Encanto

ENCANTO (PG)

D: Jared Bush & Byron Howard

Disney (Yvett Merino & Clark Spencer)

US 🇺🇸 2021

102 mins

Animated

W: Charise Castro Smith & Jared Bush

Mus: Germaine Franco; Lin-Manuel Miranda

voices of: Stephanie Beatriz (Mirabel Madrigal), Maria Cecilia Botero (Abuela Alma Madrigal), John Leguizamo (Bruno Madrigal), Mauro Castillo (Felix Madrigal)

In the mid-1940’s, Disney made a few attempts to appeal to the Latin & South American audience with Saludos Amigos & The Three Caballeros, but the exercise wasn’t as successful as the studio had hoped.

Nearly 80 years later, they have another crack at the whip, slapping “inclusivity” and “diversity” as buzzwords on the marketing, but aside from the animation being the excellent quality you’d expect from the animation giants, this isn’t really any better than the aforementioned films from the 1940s.

The plot follows the plight of Mirabel Madrigal, the daughter of a family blessed with magical abilities whereas she has none, and seeks the reason why.

The vibrant & colourful animation pops off the screen and the music soundtrack, featuring songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, is pleasant enough, but I just didn’t find anything particularly memorable here.

Perhaps I just expect more from Disney, but I simply haven’t been particularly impressed with any of their animated efforts since 2016’s Zootopia. Has it become a studio that’s also lost its magic?

6/10