My theory on why Bruno's room had so many stairs: To discourage people from just coming to him for unimportant questions. If you were willing to climb those stairs you REALLY needed an answer to your question.
The theory why Mirabel didn’t get her gift is that she is the next candle holder. Abuela didn’t get a gift but was seen as the candle holder who made sure the magic safe suggesting she could be the next candle holder as she was able to bring back the magic with the door knob.
@@krystleyarbro That was one of the first things I noticed was Mirable being the only one that communicated with Casita, she communicated with it more then even Abuela. But man I love when Casita literally saves and makes sure everyone is safe while dying!
@@Adrianne519 Yes, and the last thing Casita does is protect Mirabel. After the candle goes out, the windowframes that protected her fall, hence the house "dies".
Not gonna lie, I really feel for Isabela. She was placed into a pedestal where she had to maintain the 'perfect' image and that is already a big responsibility. I think she was a bit harsh on Mirabel since she saw her younger sister being free on doing whatever she wants whereas Isa has to put a smile on her face and do what's best for the family. She maybe a bit jealous since Mirabel gets more attention from their parents as well. It's like the typical 'older sibling has to be responsible while younger sibling gets to have all the fun' thing. Kinda the same for Mirabel too since she resented Isa for being the golden child, everything seemingly going her way and being Alma's favorite so while she wasn't explicitly hating on Isa, she is being passive-aggressive like talking down about her to Mariano (which goes to show that Mirabel isn't above being petty too). They both didn't know the struggles of one another and being a family member's favorite can also unintentionally incite some sibling rivalry.
Yes, I really felt for her too. What a terrible tole to put on someone, to always be perfect, never makes mistakes and have to keep upping themselves to be even more perfect. It showed in "What Else Can I Do" that she never she explored what she could really do and be capable of, before she was stuck just making flowers and roses because anything less is not perfect but when she made the cactus it brought her to life and even though it wasn't a flower it was beautiful and perfect to her because she made it and especially in the moment that she was feeling. I never thought about it but your right Isabella was probably jealous of Mirable's freedom, that's what I love about the movie Mirable also had to learn some things, she didn't just save the day. She thought they were all happy and content from having powers and she was the only one that was sad inside but that's not the case at all. But I gotta say out of all the powers I would have hated wanting Dolores'! I just hope her room was sound proof because how could she sleep if she can hear someone's eye twitch and she also had to hear the man of her dreams gush over her cousin, that must have been torture!
@@Adrianne519 Yeah, Dolores has a really difficult gift to maintain like her mom. She can't help but hear things because that's just what her gift is, kind of the reason she's not being harsh on her Tio Bruno. Plus the quiet tone she uses because it would sound so loud for her. People also seem to gloss out that Pepa is in a rough bind since her emotions are tied to the weather. Imagine feeling a bit anxious and then everyone starts telling you to calm down but it has the opposite effect. You have to always keep yourself in check and bottle up your feelings because it would be an inconvenience to people around you.
What's beautiful about Isabella finally discovering that her gift isn't simply limited to pretty flowers is the power she discovers within herself--powers that can do so much more than beautify! The gift she was given has so much more potential... She could grow food crops & nourish the entire world! She could grow exotic, endangered plants that have the potential to cure or prevent many diseases! She has the power to combat deforestation and replenish the rainforests that so many animals, insects, etc. rely on! It was a shame & waste of her potential, being restricted to fit into some arbitrary role of "perfection."
As an eldest sister in an immigrant family, I definitely sympathize with Isabela (and also Luisa to an extent). I do think if during their fight, there was one line that directly stated the reason for her animosity towards Mirabel - “No one expects anything from you, but they expect everything from me” - the general public would be more willing to sympathize with her as well.
Pepa's gift made me really sad...she couldn't have a bad day without being blamed for causing a tornado outside. Nobody really wondered WHY she was upset...the focus was only on the result of her experiencing any emotion at all.
Yeah, she has to keep being on happy, "clear skies, clear skies!" Anytime she is sad or worried her emotions cause rain or thunder and she is chastised for it "you have a cloud!" She isn't really allowed to feel what she feels, she has to keep pushing all her emotions down instead of being allowed to feel how she feels and process that.
Iv'e seen someone comment that everyone always tells Pepa that she has a cloud. But no one ever asks WHY she has a cloud. And that Felix was probably the first person who did and that's why she fell in love with him. That's so wholesome.
I know James said he was disappointed that Bruno wasn't a villain and I wanna say I like how Disney subverted those expectations, because up until meeting him they really made you think he would be. Both from the other characters perspectives of him but also in a subtle way of giving him that lime green color that's usually associated with the villains (i.e Scar, Maleficent, Ursula, the Evil Queen, etc)
@@whitenoisereacts I agree we are lacking in great villains, either we can't really enjoy them because they are a surprise villain or there's not one at all which sometimes I rather take that over the surprise villain and the biggest problem with them are they are never a surprise, everyone sees it coming.
@@whitenoisereacts damn I guess generational trauma is lame then 😐 you guys aren't seeing it from an ethnic point of view which is why you don't get the impact of intergenerational trauma in this case.
