What enlightened altruism! Imbued with a family-serving magic candle (does it apply to in-laws? Can you marry into magic?), the Madrigals employ their various X-Men-type powers to help the entire town. Isn’t that sweet? How … utterly un-American. In this country, a family bestowed with powerful gifts takes three major steps: 1) Consolidate their assets 2) Convince themselves and others they deserve it (sometimes going to great lengths, like PR, religion, or networks to do so) 3) Use their “gifts” to accumulate more power and wealth. This is almost always the case.
Of course, this animated delight is not set in the United States; I’m sure it exists in a land where such corruption is unheard of. Says here it takes place in … [looks it up] … Colombia.
Meet la familia Madrigal. In modernspeak, they’re all “supers.” Well … almost all. The bespectacled Mirabel (voice of Stephanie Beatriz) stands alone as far as having no special powers. This would mean nothing to most of us, but a context where one sister has Herculean strength, another can make flowers bloom on command, and even the house is alive, having no powers can make you feel like the ultimate middle child. FWIW, mom can heal anybody with cooking, but that doesn’t include eyesight?! How about teeth? Why would HMO mom have medical and not dental? Sometimes I don’t understand Disney.
Speaking of not understanding Disney, I was ok with the plot of Encanto, but not overly satisfied with the resolution – which I cannot tell you. Basically, while yet another family member is receiving awesome superhuman powers denied to Mirabel, Mirabel gets a vision that the house [read: the magic] is falling apart. And it has something to do with Mirabel, and something to do with long lost uncle Bruno, who had the gift of foresight – which he became more and more reluctant to show for obvious reason.
Hence, you get what’s going on: in a family of supers, the power is draining and the one person needed to solve the crisis is the one who has “no power” at all. This is a noble and wonderful message, the kind of stuff we laud Disney for. This is essentially the reason I’m so tough on Disney – because I know how many young minds the company influences and because the company knows damn well it has a responsibility to all those young minds to create products that move culture forward, not backward. When you tell a young, bespectacled girl (and perhaps a minority in your country) who feels alone and 
understandably modest about her talents that she has the power to make differences in the lives of everyone she sees, that’s important. That’s powerful. That’s why Disney has the platform it has.
Of course, it won’t be easy. Madrigal has to read the signs correctly, identify the true issue, skirt family politics, and do so all while everybody keeps singin’ about stuff. It is a Disney, after all, with a lovely soundtrack written by Lin-Manuel Miranda (and if you don’t know who that is by now, please learn. Lin had as great or greater a cinematic 2021 as anybody. ANYBODY.)
Encanto – Because Disney already has a film called “Enchanted” – is kind of adorable and kind of WTF? It’s more adorable than the latter, luckily. As I said above, I didn’t quite buy the resolution, but I will not deny the empowering nature of this film, nor the fact that Disney has deliberately taken a Latin American flavor here. In its own way, this is an extremely important film. I wish I loved it more … but I loved it enough.
That house cannot be dismissed with a glance
La Casa Madrigal … it enchants
You’ll know from first knock
What if these walls could talk
But then also performed a song and dance?
Rated PG, 102 Minutes
Director: Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Charise Castro Smith
Writer: Jared Bush, Charise Castro Smith
Genre: Superhero starter package
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People with self-doubt
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Their oppressors
