Encanto: Film Critique

[eller]

So I had the opportunity to watch a relatively new Disney movie, 'Encanto', and... I don't know what to think.

The good part: I watch Disney movies mainly for the soundtracks anyway, and, WOW, Lin-Manuel Miranda delivers!

The bad part... Uh. I have this kind of hate-love for Lin-Manuel Miranda. He's clearly one of the best songwriters out there - really - but... He consistently ends up working on projects I hate. Whether that's super-weird political propaganda stuff ('Hamilton': questionable content with really catchy songs) or cringey Disneyfications of Polynesian religion ('Moana', and yes, it's really just as awful as the concept sounds - but with, again, really nice music... 'We know the way' and 'How far I'll go' are two of my favorite Disney songs, but I will say that film never should have been made), Miranda seems to have this special talent to immerse himself in seriously awkward shows. Still, I had hopes for 'Encanto': it's a story about a Colombian family with magical powers, and everyone lives together in a magical house. Basically, hearing the summary, I expected bland but somewhat entertaining kitsch in the narrative style of 'Frozen'. Not much that can go wrong there, right?!?

Um.

I'm not going to go into the treatment of Colombian culture here: I don't know anything about Colombia, I've never been there. It's obviously a Disneyfied view of that culture, with happy villagers who are dancing to folk tunes all the time - but, I mean, it's Disney, they do that with everything, and whether you want to call it racist or just accept it as a weird stylistic quirk is entirely up to you. XD Anyway - that's not my main problem with this film. (It's nowhere near as bad as 'Moana', anyway: at least it stays away from religion.)

My actual problem? I hated everyone.

Really. Every. Single. Character. Who the hell wrote this story? I mean - it's supposed to be a family story, and I'm sure the makers intended it to be this uplifting story about a girl working hard to understand her family members and bring them closer together with the powers of empathy and hope, yadda, yadda... But, seriously? That whole family is toxic as f*ck. I'll just say, if I were Mirabel (the annoyingly cheerful and optimistic heroine), I would run away and never contact my relatives again. They're not just constantly bickering the way normal families do, they even have a whole song about how much they hate one perfectly innocent family member they've chosen as a bullying target. (And - in true Miranda style - that content disaster, 'We don't talk about Bruno', is from a musical standpoint the best song in the film... Miranda really seems to like the awkward themes. Don't feel too sorry for that guy Bruno, either: while he's not a villain, he has the problem-solving skills of a toddler. Seriously, WTF?) While watching that family disaster unfold, I found myself wishing they'd all die in a house fire - while knowing that, of course, that wouldn't happen - it's Disney, after all.

Oh, but the music? It's great!

Seriously, go and listen to 'We don't talk about Bruno'. (At least if you're not triggered by toxic family situations. LOL) Even better: go and watch the animated sequence with the song. It's easily one of the best Disney songs of all times. All the singers (portraying multiple members of a large family) are not only very good (which is to be expected: again, it's Disney!) but also fit their roles perfectly. The song arrangement is brilliant, too: based on something like a cha-cha, it switches through several different musical styles, and, in the end, blends them all. It's great, and this song has been stuck in my head for days now! (Insta-earworm...)

So, can I recommend this film? Yes and no. Yes, if you don't care about the story either way and you're just there for the music. No, if you don't want to dive into the life of an incredibly toxic family. I will not recommend it to kids whose family situation I'm not 100% sure of, because otherwise, watching that thing without therapeutic processing is potentially harmful. And, I mean, I know kids, I know how resilient they can be, and that they usually can cope with media that adults don't typically trust them with - but this one? Heck, I wouldn't recommend the film to adults with any kind of family trauma, either...

But the music is really really really awesome. Thanks, Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Comments

[yhlee]

I'm so glad I skipped this one - Joe and Ara watched it, but they don't have family trauma in their backgrounds and I do, so...

[eller]

Yeah, you didn't miss much... Just a really good, catchy, danceable song about what, at least according to my training, amounts to a domestic-abuse situation... Yeah. ^^° Today's kid movies are weird.

[minoanmiss]

*takes notes*

Ah, _Hamilton_. My feelings about that one are really messy and mixed. More another time.

[eller]

I'd be very interested in hearing your impressions of 'Hamilton'! My impression as a historically interested European was, wow, this glorifies some really horrible people, and tries to hide its whitewashing of history behind a cast of Black actors purely for the wokeness factor... Essentially, I filed it under 'well-disguised white-supremacy propaganda piece designed to appeal to the intellectual left, vaguely disgusting'. But then, I'm neither American nor Black, so I'm not sure how much of a valid opinion I can actually have, here... (Also, it should be seen separately of my opinion about the music, which is, reeeeaaallly nice songs. From an artistic standpoint, 'Hamilton' is great...)

