Post-Modern Re-Enchantment in Disney's Animated Film Encanto (2021) in Light of Max Weber’s Critique of Rationality

Weber’s theory of disenchantment consists of three stages: the pre-modern, the modern, and the post-modern. The three stages are characterized, respectively, by the ideals of enchantment, disenchantment, and re-enchantment. The three stages are traced simultaneously in Disney animated musical feature film, Encanto. The first part of the Madrigals' story mirrors Weber’s pre-modern world of enchantment: the stage of magical religiosity. In this stage, Abuela takes the role of the charismatic, Catholic authority that leads the Madrigal family in a compassionate manner. The second part of the Madrigals’ story mirrors Weber’s scientifically disenchanted modern world with its pragmatic, utilitarian, and functional ends. Abuela’s growing rationalism mirrors the transition from pre-modern magical religiosity to the modern disenchanted capitalist world. Mirroring the actions of modern disenchantment (dehumanization, bureaucratization, homogenization, and exhaustion), Abuela dehumanizes Mirabel, maintains a bureaucratic authority over the Madrigals, homogenizes Isabella, refusing her unsymmetrical artifacts, and finally leads Louisa to severe exhaustion due to hard work. The third part of the Madrigals’ story mirrors Weber’s post-modern re-enchantment narrative. Post-modern forms of the magical are assembled with the awareness of their contingency, exactly like the film, Encanto, itself. The 2021 film, with its supernatural wonders, is itself a sign of the re-enchanted post-modern secular world. Additionally, despite the relativity of moral codes, the community members abide by their overwhelming devotion to each other. Finally, the presence of various valid moral codes promotes diversity, tolerance, and co-existence. Building their Casita all over again, the devoted Madrigals lay the new foundation of post-modern re-enchantment

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Epistemology · Rationality · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Philosophy