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LTTP: Encanto. Uh this is the best Disney movie in 20 years?

Mezentine

Mezentine

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,000
I really didn't know what to expect out of this one when I decided to throw it on tonight, other then that I wanted to see the damn context around We Don't Talk About Bruno. But it wasn't the best Disney film since Lilo and Stitch by a fairly wide margin, and it wasn't the level of sheer emotional sophistication undergirding the whole thing. Starting with the fact that Mirabel starts this movie in the darkest place of pain I think I've ever seen in a Disney musical? Forget the "longing" or "dreaming" that usually fuels the "I want" song, forget even Elsa's grief and isolation in Frozen, the way this movie shows you the mixture of love and toxicity that this girl is drowning in in the first ten minutes is astounding.

There's a really fascinating double maneuver going on in this movie. Taking the nature of a musical as a succession of non-literal emotional performances and laying it over a story about fantastical powers and the emotional relationship everyone has with theirs, which then feed upwards into the musical numbers so that each character's emotional expression feels like its blurring reality. Its the musical nature of the movie and the magical powers feeding back and forth into each other in a very cool way

The third act might feel a little rushed? Idk, I need to watch it again. But I'm suddenly really rooting for this thing at the Oscars
 
Fat4all

Fat4all

Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot
Member
Oct 25, 2017
94,148
here
i like it a good bit, but the more time goes on the more im in the camp that Soul is really really fucking good
 
Rhomega

Rhomega

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,707
Arizona
I liked it the first time, then I watched it again after We Don't Talk About Bruno took off. It's in my Top 10 Disney Animated Canon movies.
 
DrForester

DrForester

Mod of the Year 2006
Member
Oct 25, 2017
21,827
Nah....

71ggRnW.gif



COUNTS FOR 4 MORE MONTHS!


Encanto was great, but Disney has been on a roll the last 2 decades and it's not even in my top 5 for that time period.
 
Danby

Danby

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 7, 2020
3,021
It is a good movie, I appreciate it more and how well constructed it is after a second viewing.
 
Spiderhead

Spiderhead

Banned
Aug 15, 2020
1,299
Canada
it def is not.
Lilo and Stitch, Emperor's New Groove, Winnie the Pooh, The Princess and The Frog and Moana are all much better.
 
a916

a916

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,930
I think it's Frozen (if we're differentiating between Pixar and Disney Animation Studios)
 
Ehoavash

Ehoavash

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,255
I just liked the two songs pressure and Bruno. Beside that the story fell flat for me

Moana is definitely the Goat
 
FelRes

FelRes

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
817
CA
Lilo & Stitch is still within the past 20 years so not even close. Like BH6, Encanto woulda been better as a TV series. Moana, Frozen, Zootopia, and Winnie the Pooh are better movies too.
 
Venatio

Venatio

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,746
Mezentine said:
The songs in Moana are really fucking strong both in the movie and standalone, but I think Encanto actually has an edge at how deeply they entwine with the story and how it operates
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That's because there's really very little story to Encanto. The songs do all of the heavy lifting...and sometimes to a fault.
 
Ferrio

Ferrio

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,126
Great soundtrack but I wasn't a fan of the actual story itself. Still rate Moana higher as far as their musical pictures go.
 
Joshua

Joshua

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,788
It's a good movie with great songs, but not top tier Disney.

My beef with Encanto, story spoilers:

This narcissistic grandma causes generational damage to her family and only appears to change her tune because she has to in order to gain back the "miracles" she's so obsessed with. She didn't deserve forgiveness so easily, if at all. But hey it's a Disney movie.

Lol yeah can you tell I'm projecting some of my own familial anger here?
 
Larrikin

Larrikin

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,752
Tangled was the last truly excellent Disney musical. Moana and Frozen 2 are solid though. Encanto... idk it felt really icky. The "love your family" narrative was not reinforced by the gaslighty and terrible family dynamic.
 
CrazyIvan1978

CrazyIvan1978

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,757
Wisconsin
Joshua said:
It's a good movie with great songs, but not top tier Disney.

My beef with Encanto, story spoilers:

This narcissistic grandma causes generational damage to her family and only appears to change her tune because she has to in order to gain back the "miracles" she's so obsessed with. She didn't deserve forgiveness so easily, if at all. But hey it's a Disney movie.

Lol yeah can you tell I'm projecting some of my own familial anger here?
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Yeah, exactly. Fuck that.
 
Imperial Bishop

Imperial Bishop

Member
Oct 26, 2017
35,702
Don't let these jaded old folks deter how you feel about this movie, OP.

I haven't been this infatuated with a Disney movie since Zootopia.
Joshua said:
It's a good movie with great songs, but not top tier Disney.

My beef with Encanto, story spoilers:

This narcissistic grandma causes generational damage to her family and only appears to change her tune because she has to in order to gain back the "miracles" she's so obsessed with. She didn't deserve forgiveness so easily, if at all. But hey it's a Disney movie.

