Magic movie that will cast a spell over you
The enchanting Encanto — Disney’s 60th animated feature film — is a worthy successor to Snow White
Encanto (PG, 99 mins) Verdict: A real charmer ★★★★★ A Boy Called Christmas (PG, 106 mins) Verdict: An early cracker ★★★★✩
HERE’S a not-very-good pub quiz question: if Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs was the first, then what is Encanto? Answer: it’s the 60th feature film made or distributed since 1937 by Walt Disney Animation Studios, and classics such as Snow White, Pinocchio and The Jungle Book notwithstanding, it’s one of the best.
Mind you, times have changed since Jiminy Cricket explained to Pinocchio the meaning of conscience. In those days, there were one or two pointed moral messages per animated film. Now, there are dozens, which can get wearing, but when they are wrapped into a package of entertainment as handsome as Encanto, with original songs written by the indefatigable Lin-Manuel Miranda, so much the better.
It is set in the mountains of Colombia, where the Madrigal family have settled after decades earlier fleeing a kind of pogrom, in which the husband of Abuela Alma (in English, Grandma Alma) was murdered (not very Disney, I know, but it’s sensitively depicted).
Voiced by Colombian actress Maria Cecilia Botero, Abuela is now a formidable matriarch, presiding over a clan with special powers who live in an enchanted house at the heart of a charmed town.
A magic candle kept her and her baby triplets safe from the violence, and the candle’s seemingly everlasting flame is still the source of the ‘encanto’ or enchantment.
BuT the story is told from the perspective of her granddaughter Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz), the only Madrigal not to be ritually anointed, in a traditional fifth-birthday ceremony, with magical powers.
One sister can make flowers bloom anywhere, and to Mirabel’s indignation has ‘never even had a bad hair day’. Another has superhuman strength. An aunt can control the weather. But bespectacled Mirabel has no special gifts. She’s just jolly nice.
Gradually, her ‘otherness’ draws her to her uncle Bruno (John Leguizamo), the Madrigal outcast (‘sometimes family weirdos just get a bum rap,’ she observes).
Bruno can see into the future, but that’s not much fun as a superpower because there’s trouble brewing, threatening the enchanted flame. Still, this is
Disney so it’s hardly a spoiler to reveal that Mirabel comes into her own when the family is threatened, and all ends happily and wholesomely.
Jointly directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard (whose credits include the marvellous 2016 film Zootopia and shouldn’t be confused with all those movies ‘by Ron Howard’), Encanto unfolds with terrific elan.
Above all, the computer animation is a joy, especially the way the house is given a personality of its own, reminiscent of the furniture characters in 1991’s Beauty And The Beast.
And, as with Pixar’s charming Mexico-set Coco (2017), any righton grumbles about Hollywood’s so-called cultural appropriation really should be dismissed... this film is another glorious celebration of Latino family and folklore, and a worthy 60th for Disney.
A BOY CALLED CHRISTMAS is another delight, also aimed at children, although it will embrace the whole family in a warm cinematic hug. Adapted from the book by Matt Haig and narrated by Dame Maggie Smith, who plays the mock-stern aunt to three cuter-than-cute children whose mother has died, it also carries powerful messages, mostly about bereavement.
‘Grief is the price we pay for love,’ says the great Dame, which in some contexts might count as a platitude but fits this sweet film perfectly.
Really, it’s a Santa Claus origin story, and any objections to its non-religious content will surely be swamped by the abundant wit and sheer charm of the tale Dame Maggie’s Aunt Ruth tells the children, about a boy called Nikolas (Henry Lawfull) in long-ago Finland, who went searching for the mystical elf kingdom of Elfhelm.
There’s a flying reindeer, a talking mouse, a silly king, a cackling crone, fabulous special-effects and just about every other ingredient you might wish for, to see in the festive season, including a topnotch cast also featuring Jim Broadbent, Sally Hawkins, Toby Jones, Kristen Wiig and Stephen Merchant. Directed with great panache by Gil Kenan, who cowrote with Ol Parker, it’s an early Christmas cracker.
Encanto is in cinemas. a Boy called christmas is in cinemas and on Sky cinema. For more reviews go to Mail online.