?Me Encanta Encanto! (I Love Encanto)

There was once a time when Walt Disney Animation Studios was able to release consistently good films year after year. However, the cinematic landscape we live in now is very different from that of the "Renaissance" overseen by Michael Eisner or the golden years overseen by Walter Elias himself, and the Mouse House ain't what it used to be. Modern Disney has become a prideful monolith, drunk on its past successes and holding the belief that they're too big to fail.

This had the unfortunate result of their theatrical animation taking a notable hit, with everything following Wreck-It Ralph being very hit-or-miss. Big Hero 6, Zootopia, Moana, and Frozen II were all at least good; Frozen, Ralph Breaks the Internet, or Raya and the Last Dragon weren't. I believe that this pattern of WDAS alternating between a bad film and a good film year by year (2016 being the exception, where both Zootopia and Moana were great) has the potential to damage the Mickey Mouse empire's reputation.

So when I heard that Encanto (the studio's 60th animated film) was going to be released late in 2021, I looked forward to it with cautious optimism and realistic expectations. On one hand, this could be a good film to balance out the mess that was Raya; on the other, the "Disney Cycle" could be broken like it was in 2016 and it'd be just as confused as Raya was. Having seen it in late December 2021, though, how did I ultimately feel about it?

...

Well, if you've read the article's title, you can guess how I feel about Encanto. This is the best animated film Disney's released since Moana and one of their most surprising flicks in quite some time. I'm still shocked that this film released the same year as Raya, given how frustrating that film was (you can read about my thoughts on it here). Perhaps this was a Lion King/Pocahontas situation where Disney was expecting one film to be a massive success and the other to be more moderate (given the amount of Raya merchandise that's still swarming shelves, I'd assume that they were banking on that as their big money-maker for the year).

But this isn't going to be as lengthy a dissection as my Raya article. Rather, it's just going to be me peering into Encanto and explaining why it worked so well. ?Vamos! (Let's go!)

DISCLAIMER: There will be some spoilers for Encanto throughout this article. Also, I apologize to any parent who had traumatic flashbacks to Yo Gabba Gabba from how the title was structured.

SYNOPSIS

Everyone born into the Madrigal family has been blessed with a miraculous gift. Tía Pepa is able to control the weather with her emotions, absentee tío Bruno ("we don't talk about Bruno!") was said to have the ability to see into the future, madre Julieta is capable of healing others with her cooking, prima Dolores can hear from an exceptionally long distance away, primo mayor Camilo can shapeshift to resemble anyone he pleases, primo menor Antonio is yet to receive his gift but has a love for animals, hermana mayor Isabela can make flowers bloom wherever she pleases, and hermana media Luisa is capable of incredible feats of strength. As for hermana menor Mirabel (our main character), though...

Okay, I take back what I said above. Almost everyone in the Madrigal family has a gift. For some reason of the arcane, Mirabel is the only* member of her exceptional, magical family to not have a miraculous gift. Ergo, she's something of the ugly duckling of her family.

*Her padre Agustín and tío Felix are also gift-less, but they married into the family. Mirabel's the first case where someone born into the family didn't receive a gift.

Try as she might to make it look like she's fine with being a llana Juana (plain Jane) gal in a family that's so magical and awe-inspiring, Mirabel feels inadequate and unappreciated. However, things begin to change when she starts to notice the Madrigals' magical house "Casita" crumbling and her family members' powers going haywire. Little does she know that she's not the only one putting up a front to make it look like she's fine.

Will Mirabel save Casita and figure out what's going awry with her familia's gifts? What became of Bruno, and how does his gift of foresight relate to her current plight? And what secrets does Abuela Alma (the Madrigal matriarch) have to hide?

