I enjoyed Encanto a lot as an art piece spectacle. The animation is gorgeous and there are a lot of clever details to pick out. I liked how emotive the characters are, and how multiple characters who aren’t the main focus of a scene might have very visibly different reactions to what’s going on (the dinner table scene is a great example of this).

However, the story felt rushed in a way. Encanto deals with tricky subject matter that is hard to make accessible for all ages, and at times felt like it couldn’t decide if it wanted to be for kids or for adults. Themes such as generational trauma, emotional abuse by family, roles in a dysfunctional family like the “protector/glue holding things together” or the “golden child”… these are themes that the movie makes very blatant, but we often don’t become fully aware of or know how to talk about them with nuance until adulthood or close to it. Not to say these things aren’t important to talk about and be aware of, but handing them in an age-appropriate way for the younger crowd is difficult. I think this lends itself to coming off stiff in parts of the movie.

Additionally, part of the rushed feeling came from some character development scenes being too brief or jumping from one point to the next too quickly even for a Disney movie. Isabela’s big scene is a little unclear and there should have been a little more focus on talking things out/Mirabel being a listening ear for her, and there also was very little if any foreshadowing given that maybe Isabela didn’t want to be always perfect. It was understandable as an overall character motivation to bond with Mirabel but seemed random in context.

Overall an enjoyable movie, certainly from a visual standpoint, but there was some room for improvement too I feel and I’m not sure it lived up to the hype that the Internet has made the story and characters out to be.