Encanto

Movie: Encanto

Nominated for: Best Animated Feature, Best Original Song, Best Original Score

How I watched: Disney+

When I fell asleep: Nah

When it had me: Surface Pressure

When it lost me: I had questions

What I have to say:

Once again with Disney animation, I sort of drug my feet and didn't want to watch it but then I enjoyed it. I don't know what my deal is. I guess I'm just bracing for their first huge flop in a while since they have been on such a roll for so long.

The song Surface Pressure was the moment in the movie where I sat up and took notice. That's when I felt like they were really going to express some real truth we hadn't seen before. Likewise with We Don't Talk About Bruno expressing the ugly truth of the family outcast. It was powerful to watch how a family with generational trauma can define success in one narrow way and then put enormous pressure on all members of the group. The traumas create prejudices and blindspots which prevent everyone in the family from being able to just be who they truly are.

All that said, I had such trouble with the Madrigal family. They were so brutal to Bruno and to Maribel, crushing them under their lack of conformity. Even though I didn't identify the grandma or the enabling aunts and uncles as outright villains, I could not relate to anyone and it made me uncomfortable to be around them. I just wanted Maribel to leave and not take on the whole job of healing all of these people that had no problem relegating her to a lifetime in the nursery, with no real space or respect.

I also struggled with the logic of the story. It is not clear to me why Maribel did not get a magical door of her own. It is not clear when others can see the cracks forming and when they can't. Does Maribel have visions, like Bruno, or is she just paying closer attention than the rest? Is Bruno's vision correct about needing to embrace her horrid sister? Was that part of the actual requirement to saving the house or did he just not watch long enough and misinterpret that whole thing?

There's a lot of beauty and truth in this one and also, for me, a lot left unanswered.