Disney's Encanto!

[Ben]

Natch. The original MP is James' favorite film, so to touch it at all is heresy itself. But I’ll stand and defend MPR to the end as a film out of time that only didn’t do well because it was released 50 years too late. It really is a wonderful throwback to the kinds of films they really don’t make anymore (and, yes, okay, some might say for good reason), but for those of us that got it, it remains an extraordinarily well made and well intentioned treat and, going back to your original comment, certainly doesn’t "stink", whatever one thought of it.

[Bill1978]

I loved MPR for the bever reasons you state Ben. Sure it's 'dated' but that helps make it feel like a seamless sequel. Even if I didn't need one to exist, I'm glad it was made. The musical score is just beautiful. And I loved how they even had an opening credit overture like the old days

[Ben]

Almost exactly my comments in the end of the year piece we did when Poppins came out!

[Ben]

Since Vivo doesn’t seem to warrant its own thread — see my comments on streaming, below, which only kind of backs up how such films are not given the same "status", it has been touched on here. We watched it the the other night, and I posted my quick thoughts…to a thread in our private mods' forum…duh! Here's our brief conversation, in case anyone else is interested and/or has also seen the movie:

So we unexpectedly got around to Vivo tonight, as I wanted to know if it was worth picking up on Sony's upcoming Blu-ray and…yes, it was an unexpected surprise.

Now, expectations were in check, given James' comments on Miranda's usual tongue-twisty wordplay lyrics, and while two of the songs (at least) "suffer" from containing moments of "more of the same', revealing the one-trick pony approach that I’ve hinted at in other posts around here, you do kind of have to admire what he does and how he does it. It’s just that the trick is repeated too often and too much so as to just become annoying.

But when it calms down, Vivo is quite touching, and though story points are becoming less and less able to surprise and twist these days, since everything has been done, the various elements come together quite nicely here, even if everything is signposted, though in comparison to The Gray Man, which we also ran, Vivo is as complicated as they come, The Gray Man being an extremely predictable and ultimately boring and overlong thriller that is quite badly directed and edited and never really finds its footing.

I also liked that Vivo is a "proper" musical, albeit a modern one, and while it makes for an understandably companion piece to Encanto, it’s miles better, more story-driven, and enjoyable. I loved a couple of moments out of many good moments throughout, and even if Miranda is not the most natural animated voice, he pulls it off more than adequately and does better than many bigger celebrity names in such things. With natural shades of Coco and Soul, as well as top-notch animation and feel that often made me feel I was watching a Disney picture, I’ll definitely be adding this to my shelf for another future viewing sometime.

Very happy to hear your thought on Vivo. Sometimes when I like an all but unknown movie like Vivo over a more mainstream hit like Encanto, I worry if I'm just being subconsciously contrarian and curmudgeonly!

But James…you *are* contrarian and curmudgeonly!

Nah, sometimes things hit big for weird reasons, and this is a good case in point, plus another reason why I think I kind of hate streaming. Everything gets shunted into their own little boxes on their own little services and no-one gets to see things that haven’t been as well promoted by a big theatrical release. I think Vivo could have done Sing numbers if it had gone out non-pandemic in a usually timeframe. But instead it’s now ticked away with all the other streaming stuff and will only get discovered by accident or because someone, like me, actually sought it out. Whereas Encanto gets a big heap of hoopla hype so has the better chance of catching on. Vivo is the better, more enjoyable and heartfelt of the two, absolutely, so count me in the contrarian and curmudgeonly crowd too!

Yes, I could’ve have given Vivo its own thread, but even with its own Blu-ray release, I’m not sure it would be "worth" it in terms of replies. I do encourage people to check the movie out, though, either through 'Flix or on disc!

[Randall]

I just picked up Netflix again for a few weeks, so I'll make a point to watch Vivo soon.

[Daniel]

Will be released on home video August 9. Yes, I would've preferred Vivo had its own thread to avoid confusion.

[Kaszubas]

As veteran of quite a few propaganda-laden format wars, us old-school home-theater warriors caution against using European Blu/DVD/tech trends as early indicator of North American home-theater trends.
Things like disc, Netflix and 4K/3D have a puzzling habit of not catching on over there, probably due to TV being less of a cultural influence as well.

I just like to have best possible picture and sound quality physically whenever I like to watch my favourite movies without the penalty of paying subscription fee for whole streaming service every month…

[gaastra]

Encanto and coco heading back to the big screen and I'm sure almost zero marketing for it like the pixar rereleases did.

https://www.reddit.com/r/boxoffice/comm ... e_pacific/