@@orterves You never heard about combining the four best things in life? You should eat, fuck and watch youtube simultaneously while shitting, it's quite the release.
I can’t believe both you and CJ missed the double entendre… I giggled thinking of how the song suggests the ‘boyfriend’ is the sacrificial lamb and it is he who is in fact, for dinner.
I know Encanto isn’t an opera, but “Time for dinner!” very much gives opera vibes-it changes the scene and moves the narrative forward. We Don’t Talk About Bruno isn’t just a tableau musical number-the plot keeps happening as the song progresses. And I love that!
It was written by Lin manwel maranda (Hamilton), and he has an iconic, although fairly one-note style of stage musical rap infused writing. "Time for dinner" really does feel like a very Hamilton line.
It’s also a really tense line! The dinner is an object of stress and dread for Mirabel, a complicated social interaction with a group of people who she is keeping secrets from, and who are keeping secrets from her, and the line reminds her that it is imminent - she’s run out of time.
One of the things I think people genuinely miss about Encanto is that most of the film is not about the family as usual. It's the family *hosting!* My family gets tense and stressed as hell when we're trying to put on a good face for other families, the Madrigals just want to put things off until it's over. Like Alma's line "tonight we cannot have any more problems"
The dinner is also very important, it’s the make or break of a possible engagement and it’s literally the point multiple conflicts come to ahead and like half the characters are injured or have breakdowns
Right, there's some foreshadowing going on, building suspense. Dinner is supposed to be this happy affair with Isabella's boyfriend meeting the family, they're all cheerfully laying out plates. But the shadow of their rejection of Bruno is hanging over the whole thing and is going to crash down on top of it. So then when the song ends and dinner starts, having "time for dinner" be included in the song is a way to signal to the audience this isn't "that song's over, here's the next scene" but that the content of the song is going to be crucial to the scene.
And it's during the dinner that they're actually the closest to Bruno up to that point, cuz he's being the wall with the family tree! They try to move on from Bruno, but they keep thinking about him as they set the table and they do all of this in front of him
Also, later when it's revealed that Bruno still pretends to eat with the rest of the family. Like, it shows that, like the telephone, dinner is an important medium which with the family gets to connect with each other. There's like a deliberate contradiction between the family getting together to connect over dinner and even inviting Isabella's boyfriend to join them while also simultaneously disconnecting themselves from a different member of their family.
It's also a dinner that will ultimately make Isabella feel even more isolated from her family if it goes through because she does not want to be with him, and because dolores will be hurt by it. So I think the contrast works with that as well, with the way we don't talk about bruno gives the rest of the family the feeling that this family does not discuss important things. you can hear isabella saying "and im fine and im fine and im fine i'll be fine" right before camillo says "he's here!" Also not talking about bruno is not talking about how "the life of [her] dreams would be promised and someday be [hers]" and how that's not matching up right now with her in a nightmare situation.
To me, I always found "you're boyfriend's here, time for dinner" to be a slightly dark double entendre, like the family is about to consume Isabella's suitor. Not in a cannibalistic way, obviously, but in the sense that the family needs fresh meat to survive and this man is considered a prime cut, hence why they're making a huge event out of making sure the proposal takes place.
Part of what I love about poetry, and by extension song writing and musical theater, is that figurative language is a really, really powerful means of communication. The meaning we all get from it is a combination of both the intended meaning by the author and our personal understanding of the symbols being used. So when "Under Pressure" plays, I am not just seeing the text of the song in the narrative, but also how it applies to my life in subtle ways. My understanding of her lines, being figurative and analogous, is necessarily informed by my own experiences and understanding of the emotions at the core. So interpretations like yours here, whether it was intended by the author or not (and it very well might have been intended) are really cool, because it speaks to how you understand the family dynamics at play, and how you apply that art to reality. It is true regardless, because absent any contradictory text, it is one of the nearly infinite ways that the piece could speak to its intended audience. I just think it is cool how our brains work. Art lets us communicate to each other in really deep ways without ever even knowing the person who is viewing it, because the interpretation of art is always a collaborative effort between the author and the audience.
Surely this is what will start a video essay beef that will make Drake and Kendrick Lamar look like schoolboys arguing over whether Goku could beat Superman
@@Pumpkinlumpy No no, just no. Veins popping out the forehead are a sign of strength, bro. Where are superman's forehead veins!? You couldn't find them with a microscope. Why? Cause they don't exist. He weak.
I love how "Time for dinner" has a natural melodic pattern. There's just a common way to say it. But it doesn't sound like singing so it is intentionally disruptive to the current melody. I think all together it works surprisingly well to pull you out of musical logic and back into the reality of family stress.
I think that common way it's spoken, as a call to children playing right before the sun sets, ending with a diminutive tone at the end to express the authority of the speaker (in a way inverse to "uptalk") also serves as part of why this interruption is so effective. The authority of the family, of Abuela, echoes all their voices in unison to obstruct Mirabel's attempt at exploring and seeking the truth about Bruno, right at her most insistent. The cacophony of their conversation literally overwhelms and drowns out her investigation, but only after they all resoundingly decide "Oh! It's time for dinner!" as if trying to get out of the "birds and bees" conversation because it's so uncomfortable.
I also think this adds a kind of ominous quality to the beat that I really like; Mirabel is doing her digging up and unwinding and she's building up familial cacophony at a moment of high social stakes: Isabella's boyfriend is Here and it's Time for Dinner.
Encanto isn't a perfect movie, but I do feel like the majority of criticisms involve people not understanding the importance of the "little things" in general. Like the whole movie is a sorta small-scale conflict that mostly takes place in a family's house and it really bothers me how many folks think it sucks for not being some epic adventure movie.
It really seemed like a case of "popular thing bad" because it was a Disney movie with a lot of hype There's a reason people kept talking about Encanto and nobody's talking about Wish. One was good.
@@ryang1202 the only ppl who talk about Wish are usually artists or Disney fans despairing over what the movie should’ve been after seeing the concept art and animatics.
“Time for dinner” is actually such a great and simple metaphor for how families habitually and even ritually suppress discussing uncomfortable topics. Super relatable, and doesn’t even entirely require the context of the film’s culture/story to be relevant
Family dinner is not only important in many cultures but also a social event that can have a lot of stakes; considering that, the line in the song can be anything from warm and homely, to tense and anxious. I haven't seen Encanto but I can so easily imagine it being used as a hurdle in their relationship.
There’s definitely stakes to the dinner itself because it’s the dinner where Abuela wants to discuss and have Isabela engaged to Mariano because she expects (and projects onto) Isabela being perfect and having the perfect life (despite what Isabela may actually want and desire). So it would make sense that the family essentially tries to politely tell Mirabel to shut up about Bruno because of the bad publicity that he brought them, and so they can get out of the conversation about him because they believe it’s bad luck to talk about him. Plus it is revealed later in the movie that Bruno is living in the walls (hinted at by Dolores in the beginning of the song) and that he still eats dinner with the family every night in secret, which makes the “time for dinner” line both more painful and ironic to be mentioned in a song where Bruno’s own family is dissing him.
