Farerb wrote:I'm sorry for breaking a dam, I was afraid my comment was too negative, to balance things out I didn't hate the film, but I was disappointed and I guess it's not my thing, my 13 year old nephew loved it, especially Luisa's song. My brother, who's older than me, liked some of the songs and the movie, but didn't care the resolution of the film, he thought it happened too quickly, and he thought the emotional moments in Moana and Coco were handled better (which I agree with), but my sister didn't care about anything, she even liked Raya better and she doesn't hold that much of a high opinion about that film.
You don't have to be sorry. You've been disappointed by two WDAS movies this year, so it's understandable your comment was quite negative. Plus, it's your opinion and there's nothing wrong with it. I agree with some of your criticisms about the film and the revival in general, but I was still able to enjoy this and most of the other films in spite of them. I'll talk more about this in another post.
The members of my family who have seen the film, didn't like it as much as I did, though. They preferred
Raya and
Luca and all had the same complaint; that there were too many musical numbers. Though, I think that could be partly due to the fact that they saw the dubbed version and the lyrics weren't too easy to understand in it. I've heard that complaint from other people as well. It's not that it was difficult to make out what the characters were saying, but the information in the songs wasn't very clear sometimes, and that's a problem especially because there's a lot of exposition in some of the songs and if you don't understand them, you miss details about the story. The dialogue is usually well translated in the Spanish dubs, but the quality of the lyrics is sometimes quite worse. I guess it's understandable, though, as it's not easy to say the same as in the original and still make it rhyme, especially when you need to use fewer words in each verse, as Spanish words are usually longer. In this case, the problem was also accentuated by the singing being quite fast at times. My sister loved Mirabel, though, and said she identified with her a lot, which surprised me a bit, as she's more like the Isabela of my family.
estefan wrote:Something I'm surprised hasn't been commented on more here is that "Encanto" seemed to move away from two devices that were common when Lasseter was in charge and even showing up a little bit in the Lee era via "Raya and the Last Dragon." It wasn't a big road trip as, like I said, a lot of the story was kept in the house and surrounding village. And it didn't involve two characters that appear to be opposites teaming up. It seemed like it might head a little bit in the latter direction when Mirabel meets Bruno, but they don't actually share much screentime together.
I appreciated that too, it was quite refreshing.
Spoilers starting here.
blackcauldron85 wrote:If everyone's gift is "supposed" to be of use to the community, how does Pepa's gift help others?
I think Pepa's gift is actually one of the most useful, as weather is very important for crops and things like that. In the movie, she's usually shown with a small cloud over her head, but I think that's just because she's trying to control her powers; she can make a much bigger impact on the weather if she wants to, as shown at her wedding day.
Farerb wrote:TBH I found all their gifts with the exception of Julieta and Luisa pointless, why wouldn't Isabela grow wheat or vegetables? Seems more helpful than pretty flowers.
I don't think the powers are only meant to be useful for the community. Alma is the one obsessed with that, but the candle actually gave them things that are useful to survive in the encanto, but also some that are just for them to have fun with, like Antonio's room, for example, which is like a theme park attraction. Also, Alma seems to find Isabela's flower decorations beneficial for the community.
Farerb wrote:It reminds me that I had several minor nitpicks:
1. Why doesn't Julieta heal Mirabel's eye sight?
2. Why does Luisa carry the donkeys? Donkeys don't need to be carried.
3. How come Dolores didn't ear Alma talking to Pedro at night but could hear Luisa's eye twitching?
4. Why don't they change their clothes for the celebration and the next day?
5. Why did they present a scene where Mirabel is motivated to fix the magic only to realize that she needs Dolores? Did she go back to her pajamas and back to bed or did she wait like that until it was morning?
Those are interesting observations. I think some of them could have an explanation, though. I'll try to answer them below.
1. That's a really good question. Maybe Julieta can only heal certain kinds of injuries and diseases, but it's also likely the filmmakers didn't think of this or expected the public wouldn't notice it.
2. I agree with
blackcauldron85's point. I also think they did it because it was funny. Well, I didn't find it particularly funny myself, but some people at my showing laughed at that part.
3. Maybe Dolores was sleeping at that moment. I don't think she hears everything the others say at night. She says Luisa's eye had been twitching all night, but she probably just woke up a couple of times during the night and still heard her make that sound and that's why she assumed Luisa had been doing it all night.
4. They probably should've given everybody different clothes for Antonio's ceremony. Antonio himself is the only one who seems dressed up for the occasion; the rest seem to be wearing their everyday clothes. It's not a big issue for me, but I understand why it may be for you.
5. I think she did go back to bed and waited until the next morning to start her investigation.
I had other nitpicks of my own, though. I'd be grateful if someone could give me an explanation for any of them.
1. Why didn't Bruno try to tell Pepa what he said to her at the wedding wasn't a prophecy before? He didn't leave until Mirabel was 5 years old, so several years passed between Pepa and Félix's wedding and that moment in which he could've done that.
2. Why was Pepa still so upset about what happened at the wedding? Shouldn't she had forgotten about it and started to miss her brother? Well, this one was an issue for me the first time I saw it, but now I think I know the answer to it and it's that deep down Pepa is not really upset about the wedding but at Bruno leaving them.
3. Aside from Dolores, how could no one notice Bruno was living hidden in the house all those years? I know it's a big house with magical rooms to boot, but still.
4. Like some of you have mentioned, it seems Dolores knew Bruno hadn't left the house or at least suspected it. It doesn't make much sense to me that she could keep that a secret for so long, when it's shown at the dinner with the Guzmáns that she can't keep a secret. By the way, that scene was hilarious and I love Dolores, but I don't understand that about her.
I think I had more, but I don't remember them right now.
blackcauldron85 wrote:After seeing the film a second time yesterday (I saw it for the third today), and listening to the soundtrack after rewatching the film, i wondered why Dolores told the secret of Mirabel discovering Bruno's vision, but didn't share the fact that she knew Bruno was living in the house. The Disney Wiki speculates that Dolores was sensitive to Bruno's issue ("is possible she felt sympathy for his case since she describes his gift to be humbling and seemed to understand his predicament during the song "We Don't Talk About Bruno."")("Due to their sensory powers, Bruno and Dolores are the only family members that their doors depict with eyes open. The similarity in their powers could explain Dolores' particular sympathy towards Bruno.").
I've read this after writing the rest of my post. I see you had the same doubt as me. Maybe it's true that she felt sympathy towards him and that's why she didn't reveal his secret, but it's still surprising to me she could resist the temptation to do it for so long.
Speaking of that, has anyone else noticed Dolores' room is right next to the entrance to Bruno's hideout? That can't be a coincidence, right? I've also noticed that Bruno's door is not like the rest. The others are next to the corridor, while to get to Bruno's you have to go through a small tunnel with some stairs. Maybe it's because his room is a tower, though I guess it's also possible they wanted the entrance to be a bit hidden and mysterious.
And Big Hero 6, Ralph Breaks the Internet, and Moana are all nothing like Frozen (to their detriment). TBH, I don't think Zootopia, Frozen II, Raya, and Encanto are much like Frozen either. The only similarity I might agree with is the ending of Raya with the characters turning to stone being similar to Anna turning to ice...but that's one scene. Zootopia is probably the only recent film of theirs I'd come anywhere close to describing as a "message" film at all.
(Yes I know, but what about Moana Raya and Anna? Moana was desperate b/c her island was dying and had the Ocean helping her(sometimes), Raya's probably been learning martial arts since she was a toddler and Anna was a naive sheltered princess who thought it was a good idea to trek to the mountains in an evening gown in -0 degree weather.)