Everyone roles their eyes at isabele having to be perfect but it is a real struggle for her. She can’t ever mess up or she’s gonna disappoint the family. I think that’s why she’s “mean” to mirabel, because mirabel gets to mess up and it’s not a big deal.
I think the eldest sibling factor comes into play as well, she is expected to be what the family NEEDS her to be, regardless of what she wants. Also I see a lot of the LGBT people also relate with her struggle, though less of the ‘prentending to be perfect’ and more so the ‘hiding and stifling who I want to be and what I want to do because what I want to do and who I want to be will be hated by my family’ angle
As a former “golden child” and with a younger brother, I see myself in Isabela. I was the second grandchild but I have to be the perfect one because my older cousin never did, so I had the constant pressure of being different to her and my expectations were really high, perfect grades, perfect behavior, forced to accomplish more than I could manage, every fu***** thing and being compared as a role model for everyone else in my family, then you have my brother, not high expectations and getting rewarded for doing the minimun while I wasn’t allowed to do it, of course I resent him and my cousins for it, I even got an anger problem and while I wasn’t mean to them, my minds was full of “ They can fail but why I’m not allowed to be a failure”. I remember crying because things didn’t got like I wanted, that made me so afraid of being a disappointment (which I am now), being forced in that shell is not what I wish for anyone but still I would take it if it mean that the rest of my cousins/brother won’t have that pressure on them. PD: Sorry for my bad English
As the oldest grandchild, with two younger siblings (same age gaps too), I found that Mirabel is the only sister I don't relate to within my family. Though I do in my professional life. And it has helped me see and understand that my brother wasn't free of a lack of expectations. The difference was his were more about him failing.
You got the point. Me, I'm the elder girl so normally I have to be an example for my three sisters, but the two last prefer to follow our other sister's example because I have ASD and they don’t really accept this fact.
As a former "perfect child" who is now barely able to function and is now the disappointment, people really don't understand the burnout of being forced into perfection and how it can (and actually does) destroy people. Things such as neurodiversity and chronic health issues (fibromyalgia, CFS etc) are now being found evidence of being rooted in children having to push themselves too hard for too long.
I really wish they had even tried to understand her character the way that you and the other replies here did because I'm a big fan of them and they've been pretty dismissive of her character and struggle in these comments while here I am a grown adult in therapy and on medications to deal with the effects of being treated similarly to the way Isabella was lol.
I have a theory about Pepa and "We Don't Talk About Bruno". I think she was redirecting her grief of losing a brother into anger because it was easier for her to handle. Her whole life revolves around managing her emotions, because if she doesn't it affects every one around her, and she can't escape that. Talking about Bruno has become a trigger for her emotions, and the least her family could do was to limit those triggers for her. We constantly see her family, especially Felix and Camilo, care for her to help her panic attacks, and the song is predominantly sung by her family, trying to help her avoid triggers. She is the first to hug Bruno once he returns, after all.
Yes! And it makes sense that they all would feel betrayed by Bruno because Abuela told Bruno to have a vision after Mirable didn't get her gift and since he didn't tell anyone what he saw he just left, so both his siblings must have been so hurt and confused and that turned into anger and resentment.
That, and Pepa constantly gets told "don't make it rain" or "you have a cloud", her having any kind of negative emotion is a burden to her family, so she better be happy and sunny all the time, or else. Also, telling her to not be sad or angry doesn't really help anything, she is still feeling those things, she just feels pressured to hide it more.
Abuela's version of events that "Bruno didn't care about this family" would've upset his sisters, part of a close knit triplet set. You get the impression that Pepa wanted the truth from her brother's mouth, not second hand from her (biased) mother..
@@AnnekeOosterink It's another version of being perfect all the time and also very releatable. There are people especially daughters/children who think they have to keep up a happy fasade all the time to please someone else in the family.
A friend of mine pointed out that Isabela could literally end world hunger, but because she had to be “perfect” she didn’t even know she could do that. Like, Isabela’s gift is probably the most important one out of all of them
As a colombian, I'm gonna tell you some references in the movie from my country. 1. The colorful river that they show us in the movie is a real river, is called Caño Cristales. It is known as the most beautiful river in the world. 2. In Luisa's song, when the second verse begins, Luisa and Mirabel fall into a coffee grinder 3. The plates where Bruno's visions are seen, are emerald. Colombia is the largest exporter of emerald in the world. 4. All the gifts of the family represent something Colombian. Pepa represents the country's varied and rare climate. Camilo the variety of races and ethnic groups of the country. Dolores gossip. Antonio biodiversity. Isabela the flora. Juliet the gastronomy. Luisa the work of the Colombian, could we say (? 5. All the clothes you see in the movie, including hats, are cultural from all over the country. That is why it is disrespectful to us that Disney sells it. 6. Candles represent a lot in our culture, in fact we have a day dedicated to lighting candles. Hence why the candles in the movie. 7.The palma de Cera that is mentioned in Isabela's song, and seen throughout the town, is the national tree of Colombia, and is the largest type of palm in the world. 8. The yellow butterflies represent one of the novels by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a Colombian literature Nobel Prize winner. 9. Violence in Colombia is a very big issue, which continues to be experienced to this day. In the grandmother's past we can see Forced Displacement. Colombia is the country with the most internally displaced people in the world.
