Encanto

“The Miracle Is Not Some Magic That You’ve Got – The Miracle Is You.”

• Title: Encanto
• Director: Jared Bush, Byron Howard
• Release date: 24th November 2021

Filled with joy, laughter and heartbreak, Encanto is one of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ most ground-breaking film to date.

Set in the mountains of Columbia, Encanto tells the story of the Madrigal family. All blessed with individual powers to keep the light of the town (and miracle) of Encanto alive, the film follows the journey of self-discovery for Mirabel Madrigal as she seeks out where it is that she belongs within her magical family circle.

Despite the film’s setting and cultural appreciation for the country of Columbia being a ground-breaking element within itself, the film goes further by representing an extended family circle run by the matriarchy. With one of the highest number of developed main characters in a Walt Disney Animation Studios film (the majority of whom, I may add, are female) Encanto shines as the studio’s 60th film to date.

As well as providing wider representation on screen for children with Latino heritage, Encanto also presents to young girls that stereotypical feminine attributes are not important and that beauty comes in all different shapes and sizes. Whether you are short or tall, muscular or lean, the variation within the female characters represented in the film show that every woman is beautiful and can achieve greatness, despite what attributes they may hold.

The majority of us spend our lives hoping and waiting to discover what it is about us that makes us different from the rest of the crowd. Is it my athleticism? My strength? Or maybe it’s my brains? What we fail to realise that all this time we spend searching for what makes us unique is all for nothing. It’s not our super-smart brains or ability to run faster than the rest that makes us different. What makes us different is us. Just as Abuela said, “The Miracle Is Not Some Magic That You’ve Got – The Miracle Is You.”