Deep in the Columbian jungle sits a small town built around a magical, sentient house, and the matriarch of the home Alma Madrigal (María Cecillia Botero).  She lives there with her triplet children and multiple grandchildren, all of whom were granted a special power from the magic house: super strength, control of the weather, and future sight to name a few.  All, that is, except for Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz) who never received a power when she came of age. When the house begins to show signs of its magic failing, it is up to Mirabel to restore the charm – the Encanto – which the town has come to rely on for its own survival. 

Encanto is the latest Disney Animation musical with deep roots in Latin culture showcasing the art style, rhythms, and nature of Columbia.  Written and directed by Jared Bush, Byron Howard, and Charise Castro Smith, the film boasts songs from one of Disney’s newer cogs in their constantly churning content machine, Lin-Manuel Miranda.  For as similar as Encanto can seem at times, there is also quite a lot that makes it stand out from the creative stagnancy of releases by the studio over the past decade.  

The stage is set pretty early on in a way that will feel familiar to anyone who has seen any movie from the studio – there is magic, the magic is in danger, and now it is up to our hero to save the day.  Encanto also keeps with the modern tradition of not focusing on damsels in distress that need to be saved by some prince shown for only 45 seconds in the third act before closing on the fairytale wedding.  Mirabel is totally and completely normal, and the film really doubles down on making sure the audience understands that.  She does fall into some wholly uninteresting territory not so much because she herself is poorly written but compared to others in her family she is underwritten despite having the lion’s share of the dialogue.  This is more due to poor ensemble management on behalf of the screenwriters as they have a massive twelve-character family to utilize here and only 102 minutes to do so. 

The film opens with a song that quickly introduces you to the family in a style very reminiscent to the big opening numbers of the ’80s and ’90s era films.  Miranda’s lyrical work here is, on paper impressive, but in execution a little too cheeky and sharp to really take in all of the exposition.  It is a common theme for his music here which, while bubbly and bright, the constant wordplay makes the songs hard to track and therefore easy to tune out.  Furthering the misfortune around the lyrics is that Encanto is overwrought with song breaks – totaling almost 33 minutes – which means there is a lot of story here that is not being absorbed. 

For all the missteps in the film of which Miranda is responsible for, the storytelling is some of the most subversive to come out of the Mouse House in quite some time.  We are constantly teased at the vast jungle, Mirabel’s youngest nephew, Antonio (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), being gifted with the ability to talk to animals, and hushed whispers about Uncle Bruno (John Leguizamo) who disappeared from the family long ago.  The elements are right there clear as day and anyone familiar with the time-tested Disney formula has a good idea of where the film will go, but the writers had a totally different story in mind and really made the merchandising team responsible for the Encanto line of Happy Meal Toys use their imagination on what characters would help best push McNuggets for a film that largely takes place in one location, features no talking (or singing, or dancing) animals, and at its core is a family drama. 

The choices made by the screenwriters here are some of the boldest in recent memory for the studio, and while Encanto may not truly work as a film – there is not even a true antagonist here – it can be respected for what it is trying to do.  If this is a pioneering first real step into the direction that Disney wants to take its storytelling, it is an exciting one as they put the stories of Hans Christian Anderson et al. aside in favor of more original, cultural, and human stories.  Change can be scary, and admittedly when the credits began the feeling of “that’s it?” can be overwhelming, but with a little distance Encanto seems to be Disney actually putting its heart back into their storytelling instead of focusing only on the buzzword laden headlines that get published ad nauseam upon each uninspired release.