There's so many who misunderstand the ''I've been stuck being perfect'' line from Isabela. She isn't saying it in a ''Ooh I'm so perfect my life is sooo hard'' but being perfect doesn't just come out of nowhere. She had to work for it since she got her gift and as the eldest daughter, couldn't have any flaws. Her appearance, attitude and personality had to be forced just so she could satisfy those around her and not dissapoint the family. I mean she was even willing to marry a guy she doesn't like to make them happy. Acting fake for the sake of others can really drive you nuts and thats really what she meant by ''being perfect my whole life''. She was stuck doing this for all her life. Its honestly very heartbreaking especially in a family with toxic family roles. Sure it doesn't justify her being so mean to Mirabel, but lets be real she was jealous of the freedom Mirabel got. She didn't take into account Mirabel's struggles as the only kid with no gift, but Mirabel didn't take into account Isabela's struggles with being the people pleaser all her life either. Basically, they needed to communicate.
A lot of people don’t seem to realize when she admits this Mirabel doesn’t actually care initially and asks for a cheap hug, because she doesn’t understand either. Like she phrased before she thought everything “came easy to Isabella”. So when she hears “woe is me being perfect is hard” she doesn’t realize Isabella never wanted her life this way to begin with, and the whole facade is a persona unintentionally pushed on her mainly by Abeula (and others like Mariano etc). She gets offended when Mirabel calls her selfish because from the age of 5, her dedication to acting like a pretty princess for everyone to gawk and swoon over WAS her selfless dedication. To paraphrase Isabella quite literally said “the family was happy, abeula was happy”, she never said once “I was happy”. The hug at the end wasn’t really the thing that helped the candle, Mirabel was the only one who encouraged Isabela to express herself differently and was about them coming to a mutual understanding. (Can I just say the shame in Isabelas face when Abeula finds her covered in colors and calls her “out of control”. Very telling….
i noticed the same thing during that song except it is the part right after camilos verse when mirabel is walking through a tunnel passing a couple singing characters before ending back up in the town. (idk if that makes sense but the point is that it looked very smooth and fluid and the animation on mirabel looked like a real person since you couldnt see her face. Disney outdid themselves completely.)
I have to disagree on the assessment that Abuela was doing what she was doing for “shallow reasons” and the “clout”. When she was given the miracle, she was forced into a situation where she was now the head of a community of refugees, where her miracle has helped shield everyone in her group from the evil people they were running from. From the moment she was given the miracle, she felt as if she needed to earn its keep, to use it to better her community. She imposed this view on all of her children and grandchildren. By the time of the storyline, it’s less that she’s keeping up appearances for the clout, but rather keeping up appearances for the well-being of the community she heads and serves. She expresses a couple times in the middle of the movie that she’s concerned that the community members might think the family isn’t going to be able to continue to protect the community. And it becomes apparent in the end that she hadn’t considered that the community might be able to help the family in return if they had simply asked for help. (Townsfolk in the last song: “Lay down your load / we’re only down the road / we have no gifts, but we are many / and we’ll do anything for you.”)
that's exactly how i interpreted! a sort of survivor's guilt, working to the bone to make sure she deserved to live. she literally says "we swear to always/ help those around us/ and earn the miracle/ that somehow found us". it definitely does not excuse he actions, but it is a complex and understandable motivation for her character. she was never able to deal with the trauma of being displaced and losing her husband because she was immediately thrown into the role of single mother and leader of the entire village.
@@capn_toad not to mention - we know that everything will turn out fine, but she doesn't! For all we know, the moment Mirabel didn't get her gift, she was fearing that the protection they received with her husband's death would be gone. Who knew if the mountains would fall, if the town would vanish, if the lands would die...Also, after this being the only thing separating them from that kind of violent conflict? I think this mentality is what was on her mind when she said that no one in the family understood how vulnerable they were.
This is a late addition XD but something that always gets me, watching this movie... The "miracle" also came at the cost of her husband's life, and I don't think she would have willingly made that trade. So not only was she forced into being the leader of this village while grieving and raising her kids alone, she also has to acknowledge herself as 'lucky' for being given this gift while losing so much. I feel like the house and the candle were almost a constant reminder of that, and I love that it ends with them rebuilding the house and not having it be some gift that magically came about at the expense of abuelo
I 1000% percent agree with this assessment. After everything Abuela Alma has suffered through, she looks at that candle and this miraculous magical gift as being the only thing protecting them all. She doesn't refer to their magic _as_ magic, but rather as their *gift* and the *miracle* that blessed them. A miracle is considered to be the work of a divine agency, so it is something her family must _earn_ every day by using it responsibly in ways that help the entire community. And honestly, every one of their gifts is useful for defensive/protection purposes and to help the community thrive. But when they don't get a gift for the first time, Alma is not the only person who gets worried. The whole family and the town do too. And of course she is worried, because now she is wondering "Where have we fallen short so that our miracle will be taken away?" Yeah, the town HAS come to rely on their magic, and Alma feels responsible for them. It isn't clout she is worrying about. Her husband gave his LIFE for this miracle, and the family needs to repay that debt every single day.
