If you have smallish children (especially of the female persuasion) and access to Disney Plus you have probably not made it through Christmas without watching Encanto at least once.

I have seen it 7 times (or at least snippets of it in between cooking, cleaning, entertaining and breaking up fights).

Moreover, I have listened to the soundtrack on repeat and cannot get ‘Surface Pressure’ out of my head.

It LOOKS amazing. It’s rich and bright with the detail we now expect of these big lavish animated productions. It SOUNDS even better. The music is by Lin-Manuel Miranda and is LUSH and rich and wonderful (I love Hamilton). But the story… falls flat. It’s a great premise that just fails to deliver.

For some reason, this is not only frustrating me, but CONSUMING me.

This is Disney, people. I don’t want to be left to draw my own conclusions – I want the answers spelled out for me like I’m five. (You know, like the target audience). I want closure. I want full circles. I want narrative arcs, dammit.

Clearly, I am obsessing about it far too much because THAT’S WHAT I DO. (And it’s a great distraction from life! Try it!)

Anyway if you don’t want spoilers, or you don’t want to talk about Enanto (No no no), look away now. This is not for you.

If you do, YAY – strap in.

Here’s the thing.

There are just SO MANY unanswered questions, incomplete storylines, half-finished thoughts and frankly half-arsed messages that are marring what could and SHOULD have been a GREAT film.

1. The start

Right from the off it’s LAZY. The village kids ask heroine Mirabel about her magical family.

THE VILLAGE IS LITERALLY SET UP AROUND THEIR MAGIC HOUSE. How do these kids not know who these town saviours and protectors are??? Or who the oddity who DIDN’T GET A GIFT is? The postman is clearly blabbing about it left right and centre, ffs.

I completely get that these kids love to hear their village legend told over and over. All the writers needed to do was have one small kid say “Hey, my cousin is visiting us. Tell us again about the Madrigals!” Or “My baby sister doesn’t know about the Madrigals.” Then someone can legitimately not know Mirabel has no powers. See? Fixed it. Now the first song actually makes sense.

2. Plot holes

There are so many, but one of them is HOW IS BRUNO LIVING IN THE MAGIC WALLS AND NO ONE NOTICES? Including Delores, who is supposed to hear everything. I mean they gloss over this every now and again with her ‘hearing the rats in the wall’/‘it’s like I hear him now’ and then at the end, ‘oh I always knew he was there’. But it’s pathetic. And again it didn’t need to be… Delores could have been SO MUCH MORE than a love-lorn bit-part. And it wouldn’t even have needed much airtime!

One of the themes Encanto is SUPPOSED to be exploring is the weight of expectations, and the pressure of fitting a mould you’ve been assigned – the pressure of being allowed ot be only one thing, one dimension. We see it with Luisa (SERIOUSLY – go listen to her song it’s the best bit of the film and will make you want a donkey) and we see it with Isabela wanting to break out of her perfect princess role – and how being her full authentic self STRENGTHENS the magic. (I’d have liked to see how freedom would have strengthened Luisa’s magic, too. There could have been some great stuff in here about the strength to be found in vulnerability – I wish they’d leaned into it). And ALL of this could have been extended to the other characters, and would have reinforced a really, really important message for young girls.

Delores’s story could have been saved by making her a bit mad. She doesn’t sleep well because of the voices in her head, all of the time. And she’s had to learn to keep SO MANY SECRETS that she’s inevitably overheard over the years. Maybe the only time she finds peace in her head is with the love interest Mariano because he’s so delightfully dense and SILENT.

She’s so used to keeping the secrets she hears she doesn’t tell anyone about Bruno… But she can’t keep any more secrets in because she’s full to the brim BECAUSE THE MAGIC IS BREAKING – and THAT’S when she blabs at the dinner table.

Again. Fixed it.

3. Unexplained mystery

I get that they are granted a miracle because the Abeulo sacrificed himself for his family. But but but but but – nothing of this is FINISHED, either. There are so many loose strings of plot and unanswered questions! Who are the bad men? Why are they burning the village? Where have they gone now? Is the village safe now? Or is it secret/hidden by the magic?

Look, faceless, nameless and motive-less Baddies are a frankly WEAK plot device and Disney should be better than that. (It’s almost as bad as killing off parents as a quick excuse for child-only adventure. Beeyastards).

Also. Why Abuelo? Did no one else fight back? Why at THIS river? What IS the magic? Why does it become both a candle and a cheeky living house? Is it a watersprite or river mermaid, touched by the sacrifice, curious, living in/as the house to be close to the family it fell in love with 50 years ago? Is it breaking because the family is breaking? I MUST KNOW!

Also:

WHAT IS ABUELA’S POWER???

OF WHAT USE TO THE VILLAGE IS THE FACE-SWAPPING POWER????

HOW DOES THE MAGICAL HOUSE BUILD MAGICAL TARDIS ROOMS???

IF IT BUILT THEM WHY CAN’T IT GO INTO BRUNO’S????

WHY DO THE PARENTS NEVER OBJECT TO MIRABEL BEING BANISHED TO THE NURSERY????

