I finally caught up with everyone else and watched some Disney movies recently! Because of the pandemic, I don't really like going to movie theatres anymore (Why torture yourself and sit in an ice cold room where you can't adjust the air conditioning? You'd also need to put on a mask and you can't hit pause when you have to pee... so many disadvantages honestly)
The Disney movies I've watched this year are Luca, Cruella, Encanto and Turning Red. And all of them are good! Like what the heck! I thought at least Cruella was going to be a movie I didn't like because Maleficent was boring. But yes, Cruella was surprisingly good too.
Usually in a movie with lots of characters, you can get confused and you may find some characters boring, but nope. All the characters in Encanto were different from one another, and each one was so fun and fascinating to watch.
I think therapists are more well-equipped to discuss Bruno's OCD and how the family treats him as the identified patient or the black sheep of the family, so I won't be talking about that. But I'm sure everyone would agree that it was heartbreaking to find out that Bruno was living in the house all along, even eating with the family from behind a wall. It was also sad that Dolores could hear him but nobody actually cared about what she said (as shown in 'We Don't Talk About Bruno').
When I googled 'Encanto' to read some reviews and opinions on the movie, I realised that a commonly searched question was this: Why did Mirabel not receive a gift?
There were many theories but the one that I agreed with the most is that Mirabel is poised to take over from Abuela. Here are a couple of reasons why:
1. Both Abuela and Mirabel seemingly have no powers
Mirabel sings a whole song at the beginning introducing her family and each of their superpowers, and guess what? Abuela and Mirabel are the only two in the family without obvious superpowers.
Nobody questions Abuela because she's the head of the family and the miracle didn't find them only after her husband died, so there's that. But we're talking about magic here. The candle could've given her magical powers like superstrength if it wanted to. Yet it didn't. Because Abuela has to 'run the show' (from the song 'The Family Madrigal') and that's already a lot of work. She had to raise triplets, run a household and build a new village entirely from scratch. Seemingly without powers.
And I say 'seemingly' because her power is actually there - her connection to her house, Casita.
Mirabel has no powers and didn't get her own room. My theory is that she was meant not to get any powers because she already has her own powers - the power of communication, the ability to empathise, the determination to solve problems, and the strength to bring her family together.
In the film, we see that her sisters were facing their own personal problems (Luisa is burnt out while Isabel strives to be perfect) but didn't talk to anyone about them - they only opened up to Mirabel. The cracks in Casita symbolise the cracks in the Madrigal family, and only Mirabel was able to make the cracks disappear (as seen in the song 'What Else Can I Do?'). Their family was broken and only Mirabel bothered to patch things up and save the magic. Who's supposed to do that? Oh yeah, the head of the household, of course!
2. Both have made sacrifices
Abuela and her husband sacrificed everything to get their family to safety. They had to abandon their home, and Pedro sacrificed his life to get rid of the attackers. Then Abuela had to rebuild her entire life without her husband.
Mirabel has things relatively easy compared to Abuela, but her sacrifice was obvious as well. Her cousin Camilo receives a great deal of attention for his shapeshifting abilities and so does Isabela, for she has the tendency to descend majestically from vines. Unfortunately, Mirabel has to give up the joy of receiving a gift and being in the spotlight. She has to fade into the back and do more of the 'behind-the-scenes' stuff that people do not necessarily see or appreciate. That includes going to Bruno's tower and searching for his vision, for instance.
The sacrifice that she makes also includes becoming the black sheep of the family because after Bruno left, she took his place, judging by the way Abuela and Isabela (probably influenced by Abuela) treats her.
But Casita has chosen Mirabel, and this is also apparent when we see how much Casita listens to her. When the house fell apart, Casita pushed everyone else out and only kept Mirabel inside to let her grab the candle, then shielded her from the falling debris.
Mirabel might be rather sad at the start of the film that she doesn't have a gift, but she's only 15 and at that age all you want to do is fit in. She's the odd one out and Abuela even insinuates that she can't do much to help when it came to preparing for Antonio's gift ceremony and tells her to step aside. She grows as a character and by the end of the movie, she realises what she said at the start of movie is true - gift or no gift, she's just as special as the rest of her family. The door at the end of the movie proves it.
3. Their decisions affect everyone
Even though Abuela evidently did a good job raising her family after her husband had passed on, she's losing her touch and that's why Casita chose a successor for her.
Abuela's decisions affect all of them, and in the movie, we mostly see that she's made some bad decisions. Her opinion of Bruno has caused everyone in their family to blame Bruno for all their troubles. He's ostracised by everyone in town and knew that Mirabel will be ostracised too if he told Abuela his vision, so all of this caused him to run away.
Her decision to have Mariano be engaged to Isabela ("What a perfect match" she says) has caused Isabela to crack (as seen in how she fretted about his arrival and repeatedly told herself that she's fine in 'We Don't Talk About Bruno') and has caused Dolores to feel sad because she's the one who actually likes Mariano.
Most importantly, all of them feel that they can't stand up to Abuela despite how unhappy they truly are. Even when they do, their voices aren't heard.
Mirabel's parents, for instance, do stand up for her. It was when the family found out about the vision and Abuela was berating Mirabel's dad for attempting to keep it a secret. Mirabel's mum finally says 'You've always been too hard on Mirabel' and on cue, a crack forms in the wall behind Abuela. A visual indication to show that Julieta and Abuela's relationship has now become strained. But Abuela was more concerned about the miracle and the house than the people in her family.
Mirabel's decisions affect everyone too. Bruno even explains that his vision changes. There's no clear fate and it depends on what Mirabel chooses to do (to hug Isabela or not, for instance). It was her decision to find Bruno, her decision to talk back to Abuela, her decision to make up with Abuela, and also her decision to rebuild their house with a new foundation.
And yes, the relationships in their family clearly needed to be repaired! I like how the house represents how healthy their relationships are.
4. They are pillars of support
You can't deny how much Abuela has done for the family. She encourages them to use their powers to give back to society, and even though she puts pressure on them, it comes from a good place.
Mirabel is also a very supportive family member and literally sings all of their praises at the start of the movie. She lifts them up and the best example of this is when she was the only one who could find and reach out to Antonio when he was having the jitters about his gift ceremony. (Antonio later returns the favour and holds his hand out to her at the end of the movie too. How sweet!)
Three songs in the movie basically feature Mirabel lending a listening ear to her family members, namely 'Surface Pressure', 'We Don't Talk About Bruno', and 'What Else Can I Do?'. She's also the only one who bothered to seek Bruno out and promises him that after she saves the miracle, she was going to bring him home. And by the end of the film, we can see that everyone respects her even after they've lost their magical powers and there was no way of knowing if the door knob would actually restore it.
I can imagine Mirabel helping Antonio with his powers in future just like how she helped Isabela. And we already see that Mirabel has a good relationship with the kids in town. She represents the future of the Madrigal family and she'll be the next matriarch as she's the one in the middle of the new door. My guess is that Mirabel doesn't get a room because she'll be staying in the nursery, nurturing any future kids her cousins might have, and she'll get to inherit Abuela's room when she passes on.
This film is so great and the songs are so meaningful too. I can't help but to listen to the songs over and over again! And I cried so much while watching the movie. It was so good. 10/10 will watch again.
