#< he talks in french for 90% of his screentime in that movie

[ciderbird]

I like how Soviet filmmakers collectively decided that Alexander’s main character traits are being deaf and a bitch

Kutuzov: we’re still waiting for reinforcements

Alexander: sorry I couldn’t hear you over all that ugliness on your face

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

Have you seen Thomas Astruc's comment on the movie Encanto?

Okay, I’m just going to be blunt, and rest assured, I’m completely sober while writing this, but I don’t really have a lot of problems with what Astruc said about Encanto.

Yes, I personally enjoyed the film and think it’s one of the best things Disney’s made recently (though I still had some problems with it) and don’t necessarily agree with what Astruc said, I don’t really think it’s as eyebrow-raising as the things he’s said about Pixar’s movies and character designers, Wonder Woman 1984, and Winx Club, where his criticisms were far harsher compared to what he said about Encanto.

While he did say he wasn’t a fan of the movie in his initial Facebook post, he did go more into detail that he didn’t think it was objectively bad, there were just certain plot elements and themes he wasn’t a fan of. 

It didn’t help that he watched the French dub instead of the English dub, and after just watching a few key scenes (Abuela’s brief monologue about her worries the magic is fading, a couple of the songs, and some of the banter between Mirabel and Bruno), yeah, I can see why he wasn’t a fan of it. A lot of the accents in the French dub didn’t sound as authentic as the English dub, and compared to the songs in the English dub where most of the voice actors had singing experience, the soundtrack in the French dub just paled in comparison.

But again, a lot of the problems he had (not really understanding some of the cultural themes, the lack of a big adventure in favor of a more simple story) were fairly reasonable, and he still enjoyed the story and praised the visual aspect of the movie. He wasn’t saying something along the lines of “People are idiots for liking Encanto because it’s objectively a horrible movie!” but more something along the lines of “You know, I get that a lot of people love Encanto, and I’m really happy they do, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea.”

Of course, people inevitably brought up Astruc’s work and how Marinette fails in comparison to Mirabel as a character, and again, I understand his defense here.

While I have criticized Marinette’s selfish actions in the past, it’s still important to remember that her character arc (as loosely defined as it is) hasn’t finished yet, and that the pacing in a 90-minute movie has to be faster compared to a TV show with over a hundred episodes, so it’s unfair to compare the two as protagonists. Admittedly, I think Encanto pulled off the everyman protagonist better than what we’ve gotten with Marinette, but I still understand his reasoning. 

So while I don’t necessarily agree with Astruc’s opinion on the movie, I still understand the arguments he makes, and I don’t think he was nearly as rude as he was the other times he’s criticized something outside of his show.

Granted, someone else’s comment on the movie also motivated Astruc to say something...

Which led to, well...

I’ll talk about what this little tweet led to soon enough.

And before anyone asks, my favorite song in the movie was “Surface Pressure” instead of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”, my favorite characters were Luisa, Pepa and Felix, and I think Dolores really deserved more screentime and a song of her own.