Encanto

You know what would make this movie better? If it had music that was memorable. I can sit here and hum songs from Disney movies I don't even like. Songs I loathe. But I can still hum them because they're catchy. This movie's music is upbeat and lively and as weightless as a rice cake. It has the emotional heft of the eleventh time you have to sign your name while buying a house. Never mind that the songs here aren't weaved into the narrative as naturally as other movies. "Let It Go" (for all its faults) is Elsa's middle finger of defiance to the life she's been forced to live and the shame she's carried about her powers. "Do You Wanna Build A Snowman?" is a touching attempt by Anna to draw out her sister and play with her. "Mother Knows Best" is Goethel finally dispensing with the facade and embracing the manipulative bitch that's been inside her all this time. The songs here are exposition dumps; "here's all the members of my family", or "I'm a supporting cast member, here's one defining thing about me". All forward progression to this movie comes to a screeching halt because one of Lin-Manuel Miranda's B-sides has to be crowbarred into the plot so they can vomit plot points to you in the most unnatural way. And if 95% of the cast didn't fall on the spectrum between unmemorable and unlikeable. Mirabel and Bruno. That's it. Maybe Mirabel's mom? But her character comes down to "is a mom" and "is worried sometimes". Or maybe if the movie's message wasn't betrayed by the movie's presentation? Everyone except Mirabel has magical "gifts", and the moral of the movie is that you're more than your gift. What makes you special isn't what you can do, but who you are. Except none of the characters are given any more depth than their magical gifts. How am I supposed to care about strong girl or hears-really-well girl or can-make-flowers-grow girl when I don't know anything about them other than "strong", "has super-hearing", and "is human Miracle-Gro"? Oh, there's also the last act, which, in a movie almost 2 hours long, somehow feels rushed. House crumbles, quick flashback to grandma's younger days and how they all got blessed with magic (which the movie does NOT explain), she's sorry, everybody's together again. Abuela's transformation is so unnatural and unbelievable, because she doesn't earn it; she goes from micromanaging, intolerant bitch to sorrowful and supportive because of one argument and her house falling apart, which happens in three minutes. Oh, there's also the fact that, at the end of the day, this movie just feels like a half-hearted mish-mash of Coco and Onward. Ripping off your story is one thing; ripping off a story from your own library is another. Having your story be a rip-off of movies in your own back catalog, and having those movies be from the past FIVE YEARS?!? Dude, there's a statute of limitations at play here, and you've violated it. This is an epic form of lazy. You know what would make this movie better? Fixing ALL of that. Because Mirabel is fun, and the animation is gorgeous, and it's kind of refreshing **spoiler alert** that Mirabel DOESN'T get magical powers in the end. The music is fun and doesn't feel obvious or annoying like some soundtracks *coughFrozencough* do. And hey, the main character isn't involved in a love story! That's exciting! But the flaws in this movie are just too numerous to ignore, and hold it back from being a higher-tier movie. Too many characters and not enough character development, mixed messaging, and a bland soundtrack cut this movie off at the knees. I won't hate watching it again -- I have a nine year old, I'll see this movie again for quite a few months -- but unlike some other Disney movies (Tangled, Toy Story 1-3, Wall*E), I'll never pick this movie on my own.