11 years since Walt Disney Animation Studio's landmark 50th feature Tangled, the studio's 60th effort Encanto is a vibrant musical marvel, weighed down by some of the studio's same old mistakes...
Broadway-turned-Hollywood actor/composer and frequent Disney collaborator Lin Manuel Miranda has been having a rampage of a year. From the theatrical release of his musical first-born, In The Heights, to his directorial debut in Tick, Tick... Boom!, Miranda continues to make a household name for himself as the composer of some of the most infectious showtunes of recent years. Following the successes of 2016's Moana, Lin Manuel Miranda's music once again succeeds in elevating and strengthening Disney's animated tales through song. For this reason Encanto is immediately more solid than the studio's previous feature, Raya and the Last Dragon, which was weighed down by its bulky world-building and unmemorable cast of characters.
That is not to say that Disney Animation is only successful when it adds a musical number or three, not in the least. But when it comes to Encanto, take those away and what is it that remains?
Set in deep, rural Colombia, Encanto follows the Madrigals, a family gifted a Casita and magical powers to protect themselves and those around them after being annexed by armed invaders. Now pillars of their ever-growing community, the Madrigals use their eclectic assortment of "gifts" to maintain their secluded paradise. That is, all except for our protagonist Mirabel, who is the only grandchild of the family not to receive a gift from the Casita.
One immediate issue to arise from Encanto is that Mirabel lacks any particularly obvious flaws. Unlike her predecessor Raya, whose entire journey revolved around her lack of trust in others, for the most part Mirabel is never truly wrong, simply not in possession of all of the necessary information. Encanto approaches Mirabel's journey to save the family from its dying magic by presenting her as an underdog and an outcast. Her lack of a super-human gift makes her unhelpful to the community and therefore, not worthy of their praise. However, throughout the movie, besides realistic sibling squabbles the classic middle-kid syndrome amongst her sisters and cousins, Mirabel never has anything to prove to herself or more importantly, to the audience. The true threat against Mirabel succeeding is her Abuela, Alma (portrayed by María Cecilia Botero), who is never offered enough screen-time nor depth to make us truly sympathise with her motivations.
After witnessing her husband's death at the hands of the movie's faceless armed forces, Alma's sorrow and desperate hope to protect her three infant children creates the magical candle which fuels the Casita and the family's gifts. The Madrigal's troubles arise from Alma's constant pressure to ensure the family remains strong and perfect, rejecting Mirabel in the process, and forgetting the origins of their gift in the first place. However, as an audience we're never really given any indication that Alma sees herself in the magic-less Mirabel before the movie's climactic scene, and indeed the strains in their relationship that must be mended feel rather weak as a result. Alma resultantly just seems harsh, and her goals convoluted, rather than ever particularly sympathetic.
Beyond Encanto's lead, its large cast of characters are unsurprisingly one-dimensional, though fulfil their narrative roles well enough. They are all fun and individual in their own right, though shine brightest when they are together, making their harmonious musical number We Don't Talk About Bruno a well-deserved fan-favourite.
Overall, Encanto is a bright, beautifully animated musical, showcasing some of Disney Animation's best advancements in technology, particularly in regards to its lighting and character rigging. However, the one aspect of the film's production that should not be ignored is the lack of Colombian presence amongst its core creative team. As Colombian writer Aiko Hilkinger's highlights in their review for REMEZCLA, "the Mardigals don't feel like a Colombian family". And
while Disney's efforts of research are obvious, welcome, and and important step forward in regards to diverse representation within animation, it is difficult to ignore (even as a White British observer), that unlike the rich and detailed worlds of animated feature's such as Pixar's Coco and Luca, Encanto's Colombian soul feels only surface deep.
Encanto is out now in cinemas across the UK!
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