VISUALS and ANIMATION

Now that we've gotten the synopsis out of the way, we can move onto the various aspects of the film that I liked (and those that I didn't). First up, let's discuss the visuals and animation. A common critique I have of Disney's post-Frozen CGI films is that their character designs tend to coalesce together into one homogenous, overly safe-looking mass based on Glen Keane's designs for Tangled (which aren't bad, but Disney's overused his stylings quite a bit). There are exceptions (Moana, Wreck-It Ralph, Zootopia), fortunately, but I'd rather not watch movies that use the same facial structures with horse-sized eyes on their female characters. (looking at you, Raya)

Not so with Encanto! From the moment I saw Mirabel's design in the first trailer, I could tell that Disney was at least trying to address the sameness of its past female character designs. She's a bit more gawky and realistically proportioned than her predecessors, and she holds the honor of being the second Disney protagonist to wear glasses (Milo from Atlantis was the first one, but Mirabel's the first spectacles-clad woman to hold the role of main character). She looks more like a real person than an idealized Barbie doll, and I love that. Not every girl's as svelte as Anna or Elsa, Disney! Thank you for realizing that!

Speaking of women with atypical frames, let's discuss Luisa (Mirabel's musclebound elder sister). As someone who's seen an unusually large amount of buff ladies in Western animation in recent years (Jasper from Steven Universe, Scorpia from She-Ra 2018, and Raya's Namaari are all examples), I was rather surprised to see Disney of all companies put one forth. Unlike many muscular animated women, I believe that whoever designed Luisa was very intentional in balancing the cartoonish exaggeration of her biceps and her femininity (see her garb). Given that characters like her tend to overemphasize their muscles to the point where they don't look like women anymore, I was pleasantly surprised by how well she was designed.

The rest of the cast is a Colombian potpourri of ages, skin tones, and colors. Particular standouts include Pepa (one of the most expressive Disney ladies in some time, fitting her overemotional nature), Antonio (proof that Disney still knows how to do cute kids that aren't just younger versions of the main characters), Bruno (a surprise that I'm not willing to spoil, but let's just say his appearance and his personality are at surprising odds with one another), and Isabela (such a perfect send-up of "traditional" Disney princesses in appearance). There's nary a bad design in sight, and I think it'd be best to finish up talking about the visuals by talking about Casita, the Madrigals' magical (and very expressive) house.

Make no mistake- while the character designs of the people are impressive, Casita is where I feel as if the designers and animators truly went all out. Like the carpet in Aladdin, Encanto treats it less as an inanimate object and more like another character to accompany its human cast. There are so many little gestures Casita makes throughout the film that help to make it feel more alive, and its liveliness helps endear us to la casa grande and make us care about the danger facing it throughout the film's story.

Speaking of which, can we talk about the animation? Because this is arguably the best 3D animation I've seen come out of Disney in a long while. The cinematography is extremely dynamic with many slick "camera" movements and unique angles, the character animation strikes a fine line between being energetic and realistic, and the musical sequences are creative and visual marvels. Songs like "Surface Pressure" or "What Else Can I Do" (which belong to Mirabel's sisters; more on them- both the characters and the songs- later) are already great, but the visuals elevate them so high that I think you could compare them to the highlights from a Disney Renaissance-era (that is, everything from The Little Mermaid to Tarzan) film and no one would complain.

In addition, there are many little things I appreciate about the film's visuals like the fluidity of the women's dresses (particularly Mirabel), the level of detail on things as small as the barbells stitched into Luisa's dress or the sand particles in one of Casita's rooms, and the color palettes of pretty much everything. All in all, I believe that the visuals of Encanto are a much-needed return to form for the Mouse House. The characters are well-designed, the Madrigals' house feels lively enough to be considered one of those characters, and the animation is exceptional, even by Disney standards.

CHARACTERS

One would assume that with such a large family at the core of its narrative, Encanto would feel overstuffed and some of the Madrigals would feel underdeveloped. Admittedly, there are some characters that I think could've been fleshed out a bit more, but even then, I don't think the film really suffers because of those characters being underdeveloped. Those that are given time in the limelight are fortunately very well-developed.

DISCLAIMER: I will not be discussing particularly spoilery characters unless it's in vague terms. I guess you could say I'm not talking about Bruno. Huh? Huh? Okay, I'll stick to writing the review.