IS BRUNO GAY????

SO MUCH ELSE!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a few simple connections and answers would help this feel like a whole, rounded and ultimately satisfying story rather than an ill-thought-through quickie for the cold hard cash. Gah.

4. Unfinished stories

SO MANY.

We never do really get to the bottom of why everyone hates Bruno so much they don’t talk about him (No no no).

At the end he tells his sister he just wanted her to be herself and ‘Let it Go’ (see what they did there?) on her wedding day. They could have made more of this – because Bruno also knows setting the magic free instead of controlling it and snuffing out the light is how to amplify it. (Again, as Elsa finds out when she unfreezes Arandelle).

I’m also annoyed none of his other transgressions brought up in ‘We don’t talk about Bruno’ (No no no) are addressed. I wanted to see Bruno’s side of ALL of them – from the bald man to the dead fish. And I wanted in both songs to hear about the good prophecies too… the people he helped but who were still scared of his gift. IF YOU START SOMETHING PLEASE FINISH IT. I need balance, Disney. I can’t deal with this.

5. No redemption arc

As quickly as the whole estranged brother thing was brushed under the carpet, Abuela is forgiven. That women has made the lives of her children and grandchildren – particularly Mirabel – vastly unpleasant. She’s excluded, chided, humiliated and blamed Mirabel since she was tiny. That’s… cruel.

It was also a genuinely important opportunity to explore intergenerational trauma – especially for the latino community. Gliding over it without touching the sides isn’t just unfortunate but even slightly… unethical.

The bit that genuinely upset me (from an admittedly very personal perspective) was the gaslighting – Abuela pretending Mirabel is mad when she KNOWS the magic is in trouble. Her back story is not an excuse for being a beeeyatch her entire life, and a quick river-hug and grudging admission she may have held on the reins a wee bit too tight DOES NOT CUT IT WITH ME. (Or my kids. They still hate her).

The thing is, that kids know – and they SHOULD know – that sorry isn’t always enough. That relationships are complicated. That trust and forgiveness both have to be earnt.

Basically Abuela needed to do more for her redemption arc to feel a bit more authentic and a bit less rushed.

6. No follow through on the core message

Watching trailers for Encanto, I thought this was going to be the embodiment of a message that has been developing through Disney films for some time – that you don’t have to be special to be special – just the way you are.

Sure, Mirabel’s parents say this. But it is not ever PROVED. There is no finale to her journey.

This message in Disney history is of course most obvious in Frozen, where Anna is not The Chosen One, has no special powers, but is actually more relatable, likeable, charming and dynamic than Elsa. (I don’t know about other kids, but mine idolised Elsa when they were very little, and as they grew bigger both switched allegiances to Anna. Because she’s better).

This was the chance to really drive that message home – and they didn’t. We still don’t really know WHY Mirabel didn’t get her gift. But THIS should have been the why. This is the completion of the story I really wanted.

Mirabel is not consumed by a talent or a purpose – so she’s free to be herself. It means while the others become only or mostly their gift, she becomes herself. She sees things the others don’t (hence the glasses). She sees the magic in people, the small stuff, the beauty in the everyday, the ordinary. In making things by hand – in the process. She’s the one the village children gravitate to. She’s the one smallest Madrigal Antonio wants to hold his hand during his gift ceremony. She’s the one who has the most affinity with Cassita, the living house. She’s the one the magic asks for help. She’s the one that SEES what the magic needs to thrive – and sees what’s going wrong. She’s the one the villagers want to help at the end. She’s the one that leads the rebuild, because she’s the ONLY one not lost without magic powers.

When everyone else’s gifts fade, Mirabel’s shine. Because she doesn’t need external ‘magic’. She’s got her own, internal kind. That’s why the house comes back to life when SHE puts in the door handle. She’s the one that’s kept the family, the magic, together. It makes sense she didn’t get a gift because the magic needed her to take care of it when it couldn’t take care of itself. It recognised that she was so special she didn’t need embellishment.

Maybe Abuela doesn’t have a gift either. Maybe her door shines because she is the Keeper of the Magic – and that’s her role in the family, gone slightly askew with age and fear. And Mirabel has been chosen to be the Keeper after her, and she’s been shown that letting go of fear and setting the magic free is actually what keeps the flame burning.

It’s what sparked it in the first place.

FIXED.

IT.

I think the reason I’ve found Encanto’s many gaps so frustrating is that THIS was the feel good film I really needed at the close of 2021 – this was the MESSAGE I really needed.

I needed someone to tell me I don’t have to be the best. All I have to do in 2022 is just be the best me. I am not the sum of my talents, I am not the hats I wear or the roles I play – I am more than all of them. All I really have to is TRY my best. Get up and do it over and over again in a row. See the little things. Find extraordinary in the ordinary. Fail a bit. Succeed a bit. Escape expectations… most particularly my own.

Maybe I’m so angry with Abeula because I’m so often my own Abeula… maybe I hold on too tight and I spoil things – because ultimately – I’m scared, too.

And maybe, just maybe, I need to get a life and stop taking animations quite so seriously.

Happy New Year!

xxxx