Encanto

Saw Encanto, a cute Disney movie about a family of demi-gods who live in some secluded mountain village, keeping everything together with their magical powers.  The protagonist is a girl who seems to have no magical power at all (or does she???)  Although this is the premise of the film, the conflict comes in the form of toxic family dynamics.  Although everything seems joyous and whimsical on the surface, the family is a roiling mass of repression, perfectionism, and constraint.  The final showdown is more about healing than triumphing, which was nice.

This film reminded me a lot of Tangled.  In keeping with more modern, post-Ghibli movies, this film has no antagonist unlike in Tangled which has a very accessible depiction of a pathological narcissist.  In Encanto, there's a matriarch figure, but she is not Mother Gothel and even admits to her own faults in the denouement (which, I snark, is far more unbelievable than mere super-strength or super-hearing).  This is nice and gives anyone struggling in a toxic family dynamic hope for the future, but I feel like it's a lesson miss-applied.

In Spirited Away there's an evil witch who turns out to not be truly irredeemable, but to have a family and clear, non-vindictive priorities.  This choice was hailed at the time as sophisticated and true to life.  In Encanto, the matriarch admits her faults and all is made whole again.  But this is not true to life.  I don't have the numbers or the lived experience, but it does not feel believable to me that a harmful family dynamic can be recognized and solved so directly.  The process requires space and an acknowledgement that some people will not change.  I mean, right?  To change oneself is a tall order but to change a group dynamic seems nigh-on impossible!

But I'm picking nits here.  My gripe above is that it could perhaps be better.  This film is no slouch as it is.  It's a slickly produced and packaged song and dance which is thrilling and heartwarming with fun, loud musical numbers and fun jokes.  The sad bits are sad and the fun bits are fun!  The film wraps up a bit too perfectly for me, but it's a fun ride!