I don't know if anyone has brought this to your attention yet, but one fantastic detail I noticed was the stark difference in Abuela Alma's story in the beginning vs. the end. In the beginning it's told like a tale of hope and magic, almost like a fairytale - basically, a "kid's" version of the story, because Mirabel is so young, and it's easier to swallow that way. But the second time you hear the story from Abuela, you see the true magnitude of the trauma and grief she experienced on that day. The second time you see that she literally screams in horror and falls to her knees sobbing in anguish (the animation was heartbreakingly incredible and real there too), you actually see the machete, and you really see how much that one moment traumatized her. For her to have her husband killed in front of her, and left with three (3!!!) children to raise on her own, and then on top of that with a whole town looking to her for help, because the miracle was given to her. It must have been a LOT to take on in such a short time. It really struck me when I saw it, and reminds me of the stories our parents and elders tell us, and how we often get the clean/happily-ever-after versions of those stories, but in reality, we can't even begin to describe the emotions they must have gone through during their times of hardship.
Let's also not forget she was raising children with superpowers. Julietta couldn't hurt anyone with them and neither could Bruno (in fact his visions would help the family prepare for whatever bad thing he saw or find a way to change it, looking at you gut guy). But Pepa? A single tantrum would turn into a hail storm/tornado/hurricane/lightning. That is some town destroying powers right there and then it gets worse! Isabella can grow flowers, sure, but she could also strangle people with vines, make poisonous or carnivorous flowers grow in every home, she could rip all the crops away even. Louisa can literally re-route a river. The girl could just chuck buildings if she got mad and pretty much single handedly kill everyone in the valleys. Camillo could pretty much assault/murder/rape/steal whatever/whoever he wanted and no one would know it was him. Dolores could make the town kill itself just by letting out a few hard truths (reveal cheating spouses, dark secrets, etc...). Antonio can ask a leopard to eat you or a snake bite you. Like as time went on it became more and more imperative that the kids learn to serve the community. Problem Abuela clung too tightly, tried to control too much and almost had at least 3 of them (Pepa, Isabella and Louisa) hurtling towards either an epic meltdown or becoming a villian. Mind you I understand where Abuela is coming from and, regardless of everything else, she never wanted to hurt her family and genuinely loved each and everyone of them.
I noticed that. In the first story she told Mirabel that her grandfather got lost. But in the end it was revealed that he was killed. I mean it was so obvious. But she didn't want to freak out little Mirabel
@@KayaaaaDe She didn't saw "got lost". She said "was lost to us", implying that he died in a way that wouldn't traumatiz a child with the full picture.
It's funny how everyone I've seen react to this movie forgets bruno's power/gift instantly after hearing the beginning song explaining who everyone is and they're powers/gift
Bruno in the song is very glossed over and the main focus is the idea that he’s a pariah and missing. So it is seen as less important to the plot so it is easy to forget
Bruno is the 'black sheep' of the family. The one who sees things for what they really are and doesn't want to be a part of the family's status quo, purposefully removed from the rest.
so glad you guys talked about the "taking away their talents" ending. like. so true. a lot of ppl wanted them to not get their talents back, but i think that completely defeats the purpose of the whole journey. they're supposed to learn how to use them in a healthy way. the powers were never the problem, it was the way they were handled. taking them away as a lesson would basically be saying you shouldn't want to be special bc it's Bad. and i don't like that. anyway the animation was so beautiful. i actually cried during the first ten minutes just bc of how amazing the visuals were.
I consider "miracle" to be one big metaphor. Magic both exaggerates the character of the bearer and is a "litmus test" of the state of the family as a whole. The family breaks up - the magic disappears and the house breaks down; the family is strong - the candle shines
FINALLY Y'all reacted to this! That being said, I'm surprised you didn't catch Isabella's problem when she said it (when one of you went "whoop-de-doo!" after she mentioned being stuck being perfect). Her problem wasn't that things just came naturally to her and everything was great, the problem was she was forced by her family into playing the role of the perfect daughter. If you go back and watch the scene where she hears that Mariano wants 5 babies, she sprouts pink flowers in her hair, but one of them is white. Abuela then picks off the white one because it isn't 'perfect' (it doesn't match the others). Which goes to show just how little control she had over her life--even while having a normal, human reaction, abuela can't let her show imperfection for one second. Given what she does to her dress during her song and at the end of the movie, they probably picked out her outfits for her and everything, and her power was stunted because her life was So completely controlled that it never occurred to her that she could ever be more than the stereotype her grandmother had picked out for her. My parents were not quite as controlling (they signed me up for activities they wanted me to do instead of what I actually wanted to do, I had no input on my wardrobe, my dad was my barber because he wanted to make sure my hair looked the way HE wanted it to look, etc), but being the firstborn (/only child), they were extremely controlling and DID expect me to be perfect and play that role. Me being gay, I knew from like age 4 or 5 that I could never live up to that, so I identified with Isabella pretty hard.