“Time for dinner” always gave me chills…idk, it feels so ominous somehow, like the sun had gone down and the family was all getting together in one place physically in the same room, etc etc. It has this dusky ambience to it. Not only is it the best lyric of the song, it’s like, the musical and harmonic climax of it. The fact that it’s so literal and grounded in the mundane, like you said, makes it juxtapose so tastily with the rest of the lines. Hard agree on everything you said here 😘
@@paullemay6596 If you were serious about the internet, you would understand that not responding to a 5 minute video in the first 2 minutes is basically admitting you're Hitler
@@Jasperge99the reply is important for future generations who will not be able to see how long the comment was made after the posting of the video and will therefore not be able to discern if it is indeed a joke
Not just all this, but the dinner is the triumph of the performance of the family over the substance of what the family truly is! It's the thesis of the entire movie. I also disagreed with CJ on this over on that video, a small bad take inside a pretty good video.
And we find out that Bruno has been watching them eat dinner and has been secretly eating 'with' them behind his wall, which is one of the most moving moments in the movie! Dinner matters!
Whoa you really put into words what I felt watching that video. The line is at the point that is SUPPOSED to be the moment of breakthrough for Mirabel, but it’s being withheld!! It’s the moment of tension being released but it doesn’t really go where it’s expected to. Our experience of watching the scene is totally mediated by this I think and I think it shows through in the music. After the line is spoken the characters all break out into a canon that feels fragmented
Even better, the music from that point on is so diffuse unless it is about shunning Bruno, meaning that while they can act all they like about being a unified family everybody will crumble very soon whether or not the dinner went successfully and (because everyone fits the chords about shunning Bruno that Pepa establishes) pretty soon the only thing that will unite them is hating Bruno (that is, one person hates Bruno, one person goes along with it, one person is sympathetic but cannot say anything, one person thinks him a monster, etc.)
Getting hyped over the Little Joel CJ the X crossover and then having to witness this absolutely devastating critique is like watching your parents get divorced.
"Your boyfreind is here time for dinner" is obvipusly loading up the anxiety of the situation, Ive never even seen encanto but that little line already tells me what to expect from the next scenes
Your comments about the line "bless the telephone" is exactly how I feel about another song, "Objects in Space" by La Dispute. I've always held deep sentimentality for the mundane and how mundane objects can be beautiful and meaningful to someone and their story. Anyway, I hope this video doesn't get you cancelled or something.
the whole Rooms of the House album is so so incredible at weaving the mundane together into something, La Dispute best album I think!!!! Somewhere At The Bottom is incredible and intense but rooms of the house has so much d e p t h
@@jongray3642 I didn't like Rooms of the House when I first heard it. It felt like such a major departure from Wildlife. But the more I listened to it and the more I got into its story, the more I loved it. Definitely my favorite album from them by far.
I might add that the way that Bruno ultimately stays connected to his family, where he shows up every night whether they know it or not.. is dinner time. He extends the table into the wall and sets a place for himself at it. It’s so heartbreaking.. and warming… and like… it’s kind of a big deal. It’s time for dinner calls Bruno to the song.. to the film.
The thing I love in "time for dinner" is that their ignoring their problems and sweeping it uner the rug again and go with their day and it is MUCH more dire because its also before "your boyfriend is here." SOMEONE is coming to their home and eat and converse at their table and they need to act perfect with no problems so they must not talk about Bruno.
Its also, you know, a call to dinner. Dinner is, traditionally, where the while family comes together and talks. But whats happening? They arent ALL coming together and they arent talking. Its irony, y'know
I just wanted to say that as someone in a long distance relationship, the subject of Labri Siffre's song is something I think about a lot - the role that technology plays in our relationship, how it allows us to see and speak to each other in real time, how it allows us to experience watching series and films with each other, and what all of this means for our relationship. It's something that feels profound to me in a way I can't really articulate, but it's often on my mind. I'd never heard of this singer or his song before, so thanks for introducing him to me, Large Joel
Also in a lot of South American cultures, family meals are really important. We see this family in the movie also eat breakfast, and it's again a big bug deal that they're all there. Not only is the dinner a distraction from the ostracized Bruno but a symbol of the unity they band under to separate themselves from him. Bruno, we see, also has a spot near the kitchen where he's made a mock-up of a dinner table with a plate meant for him. So this "dinner" is still related to Bruno in one way or another; he'll be joining them, even if they're unaware. This song actually features the Madrigal as a musical concept, which is also their family name. Honestly this is maybe the most thematically sound song in the movie. If CJ wanted to pick at something it should've been like the one about flowers that the Isabela character sings near the end. Edit: I should specify that I meant meals and not dinner specifically. Traditionally in Colombia lunch is the main meal of the day and is large and eaten as a family. Dinner tends to be light and decently late into the day. I'm not going to speculate too much about this movie, but I imagine that this family eats dinners like this because they're so close-knit, or this occasion was special so they had a big meal when they otherwise wouldn't. Who knows. Still, it's obvious this family always eats together.
A few people have said something along these line already, but I think something that's really fun bout Encanto compared to a lot of other disney movies is that the music is really written like it's for a musical. The songs aren't just a short break in the story, they actively move the plot along, show changes within the characters' thought processes and relationships, and are full of different repeating motifs and changes in style depending on the change in mood, which is really unique for animated musicals. I just think it's neat ya know
Never put much thought into it but "time for dinner" is a great and meaningful line. "Isabella, your boyfriend's here. Time for dinner" coming from Isabella (the best and most complex character) point of view is so daunting. She's been trying to avoid this man and dreading marrying him, and now he's there at her doorstep. There is no escape, it's time for dinner. Even outside of the best character(and only character to talk positively about Bruno in his family diss track)'s POV, "time for dinner" is incredibly impactful when you actually remember what happened at dinner. Chaos on all sides, Luisa having a meltdown losing her powers, that snitch who clearly hates Bruno but gaslit the audience to believing she always liked him tells the whole family about Mirabel going into Bruno's room, Mirabel is putting together the shards of Bruno's prophecy, Mariano proposes, the house (literally and metaphorically) falling apart. It's the climax of the film. This criticism is like if a Julius Caesar musical had a song leading up to his death having the line "time for a Senate hearing" and critiquing it because Senate hearings are mundane and unimportant, the big foreboding line should be about something meaningful
Hbomberguy is now unquestioned dictator of the entire Eurasian continent, and every day he makes a video about a random citizen, which kills them instantly. Tommy Tallarico and James Somerton were just the beginning...
Also, wasn't that Dinner actually important? I may be misremembering, but during that dinner the family is trying really hard to keep appearances, all while Maribel is increasingly anxious about the Bruno thing and that's when the house begins to crack. The dinner is like the ultimate manifestation of the family's attempt to keep appearances.
Yeah, Mariano was coming over with his parents to propose to Isabela. It was extremely important to some members of the family that the proposal go well, but it also would have been a grave mistake because it would have committed Isabela to a path that she didn't want to follow. I didn't realize this the first time through, but knowing that on rewatch, that's why Casita starts crumbling so much during the proposal and why Antonio's animals put together the pieces of Bruno's vision. They were trying to intervene in what would have been the most serious thing someone in the family had been pressured into doing.
