So whether the Encanto bad or not? And if it is, why did it win the Golden Globe Award? We all know that the West has a tendency of "political correction , and Chinese netizens often satirize some works that win the Oscar because of "the black main character+ woman+ deeply discriminatory". So are they the reasons that this new film won?
In fact, the Encanto does have a lot of black people, including the main character Mirabel, who is the iconic dark-skinned and curly-haired black person, does suffer from discrimination in the show as a main character......
But even so, the inherent quality of the Encanto does match the Golden Globes. This is reflected in far more than just the high quality of Disney's lineage of graphics.
It's even more evidences in the plots, which are now scorned by Chinese. Although in the opinion of many fans, such as the two that own the highest number of likes on Douban. They accused the plot of superficial, hasty transitional (For example, they always muddle through by dancing and singing and immediately plead the innocence of characters), and the feudal discrimination against women at the core of the plot (For example, they blamed all mistakes on the grandmother's desire of control) and so on.
But when I watched the entire Encanto, I realized that these criticisms don't make any sense at all, and the reason they exist might just make you losing this animation of the year.
What are the highlights of Encanto?
The story takes place in an overhead world where the heroine's grandmother had a happy and fulfilling life, having several small children with her husband, but she is forced to flee her village because of an invasion of robbers.
When passing through a forest where a small river flows, her husband turned back to protect the villagers against the robbers, and the grieving grandmother accidentally gained a magic candle, with the help of which an isolated manor emerged instantly and soon became prosperity.
Each generation of the heroine's family gained a different magical gift. Some can heal through food, some can predict the future, some can release beautiful roses at will, some are powerful, and some can summon thunderclouds when they are in a bad mood ...... In short, the new village has been happy for generations under the auspices of this "magical family" , who have always enjoyed the adoring gaze of the villagers.
But things start to become different from the heroine's generation. During the heroine's adventures, the plot's contradictions and conflicts grow larger and larger, and this is what is most admirable about the work.
Why you need to watch the Encanto?
In the most initial time, the work tells the story of The Trouble with a Growing Magical Noble Maiden.
If you are born into a magical family that reaps the most fervent admiration and dependence because of magic, then you can share this glory too, which means that you are the best man from the moment you were born in the world.
Of course, people will place more hopes on you than the ordinary one, but if you are a man who does not know a little of magic, then the family mark will not be a blessing, but will even pull you deeper into the mire.
This is the life of Mirabel, who, after a short and happy childhood, is discovered to be a muggle. In the next ten years of her life, she avoids talking about her abilities, be envious of her sisters and brothers who own all kind of powers, and looks for the opportunities to prove her worth.
Mirabel is optimistic and positive, but the village's stigmatization chain has taken shape silently, and in both villagers and family members' mind's eye, Mirabel is incompetent and often her help is just a nuisance.
Living in such an environment, Mirabel is naturally self-abasement and anxious, and she is just like Poji in the King Rank. The more positive and smiling she is outside, the more sad she feels inside. She may cry when she is empty.
This is the beginning of the Encanto, which focuses on Mirabel's sad undertone and leaves fans wondering how the main character will realize his self-worth.
As we all know, the primary obligation of a film or television production is to interpret the producer's observations and the understanding of the world. And because their views are different, they set the protagonist on a different path.
For example, in the hot-blooded Anime, the author usually makes the protagonist counterattack and becoming the strongest magic emissary. While in the works with a little connotation, the protagonist will explore the value of mediocrity to convey the truth that ordinary people can also lead a happy life.
Clearly Disney is highly thought of, the Encanto has chosen the latter path, Mirabel is transformed into a confident and happy Muggle by the end of the series, relying on "insight and empathy".
But Disney doesn't stop there. Mirabel's inspirational resume is just one of the highlights, or subdivisions of a larger theme. Its equivalent is another branch: the Conflict between the Self-pursuit and family Honor of the Descendants of the Magical Nobility.
There is more than the only one who is unhappy like Mirabel. Her peers are also troubled by magic and family.
