A young Colombian girl has to face the frustration of being the only member of her family without magical powers.
Disney has definitely done it again with a powerful and colorful story about magic and the struggle of one family member to gain acceptance by swallowing her pride in order to get to the root of what is tearing her family apart. The film opens in Colombia where a magical place called “The Encanto” is known for giving every member of the Madrigal family a magical gift via a candle on their 5th Birthday. Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz), though, is the only family member who didn’t receive a gift and while everyone seems to make a big deal of it, she doesn’t fully understand why she never received her gift and how the lack of it is tearing her family apart. Not wanting to dwell on it, Mirabel does the best that she can to support the next family member, Antonio (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), who is expected to receive his gift. As the town prepares for the celebration, the family matriarch, Abuelo (Maria Celia Botero), tries her best to keep Mirabel out of the way as she believes she has been touched by an evil spirit which may interfere with the next family member from receiving the magical gift that he is entitled to.
Mirabel, who constantly faces adversity from several family members, seems to get the worse treatment from her sister, Isabela (Diane Guerrero) who treats her like an evil stepsister. While she doesn’t feel she deserves the treatment, she does feel that she can still help the family so she unselfishly encourages Antonio (Ravi Cabot-Conyers) to be prepared to embrace his gift which is to speak to animals. When Mirabel starts to see visions of the house cracking into bits and pieces, she worries that she may not be able to stop it before the entire family loses all the magic it has embraced over the years. As Mirabel searches into the family history, she finds that Abuelo has been keeping dark family secrets and that her Uncle Bruno (John Leguizamo) who disappeared into thin air several years before, actually was in hiding because he too had been cast out of the family for reasons unbeknownst to most members of the family. When she discovers her uncle’s hiding place, she finds that the real reason he had to go away was to protect her and she feels indebted to him and must find a way for him to return to the family.
As Mirabel gets deeper into her search to solve the mystery of the cracks, she confronts Abuelo and gets her to realize that her ways have caused the greatest conflicts in the family and that she must find a way to forgive and move on in order for the family to be able to come back together and reap all the benefits of the magic of Encanto. After all the issues have been resolved, the family is able to pull together and learn more about how to accept and encourage each other even though each one is different.
Directors Byron Howard and Jared Bush (“Zootopia”), who co-directed with Charise Castro Smith, did an excellent job of setting up the magical scenery that brought “The Encanto” to life. The colorful spirit that embodies the characters and enchant animals complement each other along with the music of Lin-Manuel Miranda. It appeared that the input from prior material under Lin-Manuel’s tutelage was incorporated by using various shades of people of color to give the true impact of the Colombian culture that was represented in this magical, meaningful story that tore a family apart and brought them back together better through the healing power of forgiveness.
In Theaters Wednesday, November 24th
