SPOILERS GALORE DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED
Thankfully, I ended up enjoying this film. Not on par with my favorites--Frozen (and its sequel), Raya, or TP&TF--but it's probably the next one after those for me. I feel it's more imperfect than they are. Probably close to tied with Zootopia. Still, it has a good core and message. I didn't think I was going to care for it much until "We Don't Talk About Bruno." That scene is where the movie lifts out of boilerplate and starts to function. I guess the best part about the scene / song is how it involved the whole family instead of how they were segmented in the scenes prior with the movie hampered by the need to explain who they are, what their power is, etc. etc. Without that song, I probably would've still liked the climax and so on, but it would've been treading water for way too long until you get there. Up to that point, I think the only moment that stood out to me was the flashback to Mirabel as a little girl with her door fading spliced with Antonio receiving his gift. I know all the modern princesses have to have cutesy child versions of themselves, but Mirabel's child design is the only one that even comes close to how adorable child Moana was. Seeing her so cute like that with the curls (and I think ribbons in her hair?) having it turn into the worst day of her life, when everyone started to look at her the same way she later learns they had looked at Bruno. "WDTAB" definitely makes Bruno out almost like he was greater and more mysterious and terrible than the reality for sure.
And they treated Mirabel the same way, almost as if she was an infection, almost like the grandmother (and Isabela vicariously because she took her cues from the grandmother) suspected Mirabel did have a power, a negative or harmful one. You can envision a future where Mirabel, broken off from the family the same way Bruno was out of bitterness over the way she'd been treated by them, being talked about them all the same way, as if she was more terrible and detrimental to everything than she actually had been.I pretty much knew what was going to happen before it did (not because I read spoilers, just because family films can be predictable). Still, they managed to hit the emotional beats without being too heavyhanded. I loved loved loved the scene where Mirabel finally airs it all out with the grandmother, that felt very real. I knew from the start that the grandmother was the real problem. She was too focused on "trying" and works, which is antithetical to faith (faith being the source of the miracle). You can't "earn" blessings in that way. And the scene with Mirabel and the grandmother by the water was also well-done, it highlighted how much the grandmother had voluntarily put on her own shoulders over time out of grief, feeling she had to "earn" the miracle she'd been freely given by working to protect the candle because her husband sacrificed his life for her. Sort of her trying to reciprocate that love he had for her and show how much she loved him (to honor his memory) that unintentionally made everything hollow and wrong. I admit I cried several times throughout the second half; when Mirabel cuts her grandmother with her words v. when she takes hold of her hands by the river. Sort of a metaphor (to me) that you can't fight anger / hate / fear (all of which the grandmother was feeling towards Mirabel) with more of the same (and it was bitterness, however true, Mirabel was giving voice to), only loving the other person even when they've failed you and/or don't deserve it can fix things. The message of the short that played before the film was well-matched with the film itself, too, I thought.
I liked most of the characters in the film, and as much as the stuff with Luisa and Isabela felt a little trite, IDK, it worked for me. *shrug* I sort of came in expecting to like certain characters over others, and left feeling the opposite of what I thought I would. I did like Isabela and the grandmother alright by the end of it all, but not as much as I had expected. Antonio left no impression on me at all, and the aunt with weather powers and her husband were just sort of there, whereas I loved both Camilo and Dolores. I thought the latter would be very annoying and snotty, but was happy to be wrong. I also liked Mirabel, Luisa, and Bruno. Mirabel's father was cute. Her mother's design still looked too young to me. That said, I thought the character was fine, and liked that she was aware of the way the grandmother treated Mirabel. Still not too crazy about Mirabel's design.
