Encanto (movie review)

 If you asked me what my favourite Disney movie was, I would say Encanto. I find this interesting, as it's a relatively recent film, released in 2021. Normally with this kind of thing, nostalgia wins over and I grew up alongside Disney films like Aladdin, and The Lion King. I've also left the stage of life when these movies are marketed toward me. It's also about a big dysfunctional family and the complications that come with it, and a girl. The main character is an adolescent girl, one of the youngest in the family. I come from a small family in which I am the oldest sibling.

So it doesn't have nostalgia or relatability on its side, but it's still my favourite.

It's Lee-Anne's favourite as well, and for her it makes more sense. She has a large family and is the youngest sibling, so even if it doesn't have nostalgia for her, it has relatability. I showed it to my mother and Lee-Anne showed it to her father, and both of them loved it as well.

Our favourite Pixar movie is Coco. That one is a bit older but still not one that either of us would have grown up with. I'll have to review that one as well. Disney owns Pixar now, but I'm going to separate them into these two categories so that I don't have to choose a favourite between them. Interestingly, Coco is set in Mexico, and Encanto is set in Colombia. When these Disney-owned animated films go to Latin America, they don't mess around apparently.

The musicals were written by a guy named Lin-Manuel Miranda. He's the one who wrote the songs for Moanna, an earlier movie with an (in my opinion) mediocre plot, but had by far the catchiest songs in the Disney roster. The songs in Encanto are just as catchy, but backed with a much stronger story. This time around though, Disney knew to play to their strengths, and the musical segments are like, 40% of the movie (maybe an exaggeration).

So, these reviews are done with an understanding that they don't generate a ton of interest from viewers, so they aren't marketed to readers and are instead more like a public reflection piece from me, to help me sort out my thoughts. You're welcome to read, but there isn't a system to make the reflection comprehensive, it's just stream-of-conscious from my mind. I usually feel compelled to do these when I don't see my thoughts being reflected adequately by the general public. I feel the need to externalize what I'm thinking, because I can't find it elsewhere.

But I'll still give a brief overview of the setting. Three generations of a family live in one large house. The house was magically constructed after the grandfather was killed by invaders attacking their village. Mountains were erected around them, warding off the perils of the outside world. Along with the construction of the house, the three children of the grandparents were bestowed magical abilities, called "gifts". When those children grew, their children as well each had a "gift", until Mirabelle, who failed to receive one during the ceremony when it would usually take place. The story follows Mirabelle, who grapples with a sense of inferiority and lack of belonging due to being stigmatized as the only ungifted member of the family.

Something I really like about this move is that while there are a ton of characters, which is by design and highlighted by the story, it doesn't suffer from loss of focus in the way that a lot of movies feel when there are loads of people (I'm looking at you, X-Men films and Avengers: Infinity War). It feels "busy", but not "bloated", and I think this is because it was conscientious about its direction. There is one central story, and additional plotlines are built around it to add flavour. If it's your first viewing, you will enjoy it best if you don't feel obligated to remember each character and their gift, although it's fun to focus more on the larger world on consecutive viewings. I think they could make a miniseries exploring the other characters. It may or may not work out on implementation, but the setting would lend itself well to such a project.

I feel like the movie has a little something for most people. It stars a young woman from the most prominent family in her community, which gives the vibe of a Disney Princess. Every family member has a unique ability, which can appeal to fans of the superhero genre, and the powers are based on their personalities, which can entice people that are into personality typology (more on this later).

The mechanics of the world feel consistent and complex but much of it is unexplained, which is fine because the world is mysterious to the characters as well. The movie writers said they wanted to fully understand the world they were writing, even if the plot didn't allow for all of it to be explored. I think this gives the setting a great sense of three-dimensionality, and I appreciate the humility of working inside the limits of what can be portrayed in a single film and not stuffing it full of trivia.

But because it doesn't feel an obligation to answer every question, there are some points left up to debate. For example, I felt the movie stated explicitly that Mirabelle had earned a gift on the day of her ceremony, and it was the gift-giving gift, previously belonging to Abuela, and the reason she didn't get her own magical door and room, was because the front door was her "room". So I was confused when I kept seeing people online who had clearly seen the movie, referring to her as not having a gift, and that the message of the movie was that you don't need a gift to have value.

There are a non-negligible number of people who think along my lines, but what I thought to be a stated fact of the story is reduced to just a "theory".

So I'd like to take this opportunity to defend my perspective.

Mirabelle's name means "Miracle". The event that created the casita and gave everyone gifts is referred to as "The Miracle".

Mirabelle gives Antonio a stuffed leopard to calm him down before his ceremony, and his gift turns out to be talking to animals. She gives him a literal gift that reflects the power he would receive at the ceremony. I don't think this is the mechanic that creates gifts, but it shows Mirabelle's aptitude for understanding others abilities, and that her thoughts were in line with how the events would proceed. It's also just strong symbolism.

Whenever cracks form in the foundation of the house and peoples' gifts fade, it's always when Mirabelle feels ostracized by the family. People blame her for destroying the miracle, but what's actually happening is they're cutting themselves off from the source of the magic.

Mirabelle and Abuela are the only two shown communicating with the casita. This would make sense if Abuela were the original keeper of the house and Mirabelle were the one to inherit the ability. It would make sense for Abuela as well, since she is not shown to have a gift.

When Mirabelle enters Bruno's room, it's shown that the casita can't help her when she's in there. This to me indicates that each person can only control the area of the casita designated to them, and Mirabelle can control the main section of the house. She didn't get a room because the casita's living space is her room.

