Encanto is Disney’s 60th feature-length animated classic and harks back to the studio’s glory days as a production house of wonder. Set in a fictional region of Colombia, the magical family Madrigal have shouldered the duty of leading a community of refugees now forming a bright and colourful town, safe in the wilderness. When their home, the magical casita, begins to crack beneath the pressure of perfection, Mirabel sets out to repair the house and her family, looking to their inner strengths over their magical “gifts”.
Author: JD Hart
WWCL: Once Upon a Time in Wonderland
In 2013, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland was ABC’s first attempt to really cash-in on their so-far hit series Once Upon a Time (concurrently airing its fourth season). A spin-off that plays host to a few of its mother show’s side characters, OUAT in Wonderland follows Alice, a veteran of Wonderland adventures, and now young woman, diving back into the nonsense realm to find a love she once thought lost to the evil Red Queen. With her wise-cracking friend Will Scarlet at her side, Alice searches for Cyrus, a genie trapped by the evil sorcerer Jafar who searches for his lamp. The show opened to a reasonable viewership but is widely recognised as sub-par against the original series (rating up to 20% less favourably across IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes and Reelgood reviews) and only ran for a single season before cancellation.
WWCM: True Blood (TV Show)
In 2008, True Blood hit the small screen with a whole lot of blood splatter. Whether you personally loved, hated or were indifferent to the show about small town Bon Temps, Louisiana and its host of sexy, violent (and frequently nude) vampires, True Blood made an impression on the scene. Especially off the back of the Twilight phenomenon and the resurgence of paranormal romance’s popularity as a genre. If you were too old to truly enjoy the teenaged angst of sparkling vampire chastity, True Blood had the solution: sex, drugs and a whole lot of deliciously gory drama.
WWCM: Daisy Jones & The Six (Novel)
Singing atop pianos, on-stage bitch outs and nipple buses. Welcome to the world of Daisy Jones & The Six. The biggest band to hit the rock ‘n’ roll airways at the turn of the 1970s. As the slogan goes, “their music made them famous; their break up made them legendary”. Taylor Jenkins Reid, best-selling author of the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Carrie Soto is Back, delivers a creative, documentary-style retrospective of this fictional band, their skyrocketing success and why they plummeted back to earth all too soon. Daisy Jones & The Six is a pill-popping, heart-rocking expression of overcoming our demons, choosing our own paths in life and what it means to be so beautifully, chaotically human.