I think this movie was an excellent portrayal of how generational family trauma can cause undue pressure for future generations. Their gifts end up being both a blessing and a curse. Their abuela puts so much pressure on them to use their gifts to help the family and the community that she didn't really allow them to be imperfect, make mistakes, or just be themselves. In Mirabels case since she has no gift, her abuela basically expects nothing of her except for her to stay out of the way and not make waves. It is actually such a sad storyline, but I loved the ending of coming to the realization that the pressure she was putting on her family was tearing them apart. I think it was also such a good message that you don't have to have a special gift to be valuable.
There's a lot of theories about Mirabel and her "gift", but my favorite theory is that Mirabel is the living embodiment of the candle now (aka, the miracle!) Especially since there wasn't a candle to bring the house back the second time around, just Mirabel herself. Which even makes sense as to why she's so connected with the house (she and Abuela are the only ones seen "talking" to the house itself) and also, I think that's why Antonio was able to get his gift! Because Mirabel was the one to walk him up to his door. She's the actual embodiment of the miracle itself!
Hi I’m Colombian and I just got to say that the cultural references in this movie are on point. It really shows Disney did an in-depth research of the Colombian culture from the food we eat such as the “buñuelos” (yucca/cheese fritters) Julieta feeds one of the villagers to heal his broken arm to Mirabel’s dress which the distinctive folk dress from Velez Santander, a beautiful colonial town in northwestern Colombia. This particular dress is traditionally worn with a traditional hat and a double braided ponytail to be cultural exact. The food that the Madrigals are eating during Mariano’s proposal is a typical Colombian dish called “Ajiaco” very popular in the Colombian capital of Bogota which is traditionally serve in this hand-crafted black clay plate which is made in the town of La Chamba, in the department of Tolima. And that green drink is Lulo juice, Lulo is a fruit from northern South America and we Colombians love to drink it. It is so delicious and refreshing. The encanto village is based on the picturesque towns of Barichara , Villa de Leiva and Salento where the Cócora valley is located and is where the story actually takes place. As for the the kid drinking coffee, yes, most of us Colombians start drinking coffee when we’re kids. I started drinking coffee when I was about 9 or 10. Of course, the coffee we drink is not an expresso, it is a light coffee we call “Tinto”. I still remember with fondness when my abuelita used to send me to the corner bakery to get pan, buñuelos, pandebonos, and arepas con queso to accompanied the 6:00 PM Tinto so we could sit down at the table and share with the rest of the family, aunties, uncles and cousins which are as racially diverse as the encanto characters. Happy times!!! I love my family and loved the encanto movie, kudos to Disney for such a master piece.
I love the movie but I do feel the isabella angle is rushed a little... i get what they were going for. Her and Luisa were under pressure in different ways, Luisa to be strong for everyone and isabella to be perfect- delicate, graceful, feminine, marry a traditionally masculine man and have lots of children to hold up the ideal. And I do like on a second watch the snippets sprinkled in to show she didn't like this. Her reaction at being told he wants 5 kids, for example, is to blanch and stare ahead in horror while abuela removes the one flower from her head that didn't match the rest. Subtle but powerful. When she's left to be herself she's actually quite punky and artsy, and that would stick out like a sore thumb in that time, for any daughter, never mind the eldest! From isabellas perspective it must be frustrating to feel this pressure and watch your youngest sibling be free to do more as she pleases and still be "difficult" by messing things up and walking into walls. Was it petty and silly? Ofc but what siblings aren't? And I'd be lying if I said I hadn't felt resentment when I perceived my sibling as getting "away" with stuff I didn't. Also, this music is waaaay more traditionally Lin, so if you liked this I'd encourage you to check out his other stuff, like Hamilton and in the heights. And I am absolutely a combo of pepe and luisa 😂 that is me every day in work in healthcare! Frantically muttering that everything is fine before crying in a corner haha
@@whitenoisereacts Just life in these covid days for everyone haha! We're all fine, it's all good... denial is not just a river in Egypt ;) your vids provide some nice escapism though!
The gifts, at least the initial ones, all reflected the generational trauma that Abuela had, and each was triggered by her fears: Bruno could warn them of oncoming threats, Pepa could literally blow any enemies away, and Julietta could heal any injuries. Then, in the next generation, after she lost faith in Bruno's abilities, Dolores got super hearing so she could hear danger coming, Carmelo could impersonate a bandit or army leader, and Louisa could fight them off without being injured. And Isabella could grow crops in case of a natural disaster.
@@Lannisen I saw it more as Mirabel starting to exert her influence over the Casita, with Antonio's gift reflecting Mirabel's view of him, while Abuela couldn't make sense of his gift.
And this is more of a theory, but we don’t necessarily know what the interests were of the kids before their gifts were given. It’s possible they developed those particular hobbies because of their gifts. Antonio’s gift doesn’t have a clear connection to Abuela’s trauma thought, but we know he liked animals beforehand. Maybe his gift foreshadows that the gifts will no longer connect to Abuela’s past, and be for the user instead of the village.
While I don't agree that this was the intention, you brought up a huge issue I had with Isabella's gifts. Isabella would be worshipped as a god in some cultures because she literally creates and sustains life. What separates her from Tafiti from Moana?? The script writers treated her as a one trick pony, but she's got the most important gift of all. She could sustain a nation during a famine, and yet they have her growing flowers for aesthetics. Such a waste.
i saw a clip of surface pressure on tiktok before encanto was released and without context, as the oldest of five (would've been of nine) i cried watching it. then seeing the full song in context made cry even more too. this whole movie put me through it and i wish i could watch it for the first time again!