As for the soundtrack, well... I did like it, more or less. It's below Moana overall, that's a definite, and it does have that same quality as Moana's soundtrack where many of the songs feel sort of like background music-quality to me (I'm thinking about "We Know the Way" and "You're Welcome"). The only two songs I really, really liked were Luisa's song and definitely "We Don't Talk About Bruno," the latter of which was the best scene in the movie along with being the best song. Luisa's song was a great deal like something you'd expect out of The Greatest Showman guys who worked on the live-action Aladdin with Menken. While it was fun, mostly because you were getting a surprising depth and unexpected turn with the Luisa character, it felt sort of like a pop song in a way; I enjoyed it in spite of that. "Waiting For A Miracle" also reminded me of TGS composers--imitating the way "Speechless" had Jasmine singing in a frozen moment. Unfortunately, whereas I found "Speechless" incredibly pretty and addictive to listen to, I didn't care for "WFaM" very much... It just didn't work for me. I don't think the actress for Mirabel's singing voice was impressive enough to carry a moment like that one, but even if that hadn't been the case, the lyrics / melody didn't really hit the mark to me. I'm surprised at that, considering "How Far I'll Go" was fine; I thought Miranda would at least pull off a serviceable one of those here. The opening song--which I think of as being one of those "Belle" / "The Bells of Notre Dame" / "The Gospel Truth" type songs that introduce all the characters and plot to the audience--was okay. Not bad, not incredible. Isabela's song was sort of in that same area--not bad, but nothing special. The lullaby that Pedro sings over the flashback at the end was probably my favorite after "Under Pressure" and "WDTAB."
I'd rank the songs as:
1. We Don't Talk About Bruno
2. Surface Pressure
3. Dos Oruguitas
4. The Family Madrigal
5. All of You
6. What Else Can I Do?
7. Waiting on a Miracle
8. Colombia, Mi Encanto
Looking at the previous comments before mine, I see "Surface Pressure" will be divisive. At least we all will (hopefully) agree on "We Don't Talk About Bruno" being the undeniable highlight here. I love how they overexaggerate, Pepa describing Bruno having a "mischievous grin" which sounds unlikely it was true, Camilo trying to scare Mirabel as an older cousin would do to a younger one, Isabela's striking and almost haunting lyrics, Dolores's initial lines being creepy (how she associates him with the sound of sand) and her later ones about being thwarted in love sounding very poignant especially for having followed Isabela's recitation about how everything would line up for her in life. Kudos to way Dolores's and Isabela's lines are sung, as if they've pondered Bruno's words over and over for years; Isabela sounds almost confused by his prophecy for her or in awe of how lucky she must be (part of her resigning herself to do what is "perfect" in order to help the family as a whole).
Thankfully, the B2G1 sales are still going on at Amazon and Target for me to buy the soundtrack It's not worth full price, but for $8-ish, yeah. EDIT: Of course it's pre-order only.
Why wouldn't they have the soundtrack ready to release physically the same time the film is out instead of a month later? Interesting. A few spoilers in my reply here (just saying as a heads up not to read): The part about a magical doorknob seems like they kept it in a way with Mirabel being handed the doorknob at the end of the film. At the dinner after they all tell her about Bruno, Alma does use Casita to control Mirabel at one point. I like that it's separate from her though and representative of the candle / butterfly. There's a religious significance to that for me. They never go there and mention anything religious, but I'm not sure how the candle makes sense unless you assume it's from a divine being taking mercy on Alma in her moment of need because of her faith? They probably changed Camilo because they figured they had enough characters with a hidden underbelly to their personality they were keeping hidden (Isabela, Luisa, the grandmother, Mirabel herself) that they didn't need to overdo it. Isabela's suitor likely became more handsome after they decided Dolores would end up with him. I assume the Dolores plot must've came later than Isabela's since they might've thought initially to make Isabela's suitor horrible to amp up the fact she's only doing it for the sake of the family, not out of genuine feelings or attraction.Sotiris wrote: Here are some spoiler-free tidbits I found interesting from the 'The Art of' book.
• The film is set in the 1900s.
• The portrait of the man on the cover of 'The Art of' book is not Pedro but Agustin from an earlier version of the story set in 1950s. In that version, Agustin was a patriarch who found the Encanto where he built a magical home.
• In an early version of the story, the protagonist was a young woman from present times who received a magical doorknob that transported her to an unexpected world.
• At one point, Casita was an extension of Abuela and not a character with its own personality.
• At one point, Camilo was going to be an angry teen instead of the jokester he is now.
• At one point, Pepa's power was to be indestructible and she had a daredevil side to her.
• At one point, Isabela had a dorky suitor that came from the city named Bubo.
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I won't wait until its December 24th release on Disney+ to re-experience the whole thing ^^
