Adam Hursey’s review published on Letterboxd:
For me, Encanto is one of the best animated Disney films in several years, including output from Pixar. It gave me a story where I cared about the outcome. I can’t really ask for a lot more than that. Even if the script felt at times as if it was written by AI mining the Disney corporate data warehouse of previous successful Disney films from yesteryear. Was the candle really just the rose from Beauty and the Beast? Did the sister’s relationship mirror Anna and Elsa a bit? Did Bruno’s room remind you of the cave of wonders from Aladdin? Watching the end credits, it looked like at least 6 people were involved in the story here. Maybe each writer was assigned a Disney movie to watch and then they culled it all together. At any rate, I was entertained and I had fun watching this film.
My wife did not. She hates it when Disney tries to establish religious-ish theology into their films. “The foundation they need to build their house on is Jesus”, she said. I mean, she’s not wrong, but she takes this stuff way too seriously.
I think my 18 year old daughter summed it up best though when she said “Abuela is gaslighting, gatekeeping, and girl-bossing.” I wish I had said that first!