[minoanmiss]

I think you're right about where Hamilton ended up, but I don't think it was intended to be that.

One thing many people of color hear in the US is that White people/people from Great Britain/the 'Founding Fathers' "made" this country, that it was all the doing of people who do not include women or people of color. I remember Mr. Miranda talking about how Hamilton had a classic rise-and-fall story arc he'd seen not least in the lives of some rappers, so he thought, "why not tell this story in our way, with our faces?" I know, as someone who followed musicals obsessively as a kid and was delighted whenever I saw one person of color, that it was exhilarating to see so many performers of color on stage. But then I am often too easily pleased. wry smile

At least we have In The Heights. I'm Black in the US but also an immigrant to the US, and ITH has a special place in my heart.

[eller]

Obviously, I don't know the intention behind Hamilton, as I can't read thoughts. It's just... The view on history that's presented in this piece is clearly racist (as in: seriously white-centric to the point of history revisionism), and I wound up asking myself: does casting Black actors for this piece make the content less racist, or does it just serve to obfuscate that part of the critical discourse?!? And, yeah, after thinking about it, I ended up with option number two. (How better to disguise the unfortunate fact that most of the portrayed personalities were rampant racists than by casting Black actors? Brilliant, really! Viewers can cheer for these guys without being bothered by that, now!) I remember how in highschool history class we discussed the markings of propaganda and how to recognize it... (I'm in Germany. We get Nazi propaganda a lot - to the point that learning how to recognize it is part of the standard school curriculum.) And, really, Hamilton does raise some serious red flags. (I get how one could be fascinated by the historical person Hamilton. Really. I also get wanting to write a musical about him. There's still a huge gap between that and uncritical hero-worship of the 'Founding Fathers', though...) If that's unintentional... Everyone involved would have to be really, really naive.

[minoanmiss]

"The view on history that's presented in this piece is clearly racist (as in: seriously white-centric to the point of history revisionism),"

It is, isn't it? And it's, in some ways, better than the view I was taught in school. (For instance we don't really get told about Southern abolitionists like Laurens, except to be told that they ran the Underground Railroad, which isn't true -- the UR was run by Black people, both free and enslaved. It's weird)

" and I wound up asking myself: does casting Black actors for this piece make the content less racist, or does it just serve to obfuscate that part of the critical discourse?!? And, yeah, after thinking about it, I ended up with option number two."

That makes sense.

[eller]

Eh, that's interesting! I mean, over here, not much about the topic is taught in schools at all, but what we got had the gist of "a bunch of criminal nutjobs who somehow managed to start a civil war over the difficult ethical question (LOL) whether it's okay to enslave people or not"... I'm guessing the US curriculum treats the topic quite differently. (We didn't get much detail, either: it's not our history, just some foreign country having its struggles. Anything I know about the people involved stems from my interest in history, and military history in particular.)

[minoanmiss]

I'm honestly impressed you know this much about the history of some other random country. You are a history buff! I wouldn't expect German kids to be taught much about the US except in the context of the global slave trade and then 20th Century Wars.

But yes. Because we are discouraged from viewing slaveowners as wrong in any way (some of the former Confederate states, notably Texas, have a lot of political power that, for complex reasons, gives them a lot of control of textbook content) or of thinking about what freedom meant to people, the way we're taught about the Civil War in the US is that it was a tragic fight over states' rights but the country came back together and healed right up. (ugh) and that the Founding Fathers were saintly people founding a new country for high minded principles (double ugh).

And, well, Hamilton reflects that story we're taught. I know it's horrifying (I have one foot outside the US, after all -- fortunately I had my Jamaican relatives to teach me some more accurate history) but it's an attempt at an improvement, even though people seized upon it and made it this shield against critique and criticism.

But that's what I think, anyway. I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that Toni Morrison, a wise and erudite author who knew exponentially more about Black people in US history than I ever will, also really hated Hamilton for many of the same reasons you cite. I don't want to sound like Everyone Agrees because we definitely don't, ahahahaha.

[eller]

I'm a massive history nerd, definitely. But also: it is part of the current political discourse. For example, we had a bit of a semi-scandal a while back when, in some Norwegian casting show, someone decided to sing 'Wade in the Water'. Which offended some people who thought a White person should not sing this song, ever, as it is an Underground Railroad song. I remember finding the discussion quite absurd, because a) while the Underground Railroad was run by Black people, abolitionism did have White supporters, and there's no need to erase them, either, b) I don't think expressing an agreement with those ideals is wrong, independently of race, and c) in a twist of irony, the singer wasn't actually White, but mix-race with really light skin (or something; anyway, the critics failed to notice), which made the whole thing more ridiculous than anything else. Anyway: these things are talked about.

"we are discouraged from viewing slaveowners as wrong in any way"

uh...

UH. WTF.