It's a hugely stressful thing for Isabella who feels trapped by the plans abuela has for her to be with Mariano *and* also for Dolores who is actually interested in him but isn't being set up for him, both of which are also hinted at earlier in the song
In First Time Female Director, i heard Jordan Peele say, "If the character's not eating, the heart's not beating", and now all the time i find reasons to think about that.
i’ve never seen that CJ video essay and i’m sure they have thoughtful reasons behind their dinner take lol time for dinner’s always been my favorite line of the song too. family trauma and communal eating is such a difficult and stressful experience. you’re forced into this situation with all of this trauma underneath everything, that combined with having to be presentable for guests compounds the problem. i used to study animation, and looking at the family while they’re prepping the dinner table is one of my favorite visual moments because you see all of their personalities and internal stressors. some of the family members are happily gliding while others are slamming glasses, everyone’s frantic-it’s stunning. i have personal gripes with how that movie handles trauma, but that song? peak!
I agree; plus the dinner scene in Encanto IS tense and suspenseful. It’s where everything falls apart and everyone finds out what Mirabel knows. “Time for dinner” emphasizes how little time she has to figure out the prophecy before she’s thrust into a family obligation that is going to be tense
I don't watch CJ nor have I seen encanto but the moment Joel played that part of the song i found myself thinking "how could anyone miss this?" It seems painfully obvious to me, even before Henry explained himself, that "Time for Dinner" is a deliberate shut down of whatever conversation is happening
To be fair, he cut out the bit where immediately after it they all enthusiastically continue talking about Bruno. If that had been the end of the song, with some tweaks to make it musically satisfying, it might have hit pretty hard.
I’ve heard an amazing argument not directly related to this but that applies in the book “Black Athena.” It’s the idea that scholars and critics often hate simple answers that seem intuitive to lay people, because complex answers justify their analysis. That’s a complicated way of saying it really feels like CJ wanted to sound smarter than “Time For Dinner works in the song because it is in fact literally time for dinner”
@@robynthethird4776But that’s sung as they’re setting the table, showing that Mirabel’s question has sparked them all into this gossip/this idea that’s plaguing their mind. The “time for dinner” is also a bit of a warning that Abuela is coming back, the head of the house, who definitely won’t be pleased they’re talking about Bruno. No new information is repeated at this part, they’re just singing their lines again and sort of talking over each other.
That's not even to mention how Bruno eats meals behind the wall next to the dinner table featured at the end of the song. Like the Dinner table was so important to Bruno, he made an extension for himself just to feel involved in the family life and now they're replacing him at the table with this new guy!
Idk about hispanic cultures specifically but where i am from, dinner is an important time of day especially because that is when the whole family comes together, much like the madrigals. Where you are faced with your family to confront what happened to you today. Obviously this can be pretty inoffensive and not dramatic, but if you are going through stressful situations, ive experienced with school or if im hiding something like Mirabel and her other cousins and siblings, its a tense environment. So what im saying is, "Time for dinner" IS in fact evoking dread and suspense based on the events thus far in the film.
my dinner is eating up this scrumptious rebuttal from little joel. such a good lil video, i agree with everything u said mr. joel. the dinner scene proceeding this song is very important, a huge turning point in the plot of encanto. it's a dinner scene full of tension as the refusal of this family to discuss bruno comes to a head and the house gets all destroyed and stuff. time for dinner is a very relevant lyric
"Late for dinner, late again" from Falsettos is a similar lyric that doesn't appear to do anything on its face, but besides literally interrupting a brewing argument between Marvin and Trina, the way the cast repeats it until they're practically yelling underlines their neuroses and how Marvin is driving them all insane. I'd rather have a clever lyric like "time for dinner" than more surface-level pop nonsense that Disney has been pumping out lately.
2:15 i clicked this video on my lunch break thinking it was just a silly little joke upload, but unfortunately im working three time zones away from my gf for the summer and i miss her terribly so now im sobbing in the work truck because of this song 🙃
The line is also directly important to the story, since so much hinges on the dinner going well (the whole matchmaking thing between Isabella and that guy who wants to marry her). It alludes to how much pressure is placed on everyone in that family to do every tiny thing perfectly, and kinda foreshadows Isabella's song later in the movie after the dinner gets wrecked
I hadn’t considered this angle, nice insight diminutive Joel! One thing I wanna add is that dinner IS very important not to just the family dynamic surrounding talking about Bruno but to Bruno himself! He’s there, looking through a hole in the wall. He disappeared one day, and his family never discussed it at the table. They don’t talk about Bruno. Almost as if they don’t remember his disappearance. It’s tragic how he’d sit there every dinner and not hear a family member worry for him, and doesn’t know they are thinking of him. That is sad
I'm not crazy for being deeply obsessed with bless the telephone then PHEW just such a beautiful and accurate explanation for why I'm so moved by that song. There's so much reverence and it's so profound.
I agree so much! You can really feel Lin-Manuel Miranda's influence on Moana and Encanto. The songs don't feel like modern Disney songs, because they are inextricably linked to the story itself, while that means they can't be fully enjoyed as much on their own. I just checked the lyrics for the soundtracks of Tangled and Frozen, and they actually don't mention a character's name in any song. (except for the Mother Knows Best reprise and Reindeers are Better than People, which are both kinda throwaway songs) Cause, you know, mentioning a character's name will remind people that they're listening to a musical soundtrack and not a pop song. You can even tell how deliberately all lines that include character's names are spoken in between lines that are sung ("go away, Anna" in Do You Want to Build a Snowman, for example). Anyway, contrast this with Moana, where the first sung word is literally "Moana", or Encanto, where the entire first song is listing the different family members. Idk, I like musicals and I think those two are neat.
i love this channel because sometimes its literally just a man gets booped and sometimes i have to pause the video while i ponder the implications of blessing a telephone and how all that exists is holy if we use it to love
I also feel that on top of all that, the line just works really well structurally for the song. Whether or not that it's time for dinner matters thematically, within the context of the song it marks the transition from all the stories being sung about individually to them all coming together. The dinner becomes important because it marks the climax of the song.
I’ve never seen this video essay, but you’re so right about this line. This line signifies the climax where the family finally comes together, in dinner and in the song. Thematically, them gathering and preparing for dinner with Isabella’s arranged marriage partner IS about the family’s repression, as well as just directly moving the plot along. Them setting up this dinner while they collectively sing their verses about Bruno signifies how all family members work hard to maintain their facade of perfection despite the trouble brewing underneath.
Heck, what happens next proves that point. Everybody is singing about their own issues with Bruno, whether dismissing Bruno, thinking him a monster, or unable to even advocate for him, but they are basically (and musically-literally) only aligned by the fact that Bruno is a taboo (musically because everything follows Pepa’s account of the events which means it follows the chords Pepa has established in her part, but in terms of everything else every else’s feelings about Bruno does stem from the fact that Bruno is shunned for the reason and nothing goes beyond that). They then literally only align to say that Bruno is a taboo subject especially during this dinner. Musically, and because Lin-Manuel is so good at musical stories textually, the only thing uniting the family is that Bruno is taboo and embarrassing history that never happened.
I have no knowledge of this movie, but of course "its time for dinner" is in a song called "we don't talk about Bruno" There is no other song where it would fit so well. "What? You want to know about Bruno? Not now, its time for dinner, maybe after." The 'maybe after' never comes, it was just an excuse to push it off. Again, I know _nothing_ about the movie, so I would say that line works well.
this made me relisten to the song, and its interesting how Mariano's (Isabella's Boyfriend) arrival is foreshadowed throughout the song ("It's like I hear him now, I can hear him now, come Bruno" "Time for Dinner" and "He's here", but could also refer to Bruno (living in the walls, eating dinner with the family).
