Film

Encanto

Name: Encanto
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy
Released: 2021
Cast: Stephanie Beatriz, María Cecilia Botero, John Leguizamo, Diane Guerrero, Jess Darrow

A Disney musical about the Madrigal family, whose enchanted house grants every child a magical gift — except quiet, unremarkable Mirabel. It's colourful, catchy, and surprisingly tender about family pressure and generational wounds, with Lin-Manuel Miranda songs that stick. Good for kids, sneakily moving for anyone who's ever felt like the disappointing one.

TMDb rating

7.6

If you liked this

Coco2017

Pixar's love letter to Mexican family and ancestry hits the same note Encanto does — magic as inheritance, and the ache of being remembered or forgotten by your own house.

But It leans harder into grief and mortality than Encanto does; have tissues ready for younger viewers.

Moana2016

Another Disney heroine wrestling with family expectation versus her own calling, wrapped in gorgeous songs and a specific cultural setting rendered with real care.

But More adventure-quest than family-ensemble drama, so the multigenerational dynamics Encanto fans loved are thinner here.

Luca2021

Pixar's smallest, gentlest film about hiding your true self from family and community, set in a sun-drenched Italian coastal town with real warmth and no villain.

But Lower stakes and no musical numbers; it's a quieter, slighter watch by comparison.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Pan's Labyrinth2006

Both use a young girl's magical world as a direct metaphor for family trauma and the damage done under a controlling household — Encanto in bright major key, this in minor.

Guillermo del Toro's fairy tale uses magic the same way Encanto does — as a language for family wounds too big to say out loud — but pushed into genuinely frightening, adult territory.

But It's violent, bleak, and unmistakably not for children; the fantasy here comforts no one.

Vivo2021no page yet

A Lin-Manuel Miranda-scored animated musical with Latin rhythms and a road-trip heart, following a kinkajou trying to deliver a song of love before it's too late.

But Less thematically rich than Encanto — it's sweeter and simpler, without the family-trauma undertow.

The Book of Life2014

A vividly designed animated musical steeped in Mexican folklore and Day of the Dead imagery, with family legacy and living up to ancestors as its beating heart.

But The visual style is more stylised and less painterly than Encanto's, which some find distancing.

Turning Red2022

Pixar's messiest, funniest take on inherited family burden and the specific chaos of being thirteen, with a mother-daughter bond that mirrors Mirabel and Abuela's tension.

But Its humour is broader and more embarrassing-teen-focused; less interested in generational sweep than Encanto.

Brave2012

A fierce mother-daughter standoff over legacy and expectation, set against Scottish myth, with the same underlying question: what do you owe the family that made you?

But Tonally darker and more folkloric, with far fewer laughs and no songs to speak of.

Raya and the Last Dragon2021no page yet

A fantasy family epic about trust, fractured legacy, and healing a broken homeland, built on a similarly lush, culturally specific world.

But It's an action-adventure at heart, missing the musical numbers and cosy household intimacy Encanto thrives on.

Tangled2010

An earlier Disney musical about a girl kept small by a controlling guardian, finding her own gift and voice outside the house she was raised in.

But More straightforward romance-adventure than family-ensemble piece; the emotional palette is narrower.

Meet Me in St. Louis1944

Same structural idea — a house as the emotional centre of a sprawling family story, each member getting their turn, threatened by the possibility the family might have to leave it.

A gorgeous old-Hollywood musical about a big family under one roof, told in seasonal chapters, with the house itself practically a character — Encanto's ancestor in spirit if not magic.

But No fantasy at all, and the pace and sensibility are unmistakably 1940s; patience required for the slow charm.

Stories We Tell2012

Where Encanto imagines a family's hidden truth (Bruno's absence) as magic, this documentary shows the real, messier version — how families construct and guard their own mythology.

Sarah Polley's documentary digs into a real family secret using interviews and staged reenactments, turning the question of who gets to tell the family's story into the whole film.

But It's a quiet, talky nonfiction film with no music or spectacle — a mood piece, not an adventure.