It seems like it’s only a matter of time before the global quest to find the new Disney princess arrives in Israel. The first five princesses – from Snow White (“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, 1937) to Belle (“Beauty and the Beast”, 1991) abstractly belonged to the Central European white beauty model with an element of aristocracy / royalty that arrives at the beginning, or just towards the end of the film. Since the early 1990s only Rapunzel (“Tangle”, 2010) and Elsa (“Break the Ice”, 2013) have belonged to this model.
Ankonto – Trailer
The other two white princesses already had a more concrete affiliation with place and time – Jane Porter (“Tarzan”, 1999) and the Scottish Princess Rebellion (“Brave”, 2012). All the other princesses exhibited a variety of nationalities, cultures and races: Middle Eastern jasmine (“Aladdin”, 1992), Indian Pocahontas (1995), the gypsy Emerald (“The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, 1996), Chinese Mulan (1998), African-American Tiana (” The Princess and the Frog “, 2009), the Polynesian Moana (2016) and now it’s South America’s turn with Princess Mirabel Madrigal in” Encanto “.
Ethnic diversity is not the only aspect in which “Ancanto” is a contemporary film. It seems that the leading animation studios (Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks) are selecting future projects according to the potential for a purposeful display of the capabilities of the technology and the skill of the animators. The computer animation makes it possible to fill the frame with a collection of details – objects, colors and movement, that no hand-drawn animation (for the benefit of Generation Z readers – there used to be such a thing) can match it. Accordingly, “Ancanto” presents a dizzying congestion of visual details associated with the many characters, their unique characteristics and the many and varied environments in which the film takes place. The congestion is very impressive on a technical level, but does not always work in favor of the film – certainly in the way it attacks the senses of young viewers.
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Very rich visually, maybe a little too much
The second element is the way the magic forces operating in the world where the princess is stationed, are in dialogue with the dominant genre in contemporary cinema – the superhero genre. Instead of a princess who is exposed to magic (Cinderella) or threatened by magical powers (Snow White, the Little Mermaid and many others), the questions that contemporary films deal with are related to the consequences of possessing these powers (as in “Breaking the Ice”), or, in this case, A value of the protagonist, who is the only one in her family who does not have such powers.
The background story of Mirabel’s Colombian family (Stephanie Beatrice) is complex, and in its aspects even somewhat surprisingly gloomy. An attack by rioters on horses drove away the young woman Abula Alma Madrigal (Olga Meridis), who would eventually become the heroine’s grandmother, and her husband Pedro. In her arms are three babies – two daughters and a son. Pedro did not survive, but a magical candle will save the rest of the family. He will create for the survivors the “Casita”, the house that will become the center of the village where the family will thrive. The house itself is a living and vibrant entity that communicates with its occupants in a variety of ways – from sliding tiles, windows that close and open, stairs that change shape and so on. When songs and dances are performed, the dance house will serve in some of them as a complementary partner to the ministerial figure. As long as the magic candle continues to light, the magic power continues to serve in the Madrigal House and the house will continue to dance on its own.
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The house is a living and vibrant entity
But this is only one part of his “Encanto” (“magic” in Spanish) won by members of the Madrigal family. Each of the children rescued by the matriarch Abula was given a unique supernatural power. Uncle Bruno (John Legwizamo) can predict the future, an ability that kept him away from family members even before the film’s events began. Aunt Pepe (Carolina Gaitan) controls the weather, but it mostly reflects her mood. And the mother Juliette (Angie Safda) prepares traditional food that cures a variety of types of pain and illness. The couple who married the daughters of the family – Felix who married Pepe (Mauro Castillo) and father Agustin (Wilmer Waldrama) were left without superpowers.
And there are also the sons and daughters of the third generation, who also, in a special ceremony in their childhood, the magical candle gives special powers of their own. A door opens for them that only they can go through and receive the special gift. Mirabelle has two older sisters: Louisa (Jessica Darrow) with supernatural power and resilience and Isabella (Diane Guerrero) “beautiful and perfect”, who can bloom flowers in the blink of an eye. There are also the cousins, the children of Pepe and Felix – Camilo (Renzi Brass) with the ability to transform, Dolores (Adasa) with superhuman hearing, and the youngest son Antonio (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), who at the beginning of the film gets the ability to talk to animals. Each of them lives in his own compound, the same room that the candle opened for him, designed according to his particular ability.
Supernatural abilities, a house of magic, and magic that began in mysterious circumstances and that one does not know what might lead to its end. It is a base from which everything can emerge, but it may become an indistinguishable and confusing clutter of information. At the center of all the congestion is the figure of the Mirabel girl – vibrant and vital, but also bespectacled, curly-haired, with a physical volume that exceeds the shabby standard of past princesses, and especially the only figure among second- and third-generation descendants of the Madrigal family. Not only is there a disappointment that accompanies her that the candle did not give her unique power, but during the plot of the film the question arises as to whether she might be the one to bring about the end of the Ancanto – the disappearance of the superpowers, and the end of the Madrigal family’s prosperity.
The plot deals with questions of identity and belonging to the family, and the ability of those who are “not special” to have the greatest value. Not only are the background details multiple, but also the plot itself is quite condensed. The film is directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard (who co-directed “Zotropolis” in 2016) and was joined as co-director of the screenwriting (along with Bush) Charis Castro Smith – so as not to create a situation where she would not be a significant role creator In a movie whose protagonist is a South American girl.
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Questions of identity and family affiliation. Mirabel in the center, her family around
The songs were written by Lynn-Manuel Miranda, creator of the acclaimed musical “Hamilton,” and who this year whose songs have already been adapted into movies in the musical “Neighborhood on the Heights” and in the animated film “Vivo” by Netflix. A few days ago, a cinematic adaptation of a musical directed by Jonathan Larson appeared on Netflix “Tick, Tick … Boom”. Undoubtedly, the man is busy. The songs are not bad even if they tend to be a simplistic illustration of the characters’ thoughts. On first viewing there is not one of them that reveals potential to be the Let it go of the film. In addition, some of the songs are given an illustrative adaptation of images that are disconnected from the fictional world, which is abundant in itself, of the film, in a way that may confuse young viewers.
“Ancanto” is made with impeccable professionalism, and demonstrates a wealth of production and talent. It is undoubtedly a film worthy of viewing to young viewers, but there is a chance that it will be too tangled and overflowing for some of them, and not all the positive messages will receive the attention they deserve amidst the plethora of distractions. Before the feature, a short animated film “Away from the Tree” is shown, a combination of computer animation and two-dimensional hand-drawn animation (director: Natalie Norright). A simple story about a young raccoon who goes out to the beach with his mother for the first time. His curiosity, the dangers he is unaware of, and the way his mother tries to keep him safe. The film’s production and plot simplicity allows it to be clearer and more exciting than “Encanto” succeeds in all its lively noise.
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