I like that Mariano could be likened as a consequence of shunning Bruno. That is, by shunning Bruno they keep up their facade of a perfect helper magical family, and Mariano is here to consummate the integration of the Madrigals into the Encanto through the continuation of their act, but whoops! By doing that, they have consigned themselves to just being the helpers of the Encanto and have ruined their lives by making themselves nothing more than. The background tools the Encanto relies on to live a magical life secluded from whatever. And that feels sad that if they succeeded, Isabella would be deeply unhappy, as would Dolores, and everybody would suffer as the family ground themselves down to background tools that sustain the community but then falter in that because they would probably break down randomly at some point.
Not sure if that was the authorial intent (lin manuel might be dorky enough to actually intend the family's denial to hijack the diegesis and try to shut down the subject of the song, but I don't think they told the animators, one anxious face expression at the time for dinner bit would've done so much to communicate that) but you made me see it with new eyes so thank you mr joel please don't kill CJ before CJ kills the internet
My spouse and I have to be apart for a while and when you talked about Bless the Telephone I started crying (in a good way). Never heard that song before but it's going to be one of my favorites for a while I think.
The way I personally resonated with this line is mirabel has been running around all day learning bits of secrets about bruno, and now everyone shes talked to is going to sit down at FAMILY DINNER and gossip. Not to mention theyre all supposed to be on their best behavior to impress isabelas boyfriend and his family, so if they act out it might be a little bit mirabels fault but she knows shell take the brunt of the blame because shes the "black sheep".
I 100% agree, “Time for dinner” is a really good line. It feels like there’s an urgency, there isn’t enough time. It’s moving the story along. Time is still passing through out the duration of the song.
Calling "at last I see the light" anything but spectacular is blasphemous, tangled and its following series still to this day (for me) has the the best songs Disney has ever had or ever will.
3:31 "Most Disney animated songs at this point have almost no context. They don't require any understanding of the plot and hardly remind us that we're watching a story at all." Ouch. CJ the X, that had to hurt.
Definitely agree on the last point. I don't want musical numbers in movies to be cool and slick and clean and sheared of anything that would make them seem odd if you listened to them completely out of context. If the context doesn't matter, then why sing at all? Why sing that, rather than something else.
Totally unrelated to this video but thank you for showing me bless the telephone, I sent it to my husband because he calls me on his way home from work everyday. It felt like he wrote it for me :’)
Labi Siffre is gay and I didn't know I am sorry. he's singing about loving his boy. During pride month no less.
I just came down to the comments to say this. Consider yourself corrected
Whoops, but your take is still just as valid
Wow, I thought little Joel was infallible. Now he's turning into big Joel 😔
me watching this video on repeat before little joel deletes it for this reason
Happy Pride, everyone!🏳🌈
i had a dream about you last night so i knew something was coming
well that was fuckin quick
manifesting response videos subconsciously
No way?! it's CJ the X from TH-camr Little Joel's hit video "Time For Dinner: A Response to CJ The X"
I'm not taking a side in this until I hear Ben from Canada's take. He always has the freshest eyes.
When Joel Was Little
CJ’s 4-hour response later this afternoon will ensure that nobody has time for dinner.
Implying 90% of TH-cam videos aren't watched while eating
@@adanactnomew7085I personally watch (err, listen) to TH-cam videos while making dinner, not eating it!
@adanactnomew7085 who eats on the toilet?
@@orterves if poop particles get on your food on the toilet, they're already in your mouth and lungs anyway
@@orterves You never heard about combining the four best things in life? You should eat, fuck and watch youtube simultaneously while shitting, it's quite the release.
"I am in fact trying to harass them" is unhinged
So few hinges.
hingeless
@@paultapping9510 it's the dating app that's meant to be deleted, after all
Un-hygge
It’s actually de-hinged. Where once were hinges now are hinge holes
Little Joel ATTACKS queer content creator during PRIDE????
smh 😤 truly abhorrent to see!!
Shameful 😞
Explicitly calls for harassment 😤😤
He got his fighting hands out
Big Joel 🤝 Mac from it's always sunny in Philadelphia
Doing a hate crime on members of the lgbtq community
I can’t believe both you and CJ missed the double entendre… I giggled thinking of how the song suggests the ‘boyfriend’ is the sacrificial lamb and it is he who is in fact, for dinner.
Wow yes I never thought about that. Good take
I think it's part of what makes the line so low-key sinister, lol (also the thematic stuff Joel said).
lol
I had never thought of that lol
Not to mention that it's an event for deciding Isabella's fate - if she get married, her life will be fully "consumed" by that
“Time for Dinner” is such a hard name for a response video.
Especially when Big Joel and CJ the X are both snacks
@@bsnow304 Please get your facts straight, this is Little Joel.
@@PosiWritesStories Aw beans, I can't believe I've done this
She ate.
@@bsnow304Regular size Joel could get it fr.
I know Encanto isn’t an opera, but “Time for dinner!” very much gives opera vibes-it changes the scene and moves the narrative forward. We Don’t Talk About Bruno isn’t just a tableau musical number-the plot keeps happening as the song progresses. And I love that!
It's like a blend of recictative and aria, right?
It was written by Lin manwel maranda (Hamilton), and he has an iconic, although fairly one-note style of stage musical rap infused writing. "Time for dinner" really does feel like a very Hamilton line.
@@juromori actually it would be considered a true recitative. Arias don’t move the plot along. A song like Under the Surface would be an Aria.
@@milotheviewer Yeah I think you're right. I just thought that it wasn't too much plot to consider it 100% recitative.
I like seeing IP in various places
It’s also a really tense line! The dinner is an object of stress and dread for Mirabel, a complicated social interaction with a group of people who she is keeping secrets from, and who are keeping secrets from her, and the line reminds her that it is imminent - she’s run out of time.
One of the things I think people genuinely miss about Encanto is that most of the film is not about the family as usual. It's the family *hosting!* My family gets tense and stressed as hell when we're trying to put on a good face for other families, the Madrigals just want to put things off until it's over. Like Alma's line "tonight we cannot have any more problems"
You should talk about good songs you like more!!
Unfortunately Joel seldom likes songs that don’t involve telephones, so that limits the scope of conversation.
Ah ah ah ah ah it’s Jacob Geller! (I’m sure that’s not news to you, though)
@@greanbeen2816omg he is😍
I honestly agree. Bless the telephone is a beautiful song. Even just that snippet sent chills down my spine. Reminds me of Jim Croce a bit.
@@greanbeen2816 Ah ah ah ah ah it’s greanbeen2816! (I’m sure that’s not news to you, though)
Little Joel DESTROYS CJ The X with FACTS and even a little bit of LOGIC. How will this intellectual titan ever fall?
