I’ve intended to write this post for months. But, every time I’ve put it on my blog schedule, I move it. However, with tomorrow being the 1-year anniversary of my Encanto post, it felt like a “now-or-never” kind of thing.
So, here I am, revisiting Encanto. For the most part, my review was positive. Where I came down a bit hard on Disney was the music. Since then, though, my opinion on the music has changed, and I was wrong.
Let’s start with were I was wrong first. I did buy the soundtrack. I have it in English, Spanish, and French. And, while I haven’t memorized all of the songs, I do sing along to them in the shower and elsewhere.
What effected this change? YouTube. I watched some fascinating videos by Howard Ho. His musical theory analyses of We Don’t Talk about Bruno, Dos Oruguitas, and Surface Pressure gave me a completely different look at music.
I’d previously watched some similar videos from Sideways — How Disney uses Language & How Pixar uses Music to make you Cry — but the Howard Ho videos go in depth into single songs.
This new information made me appreciate the music more, so I listened to all of the songs. Once, then again, and again, until I bought them.
And then I watched Therapist Reacts to ENCANTO by Cinema Therapy. Their analysis opened my eyes to some of the brilliance in Encanto I hadn’t realized. One section of their video, in particular, really hit me hard, and gave me a new connection to Encanto.
If all you do is serve others and you don’t let others serve you, then it becomes self-righteousness. It becomes this kind of benign superiority. No, no. I don’t accept help. I’m the one who helps… And at that point, it’s not about love anymore. It’s about pride.
Therapist Reacts to ENCANTO,15:47–16:08
Realizing that one of the underlying struggles in Encanto is one I regularly deal with gave me that much more affection for the movie.
If you haven’t gotten around to watching Encanto yet, I highly suggest you do. And I also suggest watching the movies I linked above.
Thanks for reading to the end, I hope you enjoyed my post. Have you watched Encanto? Do you like it? Do you like the music? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.
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