Encanto in Spanish means “charm”—and “charming” is an appropriate descriptor for the Disney animation now gracing our theaters. It has Colombian color to mesmerize and characters to cast a spell with their heart and humanity. After 60 of these, you’d think Disney would rest; no, they won’t because this animation is within the charm domain of the greatest Disney fantasies.
Mirabel’s family’s gift of magic is waning, as Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz) does not receive her gift, or special power, and the beautiful home in the mountains is cracking. Heroine Mirabel is determined to find out why, and many others sympathize with her concern but lack her ambition.
With admirable character development for family members, directors Jared Bush and Charize Casto Smith move inexorably to the conclusion that family is the problem. Sounds like a lesson on the horizon, and it is, but not before the themes and characters take full life through Lin-Manuel Miranda songs with their charged words and bouncing melodies aid meaning to emerge from the active narrative.
The mountains and palm trees are ever comforting, the costumes are varied and energizing, and the colors are taken from the kind of brilliant facades of many South American homes we have only seen in photos, not animation. The colors and magical realism are so real and romantic at the same time that the audience may be hypnotized into feeling they are in a dream that reveals the humanity of us all.
Encanto
Director: Jared Bush (Zootopia) et al.
Screenplay: Bush (Moana), Charise Castro Smith
Cast: Stephanie Beatriz (Short Term 12)
Run Time:1h 42m
Rating: PG
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JohnDeSando62@gmail.com
