Disney's 'Encanto' movie review.

A couple of weeks ago me and my friend started looking for new and recently released animated films that we could watch. We hadn't lately found time to watch stuff together, so we thought that it would be fun to watch some movies that would probably entertain us. 

Indeed, especially when it comes to watching animated films, over the years they have been a fairly safe choice. As long as these films have enough redeeming qualities in them, watching them has been worth our time and has managed to put us on a good mood.

So this time we watched together Disney's animated film 'Encanto', a movie about a Colombian family with magical powers residing in a distant village. Together the family, living in a 'casita' is able to help others in their community and live good lives.

Plot-wise, the catalyst in the story happens when a daughter of the family, a 15 year old girl Mirabel (protagonist) is about to go through a rite that gives her magical powers. Like every other family member before her, her ceremony is going to unveil her special gift.

However, as the ceremony for her happens, she and her family find out that she doesn't have a special magical gift. As she goes through the rite involving her grandma burning a magical candle, nothing happens as Mirabel and the family is more or less in shock.

Not that much later, as she rather understandably feels disappointed and even rejected as a family member, things get worse. Mirabel notices that something's wrong with their house, as it keeps cracking for some reason and seems to be falling apart at any moment.

For our protagonist, the problem with this is that since Mirabel is the only one who sees this unraveling happening, the rest think she's crazy. This 'rejection' from the family leads her to to a journey in which she will do her best to find out what is happening and why. 

So when it comes to the overall quality of the film, I have to say that both me and my friend managed to more or less enjoy the movie for what it was. 'Encanto', despite having a premise that isn't particularly organic or natural, is a fairly watchable movie. 

Indeed, there's no question that as usual (a Disney movie) production-wise, a lot of effort went to making sure that the film looks and sounds great. You have the best animators and the musical talents that worked their butts off (like Lin Manuel Miranda), which shows. 

At the same time, when it comes to film's quality, there's no question that the story is a bit lackluster and doesn't make that much sense. You have elements in the story that are pretty muddled and the movie also suffers from messaging issues that are questionable.

After all, especially when it comes to the matriarch who is outraged that her granddaughter doesn't have special skills, that was pretty bad. This felt to me that the movie sends a wrong message to kids who might think that they're not worth being loved unless they are 'special'.

Still, when it comes to the film as a whole, if you don't pay too much attention to issues like these, there's a good chance that you'll be able to like it quite a bit. The positives aspects in that case manage to outweigh the negative ones, which aren't necessarily that serious.

After all, especially when it comes to the film's vibrant colours and catchy songs, these are what the kids (and adults) will likely appreciate. These are the things that work, so if you're able to ignore the issues with 'Encanto's' script, you'll probably end up enjoying the movie.

'Hotel Transylvania: Transformania' review.

So when it comes to animated films, it's not exactly a secret that I'm a rather big fan of the genre in general. Whenever an animated movie gets released, there's more than a good chance that I'm going to watch the film and give it a go.

After all, very likely the best thing about animated films is that more often that not, they're going to put you in a good mood. These films are made so that you could forget your worries in life and feel better about yourself during the runtime of the film.

In any case, this time me and my friend managed to watch the fourth entry in the 'Hotel Transylvania' series. We decided to watch 'Hotel Transylvania: Transformania', which was released a month ago on Amazon prime and was now available for us to see. 

Having now seen the film, I have to say that I think we were both fairly entertained by the fourth entry in the series. Even though 'Hotel Transylvania: Transformania' isn't that great of a movie, it still managed to be pretty watchable despite its flaws.

Premise-wise, this time we're dealing with a situation in which the patriarch of the family, 'Dracula' is ready to leave his hotel to his son-in-law. It's time for Johnny to take charge of the family business so that 'dad' could finally do some other things in life.

Yet, as the announcement of this transition is about to happen, 'Dracula' gets cold feet and thinks that Johnny's too immature and not up for the job. He comes up with a phony excuse, which is that only monsters are legally allowed to run the business. 

Not that surprisingly, Johnny thinks that this is the real reason that he doesn't get the business and decides to become a monster himself. He gets help from the crazy scientist in the hotel, who manages to turn Johnny into a monster with his staff that has a magic crystal in it.  

Not that much later, things get complicated when an accident happens. Once Dracula finds about the transformation, he accidentally turns himself and others into humans, breaks the crystal and has to go on a journey to find another one to reverse the spell.  

So quality-wise, when you have a premise and a catalyst like this - not necessarily organic or natural - I felt a bit hesitant about the story and what would follow. There are a lot of reasons why the film would more or less fall apart later in the movie and not make enough sense.

Indeed, if you don't manage to come up with a premise that is organic enough, by definition there are going to be roadblocks ahead. This is true - in most cases - especially when it comes to live action movies, that we in the audience judge more harshly.

Fortunately though, in this case, thanks to the movie being an animated film and the writers being professional enough about the story beats / structure, the film does kinda manage to work. The story beats are almost good enough and occur when they should.

Indeed, even though the climax is a bit too hokey and perhaps illogical (Johnny's emotional 'cure' from being a big monster villain), flaws like these didn't feel that awful. They're almost acceptable considering the genre that we're talking about. 

In that sense, when it comes to the quality of the film as a whole and whether I would actually recommend it, I think it's safe to say that it depends. It depends on what kind of films you like to watch and what kind of stuff you expect from them.

After all, if you enjoy watching films that do their best to put you on a good mood and that aren't judgmental, in that case this movie might be for you. 'Hotel Transylvania 4', despite its flaws is something that you should probably give a shot at some point.

On the other hand, if you're not a particular fan of animated movies and 'good mood' stuff, in that case this movie honestly might not be for you. 'Hotel Transylvania: Transformation' probably isn't your cup of tea and you should probably avoid watching it.