9 ms·

I don't have kids at all and I found it a fun movie. It's not a heavy plot (there really is no villain) but so refreshing after a steady diet of superhero movie

I don't have kids at all and I found it a fun movie. It's not a heavy plot (there really is no villain) but so refreshing after a steady diet of superhero movies. Look at the average broadway musical and the plot is even lighter; every movie doesn't have to be Citizen Kane. The movie is a perfect embodiment of the culture (from people who are Columbian, not me), the music is very broadway but still in keeping with the country and well written and sung, and the animation is of course magical. There is no comparison with tripe such as Sing 2. I wonder what it would be like to work on something that takes 5 years to make, the longest I have ever worked on 1.0 apps (since the 80s when I started) is 14-16 months. Just coordinating thousands of people for 5 years is mind boggling.

sho_hn 5y ago
> I wonder what it would be like to work on something that takes 5 years to make, the longest I have ever worked on 1.0 apps (since the 80s when I started) is 14-16 months. Just coordinating thousands of people for 5 years is mind boggling. In software, automotive projects can come quite close to this. Building a modern high-end headunit ECU with software can take a couple of years, 100-150 dev teams, 2k engineers and coordinating with many other groups/departments around it.
Aloha 5y ago
To be totally honest - I think in this day and age, for right now anyhow there is a desire for less Citizen Kane, and more Music Man.
swasheck 5y ago
i read an article about a month ago about how disney animation has steadily migrated away from a villain, to the self (or some other internal conflict) as the primary antagonist. frozen moana frozen 2 encanto during that time there were also traditional "villain" types: big hero 6 zootopia ralph breaks the internet raya and the last drago agree or disagree, it's an interesting read: https://screenrant.com/encanto-movie-villain-disney-pixar-copy-good/ https://screenrant.com/encanto-movie-villain-disney-pixar-co...
- jedberg 5y ago
  Frozen has a villain -- Hans. Frozen 2 has a villain -- King Runeard Moana has a villain -- Te Kā Really only Encanto doesn't.
  - radicaldreamer 5y ago
    Encanto's villain is childhood trauma or trauma and its effects more generally.
    - jedberg 5y ago
      I saw the villain as the Grandmother's pride, but either way, it wasn't a named character.
      - pchristensen 5y ago
        Abuela Alma has pride for sure, but I felt like she was driven much more by fear and trauma.
        dragonwriter 5y ago
        The primary antagonist usually is given a motivation for driving the crisis that the story resolves.
      - samwillis 5y ago
        It did also have the (real life) villains at the beginning which creates the tragedy that kicks off the events. But yes no villain for a child to anchor too.
      - bladegash 5y ago
        Tend to agree here, or if you were to ask one of my kids (5 and 8), they’d say the grandmother in general was the villain. They didn’t see the nuance of it or the end as a moment of redemption. They just saw her as mean to Maribel and the villain.
rob74 5y ago
Well, in every Disney movie there's a musical waiting to come out, and if the movie is successful enough, it will (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_(musical) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_(musical), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion_King_(musical) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion_King_(musical), ...)
jedberg 5y ago
> there really is no villain This is really an interesting callout, because I also found it interesting that there is no "bad guy" for kids to anchor on, but yet seems to have no problem with it. <spoiler> I saw the villain as the grandmother's pride.
HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago
> I wonder what it would be like to work on something that takes 5 years to make Organic is the best way I can put it. At least for software. The largest project I've been on started in 1998 with a software team of 3 people (me and two others) and shipped V1.0 in 2003 with a team that varied in size over the years. Max was probably about 10 or 15 people. Total team size including electrical, mechanical, manufacturing, systems, technical writers, field service, training and QA was probably 70+. It's like watching a child or a plant grow: you have this tiny kernel of functionality where you just need something to get started, not knowing how it's going to change and then guiding it in the right direction, growing all the time, as you figure out how to get where you need to go. Pruning the dead branches and rotten fruit and fertilizing it where it's growing right. Then finally it's good enough to take to market. Then ship two major updates each year for 10 years. It's fun in its own way, but I prefer shorter projects. I get bored easily.
pfranz 5y ago
> I wonder what it would be like to work on something that takes 5 years to make The active departments and the size scale a lot along those 5 years. The first few are usually a very small group of people. The weirdest part is that if you're targeting 5 year olds, they are just being born when you start the project.
swivelmaster 5y ago
I think we all need to have a talk about what a "heavy" plot is. You don't NEED a villain for a plot to be heavy - I would argue that Encanto's focus on internal, emotional stakes is far heavier (and darker!) than most movies with clear-cut heroes and villains. It also resonates with people in a much more personal way - the vast majority of people can't identify with Aladdin's battle against Jafar (As fun as it is), but I know several people who were on the verge of tears watching Encanto because they could identify with Mirabel's struggle with her place in her family.