After the casita collapses and loses its magic, it springs back to life when Mirabelle inserts a doorknob into the front door. People receive their gifts and their place in the casita when they touch the doorknob of their room. Mirabelle touched the front door's doorknob and everything sprung to life.

Everyone's rooms have a picture of them backed by a symbol of their gift. The front door of the casita has an image of Mirabelle in the foreground, backed by her family in the background. The casita is her room, and her gift is the ability to empower those living inside it.

When the house sprang to life at Mirabelle's touch and the image of her backed by her family forms on the front door, I took this as confirmation of her status as the keeper of the house, a power inherited from Abuela and finally fully manifested after she gained her acceptance. I felt like this was the natural conclusion after heavy allusion throughout the film, but apparently it's just a "theory".

Now I'd like to go into another theory, one that I feel less concretely about, but is nevertheless a fun thought experiment. It's also one that people speculate on.

I mentioned above that the movie has an appeal toward personality typologists. This is specifically because of how the Madrigal family and their gifts seem to align with a typing system called The Enneagram.

This system categorizes people into one of nine types based on a person's core insecurity. It's not my favourite tool when it comes to understanding a person fully, as it is based on the premise that people are motivated solely by fear. I also don't really buy into anything additional to identifying a core insecurity, such as adding "wings", or breaking them down into head-heart-body types. At least with MBTI and the cognitive functions, you can follow the line of logic that knits the theory together, even if I don't have faith in that system either. As for the Enneagram, I think it can be useful for exploring fears, but it shouldn't be expanded on beyond that and it can't explain a person fully.

 It does fit uniquely well into the characters of Encanto, though. Almost, but frustratingly not quite perfectly, as I'll get into.

The Enneagram is divided into nine personality types based on core anxiety. The Family Madrigal is based on eight gifts, nine if you include gift-giving, and each ability appears to be based on some kind of insecurity.

So let's break it down.

Type 1. Hard place to start, but let's leave this slot empty for now. It's the need for control though.

Type 2. Julietta. Gift: Healing with food. The need to provide, the idea that if you can't take care of others you don't have value. 

Type 3. Isabella. Gift: Growing and controlling plants. The need to be perfect.

Type 4. Peppa. Gift: Mood effects the weather. The feeling that one is unique by being broken or separate from others.

Type 5. Dolores. Gift: Super hearing. The need to know everything.

Type 6. Bruno. Gift: Predicting the future. The fear of the future, the need to be prepared.

Type 7. Camillo. Gift: Shapeshifting. The need to be happy, fear of negative emotion

Type 8. Luisa. Superstrength. The need to win, fear of failure.

Type 9. Mirabelle. Gift giving. The need to fit in, the fear of being separate from others

So of the two generations under Abuela, eight fit into the nine categories like a glove. The missing component is Antonio and his gift of speaking to animals. He shows some insecurity throughout the film, worrying that he won't have a gift, needing Mirabelle to hold his hand in front of everyone, worrying about leaving her behind. His gift might represent communication or reaching out to people that are overlooked. To make him fit into the system, he'd have to be a Type 1, which is the need for control, but I have difficulty putting him there. He expressly can communicate with animals but not control them, and the writers have confirmed that Bruno's rats helped him because of his empathy. If anything, Antonio comes across as a Type 9.

The film does provide a textbook Type 1 though, in Abuela. But her power by my theory is the same as Mirabelle's, so we gift-giving divided between 9 and 1, and 9 has the dual gifts of gift giving and talking to animals. It isn't clean. Even more maddeningly, the 9 and 1 types are next to each other on the Enneagram, and it's organized so that similar types are nearer to each other. But it still doesn't quite make sense.

I really related to Bruno, and when I saw people typing the characters, I was really hoping to match him. But I wound up with Peppa, a character with destructive emotions, constantly working to keep herself in check by repressing herself. She's got a little arc where she learns to accept herself, but her character evolves from trying and frequently failing to toes the line, to eventual self-acceptance. She shows growth but not too many likeable traits, nor any character that seems of merit.

So I'd like to be Bruno, but unfortunately I have to agree that Peppa and myself fall into type 4. It's not necessarily a bad type but it was represented lovingly in the movie.

Lee-Anne definitely shares type 9 with Mirabelle. My brother was repulsed by Dolores' power, but that means he probably shares her status as a type 5. Since the Enneagram is based on insecurity, you'll usually find the type you associate with negatively.

I've heard people argue that Mirabelle is Type 4 because she wants to have a unique power, and that need for uniqueness due to not fitting in is characteristic of 4s, but I'd argue that she wants that unique ability so that she can fit into her family, of which she is the only one that is powerless. That want to find her place within a system and contribute to the larger social structure screams type 9.

I've heard people argue against Luisa as a type 8, but I think this is because 8s are stigmatized as power-obsessed whereas Luisa was portrayed very lovingly. She's also very relatable to any older sibling that's been saddled with responsibility. I felt a deep resonance with Luisa's character, but I don't think we share a type.

So that's it. Really like the movie. Can't think of a way to cap this off. Catchy music, a lot of content handled gracefully in a captivating world. Really evokes a desire to contemplate and discuss the themes and mechanics of the movie. Lee-Anne likes watching things over and over. I usually don't, but because we both like this one, we've seen it a bunch of times. It's good for rewatching because there are so many understated details and character dynamics. Always notice something new.