Let's begin with Mirabel, shall we? In short, I love Mirabel. She's empathetic, she's vulnerable, she's driven, she's kind, and much like her design, she achieves a level of realness that recent Disney protagonists often fail to achieve. Yes, she's part of una familia mágica and she finds herself getting swept up in a prophecy that puts the fate of their magic in her hands, but she's not some mystical chosen one type because of it. She's just a young woman who wants to do right by her family even if she doesn't have the same miraculous gifts that they do.

In fact, her normalcy helps to bring her fantastical family down to a more human level and help them through their troubles. While the concept of a human main character grounding their magical relatives in reality isn't new for me, it's executed extremely well here. She's a cool cousin/surrogate big sister to Antonio, a reminder to lighten one's yoke for Luisa, the key to Isabela letting loose and being herself, and ultimately the one who helps to right a wrong from long ago for the entire family.

Speaking of execution, I am SO GLAD they didn't use overused cliches like her having some hidden gift that never manifests until a time of crisis or her resenting her magical relatives because she never got a gift like they did. The latter is dabbled in with her relationship with "se?orita perfecta" Isabela, but even then, it's less about her gift and more about how supposedly perfect Isa's life has been. It could've been easy to go in either of those directions, and yet the writers decided to do something smarter (and sweeter) by making her supportive of her family and making that support the very thing that leads to the family's betterment.

Heck, I'd argue that Mirabel does have a gift, but not a magical one. Rather, she has the human gift of empathy. For a film aimed at families released during such tumultuous times as these, we could certainly use more empathy and I think Mirabel's going to go down in history for the same reason a lot of Disney's earliest "princesses" went down in history. She's not aspirational because she's got some special talent or because of her magical heritage; she's aspirational because she chooses to be kind and empathetic in a scenario where I doubt it'd be easy to do so.

If there is anything I'd critique about Mirabel, it's the lack of relationships between her, her father, and her uncle. Since Agustín and Felix are also gift-less, one would think the writers would've found a way to show them sympathizing with her at some point. It's an odd oversight in a film that prides itself on showing how interwoven the Madrigals are, but it's not one that took away from the story the writers were trying to tell.

So, yeah. Mirabel is una protagonista fantástica and one of Disney's best leading ladies in a long while. Considering that she came from the same minds who gave us Judy Hopps in Zootopia (directors Byron Howard and Jared Bush's previous Disney flick), I'm not too surprised by how good she is. Of course, she's not perfect (see my above comments about the lack of relationship between her, her dad, and her non-absentee uncle), but that's so heavily outweighed by everything great about her that I'm willing to let it slide.

Next, let's talk about Isabela and Luisa. Both of Mirabel's older sisters are emblematic of the film's theme of one not being defined by their outward appearances or abilities, and despite their radically different appearances, they happen to share very similar issues. On the surface, Isabela is "the perfect golden child" capable of making flowers bloom wherever she pleases and Luisa is (as mentioned above) a musclebound mountain of a woman who takes no lip and is capable of quite large lifts.

However, the truth is neither of them are who they appear to be. Luisa is an anxious mess so determined to fulfill her purpose as "the strong one" of the family that she's neglected to take time for herself; Isabela wants to be her messy, honest self rather than the idealized perfect little "princess" everyone expects her to be. I found the dichotomy between their appearances and their personalities fascinating, especially as cracks started to appear (such as Isabela's temper or Luisa's more vulnerable side) throughout the film's runtime.

While I wish that Luisa got more development (once her gift begins to fade, she fades into the background, sadly), Isabela gets a metric boatload of it during a musical sequence that not only brings out the real her, but helps mend her strained relationship with Mirabel. See, Isa's not too jazzed about her younger sister and sees her more as a hindrance to the Madrigal family than a help ("Hey, sis- I want not a sound out of you"), and this feeling is only accentuated after a family secret is brought up at an inopportune time. However, with Mirabel's help, she finds the fun in being spontaneous and imperfect and sincere and messy. For the first time in forever, she's able to be herself, warts and all.