Luisa and Isabella's lives were no longer their own since they gained power. The former, by its infinite strength, has become the villagers' tool. She spends her days building infrastructure in the countryside, building houses for villagers, and clean up the mess situation of losing livestock. And the latter since the acquisition of flower magic, has been maintaining a delicate and charming image, who also was expected by her grandmother that marrying an aristocratic prince to help the village develop.
So for more than a decade, she has been living under the "false", and cannot release her true nature. Then, the demands of marriage also made her lose the love of Doris (she has always had a crush on the prince).
The stories of these three women illustrate the tension between personal ambition and family ambition. Although the producer does not let them fight but suck, when I see the way they had to live as a tool, and when the heroine gives the understanding and care, Louisa and Isabella are instantaneous feelings lack dike - the tough former has exposed the fear when facing the heroine, and the elegant latter immersed into the role of "bad woman" to indulge in sensual pleasures.
No one cannot understand their inner depression and pain when they're seeing the story, I believe. And because of this burden, people should not treat their "whitewashing" as a perfunctory turning point, after all, this is a matting for more than 10 years.
Of course, when it comes to the most humiliating role, it has to be the grandmother, who is the head of the family. In her case is such a story: the Twisted pursuit of magic Nobles.
Descendants of the pain are actually because of the grandmother, but for the grandmother's concept of inculcating and high hopes for magic, sisters will not give up their pursuit for the family, she will not live in the inferiority complex.
But grandma didn't feel any better. She had known the horrors of disaster, and the satisfaction of magic. Under the impact of this contrast, she has been carrying a sense of unease, fear that the good life will suddenly dissipate.
She became obsessed with magic, and as long as the next generation could inherit it, she would have some consolation, even if some magic had no practical effect. Such as the wind-hearing, the ability to understand the language of animals, the ability to summon thunderclouds when angry, and the ability to take on the appearance of other people simply, which do not directly bring much use to the countryside. But even so, in the grandmother's mind, the sisters who have these magic are superior to the heroine.
Also, her morbid pursuit of magic, grandma also considers the villagers' dependence as a consolation, even if it had become morbid. As mentioned above, they still need the help of the woman's family when they are simply moving livestock and groceries, which are ultimately lazy and shameless, but in my grandmother's opinion these are the necessary factors to dispel the fear.
It's a disease, of course, but when everyone thinks it's reasonable, it will become an unbreakable social norm. Even if there are uncomfortable people, they will endure and compromise, and blame the problem on themselves. At this point, I've already listed the profound questions that the Encanto reflects: What is the way that the muggle heroin to get the approval? How can the sisters achieve their self-pursuit?How to break grandma's fears and the twisted social norms? Each of the questions could be wrote a good work, but this new work shows us all of them, and answers them all with the same crisis: the collapse of magic.
The timeline of the Encanto is on the eve of the collapse of magic. It is the arrival of this crisis that relieves the terminally ill rural society and allows everyone to re-examine their own values and attitudes towards magic.
For example, after the advent of the crisis, the heroine temporarily shed her inferiority complex and threw herself into the adventure, and found the ability of empathy that she is proud of.
The sisters who had been bound by magic responsibility were able to face their true selves because of fear and the comfort of the heroine when exploring the crisis.
As for the respectable grandmother, in the past is no one dared to question her ideas, but the arrival of the crisis let she angrily rejected her face to face, and face the magic before it collapsed, the grandmother also began to think about the past of the gain and loss, and insight into their own distorted, she should forget the original intention of magic is to protect the people, rather than as it is now dependent on addiction. A magical collapse that should have been a disaster turned out to be a salvation for all, and a successful shattering of morbid social norms.
It seems to me that if you can read what Grandma has been carrying over the past few decades, and feel the impact when magic crumbles, you can understand why she grew up so quickly. This is more honest and quick than hasty and perfunctory. When things have gone to the point of no return, what is the need to "cling to the past"? Isn't that a positive message from Disney?
For a family-friendly movie, Disney didn't add any darkness or gore, but they also proved capable of wrapping deep truths into warm, everyday drama.
In my opinion, this is the charm of Disney and the reason full House won the Golden Globe.
So, if you really missed out on this animated film of the year because of low scores and box office failure. That would be your biggest loss to start 2022.