They probably are so happy to have gotten destroyed in a petersonian way. It's their fantasy
The dinner is also very important, it’s the make or break of a possible engagement and it’s literally the point multiple conflicts come to ahead and like half the characters are injured or have breakdowns
Right, there's some foreshadowing going on, building suspense. Dinner is supposed to be this happy affair with Isabella's boyfriend meeting the family, they're all cheerfully laying out plates. But the shadow of their rejection of Bruno is hanging over the whole thing and is going to crash down on top of it. So then when the song ends and dinner starts, having "time for dinner" be included in the song is a way to signal to the audience this isn't "that song's over, here's the next scene" but that the content of the song is going to be crucial to the scene.
Yeah, it's like One More Day in Les Mis, it's"Holy shit the clock is ticking the climax is about to happen"
And it's during the dinner that they're actually the closest to Bruno up to that point, cuz he's being the wall with the family tree! They try to move on from Bruno, but they keep thinking about him as they set the table and they do all of this in front of him
@@Carolina57685bruh I was looking for someone who noticed this. They don’t talk about Bruno because he left, but he didn’t leave. Time for dinner.
Also, later when it's revealed that Bruno still pretends to eat with the rest of the family. Like, it shows that, like the telephone, dinner is an important medium which with the family gets to connect with each other. There's like a deliberate contradiction between the family getting together to connect over dinner and even inviting Isabella's boyfriend to join them while also simultaneously disconnecting themselves from a different member of their family.
Good catch
Artful insight right here
This!!
Thomas Foster was right!
It's also a dinner that will ultimately make Isabella feel even more isolated from her family if it goes through because she does not want to be with him, and because dolores will be hurt by it. So I think the contrast works with that as well, with the way we don't talk about bruno gives the rest of the family the feeling that this family does not discuss important things. you can hear isabella saying "and im fine and im fine and im fine i'll be fine" right before camillo says "he's here!"
Also not talking about bruno is not talking about how "the life of [her] dreams would be promised and someday be [hers]" and how that's not matching up right now with her in a nightmare situation.
To me, I always found "you're boyfriend's here, time for dinner" to be a slightly dark double entendre, like the family is about to consume Isabella's suitor. Not in a cannibalistic way, obviously, but in the sense that the family needs fresh meat to survive and this man is considered a prime cut, hence why they're making a huge event out of making sure the proposal takes place.
Part of what I love about poetry, and by extension song writing and musical theater, is that figurative language is a really, really powerful means of communication. The meaning we all get from it is a combination of both the intended meaning by the author and our personal understanding of the symbols being used.
So when "Under Pressure" plays, I am not just seeing the text of the song in the narrative, but also how it applies to my life in subtle ways. My understanding of her lines, being figurative and analogous, is necessarily informed by my own experiences and understanding of the emotions at the core.
So interpretations like yours here, whether it was intended by the author or not (and it very well might have been intended) are really cool, because it speaks to how you understand the family dynamics at play, and how you apply that art to reality. It is true regardless, because absent any contradictory text, it is one of the nearly infinite ways that the piece could speak to its intended audience.
I just think it is cool how our brains work. Art lets us communicate to each other in really deep ways without ever even knowing the person who is viewing it, because the interpretation of art is always a collaborative effort between the author and the audience.
"but I *am* trying to harass them"
Joel's deadpan humor is really something lol
It's crazy to me how much people find that relatively tame joke so shocking, is it literally your guys' first time seeing dry wit 😭
Surely this is what will start a video essay beef that will make Drake and Kendrick Lamar look like schoolboys arguing over whether Goku could beat Superman
superman wins btw
@@CorkIMIliterally how?!?!?
@Hafk Superman Red and Superman Blue
@Hafk Superman loses to cheats (kryptonite, magic, destroy the sun). Goku is a man of honor. Superman completely clears Goku
@@Pumpkinlumpy No no, just no. Veins popping out the forehead are a sign of strength, bro. Where are superman's forehead veins!? You couldn't find them with a microscope. Why? Cause they don't exist. He weak.
I love how "Time for dinner" has a natural melodic pattern. There's just a common way to say it. But it doesn't sound like singing so it is intentionally disruptive to the current melody. I think all together it works surprisingly well to pull you out of musical logic and back into the reality of family stress.
I think that common way it's spoken, as a call to children playing right before the sun sets, ending with a diminutive tone at the end to express the authority of the speaker (in a way inverse to "uptalk") also serves as part of why this interruption is so effective. The authority of the family, of Abuela, echoes all their voices in unison to obstruct Mirabel's attempt at exploring and seeking the truth about Bruno, right at her most insistent. The cacophony of their conversation literally overwhelms and drowns out her investigation, but only after they all resoundingly decide "Oh! It's time for dinner!" as if trying to get out of the "birds and bees" conversation because it's so uncomfortable.
I also think this adds a kind of ominous quality to the beat that I really like; Mirabel is doing her digging up and unwinding and she's building up familial cacophony at a moment of high social stakes: Isabella's boyfriend is Here and it's Time for Dinner.
Guys dont fight please you're making me cry
Right??? 😭
it makes me scared that they're gonna divorce 😭😭😭
Encanto isn't a perfect movie, but I do feel like the majority of criticisms involve people not understanding the importance of the "little things" in general. Like the whole movie is a sorta small-scale conflict that mostly takes place in a family's house and it really bothers me how many folks think it sucks for not being some epic adventure movie.
Media literacy is dead. People just want to react with extremes.
I agree completely!
Low key breaking familial cycles of dysfunction & trauma is kinda epic.
It really seemed like a case of "popular thing bad" because it was a Disney movie with a lot of hype
There's a reason people kept talking about Encanto and nobody's talking about Wish. One was good.
@@ryang1202 the only ppl who talk about Wish are usually artists or Disney fans despairing over what the movie should’ve been after seeing the concept art and animatics.
“Time for dinner” is actually such a great and simple metaphor for how families habitually and even ritually suppress discussing uncomfortable topics. Super relatable, and doesn’t even entirely require the context of the film’s culture/story to be relevant
Family dinner is not only important in many cultures but also a social event that can have a lot of stakes; considering that, the line in the song can be anything from warm and homely, to tense and anxious. I haven't seen Encanto but I can so easily imagine it being used as a hurdle in their relationship.
There’s definitely stakes to the dinner itself because it’s the dinner where Abuela wants to discuss and have Isabela engaged to Mariano because she expects (and projects onto) Isabela being perfect and having the perfect life (despite what Isabela may actually want and desire). So it would make sense that the family essentially tries to politely tell Mirabel to shut up about Bruno because of the bad publicity that he brought them, and so they can get out of the conversation about him because they believe it’s bad luck to talk about him. Plus it is revealed later in the movie that Bruno is living in the walls (hinted at by Dolores in the beginning of the song) and that he still eats dinner with the family every night in secret, which makes the “time for dinner” line both more painful and ironic to be mentioned in a song where Bruno’s own family is dissing him.
@@Polyeurythane I was looking for this comment, thank you!
“Time for dinner” always gave me chills…idk, it feels so ominous somehow, like the sun had gone down and the family was all getting together in one place physically in the same room, etc etc. It has this dusky ambience to it. Not only is it the best lyric of the song, it’s like, the musical and harmonic climax of it. The fact that it’s so literal and grounded in the mundane, like you said, makes it juxtapose so tastily with the rest of the lines. Hard agree on everything you said here 😘
That's because of the chord changes
CJ The X has been real quiet since this dropped...
