Encanto Movie Review: An Enchanting Musical-Animation Offering From Disney On Thanksgiving

Walt Disney Animation Studios seems to be having a good run this year. Their previous outing this year Raya And The Last Dragon was a fabulous standalone (All-alone Disney Production) animated film. It was probably their first-ever solo production (outside Pixar mostly) which received high critical acclaim since Cult Classic The Lion King. Now, the same production has brought another animated flick on the occasion of Thanksgiving, and the end result is nothing bad but a perfect treat for families. Encanto may not surpass Raya And The Last Dragon–visually and emotionally, but it has some brilliant visually appealing scenes of its own and plenty of entertaining musical numbers to keep the audience hooked for the entire runtime. One can say that watching Encanto on Thanksgiving weekend with your family would give you a better experience than any other time.Encanto is set in a whole new fictional world, just like a fantasy park. Better say a Disney Park. In the film, we see a family called the Madrigals who live in an enchanted town in the mountains of Colombia. Every child but one in their magical house has been granted a unique ability such as strength or healing powers. Mirabel, the only ordinary Madrigal, discovers that the ancient magic is under threat and then she goes on to find hidden, unknown visions to make things right. Whatever is the runtime of Enchanto, it doesn't really matter because Jared Bush and Charise Castro Smith's screenplay keeps it swift. Some portions in the middle are a little slow and boring though.In an animated feature, the voice roles play an important part as the expressions and acting never really matter. The voice cast includes Stephanie Beatriz, John Leguizamo, María Cecilia Botero, Diane Guerrero, Jessica Darrow, Angie Cepeda and Wilmer Valderrama and to some sort, everybody has given something different. In two-three scenes, those verbal expressions and that cuteness in voice makes you feel those moments. Germaine Franco's musical numbers are vibrant and delightful and every song has got a different mood set in different situations.Talking about the visuals, Encanto is extremely enchanting. Creating that fantasy world with human-looking characters is always difficult but Disney's animators have done it before and here Encanto is just another spectacular addition in their list. Technical aspects of the film are fairly decent. It could have done better with the background score, especially in those emotional moments.Encanto is Directed by the duo Byron Howard and Jared Bush who have previously collaborated for a successful film like Zootopia. Encanto being their first-ever joint directorial, is not that great but as mentioned earlier, it has its own moments and those are very likeable. This isn't the first time we are seeing family values being redefined in an animated feature and expecting something wonderful like Pixar's Coco would be too much. So, let's just be happy with this fairly enough family-film. In a nutshell, Encanto offers a sweet mixed-dish of entertainment, family drama, fantasy elements and emotional quotient that can be enjoyed by the entire family together.RATING - 3.5/5*