Pixar and Disney are two animation studio giants, and while Pixar is owned by Disney,
their movies are quite often compared to each other and the latest movies are often compared
to previous titles in their catalogs.
This of course made us start thinking about both of their most recent films, Disney’s
Encanto took the world and the internet by storm, where even Google knows “We Don’t
Talk About Bruno”, and not too long ago, Pixar released Turning Red on Disney+ where
it has received critical acclaim.
Sure, Turning Red has become a sort of battleground of opinions on the internet, but all of this
attention is still good marketing for the film.
So, which of these films are better?
I’m Kyle with WickedBinge and this is Pixar’s Turning Red vs. Disney’s Encanto: Which
One Was Better?
Now, firstly, we are issuing a spoiler warning for both films at the beginning here, because
if you haven’t seen either of these films on Disney+ we highly recommend both.
Secondly.
These are going to be subjective to a degree because everyone enjoys movies differently
and finds different things appealing.
With that out of the way, we can talk about Turning Red vs. Encanto and which one was
better.
The first category we want to discuss is that of Characters.
Characters are the touchstone of every film, and relatable characters make a movie ten
times better.
Now, both Encanto and Turning Red have great characters in their own way, some of which
are heavily relatable.
Bruno has been touted as a perfect example of a heavily anxious and depressed person,
which hits home with a lot of people, Mirabel exemplifies the forgotten and looked over
child who wants to prove themself and Luisa is a great example of a character who puts
way too much on their plate to try and prove themself as strong so that they’re useful.
From Turning Red, Meilin is similar to Mirabel because she tries to prove herself as perfect
for her mother, due to her being an only child, Grandma Lee is nowhere near as bad as Abuela
when it comes to grandmothers, but shows how even when trying to be helpful, you can still
cause trauma and Ming makes a great antagonist due to her own trauma, something we’ll be
getting into later.
Now, on the comedic side of things, Camillo uses his shapeshifting for great jokes, and
shows to be quite funny throughout the film, while Felix is probably the most comedic relief
character in the film, his lines in We Don’t Talk About Bruno are perfect examples as he
fulfills the comedic relief role.
Both Abby and Priya are great comedic reliefs in Turning Red, Abby fulfills the role of
angry comedy and slapstick to a degree, while Priya as we’ve spoken about is hilarious
with her deadpan humor.
In the end, we think Encanto has the better characters overall, that’s not a dig at
Turning Red’s writing or characterization, but Encanto fleshed out all of their main
characters in such a way that it’s hard to beat.
An interesting one to speak about is the Setting of both films.
Both films have a unique setting we don’t usually get to explore during most animated
films that have come out lately.
For example, Encanto takes place in a hidden villa in the country of Columbia and mostly
takes place in Casita the living home.
Meanwhile, Turning Red takes place in the city of Toronto, Canada, and utilizes the
Chinese subculture of the city to their advantage throughout the film.
Both of these settings are unique and different.
However, we feel that Turning Red’s setting is better, maybe it’s because of the era
that the film takes place in being a perfect storm of nostalgia, or recognizable landmarks
existing in the film or the utilization of Chinese culture, all of which we feel, are
slightly better than Encanto’s setting, but only barely.
The next thing we wish to speak about in this duel is the Story.
The quickest rundown of Encanto is as follows: Mirabel Madrigal is a member of the prestigious
Madrigal family, this family has a special gift of magic that allows them to help the
people around them in their little community.
Meanwhile, Turning Red features Meilin Lee who is part of a semi-important family in
the Toronto area, her family has a special gift that tends to be more of a nuisance than
a help.
Now, on the surface, these sound similar, but they’re really not when you break them
down.
Encanto focuses on a family that helps the community around them through the use of a
powerful magic gift that is given to them through the death of a loved one.
Encanto then follows the story of Mirabel trying to stop the magic gift from dying out
and feeling guilty about being the only person without a gift.
Turning Red is a coming-of-age story where Mei learns to get used to her magical panda
powers and come into her own while also dealing with puberty.
We have to give Encanto the edge on this one again, while Turning Red is fun and definitely
unique, Encanto is just a bit more memorable.
And the story, in our opinion, leaves a bigger impact.
Maybe this next one is a bit of a landslide but next is the Soundtrack.
Disney is well known for their amazing songs.
The problem here is the fact that while Turning Red has a few fun and recognizable songs in
their soundtrack like “Nobody Like You”, “1 True Love”, and “U Know What’s
Up”, none of them are stand-out songs.
However, Encanto has absolute instant classics that have almost been as played out as Let
It Go by this point.
“The Family Madrigal”, “Surface Pressure”, and “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” are
all absolute bangers in their own ways.
Even the background music is better in Encanto, so it’s an absolute no-brainer as to why
they handily decimate this category.
The next portion of this duel is each movie’s Comedy.
Encanto honestly lacks in lasting comedy, we couldn’t tell you a joke that stands
out to us right now, although generally, the comedy is quite good.
It’s more focused on its themes rather than its comedy and the jokes that we do remember,
while funny aren’t amazing.
The running coffee joke with the little boy and the stairs joke in Bruno’s room is quite
fun, and honestly, the best comedy actually comes from the fanbase of the film.
Meanwhile, Turning Red has humor we love and have spoken on already very briefly.
Priya as a character absolutely destroys us, we love her deadpan comedy, and the charades
joke at Tyler’s party, Jin’s background humor, and the well-executed puberty jokes
are just a few examples of great comedy during the film.
This is because, most of Turning Red focuses more on comedy, especially during the first
half than its themes, although we’ll speak more about this in a bit, so it’s no surprise
that we think Turning Red has better comedy.
But similar to the previous section, we also want to speak about Tone.
