Encanto

Encanto
Directed by	Jared Bush Byron Howard
Screenplay by	Charise Castro Smith Jared Bush
Story by	Jared Bush Byron Howard Charise Castro Smith Jason Hand Nancy Kruse Lin-Manuel Miranda
Produced by	Yvett Merino Clark Spencer
Starring	Stephanie Beatriz María Cecilia Botero John Leguizamo Mauro Castillo Jessica Darrow Angie Cepeda Carolina Gaitán Diane Guerrero Wilmer Valderrama
Cinematography	Nathan Warner (layout) Alessandro Jacomini Daniel Rice (lighting)
Edited by	Jeremy Milton
Music by	Germaine Franco
Production companies	Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Animation Studios
Distributed by	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release dates	November 3, 2021 (2021-11-03) (El Capitan Theatre) November 24, 2021 (2021-11-24) (United States)
Running time	102 minutes
Country	United States
Languages	English Spanish
Budget	$120–150 million[1][2]
Box office	$223.4 million[3][4]

Encanto is a 2021 American animated musical fantasy comedy movie produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and made by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It was directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard, co-directed by writer Charise Castro Smith who co-wrote the screenplay with Bush, and produced by Yvett Merino and Clark Spencer. The original songs were written by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

It is Disney's sixtieth animated movie. It was released on November 24, 2021 in theaters and through Disney+ on December 24, 2022 to strong positive reviews.^[5][6][7] It won a Golden Globe Award for best animated movie.

Characters

• Mirabel - A 15-year-old girl.
• Bruno - Mirabel's 50-year-old uncle who can predict the future.
• Luisa - Mirabel's 19-year-old sister whose power is to lift anything, even if it's very heavy.
• Isabela - Mirabel's 21-year-old sister who gains the power of flowers and plants.
• Abuela Alma - Mirabel's 75-year-old grandmother.
• Camilo - Mirabel's 15-year-old cousin.
• Antonio - Mirabel's 5-year-old cousin that can talk to animals.

Plot

Forced by the Thousand Days War to flee her village in Colombia, a young Alma Madrigal loses her husband Pedro but saves her three children: Julieta, Pepa, and Bruno. A miracle happens and her candle becomes magic. It gets rid of the people chasing them, and creates a living house, the Casita, for them to live in, along with a magical village bordered by tall mountains— "an encanto." The candle's magic gives "Gifts" to each Madrigal descendant, which they are to use to help the villagers. Bruno, who had the power of telling the future, disappeared after Mirabel, Julieta's youngest daughter, did not get a gift, and ten years later Mirabel is still sad about not having one. Mirabel explains this with the song “The Family Madrigal”

On his fifth birthday, Pepa's youngest son, Antonio, gets the ability to talk with animals, and the family takes a picture with him but leaves out Mirabel. Mirabel then sings a song wishing she were also special. ("Waiting on a Miracle"). Mirabel suddenly sees the Casita cracking and the candle's flame flickering, but is ignored when the Casita seems fine to the others. After overhearing Alma praying, Mirabel decides to save the miracle's magic. The next day, she talks to her super-strong older sister, Luisa, who admits that she has a hard time dealing with all the work she has to do ("Surface Pressure"). She suggests that Bruno's room may hold clues to the mystery. There, Mirabel finds a cave and gets pieces of a slab of emerald. After Mirabel gets out, Luisa realizes that her gift is weakening. After her family reminds her of the reasons that Bruno is not to be talked about ("We Don't Talk About Bruno"), Mirabel rebuilds the slab and discovers it is an image of Mirabel standing in front of a broken Casita. Mirabel takes this to mean that she will destroy the family.

Later that evening, Mirabel's oldest sister Isabela, who can make plants and flowers grow whenever she wants, is supposed to become engaged to their neighbour Mariano Guzmán. But Mirabel's oldest cousin Dolores, who has super hearing, lets everyone know that she overheard Mirabel talking with her father about Bruno's vision. The Casita begins to crack again, causing everyone's powers to go out of control, ruining the night and Mariano's proposal when Pepa accidentally starts a rainstorm. As everyone runs, Mirabel follows a group of rats and finds a secret passage behind a portrait. There she meets Bruno, who tells that his vision of Mirabel would have got her in trouble with the family so he broke the vision and went into hiding to protect her. He hid himself inside the house's walls so he could still be near them. Bruno tells her that the vision could change, meaning that Mirabel would either destroy the Madrigal family or fix it. At Mirabel's urging, he reluctantly conjures another vision. At first, it goes the same way as the last one, with Mirabel still standing in front of a broken Casita. But a golden butterfly appears, and the vision changes into an image of Mirabel hugging a young woman, who seems to be Isabela.

Mirabel apologizes to Isabela but accidentally gets her to admit that she does not want to marry Mariano and actually hates having to be perfect. Then Isabella creates a cactus and wonders if she should grow whatever plants she feels like growing. ("What Else Can I Do?"). After the song, they hug, fixing the candle and the cracks. But, Alma sees the two of them, with Isabela growing whatever she wants. She accuses Mirabel of causing the family's problems out of jealousy for not having a Gift. Mirabel blames Alma for the immense pressure she puts on the family. Their rising argument weakens the candle again and creates a fissure that splits a nearby mountain and destroys the Casita. Despite Mirabel's trying to save it, the candle dies in her hands, leaving all the Madrigals powerless. While the family and several locals look at the damage, Mirabel feels guilty and leaves the town.

After a few hours of fruitless search, Alma finds a tearful Mirabel back at the river where Pedro died. She explains how, in her determination to preserve the magic, she ignored the toll it took on her family and finally takes responsibility for what happened ("Dos Oruguitas"). After hearing Alma's tragic backstory, Mirabel tells her that despite her flaws, she is the one who brought and protected the family together all these years. After a golden butterfly appears, they reconcile, and Bruno appears and confronts Alma to defend Mirabel, unexpectedly cheering her up with his return. They reunite with the Madrigals, and the townspeople arrive to help them rebuild the Casita ("All of You"). When the house is rebuilt, the Madrigals give Mirabel a gleaming doorknob with an M on it. When she places it in the front door, the magic springs back to life, restoring the Casita and all the family's Gifts and spreading through the village. The Madrigals pose for another family picture, this time with Mirabel and Bruno included.

References

1. Lang, Brent (November 26, 2021). "Box Office: Disney's 'Encanto' Leads Thanksgiving Pack With $5.8 Million, 'House of Gucci' Looking Strong". Variety. Archived from the original on November 26, 2021. Retrieved November 26, 2021.
2. Rubin, Rebecca (November 29, 2021). "Why 'Encanto' and 'House of Gucci' Box Office Debuts Are Cause for Celebration... and Concern". Variety. Archived from the original on November 29, 2021. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
3. "Encanto (2021)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved January 20, 2022.
4. Encanto (2021). The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved January 20, 2022.
5. Niazi, Amil (January 14, 2022). "Parents are losing their minds. Time to watch 'Encanto.' Again". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
6. Colangelo, B. J. (2022-01-10). "The Encanto Soundtrack Is Now The Biggest Thing In The World". /Film. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
7. Collin, Robbie (2022-01-14). "Disney's Encanto is a huge hit – and that's bad news for Pixar". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2022-01-14.