Overall, I quite like both of Mirabel's sisters. They both serve to illustrate what's wrong with the family Madrigal and they're both quite fascinating personality-wise, even if Luisa got shafted something fierce. Speaking of which, let's move on the Madrigal matriarch Abuela Alma. Even after thinking it over, I'm still not entirely sure how to feel about her. On one hand, she's the closest thing the film has to an antagonist and she does and says a lot of things that I'm certain will annoy certain viewers. On the other, a lot of her actions become more understandable as the film goes on and she's called out for behavior that's actively harming her family.

Tragedy struck early in Alma's life, and it tinges her actions throughout the film. I won't say what that tragedy was to avoid spoiling it, but I can assure you that there's a good reason for why such an event would impact how she sees her family's lives so greatly. She lost someone so near and dear to her that she figured she had to prevent that from happening again, even if it meant forcing her children and grandchildren to fit within the molds set by their gifts.

Alas, Alma is one of the few characters in Encanto where I feel like the writers could've done more with her. While her epiphany and apology at the end both work, the movie rushes through the former and doesn't really show her realizing the depths of how badly she'd screwed up her family. I mean, what happens because of her misaligned view of the miracle granted to the Madrigals would be enough to convince me "maybe don't force your family to keep up an image they're unhappy keeping up", but the film could've spent more time showing her reaction to what happened and the part she played in its happening.

Ultimately, your mileage may vary on Alma depending on who you are. Either she's a complex matriarch who didn't know how badly she was damaging her family's view of themselves or she's a selfish old toot with an unearned redemption at the end who's only excused because of her traumatic past. Personally, I don't think past trauma should be used as a shield for a character acting terribly towards another, but Alma didn't feel like she was written like that. She just felt like a woman who was trying to control everything after losing that aforementioned someone in a situation she couldn't control. Is that a realistic response to trauma? I don't know. But what I do know is that while I have some grievances with her character, Alma is legitimately well-written for the most part.

The rest of the family Madrigal is honestly not bad but also not as great as the four I've mentioned here. They're all just varying levels of good. Mirabel's parents Julieta and Agustín, while not terribly active in the story (see my above critique about the latter not having a bigger role in the film), are both loving and supportive folks who care dearly for their youngest hija. They're not obstacles in Mirabel's quest to figure out what's going wrong with Casita (in fact, Agustín attempts to help her hide a potential clue... emphasis on "attempts"), nor are they overly cloying attempts to make up for Disney's long history of absentee, dead, and/or antagonistic parents. They're just a sweet couple who love their daughters and their extended family, y'know?

I would say similar things about Pepa and Felix. Again, I wish Felix got more screen time (especially considering his sunny disposition), but man oh man was his wife fun to watch. She captures the feeling of an aunt whose very presence could shake up a family event solely based on how she's feeling very well (something only accentuated by her gift), and her voice actress must've had a ball with voicing her. Also, I like her dynamic with Felix- his chill, calm demeanor balances out her stormier emotions and you can tell that he's used to having to calm her down or cheer her up. That's cute.

Dolores seems to be the breakout character of the film. Admittedly, a lot of that comes from her design, but in all honesty, she doesn't have much outside of the songs to her character. She's just kinda... there being sweet. If there's anything nice I can say about her, it's that the writers were smart when it came to handling her gift of hyper-hearing (that's what I'm calling it). Not only is she aware about a certain plot revelation long before anyone else is, but her gift of heightened hearing is reflected in her mannerisms and singing.

In addition, there's a VERY sweet moment near the end where she gets the chance to enter a relationship with town hunk Mariano that I won't spoil, but let's just say it felt cathartic after hearing one of her verses during "We Don't Talk About Bruno".

