Coco.” Four years later, “Encanto” followed.

“Encanto” tells the story of a magical family that lives in a secluded village deep in the forests of Colombia. Each member is given a magical gift at their coming of age.

[**SPOILER ALERT**]

But this is not the case for the main character Mirabel of the family Madrigal. We find out at the end of the first musical number that Mirabel is left out and has no gift.

The movie follows the Madrigals on the day the next family member Antonio is to receive his gift. Abuela, the matriarch of the family, makes it quite clear to Mirabel that, due to her lack of magic, she is a threat to what the family has.

In one particular scene, Mirabel is left out of a family picture and the scene is heartbreaking. For any person who has felt like the outsider in space that is meant to be safe and caring, the grief was palpable.

Chaos ensues as they learn what it means to be “ordinary” as their magic fades. With the help of Mirabel and her estranged uncle Bruno, the family finds a way to restore the light of their magic.

The movie has so many themes that touch on how we operate in our communities and families.

From a sister who must be the strong one and hold it all in her hands to another sister who must be perfect at all times to the ostracized uncle they never speak of, there’s a musical number for every one.

I cried while Louisa sang about the pressure of being the strong one. For all my firstborn comrades of first generation families, that one was for us.

Mirabel’s gift, it turns out, is the gift of truth and tending. She finds a way to guide her family into their truth while also helping them explore ideas they would not have otherwise.

But as much as I loved the movie and have toyed with the idea of creating a “So You’ve Seen ‘Encanto’ and You Think You Might Need a Hug and Some Therapy” reading list, there was something that felt “off” about the movie.

So, I started group chat with friends and, of course, these wise mujeres were able to name what was missing.

One friend Jennifer wrote, “The creators went with the pan ethnic narrative story line and failed to capture actual Colombians. If you’re gonna have an enchanted something , let it be an actual place in Colombia — not a non-distinct secluded place.”

It was as if the creators and directors thought we would all be happy that Lin Manuel Miranda did the music and called it a day.

And while I recognize that no work of media will ever get representation right, the glaring blanket assumptions of “Latinidad ” was evident.

As I have written before, I love when mi gente are represented in mainstream media. Our music, our inside jokes, our many manifestations of a tamal-damelo .

Disney movies are no different. When “Coco” was released in 2017, it was one of the first times characters who spoke like me and my family were main characters, not just comedic relief.

But was there a need for the afterlife to be policed like the borders? As if it was some joke we all love that Mexicans measure cultural representation by how we are perceived by American policy?

In “Encanto,” Colombian friends felt like the culture was swapped out for a general representation of Latine culture. It seems that when it comes to representation, the details are oddly specific or far too broad.

Naturally, the themes of “Encanto” and my pushback on the production made me wonder about representation in the church.

How often have we heard churches yearn to be welcoming and diverse places for all people? And how often has the church missed the mark by either tokenizing one leader or only highlighting the diversity on Pentecost Sunday during the Acts 2 reading while casting misfits out because they don’t quite fit in?

Disney and downtown churches can learn a lot about what it means to think critically and with the intention of creating a diverse representation of the world.

If the church of Jesus Christ is the casita, then the cracks have started to show in the foundation. Will we continue to miss the mark? Or will we see the magic in each person while truly learning what that means?

In the end, I will continue to watch both “Coco” and “Encanto” and cry my eyes out, appreciating what they are while remaining hopeful for what can be. The stories in each are beautiful, and I need to make sure I have every detail of Mirabel’s outfit memorized for Halloween.

I can hold both the joy of Black and brown children screaming with joy when they see a character that looks like them on the screen, while also hoping and pushing for the gift of honest representation of my people.

MPAA Rating: PG for some thematic elements and mild peril.

Directors: Jared Bush, Byron Howard and Charise Castro Smith.

Writers: Screenplay by Charise Castro Smith and Jared Bush; story by Byron Howard.

Cast: Stephanie Beatriz: Mirabel; María Cecilia Botero: Abuela Alma; John Leguizamo: Bruno; Mauro Castillo: Félix; Jessica Darrow: Luisa; Angie Cepeda: Julieta; Carolina Gaitan: Pepa; Diane Guerrero: Isabela.

The movie’s website is here .

Contributing correspondent for Good Faith Media.

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Movie Review: Encanto

Disney is no stranger to receiving acclaim for its animated feature films, and some may even say that it has maintained this reputation more than any other animation production company. However, it has produced films that have flopped, either with audiences, critics or both. Whenever a new film is announced or released, many want to see if Disney will be able to provide audiences with another classic Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures movie.

