[FILM]
ENCANTO
Big mistake to stage the display at the same time as
Pointless.
★★★★
OUT NOW CERT PG / 99 MINS
DIRECTORS Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Charise Castro Smith
CAST
(VOICES) Stephanie Beatriz, María Cecilia Botero, Diane Guerrero, Jessica Darrow, John Leguizamo
PLOT Having survived political violence in her youth, family matriarch Abuela Alma Madrigal (Botero) is granted a magical house in the hills of Colombia — from which her descendants receive special powers. But Mirabel (Beatriz) never got hers, and soon discovers the magic might be fading.
THE LINEAGE OF Disney castles goes all the way back to Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs — but there’s never been one like La Casa Madrigal in Encanto. The canonical 60th animated feature from Walt Disney Animation Studios (the actual numbering is far more complex) takes Zootropolis directors Jared Bush and Byron Howard — here with co-director Charise Castro Smith — and teams them up with Moana songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda for a blast of colour, energy and South American rhythms; all of which permeate through the Madrigal house. It’s a beautiful, imaginative canvas (stairs that transform into slides, TARDISlike rooms) on which to tell a personal family story, eschewing the expansive fantasy kingdoms of Frozen and Raya And The Last Dragon for a more intimate adventure that never feels small.