Zion Bernat

This film is, in my opinion, nothing less than Will Ferrell’s finest performance. It’s an incredibly underrated film. I wish I could put into words all that makes this movie great. Where to begin. The casting and performances given in this movie are fantastic. It’s witty, but not in some unbelievable, overplayed way. And, just to focus on the star for a moment, Will Ferrell demonstrates that he does, in fact, have range as an actor, balancing serious dramatic acting with comedy. And his comedy in this movie is far from his traditional on-screen tantrums. This is the Will Ferrell movie for people that don’t like Will Ferrell. Truly a career defining performance. The film’s plot, while simple, is so brilliant that it almost makes one wonder why no one had thought of it before. It perfectly delivers on all of the implicit promises that it sets up at the beginning of the movie. It’s filled with relatable, and sometimes horrifyingly relatable, moments that really tug on the heartstrings. As well as a heartwarming message of not getting stuck in the mundane aspects of life, but instead focusing on the small experiences that make life worth living. I cannot imagine a good reason to hate this movie. The casting, performances, plot, and pacing are all best-in-class, in my opinion. Bravo. One of the rare strokes of screenwriting genius. And, no, I do not say that lightly.

This is the best rating for the movie if you judge it objectively. I can say that it has great graphics and VFX. I like the soundtrack. It keeps a lot of those jazzy themes from the first movie. There are aspects of the plot that I like, and some aspects that I really don’t like. What I will say is that I understand why some people really like this movie. For me, though, it has far too many flaws, mostly in terms of the plot and changing fundamentals about certain characters between the first and second films (which shouldn’t happen if the second movie takes place immediately after the first), that I don’t think it deserves the rating and audience scores that it has.

There’s no doubt that this movie has some powerful scenes. Equally so, there is no doubt that much of it is just another tacky Disney movie, especially in the context of the dialogue. No high schoolers would ever speak the way that Disney wrote the dialogue. Granted, some of the lines were great, like the college essay. Honestly, I believe this movie could’ve been truly great, just like Zach’s story was. The movie’s most moving scenes could have been much more powerful if the surrounding dialogue in the film did not detract from them. At this point, taking everything into consideration, I would say that this movie gets a pretty solid A….for average. All it needed was some tweaking. Please, Disney, stop with the same tacky, rinse and repeat formula. It’s old.

I really don’t want to be too critical of this movie because it was charming. The animation was honestly quite good, as well as the casting. But, from there it just starts to fall apart. Perhaps the biggest flaw, at least for me, is that the movie is too much like Disney. I don’t mind a classic Disney movie, especially when it’s coming from Disney. What I do mind, however, is the same thing over and over again. I think it just unfortunately fell to Encanto to be the movie that has pushed me to my limits. I don’t like that Disney has become stagnant. I want to see something new out of them. Plus, in being the same old Disney formula, it has become a flavorless and overall unsatisfying film. Another big critique is just in how complex it is. Complexity isn’t always better, as is the case with this. All it does in its complexity is hide how unoriginal it is. Encanto ultimately is more overwrought than enchanting. Given a year, it will probably be as forgotten as Raya and the Last Dragon.