Camilo seems to be the Madrigal kid who got shafted the hardest by the writers. Despite press material addressing him as someone who wasn't entirely sure who he was (which his gift of shapeshifting would only accentuate), the final film shows very little of that trait. Given how much attention Luisa and Isabela's personal faults were given, I'm surprised that he wasn't given a song detailing his repressed identity crisis.

However, he's got a heaping helping of personality compared to his hermana mayor. He's very theatrical and sneaky, and any chance the animators got to use his gift for humor or to illustrate a certain point was a joy to watch unfold onscreen. He'd definitely be a theatre kid if there was a theatre a few blocks away from Casita. While I wish more had been done for his character (and judging from his part in "We Don't Talk About Bruno", he probably would've sounded great), what is done for him is quite fun.

Antonio is perhaps the most fleshed out of the cousins Madrigal, something I attribute to the film showcasing his relationship with Mirabel so clearly. Despite being his cousin, she's more of a surrogate older sister to the little guy, comforting him and helping him through anxious times. And it doesn't hurt that he's one of the kindest and most sincere kids in recent Disney history.

He's not a sass machine or a source of comic relief; he's just a sweet kid who loves his family. Coming off of Raya's Boun and Noi (Noi was admittedly cute, though), who were both child characters that didn't feel like actual children, Antonio was a welcome respite. And once he gets his gift, there's plenty of cute moments between him and the beings his gift lets him communicate with.

Outside of Bruno (again, I'm not talking about him for spoilery reasons), that does it for the family Madrigal- and what a well-rounded bunch they are! Of course, that doesn't mean I didn't have problems with them, but I was pleasantly surprised to find such a likable cast. The only character I have a real issue with is Alma, and even then she didn't rub me the wrong way that characters in Raya or Ralph Breaks the Internet did.

Heck, Mirabel's become one of my favorite Disney protagonists in years just because of how human and realistically quirky (not Hollywood "quirky) she is. If a film released so recently is able to do that, then that's a sign the film is pretty darn good. Ultimately, I quite like the characters of Encanto.

MUSIC (as well as a small diatribe about Lin-Manuel Miranda)

Before we get too deep into the music section, allow me to voice my thoughts on Lin-Manuel Miranda. Now, these aren't terribly popular opinions, but I believe this would be a good place to share them. Ready?

Lin-Manuel works best when he's either being directed by someone else or he's just operating as a songwriter.

Having watched Hamilton (thanks, Disney+) in 2020, I began to realize that when compared against actual history, Lin seems to have lionized Alexander H. to such an extent that no one is allowed to be truly critical of him and he isn't allowed to mess up. When you consider that Hamilton was played by Lin himself, it makes sense why his character is so hyped up. I'm not saying this to condemn him; I'm just pointing out the problem of Mr. Miranda pushing himself into the spotlight to the detriment of the show he's also directing and writing.

(This could apply to In the Heights which he also directed, wrote and played the main character in, but I haven't seen that)

Compare that to his roles in Mary Poppins Returns (one of the rare times where a Disney sequel actually captured the magic of the original) or DuckTales 2017, where he was being directed by others that managed to rein him in. In the former, he was an lamplighter and apprentice to Dick Van Dyke's Bert (faux-Cockney accent and all); in the latter, he was a Puerto Rican-coded reinterpretation of Gizmoduck. Regardless of what he played in those works, Lin seemed more natural in those roles than he did in his self-assigned role as America's first treasurer.

Of course, I can't neglect Moana (Lin's first big collaboration with Disney), in which he wrote the songs... and that's about it. Aside from a vocal part during "We Know the Way", he stayed in the background writing all the songs. And considering the sheer variety of Moana's soundtrack- from "You're Welcome" being written exclusively within Dwayne Johnson's vocal range to "Shiny" being such a Bowie-esque bop- it really emphasizes how good Lin is at songwriting when he's not spreading himself so thin.

Simply put, I think Lin-Manuel is at his best when he's working on just songwriting or acting and not trying to force himself to do both. So when it came to his involvement with Encanto, I was pleased to hear that he was only involved in the songwriting process. I was also pleased to hear that he was aiming to channel Howard Ashman (of Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast fame) through how the songs were integrated into the story. Was he successful?

