Encanto is an animated celebration of family, home, and a young woman who has to find her place in her family with magical gifts! The word "Encanto" means a charm or spell in Spanish. The film is co-directed by Byron Howard, he co-directed Tangled (2010), Jared Bush, who co-directed Zootopia (2016) with Howard, and Charise Castro Smith, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Bush. The story team is made up of Howard, Bush, Smith, Jason Hand, Nancy Kruse, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. The film’s original songs are by Miranda. There is a Pixar short, “Far From The Tree”, from Natalie Nourigat which has an adult raccoon take his son to the beach to dig up clams. This is parable of parents sternly warning their children from running into dangers that they don’t notice. A welcome beginning before the film.
The 60th Disney animated film opens in Colombia with a story told by Alma Madrigal (María Cecilia Botero), escaping conquistadors in a river with her husband Pedro and other villagers. Olga Merediz provides Abuela Alma’s singing voice. Merediz was in the musical and movie of In the Heights. Conquistadors capture Pedro and Alma is left alone. She carries her three children; Julieta, Bruno, and Pepa. Alma has a candle that glows and never goes out, from it the magic builds the Casita. The magic is represented by yellow butterflies, a symbol that appears in Marquez's work. It is a peaceful life in a valley surrounded by mountains to protect the village near Casita.
This is a magic realism world, a literary genre centered in Colombia, I’ve studied this with the short story, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” (1968) by Gabriel García Márquez. After a storm, villagers see the old man with wings, is he an angel?, where does he come from?, you don’t question the fantastic, just accept it. García Márquez’s masterwork is One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967). Abuela Alma holds the candle as she tells the story to young Mirabel (Noemi Josefina Flores), daughter of Julieta, for her ceremony. She is to open a door in Casita to reveal her gift, but the golden door fades away.
In the present, Casita wakens the older Mirabel Madrigal (Stephanie Beatriz) to prepare for another ceremony. Beatriz was In the Heights (2021) and has a Disney connection voicing Ixlan in Elena of Avalor (2020). She is charming with her green, round glasses, she joins the Honey Lemon and Edna Mode glasses club. Casita is musical with parts of her moving to music, windows, bricks, and stairs. There are twelve family members across three generations all introduced by Mirabel in “The Family Madrigal.” There are her parents starting with Julieta (Angie Cepeda), who can heal through her cooking, Cepeda was the Marquez adaptation, Love in the Time of Cholera (2007).
Her husband is Agustín voiced by Wilmer Valderrama who is currently on the NCIS series. Pepa (Carolina Gaitán), her moods are reflected in mini-weather over her head. She sang in the background for The Greatest Showman (2017). Her husband is Félix (Mauro Castillo) and the actor is also a singer and composer nominated for Latin Grammys. Lastly, is Bruno, but they don’t talk about Bruno, very funny in delivery, he can see visions of the future and is the black sheep of the family. Mirabel has two older sisters with the oldest Isabela (Diane Guerrero) who is practically perfect and makes flowers grow. Guerrero plays Crazy Jane on Doom Patrol. She floats through life and has a habit of flipping her long hair in Mirabel’s face.
Next is Luisa (Jessica Darrow), who has massive strength lifting houses with ease, but she has a secret. Darrow starred in the comedy mini-series Following Hannah Stone (2021). Pepa has three children including Dolores (Adassa) who can hear any sound. Adassa is known as the “Reggaetón Princess” working with many singers. Camilo (Rhenzy Feliz), is a shapeshifter who loves impersonating everyone. Feliz was Alex Wilder on the Hulu superhero show, Runaways. Lastly, is Pepa’s youngest son, Antonio (Ravi-Cabot Conyers), and the family is preparing for his ceremony. Conyers is in the Netflix comedy series, #blackAF. The family is looking for Antonio, Mirabel finds him underneath a bed, she shares the nursery room with him since her door didn’t open to her own room. He is frightened that he won’t get a gift like Mirabel, but she encourages him with a jaguar stuffie.
Night, Abuela Alma has the candle as everyone waits for Antonio. He asks for Mirabel to go with him up the stairs. This is her gift, the power to support all of the members of her family, her lack of magic reminds me of the fantasy novel, A Spell for Chameleon, with the magic-less Bink in a magical world, Xanth. Antonio touches the candle and then reaches for the doorknob of his room. This reveals his gift, a toucan named Pico (Alan Tudyk, the Disney Animation regular voice) lands on his shoulder, and Antonio can speak with him. He enters his room which has a jungle, larger in the inside than the outside, TARDIS-like “dimensionally transcendental”, but in a magical way. Then, we have a rush of jungle animals greeting Antonio including an aloof capybara.
The family takes a photo that excludes Maribal, which is weak for matriarch, Abuela Alma, and Rodrigo who trusted her until his gift emerged. Mirabel leaves the party and finds that Casita is falling apart, cracks appear including at the doors. This is a nightmare that drives Maribel goes to tell Abuela Alma pulling her from the party. Instead there are no cracks or damage, all seems fine, and Abuela says that Maribel must be having stress of not having a gift. She may be the antagonist of the story, not understanding that a family includes all of its members, and to value all of them. Maribel must find what happened with Casita. The next day, she goes to Dolores to find out if her super hearing can pick up anything about Casita. Then, Maribel senses something with Luisa whose eye twitches, she follows along her sister who sings “Surface Pressure.” It is a vulnerability to the super strong Luisa which probably makes her the fan favorite.
Luisa admits that she saw the cracks in Casita and has grown weaker! The door to Bruno’s room is the answer. Maribel finds inside the room a long, winding stone steps that leads to jade shards that give a clue to Bruno’s last vision. Abuela Alma wants Maribel to keep it a secret since Isabela is about to be engaged to Mariano Guzman voiced by Maluma, a Colombian singer. Maribel finds help with John Leguizamo’s character, but must put together the mystery of Casita and confront Abuela Alma. Will the magic go away? The truth of characters show their human qualities and make them some of the finest superheroes. It features two songs in Spanish by Colombian singers; "Dos Orugitas" (translated as Two Caterpillars) by Sebastián Yatra and Carlos Vives, the well known singer, and the song, "Colombia, Mi Encanto." There is some pacing problems in the third act, but so much fun in the first act. Encanto has some lively and funny moments, some strong Colombian culture, and a voice cast that is like family!
Four Candles out of Five!
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