Encanto: an enchanting next step
After subjecting myself to the mess that was Raya and the Last Dragon, I certainly was not expecting much from Disney’s latest animated picture. I’ll be honest, originally, I had no plans to watch it at all.
From the trailers and clips I saw prior to its release, Encanto looked like it was going to be a return to a more traditional format. A step back from world-building and grand-scale adventures in favour of a light-hearted, colourful, family-friendly film about standing out from the crowd and being okay with that fact. I expected another so-so animated feature whilst Disney desperately searched for their next Frozen franchise.
Boy was I wrong.
As promotional material continued to circulate after the film’s release, I started to see the opening 55 seconds of the film’s “villain” song: We Don’t Talk About Bruno. In this small clip, three characters appear – Pepa Madrigal (Carolina Gaitán), Félix Madrigal (Mauro Castillo), and the film’s protagonist Mirabel Madrigal voiced by Stephanie Beatriz –, and we get to primarily see the relationship between Pepa and Félix from the lens of their wedding day. The day was a disaster, but that didn’t seem to matter at least to the two singing the song. The pressure of perfection almost came from somewhere else with Félix singing ‘no clouds allowed in the sky.’ I saw this same clip over and over, and of course, it got me curious. The song certainly wasn’t a traditional villain song and I felt that I was missing so much of the story just from only being exposed to 55 seconds of a song. Why were there no clouds allowed in the sky?
Now this isn’t me saying that Encanto isn’t a fun family-friendly film. The animation is beautiful, the colours are vibrant, and the very song which made me sit down and watch it has since surpassed Let It Go in the Billboard Hot 100. But there is so much more to this film. Whilst the kids can enjoy the stunning visuals and memorable songs, the young adults, and even some of the adults, can enjoy the idea of having their voice heard in a Disney film. Encanto at its heart is a film about the pressures of family and explores so many different forms of pressure and expectation that under the surface is destroying its characters.
All of the Madrigal children are gifted, given special powers by the miracle that blessed the family so long ago. However, as a result, their power becomes their life. They must embody their power and do what is expected of them by their community and the family’s matriarch, Abuela Alma Madrigal voiced by María Cecilia Botero. The simplest example of Abuela’s perceptions of her children and grandchildren comes the morning after the youngest Madrigal, Antonio (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), gets his gift – the ability to speak to animals –, and rather than letting him explore it her first thought instead goes to how they can put his “blessings to good use.” This is the first instance of the influence of Abuela to the other members of the family and whilst we only get glimpses of the pressures placed on Mirabel’s aunt and her cousins through their verses in We Don’t Talk About Bruno, we get a closer insight into the pressures faced by Mirabel and her sisters, Lusia (Jessica Darrow) and Isabela (Diane Guerrero).
Lusia is super strong but constantly fears that she isn’t strong enough. She puts so much pressure on herself to carry each and every burden that is placed on her that she goes as far as to believe that she is worthless without her gift. Whereas Isabela is perfect and is not allowed to be anything less. Despite having the ability to control nature, she must create perfect blossoms and blooms and nothing else. She is set to be engaged to a man she doesn’t love, but she accepts it because Abuela believes that the union will be “so good for the Encanto.” Both sisters have their own songs which explore their struggles and each end with Mirabel helping them come to terms with the fact that it’s okay to be weak, it’s okay not to be perfect, and that it’s okay just to be who you want to be. This is something that Mirabel struggles with for the whole film as she fights to do her best and be good enough for Abuela despite being the only Madrigal child to not be given a gift by the miracle. She knows she is trying to be something she is not, but she just wants her family to accept her.
The family eventually falls apart as Abuela’s perfect world crumbles around her. Abuela, from Mirabel’s perspective, becomes the villain of the story. It is her fault that the family are falling apart as Abuela fails to see the damage she’s done. However, it turns out that there is a lack of understanding on both parts as Mirabel fails to understand the pressures placed on Abuela to live up to the miracle that was given to her in the wake of losing her husband. Nevertheless, whilst I do believe that the resolution of the film comes too quickly, the family’s redemption is something that many people would wish to see from their own family. A sense of understanding that so many people lack simply because they want the best for their families.
People can turn a blind eye to the harmful effects of expectation and pressure, by defining someone by what they are good at or what they should be capable of. Encanto doesn’t hide the villainy of this mentality, even going so far as to have Abuela believe that Bruno didn’t care about the family when he left rather than even contemplating the fact that it might have had something to do the perceptions that she and the community had of him and his prophecies. It is a step forward for Disney, putting their stories on par with those of Pixar as they create something for a new generation to enjoy and for an old generation to understand. I just hope that this is a step in the right direction with the studio’s next animated feature, Strange World, set to be released in November of this year.