Yes. Yes, he was.

Where do I even begin with this soundtrack? Oh, right- preferably with the opening number. "The Family Madrigal" is a welcome return to form for Disney openers, introducing the entirety of the main cast in the span of around four minutes. And unlike first songs of old like "Belle" (not saying that one is bad), this one is justified in-story as Mirabel helping straighten out who's who for some kids who were curious about who had what gift. Ergo, she's explaining the family's gifts to the audience as well, allowing for it to serve as exposition that flows about as well as Mirabel's dress does (I still can't get over how well-animated her dress is!).

Mirabel's "I Want" song, "Waiting On a Miracle", is one of the songs that I don't see much praise for online, and I find that to be a crying shame because it captures her character so well. It begins with her trying her hardest to be proud of her family... and then her facade breaks, revealing her longing to be just as extraordinary and magical as they are. She goes from looking at her lack of a gift as something to be frowned upon to resolving to making her family proud, even without a gift. There's a wistfulness to this number that I don't see often in Disney's "I want" songs, and it really helps emphasize Mirabel's feelings of inadequacy in the midst of such a larger-than-life family.

"Surface Pressure", Luisa's song, is my favorite song out of everything on the Encanto soundtrack. Part of that can be attributed to me listening to this song first before seeing the film, but even without that in mind, this one is (as my generation would put it) a banger. It perfectly encapsulates the stressors and anxieties she pushes down in order to maintain her image as "the strong one" while also being an awesome auditory showcase of Jessica Darrow's range. If there was any song I could recommend for people who still aren't sold on the film by this point, it's this one. Just make sure you find the audio-only version, okay? I don't want y'all getting spoiled.

Admittedly, "We Don't Talk About Bruno" didn't quite wow me as much as it did the first time I heard it. Listening to it on its own, however, made me realize how brilliant this was as a song. From Dolores's verse being in present tense (if you watch the film, you'll learn WHY her part is in the present tense) to Camilo delivering the closest thing this film has to a villain song (which is more impressive considering his voice actor isn't know for singing) to the foreshadowing in Isabela's lyrics to the massive Hamiltonesque blend of each character's parts at the end detailing everyone's thoughts on Bruno, it's quite impressive that something so layered and clever could come out of a modern-day Disney film. Then again, this is Lin-Manuel Miranda we're talking about- he's a master of clever linguistics and songwriting, so stuff like this should be expected from him.

(Also, the animation accompanying this song is just *chef's kiss* fantástico)

One of the songs that surprised me the most was "What Else Can I Do?". I personally wasn't all that fond of Isabela up to this point, especially with how she was treating Mirabel. However, this one song made me fall head over heels for her because it shows her finally letting loose and being herself after having to keep up her "effortlessly perfect" self for most of the film. Combine that with her and Mirabel reconciling through said letting loose, and you have what I consider to be this film's rebuke of "Let it Go" (Frozen).

Instead of showing a woman abandoning her responsibilities and her sister because she's an emotional mess through the lens of a liberating power anthem, "What Else" is a triumphant anthem detailing Isa's self-discovery and reconciliation with the sister she'd brushed off as nothing special and a hindrance. "Let it Go" made me facepalm once I realized that Elsa was being horrendously irresponsible and selfish underneath all the glitz and glamour of her ice powers; "What Else" made me grin like an idiot when I saw Isa and Mirabel having fun with the former's powers and being buddy-buddy for what I can only assume was the first time in years. I was not expecting to like this song as much as I do, but yeah. "What Else Can I Do?" is great.

If there's a song in Encanto that I was disappointed by, it was "Dos Oruguitas". Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad song; it's just that how it was implemented felt... off to me. In the context of the film, this song is played over the traumatic event that led to the Madrigal family being blessed with their miracle and details the romance between Alma and her husband. While yes, its inclusion makes sense from a lyrical standpoint (it's about not holding on too tightly to the past), but after a majority of the songs were sung by the characters, it felt weird having a song being sung by someone outside of the film's narrative while we watched those characters reliving a tragic moment.

