"Encanto" Review: Disney Has Another One!
My initial thought as Encanto started was that it was a Columbian version of The Incredibles, but I quickly realized that was an unfair judgement and cheap comparison. Instead, the film is a beautiful statement on family, the gifts/talents we’re all born with, and a fresh cultural perspective that Disney does earnestly. With catchy musical sequences, this is guaranteed to be another Disney classic!
The Madrigal family has been imbued with special, magical gifts since matriarch, Abuela Alma (Maria Cecilia Botero) escaped to Colombia. Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz) gives us our eyes into the family. In fact, she introduces us to all of her family members after village children ask her what her gift is. Luisa (Jessica Darrow) is super strong, Isabela (Diane Guerrero) can make beautiful flowers grow, Camilo (Rhenzy Feliz) is a shape shifter, Pepa (Carolina Gaitan) controls the weather and the list goes on. The only issue is, Maribel doesn’t have a gift.
It’s been years since the last time a gift was given out and tonight is Antonio’s (Ravi Cabot-Conyers) turn to receive. While Antonio receives the gift of speaking to animals, Maribel has a vision of the house starting to fall apart. This alarms Abuela, who is already on edge. With the weight of not having a gift on her shoulders, Maribel takes it as a personal mission to figure out what’s going on with the house and why the Encanto seems to be on the fritz.
What’s fascinating here is that Maribel authentically does not have a gift like the rest of her family. Thus the film spends time analyzing what it means to feel like an outsider in your family. It shows the pressure that Maribel’s sisters, Isabela and Luisa, are enduring. Luisa always gets the job done and takes on literal and figurative weight without question. Isabela is told that she is the perfect granddaughter and Abuela drills it home. When you strip back the layers, you start to see that Abuela’s trauma of losing her husband and not having a fairytale life has become the vision she has for Isabela. This vision is a box that Isabela is trapped in. So while Encanto is an awesome music filled, adventure, it addresses very real and deep issues we can see in our own family.
It’s hard to choose which song will be your favorite as there are so many instant classics! Mirabel is easy to fall in love with as a kind-hearted character seeking to keep her family together while dealing with her own insecurities. Encanto is easily the best animated film out this year! Go see it in theaters or stream it on Disney +!
Rating: A
"Frozen II" Review: Disney, Let It Go!
Perhaps much like the theme of the movie, the Frozen franchise is in its autumn. Frozen II offers up a change in its characters, settings and gives a form of growth to all. Suffering from the sophomore slump, while this film offers big numbers and beautiful scenery, it doesn’t quite capture the magic of its predecessor because it’s too busy trying to stand in the shadow of it.
Picking up shortly after the original, Anna (Kristen Bell) and Queen Elsa (Idina Menzel) are leading the kingdom of Arendelle with Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and a newly permafrosted Olaf (Josh Gad) by their sides. Still trying to find herself, Elsa can’t ignore the voice she hears calling out to her. The voice may hold answers to the past as the kingdom tries to find answers to its future after the spirits of Earth, Fire, Wind and Water remove everyone from their homes.
Following the voice takes the group to an enchanted forest, which previously could not be entered by anyone. Inside they meet two factions that have been stuck inside for years and search for answers to the past to secure their future. Equipped with solo songs for each character throughout the film, like its songs, it’s forgettable. In fact, most of the songs help to move the struggling story along rather than being an extension of each characters’ inner feelings bursting out of them as musicals should do.
Another reason this outing isn’t as great as the last is because it’s missing heart and a true villain. The heart of the first film was the love between two sisters and the power that exists and can be cultivated from that love. Here, each character follows their own storyline and thus, as a whole, the movie suffers from meandering at times due to a seemingly forced narrative instead of the organic story in the first film. Without a true villain to physically go up against, these characters aren’t written well enough to display the true struggle of (wo)man vs. self that it whiffs at. There’s an opportunity for the film to explore what happens when a loved one smothers you with good intentions, but doesn’t realize they’re holding you back. There are decisions that some characters make that seem to be, well, out of character. It’s as though going from the beat sheet that five writers created for the story wasn’t quite filled in by Jennifer Lee’s screenplay.
On a positive note, Olaf steals the show as the lovable snowman who seems to be graduating from kindergarten to first grade metaphorically. He’s inquisitive about the world around him and his curiosity and zest for life is endearing. Olaf certainly provided most of the laughs that the children in the audience I saw the film with had.
Frozen II is an example of Disney’s machine over-cranking. While the film will undoubtedly be a money maker, lightning hasn’t struck twice. You won’t be able to name a single tune you heard upon exiting the theater. With glimpses of what could have been a solid, universal story, the writing is half baked and thus this film falls short. Your kids will love it though!
Rating: C
"Dumbo" Review: The Film Doesn't Soar
2019 promises to give us a slew of live-action films based off of some classic property. Aladdin, The Lion King and Dumbo are the titles parents can get ready to take their kids to. As a parent of young children, I now realize that some films my parents took me to growing up is another example of their love because sitting through it must have been hard to endure. Dumbo is retribution for their sacrifice, and I can only hope the rest of the year doesn’t exact more vengeance!
Danny DeVito runs the Medici Bros circus as Max Medici. His circus of outsiders travel from town to town in 1919 by train, bringing fun to the towns they stop in. Amongst the circus family is Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) and his two children: Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins). They take care of the elephants, which includes Dumbo, the newest addition to the clan. Dumbo has oversized ears and they quickly learn that the tickle of a feather can make him fly.
