by John Zenoni
Another fun and entertaining family film to watch this holiday season is Disney’s latest, ‘Encanto.’ It definitely lives up to their reputation from an animation and storytelling perspective.
The story is about a Colombian family that received special powers after surviving a tragedy. When the grandmother/matriarch was younger, she lost her husband shortly after giving birth to her triplets. And in Encanto, she was blessed to have each child be given special ‘gifts’, i.e. one character has the powers of strength, another can produce flowers out of thin air, another can heal with food, etc. Each family member going forward is given a gift and everyone has one except for the main character, Mirabel. Mirabel has a joyous and positive attitude even though she is constantly reminded that she was not given a gift, especially by her grandmother, who thinks less of her and does not shy away from making it known. As the story goes on, Mirabel begins to notice that things are changing within the house (along with fluctuations in her relatives' powers) and tries to warn her grandmother, who doesn't want to listen. Mirabel then decides to try and stop the magic from fading by tracking down what could be the cause.
This is a very well-made and beautiful film, especially with the vibrant colors, and it does have some musical numbers. However, this is the one sore point I have with the film. Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote or co-wrote the musical numbers and honestly, I was disappointed. The lyrics - we watched the film with subtitles on - just did not make sense in many of the numbers and the songs themselves were not what I would have expected from someone of Miranda’s caliber. After watching the film, I read a review in which the reviewer commented that Miranda had really been quite busy this past year with writing the scores for many films and probably should take a break. I couldn't agree more, as I think he's worn himself thin in terms of originality. It's not that the songs were bad, they just weren't what I had hoped to hear.
Other than the minor issue with the music, this is a great watch.
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