I dunno. Maybe songs like this don't fit into big hit starlit won't quit musicals. Regardless, it's not the inclusion of "Dos Oruguitas" that bothered me, it's how it was included that did so.

The film wraps up with "All of You", a medley of the film's motifs that reflects on the family Madrigal's growth throughout the film. Unless I'm mistaken, this is probably the first time a Disney film has done something as explicitly Broadway-ish as this. From Luisa and Isabela's verse being a blend of "Surface Pressure" and "What Else..." to the "Family Madrigal" motif being reworked to reflect everyone's development, this is the kind of closing number I can get behind and I really hope Disney commits to making more ending numbers like this.

Overall, the soundtrack of Encanto is muy fantástico. Sure, "Dos Oruguitas" might be the only clunker on the soundtrack (in my opinion; why did this get a Best Original Song nomination and not something like "We Don't Talk About Bruno"?), but it's only a clunker when compared to everything else. Lin-Manuel Miranda should be proud. Not only did he score* two of Disney's best films in recent memory, but he clearly displayed a good deal of growth between Moana and this.

*By score, I mean "write lyrical songs".

Where Moana felt like it was Lin trying to fit into the typical Disney musical box, Encanto feels as if he's just working his usual lyrical magic and tweaking the Disney formula to accommodate his style of songwriting. And the end result is some of the freshest music to come out of the Mouse House in recent years, with "We Don't Talk About Bruno" and "Surface Pressure" becoming universally beloved within minutes (the former seems to have become the fans' favorite). While I don't want Lin to become as attached to Disney's musicals and their soundtracks as Alan Menken is (not dissing Menken; in fact, a lot of his recent work has been quite good), I'd be game for him to do a few more Disney collaborations if they're on par with his work for Encanto.

CONCLUSION

In summation, Encanto is a breath of fresh air when compared to Disney's recent animated output.

Despite the positive buzz around films like Tangled, Winnie the Pooh, Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, and Moana, the 2010s were a very disjointed decade for Walt Disney Animation Studios. Pooh was a financial failure overshadowed by other family offerings in 2011, Frozen was a mediocre mess hampered by its troubled development, and the Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen sequels were about as good as the direct-to-video sequels that the now-defunct DisneyToon Studios used to release yearly (they weren't, although I'll admit Frozen II is better than the first film by a small margin). 2021's Raya and the Last Dragon wasn't much better, what with its disjointed pacing, mediocre cast of characters, and confused themes.

Naturally, this left me somewhat uncertain on whether or not Encanto would deliver on its promised premise. However, as I watched the film, my emotions began to shift from "hopefully it's decent" to "wait, this is actually good" to "GOOD GOLLY GOSHNESS THIS IS GREAT". By the time the credits began to roll, I was shocked. This was the first WDAS film since Moana (which I hadn't seen until 2021, but that's another story for another time) that I felt could be put up there with the greats of yesteryear and no one would complain or debate with me about putting it there.

Of course, it's not perfect (see my many "missed potential" comments in the character section and critique of how "Dos Oruguitas" was implemented), but it'd be hard for my quibbles with it to really ruin the film for me. Encanto is just a solidly written, animated and paced film. The story was simpler yet better-paced, the animation was gorgeous and the characters will probably be remembered for years and years.

Ultimately, Encanto is my current favorite WDAS animated film from the last 10 years. If anyone from Disney is listening, please keep going in this direction. This was a delightful film from start to finish and it's the kind of content that will keep families coming back and animation nerds like me happy. So make more movies like Encanto, de acuerdo? Your shareholders and audience will thank you.

I'd give Encanto an 8/10. While there are things about it that I wish were executed better or expounded upon more, the rest of it is a terrific two hours with the family Madrigal and a welcome return to form for the Mouse House's animation department. Gracias por leer, a todos. God bless!