sho_hn 5y ago

> I wonder what it would be like to work on something that takes 5 years to make, the longest I have ever worked on 1.0 apps (since the 80s when I started) is 14-16 months. Just coordinating thousands of people for 5 years is mind boggling. In software, automotive projects can come quite close to this. Building a modern high-end headunit ECU with software can take a couple of years, 100-150 dev teams, 2k engineers and coordinating with many other groups/departments around it.

Aloha 5y ago

To be totally honest - I think in this day and age, for right now anyhow there is a desire for less Citizen Kane, and more Music Man.

swasheck 5y ago

i read an article about a month ago about how disney animation has steadily migrated away from a villain, to the self (or some other internal conflict) as the primary antagonist. frozen moana frozen 2 encanto during that time there were also traditional "villain" types: big hero 6 zootopia ralph breaks the internet raya and the last drago agree or disagree, it's an interesting read: https://screenrant.com/encanto-movie-villain-disney-pixar-copy-good/ https://screenrant.com/encanto-movie-villain-disney-pixar-co...

jedberg 5y ago
Frozen has a villain -- Hans. Frozen 2 has a villain -- King Runeard Moana has a villain -- Te Kā Really only Encanto doesn't.
- radicaldreamer 5y ago
  Encanto's villain is childhood trauma or trauma and its effects more generally.
  - jedberg 5y ago
    I saw the villain as the Grandmother's pride, but either way, it wasn't a named character.
    - pchristensen 5y ago
      Abuela Alma has pride for sure, but I felt like she was driven much more by fear and trauma.
      - dragonwriter 5y ago
        The primary antagonist usually is given a motivation for driving the crisis that the story resolves.
    - samwillis 5y ago
      It did also have the (real life) villains at the beginning which creates the tragedy that kicks off the events. But yes no villain for a child to anchor too.
    - bladegash 5y ago
      Tend to agree here, or if you were to ask one of my kids (5 and 8), they’d say the grandmother in general was the villain. They didn’t see the nuance of it or the end as a moment of redemption. They just saw her as mean to Maribel and the villain.

rob74 5y ago

Well, in every Disney movie there's a musical waiting to come out, and if the movie is successful enough, it will (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_(musical) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_(musical), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion_King_(musical) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion_King_(musical), ...)

jedberg 5y ago

> there really is no villain This is really an interesting callout, because I also found it interesting that there is no "bad guy" for kids to anchor on, but yet seems to have no problem with it. <spoiler> I saw the villain as the grandmother's pride.

HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago

> I wonder what it would be like to work on something that takes 5 years to make Organic is the best way I can put it. At least for software. The largest project I've been on started in 1998 with a software team of 3 people (me and two others) and shipped V1.0 in 2003 with a team that varied in size over the years. Max was probably about 10 or 15 people. Total team size including electrical, mechanical, manufacturing, systems, technical writers, field service, training and QA was probably 70+. It's like watching a child or a plant grow: you have this tiny kernel of functionality where you just need something to get started, not knowing how it's going to change and then guiding it in the right direction, growing all the time, as you figure out how to get where you need to go. Pruning the dead branches and rotten fruit and fertilizing it where it's growing right. Then finally it's good enough to take to market. Then ship two major updates each year for 10 years. It's fun in its own way, but I prefer shorter projects. I get bored easily.

pfranz 5y ago

> I wonder what it would be like to work on something that takes 5 years to make The active departments and the size scale a lot along those 5 years. The first few are usually a very small group of people. The weirdest part is that if you're targeting 5 year olds, they are just being born when you start the project.

swivelmaster 5y ago

I think we all need to have a talk about what a "heavy" plot is. You don't NEED a villain for a plot to be heavy - I would argue that Encanto's focus on internal, emotional stakes is far heavier (and darker!) than most movies with clear-cut heroes and villains. It also resonates with people in a much more personal way - the vast majority of people can't identify with Aladdin's battle against Jafar (As fun as it is), but I know several people who were on the verge of tears watching Encanto because they could identify with Mirabel's struggle with her place in her family.