The movie “Encanto” is the 60th feature produced by Disney Animation, and in addition to contemplating the importance of cultural representation on the screen, it highlights the importance of the family core from a magical story marked by Latin American influences.

The plot centers on the Madrigais family, who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia in a place called Encanto. Every member of the family, except the main character, Mirabel, has a special magical gift that helps them to look after the local community.

With a strong reference and tribute to Latin culture, the movie's composer and musical director, Lin-Manuel Miranda – an American of Puerto Rican origin, Grammy and Emmy winner responsible for hits like Hamilton and Moana – offers a fascinating soundtrack of songs combining salsa, bachata and hip-hop played with traditional Colombian folk instruments.

“If 'Viva - Life is a party!' was inspired by an important Mexican tradition – the Day of the Dead – the narrative of Encanto is not based on a tradition, but on a book: One Hundred Years of Solitude, by the Prize winner Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez. The famous Colombian novel took place in the enormous house of the Buendías, a family ruled by the matriarch Ursula Iguaran, founder of the magical realism village called Macondo. Among many characters, there was Remedios the Beauty, the most beautiful woman who could kill with her charm, or the hundreds of yellow butterflies that chased Mauricio Babilônia. In the city of Encanto there is no Ursula Iguaran, but there is another matriarch, Alma, the grandmother who survived the displacement; there is no Remedios the Beauty, but Isabella, a granddaughter whose magical gift is to be so beautiful that flowers bloom wherever she walks”.

“For Disney, Macondo is that city with large migrant families looking for a better future, but without the tragic part of the novel that narrates a massacre. We do not know if the Madrigals are displaced by the FARC, or by the paramilitaries, or by the Colombian army, which would make them part of the nine million victims left by the war and whose future was more tragic and complex than that of the Madrigals. The figure of the 'bad guys' in the film is so ambiguous that, in the analysis of a San Francisco critic, the author believes that the one who displaces the family is the border patrol: the US immigration agents. Perhaps it is this ambiguity that makes it suitable for children all over the world, but in this city of migrants it matters little. In Encanto, the 'evil' passes by the margin of the plot”.

According to the review presented by “The New York Times”, the movie surprises for its details: “the computer animation, some of the best from any major studio in the last several years, presents a dazzling confabulation of hues and a meticulous weaving of precious details — like the embroidery on skirts, the golden-brown crust of a cheese arepa and the selection of native Colombian flora”.

According to the review made by “El País”, the movie also highlights, “the enormous ruptures within a core family. Sometimes it's normal not to want to be super powerful, especially in the 21st century, and it's normal not to try to satisfy your elders' desires. For those who watch with their children, the charm of music and cartoons is for children, but the most urgent message is for adults. Maybe your children's expectations will be broken, and that's okay, that's a charm too”.