pipsuxx’s review published on Letterboxd:
this is a bit of an unusual disney film in a lot of ways. a LOT of concept has to be laid down really fast at the beginning, which felt a bit overwrought. family with magical house AND personal gifts!? whilst the house is really fun from an animation perspective, it felt a bit unnecessary. it is also wild that basically the whole film is set in this one house. i think this could have been leant into a lot more and given a bit of claustrophobic intensity that a whole family living together would surely have!
lin-manuel miranda does the soundtrack and honestly? a lot of the songs are super meandering and really don’t do it for me. his lyrics also don’t scan well in a lot of places. basically these songs are only fun in the context of their place in the story, rather than a classic disney/musical theatre bop that slaps regardless. the exception for me here is “surface pressure” which sounds so different from the average disney song but goes off in any context. also, those fucking lyrics!!!
although the story is also a bit all over the place the message is clear and quite touching. despite all of the above i did enjoy watching this and am glad i did. i was just surprised - given how much people have raved about it and the popularity of songs like “… bruno” on tiktok - that it wasn’t actually such a standout.