Once the word is out that there’s a flying elephant in the world, the chance to bring the spectacle under his own circus brings tycoon V.A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton) running. He buys the Medici circus and pushes to make Dumbo the main event. You can imagine the heroism that has to follow in order to keep Dumbo safe.
This film comes down to casting and it’s hit and miss. Danny DeVito is great, but he gets put into a closet literally and figuratively after Vandevere takes over. Keaton enjoys playing Vandevere a little too much, becoming a caricature of the evil villain missing a mustache but with a bad toupee. Farrell’s southern accent is absolutely ridiculous, and Nico Parker’s delivery of her lines is equally cringeworthy.
The first half of the film feels like Disney got director Tim Burton to succumb to their bright and beautiful ways, but once Dumbo goes under Vandevere control the film takes a darker tone. Cinematographer Ben Davis changes the bright and hopeful lighting scheme to a dark and oppressed washed out dark blue. There’s no doubt that Burton is able to capture some of the wonder and awe of the circus through his set pieces and swells in the score, but that’s the best part of the film and it’s not enough.
My kids loved the film, and I was shocked at the number of adults in the theater without kids as well. So this film will definitely have an audience of kids or adults looking for a nostalgia fix from the 1941 animation. If it’s an indication of the films we’re about to see this year take a deep breath and make sure you’re seats are reclinable because at least your money will go toward getting a comfortable spot to watch the back of your eyelids.
Rating: C-
"Ralph Breaks The Internet" Review
When Wreck-It Ralph was first released in 2012, it quickly became one of my favorite animated Disney films to come out within the last few years. It was innovative, the video game references I grew up with were fun, and it was a perfect starring vehicle to utilize the talents of John C. Reilly. When Disney announced that a second one was coming, it was one of the films I was looking forward to watch this year. After watching the film, even though there are some bumps on the road, I’m happy to report that Ralph Breaks the Internet is a solid sequel.
Set six years after the events of the first film, Ralph (Reilly) and his best friend Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) find themselves traveling to the world of the Internet after Mr. Litwak (Ed O’Neill) recently installs a WiFi connection in his arcade. When a mishap causes a player to accidentally break the controller to Sugar Rush, Ralph and Vanellope have just days to find the part and raise the money before Mr. Litwak pulls the plug on Sugar Rush for good. Along the way, Ralph and Vanellope come across a game called Slaughter Race, which sparks Vanellope’s interest and causes her to question if she wants more to life.
First off, the animation in this film is still absolutely gorgeous to look at. Returning director Rich Moore and co-director Phil Johnston (who co-wrote the first film) and their animators do a good job in separating the different worlds and characters apart to have each stand on their own. Conceptually, Moore and Johnson’s visualization of the Internet to make it a futuristic and Utopic view, works well. Initially, I was somewhat worried that the product placements in the film, since it takes place on the web, would be overbearing or just be paid advertisements for the various apps or websites featured, but for the most part, the filmmakers don’t shove it down your throat, or have the story be compromised with the apps or websites that agreed to be in this film.
Since this is a Disney release, luckily, they don’t overdo the synergy of their various franchises that are featured in this. You can believe the hype you’ve been hearing about Vanellope meeting the Disney Princesses. In an amazing act of genius they got all of the actresses to come back and the banter includes a fun joke at another animation company that Disney owns. The film really begins to hit its groove when Ralph and Vanellope need to find the funds to get the new piece, and some of the skewing of the material is absolutely spot-on and extremely funny at times.
When we view sequels, we tend to see the same song and dance, rinse and repeat again. I appreciate that the screenplay that Johnston and Pamela Ribon concocted in trying to tell something different. If the first film was about how someone who is perceived as bad can become good, this one is about how you grow up and realize that you and your friend sometimes don’t share the same dreams and aspirations as one another and you both come to that crossroad, which is something that I can relate to from time to time. With how they handle it, it’s a nice message and this film wears its heart on its sleeves. Even though we see the Internet these days use for hate and vitriol, this highlights how sometimes the Internet can bring people together for good. Voice wise, the chemistry between Reilly and Silverman is still strong as ever, and they bring some new dimensions to their respective roles that can be quite effective at times. All the other voice actors were good in this and don’t feel out of place, including an uncredited Bill Hader as J.P. Spamley, a figure that Ralph and Vanellope meet along the way, and Gal Gadot as Shank, a racer in Slaughter Race. The cameos in this are fun as well.
Ralph does take a bit to actually get going. Since it’s introducing so many things that at times, it tends to be a little clunky, which is especially evident in the first act. For the 112-minute runtime that this has, Ralph in hindsight, could have been trimmed down in some places as the pacing hits a snag. There are some story threads that the filmmakers introduce that they don’t follow through on, and some of the characters from the first are barely in this, like Fix-It Felix (Jack McBrayer) and Sergeant Calhoun (Jane Lynch).
Overall, I enjoyed what Ralph Breaks the Internet brought to the table and what it was trying to accomplish. Reilly and Silverman give it their all, and the filmmakers were smart in having the sequel focus more on them and their growth. With the beating heart that this sequel shows, if they continue making films in this series, I’ll surely be there every single time. If you’re looking for something to watch with your family during this holiday season, you can’t go wrong with this. When you do, I would suggest staying until the end of the credits for something special that will surely bring a smile to your face. On that note, I would recommend watching this in the theater!
Rating: B