Movie Review ‘Encanto’: Disney Panders to Latinos

Disney’s Encanto is so shoddily engineered that I picture marketing executives sitting around telling one another, “Meh, it’s for the Latino market. It doesn’t have to be that good.”

And so it isn’t. A thin story, dull characters, endlessly regurgitated gags, and a general air of pointlessness dog this fantasy about life in an enchanted house in an unspecified Latin country (said to be Colombia in publicity materials). Billed as the 60th feature from Disney Animation Studios, this is bottom-of-the barrel stuff from the Mouse House. Lin-Manuel Miranda, who contributes a slate of thuddingly mediocre songs, is now nearly seven years past the triumphant premiere of Hamilton (more time than passed between A Hard Day’s Night and Let It Be), and his career is drifting further and further off track.

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Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is the film critic for the Wall Street Journal.

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Disney’s Encanto is so shoddily engineered that I picture marketing executives sitting around telling one another, “Meh, it’s for the Latino market. It doesn’t have to be that good.”

And so it isn’t. A thin story, dull characters, endlessly regurgitated gags, and a general air of pointlessness dog this fantasy about life in an enchanted house in an unspecified Latin country (said to be Colombia in publicity materials). Billed as the 60th feature from Disney Animation Studios, this is bottom-of-the barrel stuff from the Mouse House. Lin-Manuel Miranda, who contributes a slate of thuddingly mediocre songs, is now nearly seven years past the triumphant premiere of Hamilton (more time than passed between A Hard Day’s Night and Let It Be), and his career is drifting further and further off track.