The reason Isabella is Abuela's favorite is that Isabella looks *exactly* like Abuela when she was young. Also, the man that Isabella was betrothed to looks a lot like Abuela's late husband. She's literally trying to live her definition of a "perfect life" through Isabella
I wish we had gotten a bit more of Isabella to establish her struggle before her "transformation". A scene of her with her parents complaining about the "low expectations" for Mirabel, or a private moment where we see her alone, cracking under the pressure but having to switch to her perfect mask in front of the family. I feel that even ONE extra scene hinting at her true feelings before her "big reveal" would have enhanced her character.
In the song where Mirabel is introducing everyone, she passes by Mariano and doesn’t even look in his direction. An early hint that she might not be in love with him.
I can only remember two hints. The one at the breakfast scene where Dolores mentions how many children Mariano wants and the scene where Mariano almost puts on her ring. Both scenes show her looking stressed as hell but trying to keep it on the down low.
People have mentioned that Isabella's Golden child status is different from western standards. In a Colombian family she is the example for the rest of the family. She has to be actually perfect all the time. She's strong for having put up to it so long. It says a lot that she had *never* tried something different with her powers ever since she got them, or at least since she assumed her role. The generational trauma is runs deep in her too.
It’s a western movie, so I still think it deserves a little shade. While her pain may feel as real, it’s objectively less difficult than what happened to Bruno
@@whitenoisereacts She was about to be forced into a marriage she didn't want and to be the mother of children to a man she didn't love, and she had to sit and smile and look pretty and perfect about it the whole time because it was her responsibility to continue the perfect magic line. It's not the same trauma as Bruno's but it's still trauma. It's like saying your depression isn't as bad as my depression based on my metrics so I get to laugh at you. It's kind of a really shitty way of viewing trauma.
@@whitenoisereacts Bruno is literally free, lonely, misunderstood, shunned, pushed away from his family but free from Abuela, Isabella is perceived as a robot by her grandmother because she grows flowers, she isn't even able to choose somebody she loves, that's both equally bad, would you walk up to someone and straight up make their depression invalid because you think yours is worse? You guys have a trashy view, was just about to watch this reaction but these comments saved me
No, because thts very different than analyzing characters in a movie. Their pain is just as valid and dealing with any sort of person like that, that’s 1000 percent the approach to take. But I’m not sure looking at the bigger picture if she has suffered as much as some of the other children, or even Abuala
It’s a movie. There are lots of things people comment on and laugh about that you never would in real life. I think it’s a bit unfair to equate the two. And if we can’t talk and discuss even a movie, I feel like we’re all missing the point. I’m just putting some ideas out there. Don’t assume things that aren’t said, like thts the way I view trauma.
You two are reaching the point where you've seen so many movies your analysis are incredibly spot on almost immediately I love it! Basically guessed the whole conflict with only the first 5 minutes to go off of ahahah
Dos Oruguitas has me sobbing every time 🥲 I know it doesn’t get as much attention as the other songs do but it’s such a beautiful song and Abuela and Pedro’s story is so heartbreakingly beautiful 🖤
The movie has so many layers I realise something new every time I see it, it's a perfect example of any toxic family dynamic no matter the culture, and the fact it's the "villain" is mind-blowing-ly amazing! Abuela belive she could not show her depression due to her loss because she received a miracle when other did not and have 3 children to raise on her own and because of this she develop into a woman of strength, perfection and feeling of obligation to serve her community which she passes on in the family. Her children's gifts are based on personalities that grew from that environment. The healer, the quick changing and overly emotional, and the one who tries making his mother see the hard truths and work through them instead of brushing it under the rug. Instead Abuela blamed every failing on Bruno making him distance himself before he eventually left. (You can even see this in his door having moved backward from the rest) Her grandchildren's gifts again reflecting growing up in a toxic environment. The joker who try to make his mother happy because she's repeatedly told not to make clouds. The gossiper who tell everyone everything in a family who keeps everything hidden, but also know when secrets should be kept like Bruno while keeping him connected to what goes on within the family. Antonio the one who understands and try creating communication. The favourite grandchild who is made the example of how to be perfect, the strong sister who needs to keep her sisters from killing each other and shoulder everyones problems, and on the very day Bruno left Mirabel became the new member who was blamed for everything that goes wrong. The house had to break apart and be rebuilt, again a symbolic metaphor. PS: To anyone irritated Mirabel didn't get a gift at the end or a room, she got more as she became the familie's miracle. She becomes/embodies the candle by the same river. The casita's front door is hers! She's the one giving gifts from now on, or so I hope, and unless she passes it on with the role as the matriarch she'll be a flame that never goes out and therefore she might just be immortal... think on that alternative ;P I love this movie!
