The latest Disney movie, ‘Encanto’, has been gaining great popularity since its release in late November last year. Not only are the original songs by acclaimed Broadway actor Lin-Manuel Miranda trending, but it has started a major buzz on social media. In short, the story follows the Colombian Madrigal family, who was given a miracle. Because of this, all the children received a gift, except for our protagonist, Mirabel Madrigal. In this review, I will be sharing my personal thoughts and opinions on the story, the characters, and more. Please be warned that this review will contain spoilers for the movie.
One of the reasons I think ‘Encanto’, as well as more recent Disney movies, has been successful is because Disney is evolving more with the times. Instead of the Eurocentric tales seen in the early Disney works, Disney has started making more movies that explore different cultures around the world, ‘Encanto’ representing and being set in Colombia. Making more movies with POC (people of colour) protagonists and delving into other cultures is important as representation on screen is vital – all diverse children should be able to see themselves reflected in the media. From what has been seen online, this movie has been well-received and culturally accurate in many aspects. For example, a lot of the animals that are seen after Antonio (the youngest member of the Madrigal family) receives his gift are common or native to Colombia. Not only this but Mirabel’s dress is actually a folk dress from Santander, Colombia. There are even minor details like the children drinking coffee at the beginning of the movie, which is a regular practice in Latin America. Obviously, it’s hard to encapsulate a whole country’s traditions and culture in one movie, but Encanto was definitely a step in the right direction.
‘Encanto’ also subverts Disney tradition with its lack of a villain. Instead, the story revolves around a tight-knit family having to undo generational trauma. This is vastly different to many previous Disney movies, especially as this movie doesn’t centre around a love story. Yes, there was Isabella and Mariano who were to be wed, but it wasn’t the main arc and in the end, Isabella didn’t even marry Mariano. I, along with many others, enjoyed the fact the movie didn’t centre around a love story as it gave more room in the movie to represent Colombian culture with the importance of family. This also made the characters and plot a lot more relatable as lots of people can relate to having familial pressures and having to maintain a perfect familial image. Because of its relatability, this movie was all the more heartwarming, particularly at the end. Though the movie did have a happy ending, I appreciated that when the family actually started communicating and mending their relationships, it didn’t mean everything was automatically fixed. They still had to rebuild their house from the ground up and the crack in the mountain, from when Abuella and Mirabel were arguing, never magically fixed itself. Instead, it became a symbol for the Madrigal family to look back at and grow from. This detail from the ending was even confirmed by ‘Encanto’ co-director Charise Castro Smith.
Disney’s evolution with the times can also be observed through ‘Encanto’’s characters. Though there were many characters in the movie, all were well-rounded personality-wise. You would think it’s hard to maintain twelve fully developed major and supporting characters in a movie less than two hours in length, but ‘Encanto’ does this well. I think the fact that all the kids have different gifts definitely helped in this sense, as the gifts help differentiate the characters and can reflect the character’s personalities. An example of this can be seen when Antonio is referred to as an ‘animal guy’ and later gets a gift that embodies just that. The attention to detail within the family is just incredible and though I would love to talk about all the relatives in the Madrigal family, I’m going to focus on Mirabel, Luisa, and Isabella as they got bigger roles in the movie and all of their personal arcs stood out to me.
Firstly, Mirabel is the only born Madrigal to not get a gift and I think that Disney portrayed her character perfectly. Mirabel loves her family but it’s clear she didn’t get shown as much appreciation because she didn’t have a gift. She’s still just a teenager in the movie so I think it’s accurate that she tried to overcompensate in order to live up to her Abuela’s (Spanish for “grandmother”) ridiculously high expectations. She doubts her self worth a lot which is why the scene at the end where she looks into the doorknob and sees her reflection is all the more impactful, because she says she finally sees herself. All Mirabel wanted to do was make her family proud.
This was also the goal for Luisa and Isabella, however Isabella and Mirabel were different as Isabella already had the golden child reputation. She wanted to make her family proud so she was ready to marry a man she didn’t love, she kept a princess act up the whole movie and never shared her inner turmoil of not wanting to be pretty or perfect. The fact that Isabella wasn’t actually ‘perfect’ gave her a lot more of a refreshing three-dimensional personality. I think her whole act of ‘perfection’ reflected a lot of the expectations society has for women so the fact she broke out of that and started being true to herself sends a positive message. It made her character a lot more grounded and relatable to the audience. Luisa also was put under a lot of pressure as she overworked herself but never stopped because she didn’t think she had a purpose if she couldn’t be of service to everyone. Luisa’s character design is unlike anybody else’s in Disney history with her tall and muscular stature, this was part of the reason I think people ended up loving Luisa. Regardless, I loved the character development which you can see throughout the movie in all three siblings and I think this could be influential to kids growing up watching this.
In conclusion, with the stunning visuals and animation, catchy songs, charming characters, and gripping storyline, ‘Encanto’ truly does have it all. I hope Disney takes representation like this further and continues to create true-to-life characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and hope that kids will be able to grow up watching more contemporary media like this in the coming years.
