Encanto

I just saw Encanto, and thought I'd discuss it for story development purposes. And music purposes. Some of those songs are super catchy.

First of all, I enjoyed it. I've only seen the movie once, so this is just my first impression (Though I have heard the songs multiple times).

 

You don't get very far before you see the cracks in the family. The first sign is right after the first song, where Mirabel's cousin says (callously) that Mirabel didn't get a gift. Her family doesn't try to cover for her or anything. She's just excluded, which becomes more and more obvious. But then you start to notice the stress around other characters. For example, the phrase "golden child" always makes me cringe because it makes it seem that the other kids are worthless. And as we see here, it puts excessive pressure on that "golden child." I was glad that the cracks in the family ended up being vital to the story, because they were worrying from the beginning. 

That song "We Don't Talk about Bruno" is kinda ridiculous, but I love it. I've listened to it a bunch of times. The beat is so catchy and I want to dance to it. Plus I'm such a sucker for songs that overlap multiple character melodies all at once.  The only other song I know that does it so well is "One Day More" from Les Miserables. 

I love the uncle's animation at the beginning of the song. And the fact that he tells his wife that he's going to stop adding commentary, and then he keeps doing it anyway. Man, everyone's so mean to Bruno. Poor dude. And the shapeshifting cousin says "he fasts on your screams." That's pretty intense. Then again, maybe he's just trying to scare Mirabel. He does seem pretty mischievous. (Despite how much people seem to dislike Bruno, his family is so happy to have him back).

I didn't realize they were setting Bruno up to be the villain. But that's probably because I saw something before I watched the movie, and it was comparing Bruno and Hector (they have very similar fates. And there are even controlling grandmas). So I subconsciously knew he wouldn't be a bad guy. 

During the song "Surface Pressure" I recognized the style of music and realized who the writer was. It's a good song. But a lot of the song visuals in this movie were kinda strange. My friend said they were overwhelming, which makes sense (Even Mirabel's outfit is kind of "busy"). Most of the songs have symbolic images going with them, but they kinda go over the top. Especially Surface Pressure. 

Not long ago, there was a song with a herd of singing reindeer. Now it's dancing burros. 

I liked "What Else Can I Do." There are some amazing lines about plants - a hurricane of jacarandas, a river of sundew. But why did the flowers start spewing out multi-colored dust? Is it supposed to be rainbow pollen? Mirabel doesn't get any on her - just Isabella.

One of my main complaints about the movie was that there were too many characters. It's really hard to pull off a kid's movie with a ton of characters. The movies just aren't that long, but it can be done. It might have worked better if most of the characters didn't also have powers that you were supposed to remember through the course of the movie. They even make fun of this at the beginning of the movie, saying how many kids are in the house, and how impossible it is to keep track of all the powers. Most of the family members have some kind of role. The two sisters definitely. The shapeshifting cousin didn't really do anything important though. And the youngest cousin was important, because he showed that the kids in the family were still getting magic - it underlines that only Mirabel's left out. But once he got his powers, he pretty much vanished from the scene. (I wanted to see more of him with the animals! Plus he'd been so close with Mirabel before)  I love the designs of the three cousins though. They're all so cute.

I watched a couple interviews from the movie creators. They said that Disney had never done an extended family before. But what about Coco? Were they not counting Pixar movies? The extended family in Coco worked better partially because most of the family acted as a single unit through the movie. They also didn't have individual powers you needed to remember. But also in Coco, they singled out a few family members who had larger roles. In Encanto, there was Mirabel, and then most of the rest of the family had equally important roles (Mirabel's parents had almost no role - it was a long time before I remembered who they even were).

Also the backstory kinda left me scratching my head. So, Abuela was granted a miracle to save her and her family. The miracle created a new, safe place for them to live. Okay, that makes sense. It also made them a magical house that was actually alive. And it also gave all of the kids (almost all of the kids) magic powers as they grew older. That's a really elaborate miracle. 

I still don't understand why Mirabel didn't get a gift. Something to do with saving the house, but why?

 Well, maybe things will make more sense when I see the movie again. 

I liked that by the end they realized they didn't need a magic house or powers to be a happy family. Though they got them back anyway, because it's Disney.