The first movie of the year (and hence first place on this blog) goes to ENCANTO, Disney Animation's 60th - 60th! - animated film. I remember going to see Tangled and marveling that it was the 50th. I suppose I might live long enough to see the 100th.
ENCANTO is the story of the Madrigals, a multi-generational Columbian family whose members all have various magical powers - and in particular, the power-less 15-year-old Maribel, who must attempt to hold her family together when cracks begin to form in their seemingly perfect façade.
WHAT WORKS WELL - Encanto is a visual treat, every character and frame absolutely beautiful. Lin Manuel Miranda writes 8 original songs, some of which are great, some of which are just fine. I feel as though LMM gets the lyrics right 100% of the time, and the music right about 70% of the time. Even after a few listens, a few of the songs (All Of You, What Else Can I Do), are perfectly fine, but don't leave any particular mark. But then you have everyone's favorite "We Don't Talk About Bruno" which could legitimately get me into cha-cha music, and my personal favorite "Dos Origuitas", which is a stunningly beautiful and simple ballad that appears in both all-Spanish and English versions. The voice cast is great across the board, Stephanie Beatriz captures teenage spirit/angst as Mirabel, and John Leguizamo is a standout as Bruno. Also, I can only appreciate this by how others speak of it, but seems like it does a really terrific job of capturing Columbian culture, history, and thematic elements extremely well.
WHAT DOESN'T WORK SO WELL - Encanto is, honestly, kind of a mess, story-beat wise. The plot makes sense, but something was off. The pacing, the amount of time spent in each act - something's not quite right. It might have been the lack of clear antagonist, or the lack of time spent in Act 3 in determining exactly what the cause/s of the Main Story Problems are, but something feels off and rushed. It's a shame because the setup / concept / characters are great, they just feel slightly misused, as if all the energies went into creating this world and these characters and then the story got hashed together at the 11th hour.
It's still a good movie. I'd honestly like to watch it again, to see if I pick up more details or if the overarching plot makes a little more emotional sense on a second viewing. The songs get better with each soundtrack listen. Did I mention I love how they utilize the "living house" of the Madrigals' as a character and how it interacts with all of them? There's still a lot to like in this movie. Disney Does It Again.
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