I recently read an article by Anne Elise Cairns, a contributor for Patriot Pages, about Disney’s new movie Encanto. Anne Elise’s article, Encanto: Singing Its Praises, talked about how well the movie performed and why so many people liked it. The article gave many reasons of why Encanto was so great, and while I do agree with some of them, I didn’t think the movie was as amazing as most people seem to have. 

I have seen the film several times, due to my sister’s obsession with it, so I have gotten a good chance to break it down. While it did stray a little out-of-the-box at some points, like having almost the entire movie take place in the same location, it was extremely predictable. It followed Disney’s central theme of ‘family-is-everything’, which, don’t get me wrong, is a nice theme that makes for an enjoyable and sweet story, but at this point it’s a little overused. The whole time I was watching, I was reminded of the movie Coco. Both movies take the protagonist on an adventure that ends with them returning to their family and working things out with their grandmother. There are definitely some noticeable differences between the two films, but they follow the same general plot, which made the second one, Encanto, all the much more predictable. One more thing that I found especially predictable was the gift that Antonio, the young boy, received. Ignoring the fact that it was in the trailer (which I had actually forgotten about when I watched it), I could guess exactly what it was going to be. They couldn’t be a little more creative?

“What trips all of this up are the inexplicable plot developments,” said Bill Goodykoonts on Azcentral. “It’s as if the filmmakers painted themselves into a corner, albeit a beautiful one, and just decided to stroll right out of it, no matter what a mess it makes. It’s left to the audience to clean it up.”

In Anne’s article, she talked about Disney creating more relatable characters and situations. This is what I can agree with the most- Disney is beginning to introduce more relatable and engaging characters without replicating the usual bore of everyday life. However, I don’t think Disney is all the way there yet. While the characters’ personalities and reactions to things are relatable, we rarely get to see them in situations that we can relate to. If Disney, or any film production company, can create a movie with relatable characters and situations, and make it entertaining, that would be a true achievement. Some of their situations are relatable, fights with your family, mostly, but other than that there is nothing.

Now let’s talk about the music. It was fun an energetic, but it was just all over the place. It was really similar to the music from Moana, especially the outtakes. Granted, they are both by Lin-Manuel Miranda, but the music from Moana and the plot of Coco is not a good combination. “…it would be nice to see someone as talented as Miranda flex his muscles a bit more,” Jeremy Konrad, a writer for the website Bleeding Cool, said in a review of Encanto. The music was all over the place, too. It often didn’t make sense, and almost none of it flowed well. The songs themselves were cliche as well, as both Isabela and Lousia’s songs talked about the pressure of living up to certain standards. Really, the entire family has to live up the standards of Mirabel’s grandmother. It’s an overused topic in general, but basing two songs off of it in the same movie is just bold and irritating. 

While the box office numbers for the movie weren’t so great (it brought in about $90 million, ¼ of what Frozen made and less than a half of what Wreck-It Ralph made), it was a critical success. It just didn’t resonate with everyone. Some people have thought it to be boring and unentertaining; others found to be cliche and just plain bad.

If you haven’t seen the movie but have been intrigued by what you have heard about it, you can watch it for free with a subscription to Disney+, but I wouldn’t recommend it. I have tried to see it from the view of a fan, but I just can’t understand why they like it so much.