I refuse to believe that CJ The X has ever been, will ever be, or has the capability to be, quiet
This comment was made when the video was 2 minutes old lmao
@@paullemay6596 If you were serious about the internet, you would understand that not responding to a 5 minute video in the first 2 minutes is basically admitting you're Hitler
@@paullemay6596That was the joke
@@Jasperge99the reply is important for future generations who will not be able to see how long the comment was made after the posting of the video and will therefore not be able to discern if it is indeed a joke
Not just all this, but the dinner is the triumph of the performance of the family over the substance of what the family truly is! It's the thesis of the entire movie. I also disagreed with CJ on this over on that video, a small bad take inside a pretty good video.
And we find out that Bruno has been watching them eat dinner and has been secretly eating 'with' them behind his wall, which is one of the most moving moments in the movie! Dinner matters!
@@camipco #dinnermatters lets get it trending
How about you two just kiss ?
Lmfao
PLEASE lol
not every TH-camr wants to kiss CJ the X, okay? OKAY? that's so silly. ha. HA. HA HA HA.
Agree
@@InnuendoStudios Uh huh. Right. I totally believe this not-at-all-suspicious denial.
Whoa you really put into words what I felt watching that video. The line is at the point that is SUPPOSED to be the moment of breakthrough for Mirabel, but it’s being withheld!! It’s the moment of tension being released but it doesn’t really go where it’s expected to. Our experience of watching the scene is totally mediated by this I think and I think it shows through in the music. After the line is spoken the characters all break out into a canon that feels fragmented
Even better, the music from that point on is so diffuse unless it is about shunning Bruno, meaning that while they can act all they like about being a unified family everybody will crumble very soon whether or not the dinner went successfully and (because everyone fits the chords about shunning Bruno that Pepa establishes) pretty soon the only thing that will unite them is hating Bruno (that is, one person hates Bruno, one person goes along with it, one person is sympathetic but cannot say anything, one person thinks him a monster, etc.)
"I like CJ's videos but I am in fact trying to harass them when I say-" is wild 😭
Getting hyped over the Little Joel CJ the X crossover and then having to witness this absolutely devastating critique is like watching your parents get divorced.
I love when art my fav art critic TH-camrs critique each other bc that's their love languages fr
This gives me the same vibes as "rappers having beef is just men writing poetry to each other"
@@pepsimann2038 wow pepsiman, so all rappers are men? it's 2018, women can be rappers now
"Your boyfreind is here time for dinner" is obvipusly loading up the anxiety of the situation, Ive never even seen encanto but that little line already tells me what to expect from the next scenes
He wants the smoke. Little Joel chose violence today
Your comments about the line "bless the telephone" is exactly how I feel about another song, "Objects in Space" by La Dispute. I've always held deep sentimentality for the mundane and how mundane objects can be beautiful and meaningful to someone and their story.
Anyway, I hope this video doesn't get you cancelled or something.
the whole Rooms of the House album is so so incredible at weaving the mundane together into something, La Dispute best album I think!!!! Somewhere At The Bottom is incredible and intense but rooms of the house has so much d e p t h
@@jongray3642 I didn't like Rooms of the House when I first heard it. It felt like such a major departure from Wildlife. But the more I listened to it and the more I got into its story, the more I loved it. Definitely my favorite album from them by far.
@@ICVRXS yess same, at first I thought "eh this seems kinda boring bc its not as heavy" but it really grows on you
I might add that the way that Bruno ultimately stays connected to his family, where he shows up every night whether they know it or not.. is dinner time. He extends the table into the wall and sets a place for himself at it.
It’s so heartbreaking.. and warming… and like… it’s kind of a big deal. It’s time for dinner calls Bruno to the song.. to the film.
SPOILERS!
This is the comment I was looking for! It's so poignant that he lays the table and invisibly joins them for every meal.
The thing I love in "time for dinner" is that their ignoring their problems and sweeping it uner the rug again and go with their day and it is MUCH more dire because its also before "your boyfriend is here." SOMEONE is coming to their home and eat and converse at their table and they need to act perfect with no problems so they must not talk about Bruno.
THE STAKES HAVE NEVER BEEN LOWER
Its also, you know, a call to dinner. Dinner is, traditionally, where the while family comes together and talks. But whats happening? They arent ALL coming together and they arent talking. Its irony, y'know
I just wanted to say that as someone in a long distance relationship, the subject of Labri Siffre's song is something I think about a lot - the role that technology plays in our relationship, how it allows us to see and speak to each other in real time, how it allows us to experience watching series and films with each other, and what all of this means for our relationship.
It's something that feels profound to me in a way I can't really articulate, but it's often on my mind. I'd never heard of this singer or his song before, so thanks for introducing him to me, Large Joel
I think about that sometimes. People don't really write each other letters anymore, but romantic texting is also kinda special in its own way.
Also in a lot of South American cultures, family meals are really important. We see this family in the movie also eat breakfast, and it's again a big bug deal that they're all there.
Not only is the dinner a distraction from the ostracized Bruno but a symbol of the unity they band under to separate themselves from him. Bruno, we see, also has a spot near the kitchen where he's made a mock-up of a dinner table with a plate meant for him. So this "dinner" is still related to Bruno in one way or another; he'll be joining them, even if they're unaware.
This song actually features the Madrigal as a musical concept, which is also their family name.
Honestly this is maybe the most thematically sound song in the movie. If CJ wanted to pick at something it should've been like the one about flowers that the Isabela character sings near the end.
Edit: I should specify that I meant meals and not dinner specifically. Traditionally in Colombia lunch is the main meal of the day and is large and eaten as a family. Dinner tends to be light and decently late into the day. I'm not going to speculate too much about this movie, but I imagine that this family eats dinners like this because they're so close-knit, or this occasion was special so they had a big meal when they otherwise wouldn't. Who knows. Still, it's obvious this family always eats together.
A few people have said something along these line already, but I think something that's really fun bout Encanto compared to a lot of other disney movies is that the music is really written like it's for a musical. The songs aren't just a short break in the story, they actively move the plot along, show changes within the characters' thought processes and relationships, and are full of different repeating motifs and changes in style depending on the change in mood, which is really unique for animated musicals. I just think it's neat ya know
I feel like it's an, "Oh shit, dinner's here! I'm running out of time!" kind of moment.
Never put much thought into it but "time for dinner" is a great and meaningful line. "Isabella, your boyfriend's here. Time for dinner" coming from Isabella (the best and most complex character) point of view is so daunting. She's been trying to avoid this man and dreading marrying him, and now he's there at her doorstep. There is no escape, it's time for dinner.
Even outside of the best character(and only character to talk positively about Bruno in his family diss track)'s POV, "time for dinner" is incredibly impactful when you actually remember what happened at dinner. Chaos on all sides, Luisa having a meltdown losing her powers, that snitch who clearly hates Bruno but gaslit the audience to believing she always liked him tells the whole family about Mirabel going into Bruno's room, Mirabel is putting together the shards of Bruno's prophecy, Mariano proposes, the house (literally and metaphorically) falling apart. It's the climax of the film. This criticism is like if a Julius Caesar musical had a song leading up to his death having the line "time for a Senate hearing" and critiquing it because Senate hearings are mundane and unimportant, the big foreboding line should be about something meaningful
Who else came back to this in 2028 to see where the Great Breadtube war began?