Disney’s new film “Encanto” joins the animated feature library, and it premiered in cinemas Nov. 24, 2021. Although it was not a major box office success, the film released on Disney+ only a month later where its popularity grew, and soon the film went viral. Critics primarily praised its characters, story and original songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda. However, the film unfortunately doesn’t live up to the hype.

Directed by Jared Bush, Byron Howard and co-director Charise Castro Smith, “Encanto” follows the story of Mirabel and her family of magically powered characters as she, the only family member to not obtain powers, tries to prevent their enchanted house from being destroyed, which would strip the family of its powers. The movie also starred several well-known actors including Stephanie Beatriz, María Cecilia Botero and John Leguizamo. Coming off his and Disney’s success with “Moana” and “Mary Poppins Returns,” Miranda wrote all of the original songs for the film as early as mid-2020.

This movie does have a certain charm to it that Disney is known for, and it’s certainly far from the worst the studio has released. The themes carried throughout the film: strong family ties and acceptance –  fairly standard nowadays for Disney’s animated features – do work well by drawing in its intended audience. Nonetheless, this step down in quality occurs on the script and story level.

In Polygon’s review of the film, José María Luna commented, “Is this the product of a multibillion dollar corporation that’s coming to understand what good business it is to appeal to increasingly diverse markets? Of course, but that doesn’t prevent the smaller players within this system from approaching a personal project with love.”

Though the Madrigal family consists of several fascinating characters, many viewers feel that they do not have enough time to be fleshed out or to breathe in their own story, which is constantly moving. Understandably, having a movie that frequently pushes the plot along helps in the majority of films, but the deep, emotional setup and relationships in the story don’t fully match with the rapid pace. This may be a result of rough editing due to the story juggling more than 11 main and supporting characters, something seen in other movies recently released by Disney.

“A major plot development arrives out of nowhere, unearned, and changes everything,” Bill Goodykoontz with AZ Central stated. “Then a further development undercuts the apparent message the filmmakers have been trying to send for the entire movie.”

The climax and conclusion likewise never truly feel earned. The resolution to the primary conflict feels both familiar but cliche. Granted, the relationship between Mirabel and Abuela Alma leads to a sweet and meaningful moment, but the film fails to hold the moment by immediately jumping back into lighthearted humor. However the film still provides entertainment and fun as this humor remains consistent, the animation stands as being some of the best Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures has achieved and the songs are admittedly well-produced and memorable.

One reviewer with Bleeding Cool disagreed, saying, “‘Encanto’ isn’t anything particularly special when it comes to the music. However, the plot and how it handles being treated like an outsider by your own family is going to hit some people much harder than others.”

Overall, I would say that longtime Disney fans and even casual fans will find a lot of enjoyment in “Encanto.”  While it has many issues and may not entirely deserve the mass attention it has received online, it remains an enjoyable watch for the family, just as long as you are prepared to have another catchy Disney soundtrack stuck inside your head.

Most importantly, we don’t talk about Bruno. 

Marks is an opinion writer.

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Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Movie Analysis — What Life-Lessons Can Be Find in the Movie ‘Encanto’

What Life-lessons Can Be Find in The Movie 'Encanto'

• Categories: Movie Analysis Movie Review

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Words: 1140 |

Published: Feb 11, 2023

Words: 1140 | Pages: 3 | 6 min read

Table of contents

Everyone is vulnerable., you are perfect simply as you are, talk about bruno, truth will set you free, value the family, works cited.

• Carpenter, E. (2021, December 1). How ‘Encanto’ uses magical realism to convey the immigrant experience. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/12/01/encanto-immigration-magical-realism/
• Encanto: 5 things parents will appreciate. (2022, January 3). Common Sense Media.
• Kleinman, A. (2022, January 13). How Disney’s ‘Encanto’ fosters self-love and diversity. The Lily. https://www.thelily.com/how-disneys-encanto-fosters-self-love-and-diversity/
• Luna, J. (2021, November 24). What ‘Encanto’ gets right about Latin American families. Remezcla. https://remezcla.com/lists/film/what-encanto-gets-right-about-latin-american-families/
• Olivera, R. (2022, January 6). How ‘Encanto’ gives Latinx kids a rare space to explore the beauty of their culture. NBC News.
• Seitz, M. Z. (2021, December 21). Encanto: Review. RogerEbert.com.
• Valenzuela, E. (2021, December 6). Disney’s Encanto: The impact on Latinx representation in film. The National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts.

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