Now, I didn't always agree with my history teacher's political opinions (more like: I was too far on the right for her taste, LOL), I can definitely say no-one, from any end of the German political spectrum, ever tried to teach me that keeping slaves was acceptable in any way. I think it's generally agreed upon (even among German conservatives, of course with the possible exception of some neo-nazis) how that's a crime against humanity...

Seriously, WTF.

"I don't want to sound like Everyone Agrees because we definitely don't, ahahahaha."

I wouldn't expect that, either. (Actually: if there's no room for ambiguity at all, that's one of the most accurate signs you've fallen prey to some ideology...) There's room for different standpoints, definitely! :)

[minoanmiss]

Oh in other news I mentioned your review of _Encanto_ to my roommate, who saw it with the kids, so that was an interesting discussion until she got a phone call.

[dhampyresa]

I haven't seen Encanto (and am unlikely to, based on this review -- thanks for the headsup about family issues in it, btw), but I'm curious about your Moana thoughts!

[eller]

My Moana thoughts... Uh, seriously good music. Other than that? Well. There's a lot of casual racism going around (like that harmful stereotype of portraying Polynesian islanders as overweight and, well, stupid... And the coconut thing - it's like no one ever told Disney that's actually a racial slur, so depicting a whole fictional race of people as coconuts is a SERIOUSLY bad idea). Also, they use a deity as one of the main characters, and, I mean, if you're going to do that, I think you should do that with some basic respect. (I know Disney rarely treats their source material particularly respectfully, but... The difference is, no one actually prays to Snow White and the seven dwarfs or worships Cinderella, so, much less potential for damage!) And, yeah, Disney fails.

I finally heard "we don't talk about Bruno"

[minoanmiss]

I LOVE it.

I love it because it's two things at once (well, several). It's a beautiful song about a MASSIVE FAMILY DYSFUNCTION OMG. It's like an amber sculpture that's so exquisite it takes one awhile to realize it's of a cockroach or of a crumpled piece of cardboard. And then the realization makes it hit twice as hard. "This is so beautiful and describes something SO commonplace and SO fucked up." Because pretty much every family has something they Don't Talk About. And eventually the secrets bust through, like they do, and the family must talk.

Re: I finally heard "we don't talk about Bruno"

[eller]

YES. XD It's a great song, isn't it? And, at the same time, SOOOO messed up... In a way, the whole film is like that: it's extremely good, and lovely music, and while watching I could basically make a list of everything I'd have to report as (psychological) domestic abuse to child protective services if I witnessed it in real life... Simply amazing. Family from hell.

Re: I finally heard "we don't talk about Bruno"

[minoanmiss]

Hey, none of them got beaten with a belt, so they were doing better than I did! (and then my parents wonder why I don't talk to them these days, ahaah.) Seriously, though, yeah. The contrast is amazing and splendid and horrifying all at once.

Re: I finally heard "we don't talk about Bruno"

[eller]

Ugh, yeah, no surprise you don't talk to them! Still - during my work with kids (in the chess club) I've (unfortunately) collected some experience with domestic violence reports, and if a kiddo on my watch mentions something like oh, you know, I was left out of the family photo because I'm not gifted enough? That will end up in a file somewhere. (It's unlikely that anyone will do anything about it, it's more for legal reasons, for example if kiddo wants to move out before they're legally of age, or if kiddo is later in life supposed to pay for their parents' care in old age, which they can refuse, but only if there's proof of domestic child abuse... So, yeah, this kind of sh*t gets documented. At least if the one in charge is doing their f*cking job...) Basically, I sat there, watched this movie, and mentally filled in the necessary form sheets... An interesting experience. XD

Re: I finally heard "we don't talk about Bruno"

[minoanmiss]

Thank you for looking out for those kids, seriously. You can't know for sure barring an Alternate Timeline Episode, but I'm pretty sure you've saved a life or two.

Re: I finally heard "we don't talk about Bruno"

[eller]

Let's say, I take the topic seriously. My personal wake-up call was actually even before I started coaching kids: when I was a kid, another kid in my training group was abused at home, and when sh*t hit the fan (which it did in a truly spectacular way), his teachers lied in court about never having noticed anything... They had not documented sh*t, so later, they could not admit they had seen anything because that would have meant their job (AND a civil lawsuit, for that matter) for negligence. The father got away (until a few years later, for violence against other kids). Definitely unforgettable - and, yeah, I've always reported Every.Single.Thing. Same with injuries: of course, when dealing with young boys, 99.99% of bruises happened during play or sports - and then there's the 0.01% that will be needed as forensic proof of something horrible. Sure, it's annoying to fill in the paperwork (I mean, kids really injure themselves almost every week, and usually it's really nothing serious), so stuff gets underreported all the time... I guess it was just dumb luck that those 0.01% were the first thing I was confronted with.