Lol yeah can you tell I'm projecting some of my own familial anger here?
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How did you misinterpret the ending like that?
Alma realizes the damage sees been causing to the family once the house is destroyed and the magic is gone. Only once the miracle is gone and Mirabel leaves the encanto do the (figurative) walls come down and she finally opens up about her trauma.
There's literally nothing that implied that the magic would come back if she apologized to Mirabel. That's not what is driving her actions at all at that point.
 
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Venatio

Venatio

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,746
Imperial Bishop said:
Don't let these jaded old folks deter how you feel about this movie, OP.

I haven't been this infatuated with a Disney movie since Zootopia.
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Zootopia is so weird. Don't get me wrong, I dig it and have probably seen it 10 times, but it's structured like a miniseries yet squashed into a movie. It's both too long and too short.
 
Finaj

Finaj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,379
I agree OP.

The story and characters in Moana are a little too safe for me personally.

And for whatever reason, I don't think there's a single song in Tangled that I like... at all. And I love Alan Menken.
 
PaulloDEC

PaulloDEC

Visited by Knack
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,461
Australia
I liked it a lot and really enjoyed the songs, but the story left me a little disappointed.

Question to anyone who feels like answering: Why, in your view, was the magic failing?
 
OP
OP
Mezentine

Mezentine

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,000
Joshua said:
It's a good movie with great songs, but not top tier Disney.

My beef with Encanto, story spoilers:

This narcissistic grandma causes generational damage to her family and only appears to change her tune because she has to in order to gain back the "miracles" she's so obsessed with. She didn't deserve forgiveness so easily, if at all. But hey it's a Disney movie.

Lol yeah can you tell I'm projecting some of my own familial anger here?
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Click to shrink...

CrazyIvan1978 said:
Yeah, exactly. Fuck that.
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Idk what to say other then that I found the moment of reconciliation extremely effective. The grandmother seemed about as remorseful as she could be about how she treated Mirabel and everyone else, and Mirabel in turn didn't seem to be embracing her just out of "forgiveness", but rather from one person in pain to another recognizing that they both need healing
 
OP
OP
Mezentine

Mezentine

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,000
PaulloDEC said:
Question to anyone who feels like answering: Why, in your view, was the magic failing?
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The escalating rifts between everyone else and Bruno are where it starts, culminating in him no longer feeling like the family wants him or cares about him anymore. All of the tension and drama around Mirabel turn it worse, in turn fueling Abeula's worst reactions out of fear, causing her to make stuff even worse as her insecurity hurts the family further, the whole thing spiraling and spiraling until it reaches a breaking point the night the movie opens. The magic is pretty tightly tied to how strong the family's support for each other is
 
PaulloDEC

PaulloDEC

Visited by Knack
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,461
Australia
Mezentine said:
The escalating rifts between everyone else and Bruno are where it starts, culminating in him no longer feeling like the family wants him or cares about him anymore. All of the tension and drama around Mirabel turn it worse, in turn fueling Abeula's worst reactions out of fear, causing her to make stuff even worse as her insecurity hurts the family further, the whole thing spiraling and spiraling until it reaches a breaking point the night the movie opens. The magic is pretty tightly tied to how strong the family's support for each other is
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So that being the case, why does Mirabel not receive a gift? And then why does the next child in line get one, even if the magic has, by this point, been failing for some time?
 
Tavernade

Tavernade

Tavernade
Moderator
Sep 18, 2018
8,735
Encanto is very good, but ignoring my massive love of Frozen, I think Wreck It Ralph is the most recent Animated Canon movie I have no issues with whatsoever. Encanto needed another, like, 10-20 minutes to not feel rushed and have time for the characters and reality to breath. I really want to see WDAS given enough of a budget to do 120 minute films. Imagine if Frozen 2 or Raya were actually able to be as long as a live action epic.
 
Dalek

Dalek

Member
Oct 25, 2017
39,103
I completely checked out if it about 10 minutes in. My daughter loves it though. It's no Moana.
 
Nikus

Nikus

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
10,429
I didn't love it
But that doesn't mean I disliked it. I just prefer Moana, Tangled, and even Frozen
I'm a huge fan of Lin Manuel Miranda though and he absolutely delivered with the songs. Surface Pressure and We Don't Talk About Bruno are fantastic
 
Mesoian

Mesoian

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 28, 2017
26,819
Eh.

It's fine, I enjoyed it. It's just another one of these magical movies that forgets it's own rules and doesn't really care to talk about anything directly related to the plot, which causes a lot of the characters, in a movie about people feeling useless, to feel useless.

Songs were good though. Really liked the art direction.
 
OP
OP
Mezentine

Mezentine

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,000
PaulloDEC said:
So that being the case, why does Mirabel not receive a gift? And then why does the next child in line get one, even if the magic has, by this point, been failing for some time?
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Idk if it can be explained that tightly, like you can guess that it was particularly weak that night because of Bruno's emotional distress or that giving out a gift to the youngest child when the movie starts exhausts some energy which is why the cracks start then, but I don't know if any of that really matters. Its an allegory about letting the things that come between us undermine the incredible things people can do when they really love each other
 
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