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Notes -
Aspects of Encanto are great, but central plot elements are treated in a very unsatisfying way.
The magic of the setting appears in several different guises: Roman Catholic folk miracles, brujería, Disney princess magic; but it doesn't behave consistently with any of them, doing instead whatever the writers thought was dramatically appropriate at the moment. The movie collapses the object and meta levels of its major symbol in an unprincipled way that feels like a cop out. And even once it's established that the symbolism of magic = family love is all that matters, the backstory revelations undermine it: Was it grandpa's death that brought about family love?
Great animation, good songs, exasperating writing.
... Yes?
He's leading refugees away from their burning village, he sees soldiers catching up to them on horseback, and he kisses his wife and babies goodbye to turn back and (checks video) wave down the soldiers. Rather than using the opportunity to run or hide, his wife stops in her tracks to watch him die. The natural interpretation here is "he loved them so much that he would run to his own death just to buy them another minute to run and hide, and she loved him so much that even in those circumstances she couldn't bear to leave him, and The Magic rewarded such powerful love." (The other interpretation, "neither of them had the common sense or tactical acumen of a mouse, and The Magic took pity on such powerful stupidity", doesn't really fit the movie's tone.)
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