Much like we spoke about in the previous entry, Turning Red is a very comedic movie, especially
in the first half of the film, although it gets quite endearing and less comedic during
the second half to better talk about the themes of the film.
Encanto, on the other hand, sacrifices a more comedic tone, to be a bit darker and much
more mysterious, and generally serious throughout the film.
While the film has a lot of jokes its tone is much more focused on the saving of the
miracle and it genuinely gets sad at some points.
It is a no-brainer that Encanto wins this category, as much as we enjoy Turning Red’s
comedy, the more varied tone of Encanto just makes for a better viewing experience in our
eyes.
We’ve been shifting around talking about them for a while, but next on our list is
each movie’s Themes.
A lot of films utilize themes to connect with their audience, and a lot of these films have
a bunch of general small themes that enhance the major theme of the film.
Both films feature a theme of Family, which a lot of movies feature because it’s something
most people can relate to.
Both movies use the theme of Family to prop up a powerful specific theme we will speak
on soon enough.
However, going into specific themes, Encanto features the themes of Humility, because Mirabel
has to be humbled by the fact she’s the only member of the family without a gift and
this leads into her journey quite well.
It also features themes of Togetherness and Determination, which lend themselves to the
aforementioned themes of Humility and Family.
However, the biggest theme we’ll speak on in this section is Forgiveness and Compassion,
because by the end of the movie, Abuela Alma is forgiven for all the problems she had caused,
and while we’ll get more into this in the next section, it’s important to note that
this is shown to be a good thing, that forgiving her for the damage she had caused is important,
and while the film is not wrong, we wish it was handled a bit better.
On the other end of the spectrum, Turning Red’s themes include Rebellion, rebelling
against the major theme we’ll be speaking on later, and becoming yourself, Puberty,
and how it’s a terrible and terrifying thing that everyone needs to go through at one point
and Friendship being a major part of the film and a smaller part of the aforementioned Rebellion
theme.
While both films speak on themes that are important and are vastly different, we think
Turning Red not only has more important themes but handles them a bit better than Encanto
does.
However, both films have a very Specific Theme of Generational Trauma that we want to speak
about.
Both films focus on the idea that trauma can flow from one generation to the next through
a variety of means.
Turning Red’s version of this theme is a bit more on the nose, with the Red Panda form
being a literal representation of generational trauma.
Ming was forced into toxic perfectionism and this led to her doing the same with Meilin
and it likely stems from Grandma Lee’s own childhood.
Mei Mei takes this and turns the Red Panda into her own thing without being held down
by the trauma of her mother and her ancestors.
Encanto’s theme of Generational Trauma is less overt and focuses similarly on the toxic
perfectionism already mentioned in this entry.
However, unlike with Turning Red where the trauma has been going since Ancient China,
the trauma in Encanto is much more recent, due to the trauma coming from the death of
Alma’s husband and her pushing her trauma onto her children and her grandchildren, leading
to Bruno leaving the family and the gift being mostly removed from the family.
This category is really close… but we honestly feel that the usage of this theme is handled
better in Turning Red.
This is partly due to the fact that the trauma… in the ancestral sense… has had hundreds
of generations to be at its worst…
But also, that we can really see the trauma Ming had, which stemmed from her relationship
with her own mother…
begin to sort of repeat itself with Mei.
Showing not only that these things can by cyclic, but also come from a place of love
or good intentions…
Ming isn’t a bad person.
In fact, she’s a loving mother… which makes her a really complex antagonist.
And we don’t love that Alma was forgiven so easily during Encanto.
Let’s talk a little bit about each film’s Cultural Influences.
Both of these films include main characters from a culture typically unseen in Disney
films, which was different, and a nice selling point for the films as a whole.
Encanto focuses on a Columbian family, striking a chord with Hispanic children due to featuring
a lot of unique cultural icons only seen in South American countries.
And the art styles as well as its influence from Magical Realism… a literary style created
in Colombia… are really beautiful and fun to watch.
The representation is a bit more of a central tenant in Turning Red, as the Chinese culture
permeates every frame of the film, that and of course anime references, which make sense
for an asian child in the early 2000s.
The Red Panda which we’ve talked about already being a major part of the film, the way the
temple and other parts of the film are designed not only fit the Chinese aspect but the Canadian
aspect as well.
We have to say that we feel that we have to call this section -A TIE- Both movies really
immersed themselves in their respective cultures and its hard to pick out a clear winner.
A bit of a unique one we wanted to talk about was the Art Style of both films.
While both movies are indeed 3D animated, they do have unique and different art styles
when you compare the two of them.
Turning Red’s art style is very unique, with it’s more cutesy rounded style and
anime inspired moments and faces, it’s super unique compared to other Disney and Pixar
films.
It doesn’t try to be realistic and is quite happy with its hyper-stylized look, making
it a much more interesting film to look at.
Encanto does go for a stylized realism, where all of the characters look realistic in a
stylized way, while the bright colors and subdued designs make it an interesting watch,
because while the art style is recognizable it kind of blends in with other similar looking
Disney films.
So, for that reason we think Turning Red has a much more unique and pleasing art style,
easily taking the award in this section.
Finally, we get to our Conclusion.
After debating through a bunch of categories that both films did quite great in, we’ve
discussed every major thing about both films.
By the end of this discussion, we’ve decided that despite our love for the recent film
and the great bits we discussed, we honestly think Encanto is the better film between the
two.
Encanto’s story, characters and soundtrack are quite great, and we love almost everything
about the movie.
We also think that Turning Red is a funnier and in many cases a more well-rounded film,
but we do think that Encanto is a much better film over-all.
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking.
And tell us what we should cover next.
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But most importantly, stay wicked.