Disney has taken on some big-picture topics with their recent films, be it racism (“Zootopia”), colonialism (“Frozen II”), or tribalism (“Raya and the Last Dragon”), but “Encanto” has its eye on something both deeply personal yet universal: the idea of what makes a person special. It’s tempting to scoff at the thought of a group of the world’s most talented artists, animators, designers, songwriters, and musicians telling its audience that they shouldn’t be so hard on themselves – or their children, more pointedly – when you know that they worked themselves to the bone to make this movie, but at the same time, where’s the lie?
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