Disney’s Encanto boasts two standout musical numbers, with lyrics and music by Lin-Manuel Miranda, but it’s telling that one of them centers on a minor supporting character and could be easily excised from the story proper. Written by Charise Castro-Smith and Jared Bush, Encanto takes on a complicated, mature topic—multigenerational family dysfunction—and dramatizes it in ways that are simultaneously literal and metaphorical, which is something only the best of Pixar usually manages to pull off. Here, the result is at once limited and meandering, underexplored and overstuffed. The central character, among many, is Mirabel (voiced by Stephanie Beatriz), a teenager who lives with her grandmother and other extended family members in a magically sentient house in Colombia. Soon into the film, however, the magic begins to fade, including the related powers (strength, shape-shifting, etc.) that have been granted to every family member except Mirabel. Is she to blame? Things get more emotionally and narratively convoluted from there, which is maybe why the cleanly delineated (and exuberantly animated, in Disney musical style) sequences I mentioned above are such standouts. “Surface Pressure,” in which Mirabel’s older sister (Jessica Darrow) confesses to feeling burdened by familial expectations, could be a movie of its own. And “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” a comedic ensemble number about Mirabel’s black-sheep uncle, lightens the proceedings with visual and musical wit. Both numbers have the hip hop-inflected showtune spirit that has become a familiar signature of Miranda’s work, but still feels fresh and invigorating here. Encanto could have used more of that and less oppressive narrative.
(2/15/2022)
