Encanto - 2021
"The miracle is not your gift, it's you."
It is safe to say I was positively floored by how good this film was. Many of us have had the experience. We're feeling a little tired and sluggish. We get dragged into one of our children's school activities for the umpteenth time (in this case, an elementary class' group trip to a movie theater over the Thanksgiving break). So, we sit down and embrace the reclining seats (which are now heated!) and the butter popcorn, but really we're internally thinking - "Jeez, I could be two theaters down watching ____ instead."
If you've never had this experience, then you are a better individual than me (which may very well be the case). Suffice it to say, I was less than expectant when Encanto began. Imagine my surprise then when over the next hour and 30 or so my heart, head, nay my very soul were pulled into a deeper embrace.
I suppose I'll get the easy stuff out of the way. It would be pedantic to talk about how well animated these things are now. I'm referring, of course, not only to the 3D, digitized renderings but also the way the "camera" captures movements and editing akin to its real world counterparts. And because Encanto offers such a rich tapestry of characters in this magical family, whisking us frantically about the various rooms and corridors of this living casita is the order of the day.
Further, here's a statement that will surprise no one: Lin-Manuel Miranda is a musical wunderkind. The numbers are just top notch work. Miranda brings his pop and hip hop sensibilities to a fresh set of songs whose words actually have real MEANING. Our protagonist Maribel's older sister, Louisa, is a Martha if I've ever seen one (this is a reference to the New Testament story of sisters Mary and Martha with Jesus. Google it). Her track dives headlong into the external pressures of performance and the almost Atlas-like struggle (to use a more well-known comp) to hold the world upon your shoulders.
This last bit gets to the really good "stuff." When I walked out and started dialoguing about this film with my 10 and 8 year old, a concrete truth hit me square in the face. Simply put, I think I liked it better than they did. Upon examination this is because of the rich and deep themes lying under the surface. Encanto deals us a serious presentation of the long-waged war of external appearances of strength vs. internal struggle. And fortunately for us all, it does so in a package that is almost exclusively female-led.
As one more example of this fact, alongside Louisa is another sister (Isabela) who is so Disney-princess perfect that she literally creates flawless flowers wherever she strides. She is all set up for the Prince Charming finale crowd pleaser. But she too bears her own secret burdens, namely the suffocating pressure of being all put together ALL the time. "Variety is the spice of life," they often say. It is Isabela's revelation of this truth, and her embrace of a variegated nature inside of herselfwhich bring another deeply felt catharsis to the viewer.
Then...right in the middle of this madness, we finally meet Bruno! He's voiced by none other than John Leguizamo! I was positively filled with glee at this moment, and his own unpacking of being the family pariah and wielding his own heavy "gift."
But of course at the end this is Maribel's picture. I've read that her character is the first Disney lead to wear glasses. She is certainly non-traditionally drawn in the animated pantheon, which allows her inner beauty to shine all the more brightly. (Yeah, I reread that sentence too. If you threw up in your mouth a little bit, I'll forgive it). It is Maribel and her Abuela, and indeed the whole family's discovery of what the true gift in life is, which most deeply touched me. (I wasn't crying. You were crying).
I will say that I have a few squabbles with the very ending of the film. For spoilers sake, I'll avoid them here. I simply felt that in an effort to bring the "Disney ending," they sidestepped the hard won ground they had gained in authenticity. But...given the plot, and the "magic," it is more than excusable. The miracle is not the gift, it's you. Would that we all would embrace that more in our fight of performance vs. core identity.
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