Did you casually break the first and fifth rule of time travelling ?
@@joshuaizly5502 Those rules were changed in 2459. It's all good
We lost so many good soldiers. Contrapoints and Lindsay Ellis never should have taken it to the streets.
Hbomberguy is now unquestioned dictator of the entire Eurasian continent, and every day he makes a video about a random citizen, which kills them instantly. Tommy Tallarico and James Somerton were just the beginning...
This is what will kill my family and drive me towards my revenge story, but it hasn’t happened yet, so I don’t have to worry about any of that lol
Also, wasn't that Dinner actually important? I may be misremembering, but during that dinner the family is trying really hard to keep appearances, all while Maribel is increasingly anxious about the Bruno thing and that's when the house begins to crack. The dinner is like the ultimate manifestation of the family's attempt to keep appearances.
Yeah, Mariano was coming over with his parents to propose to Isabela. It was extremely important to some members of the family that the proposal go well, but it also would have been a grave mistake because it would have committed Isabela to a path that she didn't want to follow. I didn't realize this the first time through, but knowing that on rewatch, that's why Casita starts crumbling so much during the proposal and why Antonio's animals put together the pieces of Bruno's vision. They were trying to intervene in what would have been the most serious thing someone in the family had been pressured into doing.
It's a hugely stressful thing for Isabella who feels trapped by the plans abuela has for her to be with Mariano *and* also for Dolores who is actually interested in him but isn't being set up for him, both of which are also hinted at earlier in the song
In First Time Female Director, i heard Jordan Peele say, "If the character's not eating, the heart's not beating", and now all the time i find reasons to think about that.
i’ve never seen that CJ video essay and i’m sure they have thoughtful reasons behind their dinner take lol
time for dinner’s always been my favorite line of the song too. family trauma and communal eating is such a difficult and stressful experience. you’re forced into this situation with all of this trauma underneath everything, that combined with having to be presentable for guests compounds the problem. i used to study animation, and looking at the family while they’re prepping the dinner table is one of my favorite visual moments because you see all of their personalities and internal stressors. some of the family members are happily gliding while others are slamming glasses, everyone’s frantic-it’s stunning. i have personal gripes with how that movie handles trauma, but that song? peak!
I agree; plus the dinner scene in Encanto IS tense and suspenseful. It’s where everything falls apart and everyone finds out what Mirabel knows. “Time for dinner” emphasizes how little time she has to figure out the prophecy before she’s thrust into a family obligation that is going to be tense
I don't watch CJ nor have I seen encanto but the moment Joel played that part of the song i found myself thinking "how could anyone miss this?" It seems painfully obvious to me, even before Henry explained himself, that "Time for Dinner" is a deliberate shut down of whatever conversation is happening
To be fair, he cut out the bit where immediately after it they all enthusiastically continue talking about Bruno. If that had been the end of the song, with some tweaks to make it musically satisfying, it might have hit pretty hard.
Maybe he's just being contrary, for fun.
@@robynthethird4776 that does make CJ's argument more logical. Thank you for the context
I’ve heard an amazing argument not directly related to this but that applies in the book “Black Athena.” It’s the idea that scholars and critics often hate simple answers that seem intuitive to lay people, because complex answers justify their analysis. That’s a complicated way of saying it really feels like CJ wanted to sound smarter than “Time For Dinner works in the song because it is in fact literally time for dinner”
@@robynthethird4776But that’s sung as they’re setting the table, showing that Mirabel’s question has sparked them all into this gossip/this idea that’s plaguing their mind. The “time for dinner” is also a bit of a warning that Abuela is coming back, the head of the house, who definitely won’t be pleased they’re talking about Bruno. No new information is repeated at this part, they’re just singing their lines again and sort of talking over each other.
That's not even to mention how Bruno eats meals behind the wall next to the dinner table featured at the end of the song. Like the Dinner table was so important to Bruno, he made an extension for himself just to feel involved in the family life and now they're replacing him at the table with this new guy!
Idk about hispanic cultures specifically but where i am from, dinner is an important time of day especially because that is when the whole family comes together, much like the madrigals. Where you are faced with your family to confront what happened to you today. Obviously this can be pretty inoffensive and not dramatic, but if you are going through stressful situations, ive experienced with school or if im hiding something like Mirabel and her other cousins and siblings, its a tense environment. So what im saying is, "Time for dinner" IS in fact evoking dread and suspense based on the events thus far in the film.
Finally some recognition for Bless The Telephone, I heard that song a few years ago and it's just so beautiful and simple and real
my dinner is eating up this scrumptious rebuttal from little joel. such a good lil video, i agree with everything u said mr. joel. the dinner scene proceeding this song is very important, a huge turning point in the plot of encanto. it's a dinner scene full of tension as the refusal of this family to discuss bruno comes to a head and the house gets all destroyed and stuff. time for dinner is a very relevant lyric
"Late for dinner, late again" from Falsettos is a similar lyric that doesn't appear to do anything on its face, but besides literally interrupting a brewing argument between Marvin and Trina, the way the cast repeats it until they're practically yelling underlines their neuroses and how Marvin is driving them all insane. I'd rather have a clever lyric like "time for dinner" than more surface-level pop nonsense that Disney has been pumping out lately.
2:15 i clicked this video on my lunch break thinking it was just a silly little joke upload, but unfortunately im working three time zones away from my gf for the summer and i miss her terribly so now im sobbing in the work truck because of this song 🙃
It is sublime, isn't it? I'm commenting so you get back on here and listen to it again.
No idea who CJ is but they're serving with that ensemble
They always are. U gotta go watch them !!
The line is also directly important to the story, since so much hinges on the dinner going well (the whole matchmaking thing between Isabella and that guy who wants to marry her). It alludes to how much pressure is placed on everyone in that family to do every tiny thing perfectly, and kinda foreshadows Isabella's song later in the movie after the dinner gets wrecked
I hadn’t considered this angle, nice insight diminutive Joel! One thing I wanna add is that dinner IS very important not to just the family dynamic surrounding talking about Bruno but to Bruno himself! He’s there, looking through a hole in the wall.
He disappeared one day, and his family never discussed it at the table. They don’t talk about Bruno. Almost as if they don’t remember his disappearance. It’s tragic how he’d sit there every dinner and not hear a family member worry for him, and doesn’t know they are thinking of him. That is sad
20 eggs dinner time
It took me a second to get that reference, but that is perfect.
Often yes.
20 eggs often my dinner
that’s 40 eggs too little to be a reference i understand
To help you get large
@@CaptLuser the eggs man
I love “bless the telephone” I’m so glad you mentioned it
I'm not crazy for being deeply obsessed with bless the telephone then PHEW just such a beautiful and accurate explanation for why I'm so moved by that song. There's so much reverence and it's so profound.
I agree so much! You can really feel Lin-Manuel Miranda's influence on Moana and Encanto. The songs don't feel like modern Disney songs, because they are inextricably linked to the story itself, while that means they can't be fully enjoyed as much on their own. I just checked the lyrics for the soundtracks of Tangled and Frozen, and they actually don't mention a character's name in any song. (except for the Mother Knows Best reprise and Reindeers are Better than People, which are both kinda throwaway songs) Cause, you know, mentioning a character's name will remind people that they're listening to a musical soundtrack and not a pop song.
