Film Review - Encanto (PG)

 Sometimes family weirdos get a bad rap.

Encanto is the 60th animated feature from Disney; count them - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, fifty-seven others and this one. Following recent forays into culturally diverse locales (Moana - Polynesian Islands, Raya and the Last Dragon - the Far East, Wreck-It Ralph - somewhere very digital), this is another venture to lands historically neglected by Mickey's magic. That's Colombia to be specific, and the extravagantly enchanted Casa Madrigal. The film is magical, and enchanting, even if it arguably gets too complex and metaphorical for its own good.

Mirabel is a daughter of the Madrigal clan, a magically endowed family who live in an equally supernatural casita, a home with more personality than any property show presenter could begin to imagine. She has sisters with super-strength, cousins who shape-shift, and aunts whose emotions create their own weather systems - to mention a mere handful. The only person with no powers whatsoever is Mirabel - a source of grief to the girl herself, and one of disappointment to Abuela Alma, the formidable family matriarch. So when cracks (literal ones) begin to show in the Madrigals' other-worldly existence, Mirabel takes it on herself to investigate the cause and prevent everyone's powers from fizzling away. Maybe then she'll be given her ordinary-girl due.

First the no-brainer... This film is a technical marvel. The world's premier animation house, employing the most creative talents in the industry, knocks it that bit further out of the visual ballpark with every feature, making each traditionally made 2-D movie a bit more three-dimensional and vibrant and textured that the previous one. Every frame is a detailed artwork. Even if you don't take to the story, the whole thing's just worth looking at. Each musical number - of which there are a few, and every song issuing from the teeming brain of Hamilton's Lin Manuel Miranda - is its own epic of visual invention, set to infectious Latin rhythms. The first one alone, where Mirabel introduces us to her extended preternatural family, will leave your head spinning to the point where you need it all the slow the hell down. Relax - there are enough slower interludes to prevent it all from becoming too hyperactive, just.

Encanto is crammed with incident, left-field plot turns, and memorable characters (more, ironically, than you'll be able to remember on a first viewing). The casita is a character in itself, with more hidden dimensions and secrets than Hogwarts and a Tardis smashed together. Mirabel's journey into its bizarre recesses is realised as lavishly as any far-flung quest embarked on by Moana or Elsa or the bunny from Zootopia. As for the other characters, each is worth your time, with a handful - like one-woman powerhouse Luisa and floral explosion Isabela - getting the kind of big moment (make that big song) that gives them room to fully shine. Each of these moments is one more creative knock-out, sometimes going the fully surreal or allegorical route to lyrical interpretation. 

If there's a fault in it all, it's that story threatens to buckle under the weight of its own ambition. For all that it's a single-location tale, Encanto aims high in every conceivable way, starting with its smart but detail-loaded screenplay. By the time you get to the crucial song We Don't Talk About Bruno, for example, you might well be racking your brains to recall who Bruno is. (He's Mirabel's uncle, who can see the future. It's useful to know that.) And for all the spectacle on screen this is, at its heart, a story about how families work (or sometimes don't), more so those that have historically come through some kind of trauma, so that the resolution makes sense only if you think both metaphysically and metaphorically. In short, this film takes more mental effort than your average family animation, which maybe robs it of a truly satisfying payoff, on a first viewing at any rate.

None of the latter is going to matter at all to the younger members of Encanto's audience. They'll be spellbound by the visuals and carried away on the songs. They'll also fall in love with the brave and bespectacled Mirabel, voiced endearingly as she is by Stephanie Beatriz (Brooklyn 99's deadpan Rosa Diaz), and root for her as representative of everyone who's ever felt a bit too ordinary. See, even as I write this, I feel like it's a grower - one where if your youngsters watch it on a loop, you'll appreciate its manifold strengths all the more. Some films cast their spell the first time you watch them. This one, for all its brash and vibrant colour, might weave its most impressive magic over time. And that is never a bad thing.

Gut Reaction: Breathlessness, awe, a bit of puzzlement - and overall positive vibes.

Memorable Moment: Luisa's Surface Pressure song - one sequence of visual genius among many.

Ed's Verdict: 8/10. While there's an element of sensory (and even mental) overload to his one, that 8-score is solid, and only ever likely to rise on a re-view. Encanto is a bursting magical treasure chest of a film, one that shows why Disney is sixty features in and most likely planning on sixty more.