I love everything you said but I personally think Mirabel didn't get a gift because she's the new Abuela, she's the future one supposed to keep the family together
@@mindlessscarecrow4886 I agree with that! I think Mirabel will take Abuela's place once she's gone, but there is also no longer a candle, so Mirabel is also taking on that "role" as well. And though I'm not sad Miracle didn't get a gift, I kind of hope that means she'll be able to continue giving the family gifts =)
@@mindlessscarecrow4886 I also think Mirabel didn't get a gift because the family needed to be reminded that the people matter more than the gift, that they are valuable without the gifts
Yeah, I keep realizing new things, even from reaction videos like this. They were wondering why Bruno's room was so inhospitable, and I realized it probably didn't start out that way, but people kept bothering Bruno to tell their futures, and then blaming him for what he saw, so he subconsciously made it as difficult as possible to reach his vision cave. Then when he left, he added the chasm (or broke a bridge that had been there before) so no one would find his last vision.
As a father, I now watch this movie at least four times a days, and the soundtrack plays every time we are in the car. And yes, you bet your ass I sing along to every single song!
The gifts as I see it is an embodiment of the dominant piece of their personality, it was already a part of them before they received their gift, but even if it's the most noticeable/largest piece it's not the only one in the puzzle that make them who they are, but it is the only one that the others see or define them by and what is expected of them.
I love that this movie doesn't have a villain. This encanto was what they needed- high mountains to keep the dangers out and showed also how abuela runs things. But eventually things changed and they needed to move forward. The house was build on trauma and it had to crumble so they could build a healthier foundation of love. You can interpret brunos vision that way too. What they needed isn´t the same anymore two generations down the line, which reflects the way generational trauma affects families so well. I saw the gifts as compensation for the trauma. The kids sensed the grief of abuela and tried to compensate with their powers unknowingly. Mirabel didn´t get a gift as she is through being herself the glue and hope of the family. All the characters seem to have a personalty type that keeps the family from harm that you can find in a disfunctional family represented through their gifts. Abuela being the matriarch, Dolores the gossip, Luisa the strong one, Pepa the emotional one, Juiletta the nurturer, Isabella the perfect one, Camillo the distractor and Bruno the identiefed patient. Just Mirabel and Antonio don´t seem to really fit in this picture, so i believe they represent the new healthy way the familiy needs to go. A healthy way of dealing with the past - through communication (Antonio), Love, hope and compassion ( Mirabel). Just the way I saw it. I absolutely love about this movie that you can interpret it in different ways based on your experience and learn from it. (hope this is understandebly. English is not my native language)
When Mirabel overhears Abuela praying to be able to keep the community safe...it really hits on second viewing that she saw her community destroyed before, her people driven from their homes, loved ones lost, and she is so desperate for that not to happen again so she's clinging to what she thinks makes the family strong without seeing how holding too tightly is hurting others
I think Mirabel's 'thing' is to do with stitching/embroidery if you look at her clothes and the gift she made for her cousin. And I think that's a metaphor for her being the thread that stitches her family together. I noticed every time her heart breaks, the cracks appear or worsen. Her worst heartbreak and argue with her abuela leads to the house being completely destroyed.
there's so much to this movie that i love, so many moments that tugged at my heart strings. bruno's plate on his table, the house using the last bit of power to save mirabel, the moment the miracle bursts to live as abuela falls to the ground in grief, isabela admitting she didn't want to marry, luisa's whole song, the community coming to help build the house. i could go on. i love that they made mirabel's door the front door which is why her bedroom door didn't work when she was five and that she is the next generation miracle keeper like abuela was. coming from a toxic household i could recognise and relate to a lot and there's videos on tiktok and probably youtube now comparing each character to a different trait/person in a toxic/abusive household. the fact abuela actually gets called out and then apologises for real, and the whole message is very important and i am glad kids will get to see this and take that on. after i watched it the first time i knew it would be one of my favourite films forever. also, love pepa and félix's relationship - the whole time he never cares about her mood weather e.g. in we don't talk about bruno when she is complaining about being married in a hurricane his response is 'what a joyous day but anyway', and julieta and agustin's love for mirabel, calling abuela out and always trying to support her. these standards will be set in kids that watch it. also! the diversity!! the animation for the different hair texture's was amazing. the animators had to also fight for luisa to have muscles that would represent her strength. i'll stop my enamoured rambling here...lol
Luisa’s song hits so hard for me, cause I know what’s it’s like to be the “strong one” in the family. And that pressure of always having to be on point and to make sure things went smoothly. Never being able to crack, and always having to make sure you handle everything that’s out on your back. Until you really feel like you’re gonna break. It’s not just about being strong physically, but mentally and emotionally to always have to carry the weight of your family on your back. To the point that any sight of weakness is considered a flaw. It’s such a bop, but it always makes me cry.
Fun fact: Bruno was able to bust through the wall with the bucket on his head because the house was already cracked therefore the walls were already weak.
I'm a mixture of Luisa and Isabela. I was always the good child, always doing what was told, a role model for others, all the adults trusted me. And that then turned into Luisa's "taking on all the tasks of the family". I do everything for my mother. It's super exhausting and I wish she would do it all herself because I have my own life but I can't tell her that because I get the "you are ungrateful, you never do anything for me"....