You can even tell how deliberately all lines that include character's names are spoken in between lines that are sung ("go away, Anna" in Do You Want to Build a Snowman, for example). Anyway, contrast this with Moana, where the first sung word is literally "Moana", or Encanto, where the entire first song is listing the different family members. Idk, I like musicals and I think those two are neat.
i love this channel because sometimes its literally just a man gets booped and sometimes i have to pause the video while i ponder the implications of blessing a telephone and how all that exists is holy if we use it to love
So obsessed with Telephone. Best love song
I also feel that on top of all that, the line just works really well structurally for the song. Whether or not that it's time for dinner matters thematically, within the context of the song it marks the transition from all the stories being sung about individually to them all coming together. The dinner becomes important because it marks the climax of the song.
I’ve never seen this video essay, but you’re so right about this line. This line signifies the climax where the family finally comes together, in dinner and in the song. Thematically, them gathering and preparing for dinner with Isabella’s arranged marriage partner IS about the family’s repression, as well as just directly moving the plot along. Them setting up this dinner while they collectively sing their verses about Bruno signifies how all family members work hard to maintain their facade of perfection despite the trouble brewing underneath.
Heck, what happens next proves that point. Everybody is singing about their own issues with Bruno, whether dismissing Bruno, thinking him a monster, or unable to even advocate for him, but they are basically (and musically-literally) only aligned by the fact that Bruno is a taboo (musically because everything follows Pepa’s account of the events which means it follows the chords Pepa has established in her part, but in terms of everything else every else’s feelings about Bruno does stem from the fact that Bruno is shunned for the reason and nothing goes beyond that). They then literally only align to say that Bruno is a taboo subject especially during this dinner. Musically, and because Lin-Manuel is so good at musical stories textually, the only thing uniting the family is that Bruno is taboo and embarrassing history that never happened.
fight, fight, fight! i'd honestly love to watch you two collab in a debate-esque format.
I have no knowledge of this movie, but of course "its time for dinner" is in a song called "we don't talk about Bruno" There is no other song where it would fit so well.
"What? You want to know about Bruno? Not now, its time for dinner, maybe after." The 'maybe after' never comes, it was just an excuse to push it off.
Again, I know _nothing_ about the movie, so I would say that line works well.
this guy knowsq
this made me relisten to the song, and its interesting how Mariano's (Isabella's Boyfriend) arrival is foreshadowed throughout the song ("It's like I hear him now, I can hear him now, come Bruno" "Time for Dinner" and "He's here", but could also refer to Bruno (living in the walls, eating dinner with the family).
Good catch! I always found the "He's here" kinda ominous and very telling giving the fact that Bruno was in fact, there.
I like that Mariano could be likened as a consequence of shunning Bruno. That is, by shunning Bruno they keep up their facade of a perfect helper magical family, and Mariano is here to consummate the integration of the Madrigals into the Encanto through the continuation of their act, but whoops! By doing that, they have consigned themselves to just being the helpers of the Encanto and have ruined their lives by making themselves nothing more than. The background tools the Encanto relies on to live a magical life secluded from whatever. And that feels sad that if they succeeded, Isabella would be deeply unhappy, as would Dolores, and everybody would suffer as the family ground themselves down to background tools that sustain the community but then falter in that because they would probably break down randomly at some point.
The diss tracks to come out of this will be legendary!
This is the in-fighting we need
Little Joel: _Posts Vid_
Everyone: "Time For Dinner!"
Oh my god I love both yours and CJ’s content and I’m so intrigued to hear what you have to say!
Not sure if that was the authorial intent (lin manuel might be dorky enough to actually intend the family's denial to hijack the diegesis and try to shut down the subject of the song, but I don't think they told the animators, one anxious face expression at the time for dinner bit would've done so much to communicate that) but you made me see it with new eyes so thank you mr joel
please don't kill CJ before CJ kills the internet
BLESS THE TELEPHONE >>>>
truly such an exquisite little ditty
And it has a sweet rythm to it.
Only Little Joel can make me care about a single line from a song I've never heard in a movie I'm never going to watch. And I cherish him for that.
I love it when my favorite videographers make responses to each other that aren't trying to make me choose my favorite like divorcing parents
i came here expecting a silly littlke funny man video talking about a creator i like, and end up with a genuine and very valid argument
My spouse and I have to be apart for a while and when you talked about Bless the Telephone I started crying (in a good way). Never heard that song before but it's going to be one of my favorites for a while I think.
The way I personally resonated with this line is mirabel has been running around all day learning bits of secrets about bruno, and now everyone shes talked to is going to sit down at FAMILY DINNER and gossip. Not to mention theyre all supposed to be on their best behavior to impress isabelas boyfriend and his family, so if they act out it might be a little bit mirabels fault but she knows shell take the brunt of the blame because shes the "black sheep".
The part of my brain that loves when my favorite wrestlers feud with each other is going crazy with joy rn
Having never thought about it before watching this video, you have convinced me that it's a great lyric
Thumbnail made me think cj the x had finally uploaded something 😞
same 😭 i was so hyped for a minute there
Paused this video to go watch the full CJ first
The duration was a dead giveaway, then I came to my senses.
I 100% agree, “Time for dinner” is a really good line. It feels like there’s an urgency, there isn’t enough time. It’s moving the story along. Time is still passing through out the duration of the song.
Little Joel uploaded? Time for watching!
Calling "at last I see the light" anything but spectacular is blasphemous, tangled and its following series still to this day (for me) has the the best songs Disney has ever had or ever will.
The real shade Joel‘s throwing is not mentioning cj‘s floral arrangements at all
At 4:25 I was expecting a “they exist within the context, of all in which they live and what came before them.”
I too have recently been obsessed with bless the telephone so hearing lil joel mention it was so freaky
"Time for dinner!" time for the story to keep moving! time to set up the tension for the next scene!
Everyone missed the fact that this a response to a nearly two year old video
I never realized she was holding a plate with corn in this scene
Immediatly knew what this was about, thank you for articulating my minor irks with the video better than I ever could! Time for dinner!
I too love CJ's videos and I too felt the same way. Thanks for making me feel right for once in my life, Joel
One of my favorite youtubers talking about another one of my favorites?!? Todays a good day after all
Omg, i just heard Bless the Telephone for the first time like a week ago, it hit me really hard. It's so sweet.
you and cj are the only ones to ever do it imo
3:31 "Most Disney animated songs at this point have almost no context. They don't require any understanding of the plot and hardly remind us that we're watching a story at all." Ouch. CJ the X, that had to hurt.
Definitely agree on the last point. I don't want musical numbers in movies to be cool and slick and clean and sheared of anything that would make them seem odd if you listened to them completely out of context. If the context doesn't matter, then why sing at all? Why sing that, rather than something else.
I had never hard that song before (the artist is new to me), but it's beautiful. Thanks for sharing it. Gotta go now, time for dinner!
I agree with you miniscule joel
Totally unrelated to this video but thank you for showing me bless the telephone, I sent it to my husband because he calls me on his way home from work everyday. It felt like he wrote it for me :’)
my goat strikes again with another classic banger
me after being stomped on by my goat's hooves