Encanto (2021)

My kids kept calling this ‘Enchan-to’ and I’m like “No! it’s Encanto!‘ with the Spanish accent, I’m all pompous from three years of high school classes.

And then Nathan walks in and he’s like ‘We’re watchin’ Enchan-to?‘ and I… started to doubt myself.

But no. I checked. It’s En-Caan-TO, like, the Spanish pronunciation.

And the English, too, because THERE IS NO ‘H’.

So far this has been non-stop fast-paced talking and singing and honestly I’m having a hard time following it.

HOWEVER that might be because R2 won’t shut up, he just keeps asking what’s going on.

Alison B.:

My experience exactly lol. So fast I could barely follow and Violet was I assume having the same issue and would not stop with the questions which I had no hope of answering.

Ashia R:

So it looks like this is gonna be another one of those post-2000 kids movies where they THROW AS MUCH STUFF AT US AS POSSIBLE AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE! SUCKS FOR YOU IF YOU CAN’T KEEP UP!!!

But also this kid has not shut up. The main character is like ‘This is Bob’ and R2 asks ‘Who is Bob?‘ and by the time he’s done with his question, we’ve missed twelve lines.

Okay we’re only ten minutes in it’s time to restart the movie. I wish there was a way to watch movies at like 75% speed.

And also I wish they built in moments of silence for us to have time to be like “Child, SHUT UP, just watch the movie a second time tomorrow!”

Okay back to where we were – there’s this fun bouncy song that lists everyone in the main character (Mirabel)’s family, and all their magical powers.

I’m a little overwhelmed, and I guess this is how people feel when I list the 13+ aunts and uncles and 35+ cousins in our Irish Catholic family (we all lost count at some point)

Good so far: of the three Colombian triplets, they range from rubia to morena, and there is no correlation between darkness and beauty.

Jillian W.:

My sibling and I had a date a couple days ago to watch this and cry.

For me, starting right with this curvy brown toddler, who doesn’t look all that much like my own kid, except for her arms and her body language…

Ashia R:

HOWEVER they do respond to ‘the beauty and the brawn’ where it’s implied the thin, flat-haired sister is the ‘beautiful’ one and the linebacker sister with curlier hair as the ‘brawn.’

The dialogue suggests that the two are mutually exclusive.

Jillian W.:

Huh, I totally interpreted those as both being Luisa’s traits. But the internet says I am wrong.

Ashia R: 

It could go either way if you try really hard to play with the grammar in the lyrics, but it’s clear unless they’re referring to one (thin, whispy) sister as ‘perfect’

And now the conflict!

Mirabel is the only member of a magical family who doesn’t have a magical ability.

And the rest of her family is softly bigoted, all like ‘maybe stay out of the way and let the real wizards decorate this house’

Like it takes magical powers to prep for a party.

I’ve done it! I’m no wizard!

Jillian W: 

In fact some of those magical powers are straight up inconvenient for anything.

Ashia R:

Aside from the ‘see the future’ (poor dude), I would use those powers EVERY DAY.

Like, to finally and effectively communidate to the cat: “Hey, stop trying to plant your anus on my keyboard”

Jillian W: 

The “moods control the weather” lady seems like she’s almost as frustrated as Bruno.

Like it’s cool, it’s magic, and it’s a reason to avoid letting her authentic emotions show.

Ashia R:

Yes!!!

And how she has to spend every minute of every day swallowing her real feelings so she doesn’t inconvenience everybody!

So okay – not a great power. But also Storm from the X-Men manages it.

So like, with some good therapy – I think it’d still be useful.

Jillian W: 

Yes! Maybe there’s potential for growth now that everyone can stop swallowing everything.

Ashia R. 

I’m thinking…what odds are we placing that Mirabel:

EITHER:

Really has no magical powers and we discover that you don’t need magical powers to be a badass awesome person

OR:

She has a latent magical power AFTER ALL, ableism & ‘magic-cure’ style?

I am rooting for the former, but this is a pop culture movie and the Magic Cure trope sells merch, so I guess we’ll see

Oooooooohhhhh Luisa’s song about taking on the burden of being the fixer/hero of the family and the constant pressure is SOOOO GOOOD!!!

Is this the first kids movie where a super strong person admits that high expectations and carrying everyone else is mentally exhausting and takes a toll?

it’s so good!

Oooh I love this – this family, which is like the local celebrity/royalty that everyone relies on to be perfect, has imperfect members.

But also: everyone has perfect hair. And I want to know what product they are using for these curls.

I wish I had a team of artists to illustrate my hair.

So Mirabel is going through the family one by one, doing some DIY therapy, listening to everyone and how they all feel pressure to be perfect for the perfect family and… UGH this is so good.

It’s like the antidote to all the super hero princess movies we make for kids

::: absorbed by the movie until the very end :::

I could spend hours talking about the message of generational trauma, family baggage, and the importance of therapy. But you know what?

Nat V. already did it for us!