hamsterwoman: (Disney -- Luisa)
hamsterwoman ([personal profile] hamsterwoman) wrote in [personal profile] chacusha 2022-05-08 05:40 pm (UTC)

Do you know of any other movies with this Encanto structure?

Not this structure, which I did think was interesting, but the two works that came to ind for "person who stands out by NOT being special" / opposite-of-a-Chosen-One were Ray Bradbury's short story "Homecoming" (about a little boy who is a normal human in a family of monsters) -- and actually, hm, come to think of it Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book has a bit of the same effect, though for different reasons -- and Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series. In the latter, it's an entire world of people with magic and the protagonist, Tavi, is basically a Squib in Harry Potter terms (but it turns out there's a reason for that, and as you can imagine from the protagonist of a fantasy series, he gets to save the world anyway).

I do think Encanto takes a different tack with it than earlier stories -- of the ones I know, "Homecoming" is wistful and sad, in Codex Alera the protagonist turns out to be exceptional in other, non-magical ways -- so they don't feel like "coming to terms with your mediocrity". I like your thoughts about why that might be a more necessary theme now, especially the bit about the internet being excellent for showing one just how many amazingly talented people -- who are otherwise regular people with recognizable lives, as opposed to glittering celebrities who might as well be a different species -- are out there to compare yourself to :)

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