Super colorful, super cheerful, super charming, and super weird… I enjoyed the majority of this bright sunshiney movie even if it does sag under the weight of its own ambitious weirdness at times.

Encanto is about a magical, intelligent, living house in South America where each members of the extended family is gifted with a special power (strength, perfection, shape changing, etc.). Our movie’s lead character, however, never got a power so she can only watch as younger children gain abilities while she’s left behind. But there’s a secret in the house and she’s having visions of things falling apart.

I imagine there’s some level of cultural awareness that’s lost on me when I say this is a weird movie. I suspect there’s some folklore behind an encanto (enchanted) house and maybe even the powers. But it’s also possible the movie is just weird because some animated movies these days are just weird like that. It reminds me of Brave where the movie seemed to pinball all over the place and throw in a bunch of weird ideas that were probably Scottish folklore… or maybe the writers were just being weird that day. So no insult intended.

The movie is so bright, happy, and cheerful and I appreciate its emotional intelligence and ability to deliver a message that isn’t the usual simplistic message of most kid’s movies. It’s more than just “trust yourself” or “be nice to others”… and how it gets to its message is not telegraphed and obvious. It’s warm and relatable even if the connective logic was a little lost on me at times.

The movie is a musical and there’s a ton of songs (written by Lin-Manuel Miranda). I don’t think too many of them are instant classics… though I did walk out of the theater without realizing I was singing “Encanto!” in my brain. So something wormed its way in there.

But some of the songs and elaborate sequences around them just seem weird and start to drag the movie down. Part of the story of the flick is the main character addressing each of various relatives who sing about their powers and their concerns. And it does start to feel a little unnecessary and like they are stretching for time. Though, in the end, I think they find a reason for it all… but it was getting there that just felt weird and padded, at least on first viewing.

Otherwise, this is a bright film full of sunshine. I suspect for people who grew up in the traditions of the film, it’ll hit much harder than it did for me. But I’m not a total monster so I was able to get into the movie’s groove. It’s charming and bright and maybe just a little odd.

Score: 84