15 Most Overrated Movies Of The 2020s (So Far)
3. Encanto
Rotten Tomatoes: 91% (Average Score: 7.50/10)
IMDb: 7.2
The 60th feature film from Disney Animation Studios received broad acclaim from critics and also did pretty well with audiences, even becoming the subject of various memes online. It subsequently won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Err... why?
However visually stunning and well acted Encanto may be, and however awesome Lin-Manuel Miranda's songs are, on a narrative level the film is completely bankrupt.
Lacking stakes, an active protagonist, a villain or a story that ever develops or moves forward, Encanto is basically the Mamma Mia of Disney movies: little more than a compilation of admittedly impressive musical numbers tied together with an absolutely useless, hole-ridden story.
Eventually, the film reaches its inevitable third act triumph and since all the third act is is a character randomly realizing she'd maybe been a bit of an A-hole, nothing about it feels earned at all.
Since it is so flawed and since it wasn't even the best Disney movie of the year (2021 also saw the release of the superior Raya and the Last Dragon), let alone the best animation, Encanto's positive critical notices and subsequent Oscar win are downright inexplicable.
An Underrated Alternative: Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon (2019) - An absolutely terrific work from Aardman that did manage to get an Oscar nomination, but still hasn't got nearly as much attention as it deserves.