Encanto

There are films you watch once and forget, and then there’s Encanto — a 2021 animation from director Byron Howard that has kept audiences talking long after the credits roll. Even the marketing knew what it had: the tagline “There’s a little magic in all of us…almost all of us.” sets the mood before a single frame plays.

The story kicks off from a clean, almost deceptively simple place: The tale of an extraordinary family, the Madrigals, who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia, in a magical house, in a vibrant town, in a wondrous, charmed place called an Encanto. The magic of the Encanto has blessed every child in the family—every child except one, Mirabel. But when she discovers that the magic surrounding the Encanto is in danger, Mirabel decides that she, the only ordinary Madrigal, might just be her exceptional family’s last hope. Carrying it all is a cast led by Stephanie Beatriz, with María Cecilia Botero, John Leguizamo, Diane Guerrero rounding out an ensemble that never feels wasted.

The reason people keep recommending Encanto usually has less to do with the plot and more to do with what it’s actually about. The film keeps circling back to beauty and big family — not as decoration, but as the actual engine of the story. You can also feel forest and immigration working in the background, quietly shaping how later scenes land even when they’re not the explicit focus.

The animation, comedy, family and fantasy classification undersells it a little. Encanto uses those elements as a foundation, then builds something more particular on top — a film that’s easy to categorize and a little harder to fully predict.

Watching Encanto, it’s clear Byron Howard had a specific vision for how each scene should feel, and that clarity carries the film through its slower stretches. It also helps that John Leguizamo, Diane Guerrero, Jess Darrow are given real material to work with; none of them feel like they’re just there to round out a call sheet.

At 102 minutes, it never overstays its welcome, moving with a confidence that a lot of longer films could learn from. Walt Disney Animation Studios produced the film, and the polish shows in every frame. Produced for roughly $150,000,000, Encanto eventually pulled in $261,292,688 at the global box office, well beyond what anyone expected going in.

Fans of Byron Howard’s other work will recognize the fingerprints immediately, but Encanto stands fine on its own even without that context. Encanto remains a reliable answer to the question of what the animation genre can do when everyone involved is actually trying. It’s a detail easy to miss on a first viewing of Encanto, but it rewards anyone paying close attention. That kind of craftsmanship is easy to take for granted until you watch a lesser film try the same thing and fail. Little touches like that are why the film keeps finding new defenders long after its initial release. It’s the sort of small decision that separates a good animation film from a merely competent one. None of it feels accidental — Encanto is the product of choices made with real intention, and it plays that way from start to finish. That’s ultimately the difference between a film people watch once and one they keep coming back to, and Encanto lands closer to the latter.