That’s rough, but keep in mind what this movie doesn’t say is that there is merit in what ur doing. It’s rough, but beautiful that ur willing to sacrifice for ur family
During the ending song before Bruno makes the Frozen “Let it Go” reference, you can here the beginning of “Let it Go play” on the piano and I find that really cool and I didn’t catch it the first time around :D
I think as the eldest child I really understand Isabella. It would be very hard to realize how real the trauma is if you're not in the same role. Isabella was feeling like it was her one job in the family to get married and start a new generation even if it meant giving away her own happiness. Some people would think/say it's not as traumatic as what some other characters like Bruno went through, but all trauma is trauma and that's what she had to deal with, the feeling that she had to give her dream and future just to make her family proud of her.
It's not that the talents were bad or over depended on. The Talents were more like music talent. They were out of harmony with each other. The name Magrigal points to this as Magrigal is a form of singing without instrumentation. Meribell had no actual gift because her job was to harmonize the others. Kind of like the conductor. This is also shown musically as all others songs were in four four time but her and the original grandmother were on three four time. She had to bring them into proper harmony. That's why they got the gifts back they still had to be the Madrigals.
Personally, I think it was really beautiful (and mature) of Disney to craft a film where the villain is intergenerational trauma. I think it was a STRONG choice and an important one. I loved seeing a “small” story centered on one family and the community they serve, and their own struggles in facing the problems underlying the facade they put up for the sake of the villagers. For kids watching this film, I think it’s a much more relatable and helpful message - magical realism aside (and honestly all of the gifts were metaphors for familial roles and talents anyway), how often are kids going to run across a dastardly villain that’s trying to take over the world? Never. How many of them are going to encounter family pressure and expectations, and face the reality that their parents and grandparents are people too, and make mistakes? That maybe everyone is a little bit wrong in HOW they go about loving and caring for their families, but that this doesn’t detract from how much they love them? Arguably, most of them. I really, REALLY loved this story, and this concentration on Colombian culture and history. For Colombian families, who look like this and whose elder generations were largely displaced due to guerrilla warfare like Abuela was, this film is an eye-opening and touching tribute to the strength of their culture, and a beautiful example of how to start healing from past traumas that are leaking through to the kids and the grandkids. Every Colombian I know who has seen this film, and many Latinx friends, relate SO HUGELY with these themes , and for such an underrepresented group? To see themselves represented so beautifully and empathetically in a hit Disney movie? This is fantastic. Not to mention as an eldest daughter AND a black sheep, Isabela and Luisa and especially Bruno’s characters resonated with me so hard. It’s incredibly difficult to feel like you can’t mess up - either to pull away from the ‘perfect’ image people have constructed for you or to feel like by taking a break you’re letting them down or by warning them of danger you’re causing them misfortune - throughout your whole life, fearing that (and after what happened to Bruno and then Mirabel, KNOWING that) if you do, you’ll be estranged or cast aside. Awful. So much pressure. Isabela was pretty bitchy, yeah, but I understand where she was coming from, so I can’t hold it against her. I feel the crew did an incredible job crafting TWELVE distinct and loveable main characters, all with issues and roles we see represented in our own families, and balancing that with a story that held itself up emotionally. I still cry during the entire last fifteen minutes, and I’ve seen this film thirty times. I do concede that it really needed another ten or fifteen minutes to really wrap things up, that the ending felt rushed, but I do know from storyboards that they DID initially have this written. It just got cut for reasons unknown. I feel it would have been a 10/10 for me with that added closure. And the animation? GOD SO GORGEOUS. Exactly what James was saying, with the eyes moving from side to side and the intricacy of the facial expressions??? That was a big thing for me too. As a general note, the animation of the different curl textures and the lighting and coloration and the FABRIC MOVEMENT overall was just exquisite. The audio/visual panning in the dance sequences? To DIE for. Fantastic work by the Disney animation and writing team. Thanks for watching!
I love love, love Dolores' design. The big red bow is just so adorable. Answer to the question of 'which sibling are you?' I look a lot like Mirabel, which makes me very happy. Get me green glasses and I'd be halfway to cosplaying her. Personality wise I think most people are a mix of multiple people. I don't even know who's closet to me, maybe Julieta. I also love the animation. I've watch this movie 3 times already. The animation on the hair, the skirt. The fantastical imagery for the musical numbers are stunning! I can't stop geeking out!
if no ones said it i will its to do with brunos vision of mirabel about the hug she needed to bond with the two family members who were the most hostile within themselves and towards mirabel which was isabella and abuela who look suspiciously similar but that was the crack in the family its cracked because of how they treated mirabel (the new candle holder). In abuelas flashback we see that they look alike, i feel like abuela saw herself in isabella so she picked the man that looked closest to her husband for isabella she was trying to recreate her love story that she lost but for isabella even though its not what she wanted. i do think the only reason isabella is the way she is is because abuela was basically trying to make isabella into herself when in reality it was mirabel who is the closest to being like abuela because they both dont have powers, i believe mirabel will be the next candle holder like other comments have mentioned she will be the one to hold the family together in the way the candle was made for to provide shelter and a place to grow and be yourself that's the way it's intended to be used. Abuela got so caught up trying to keep up with a family where everyone has abilities that she doesn't have, i think she felt inadequate so she had the family do the things that she would do if she had their powers. I don't think abuela would want to use bruno's powers which is why she cast him out as a bad guy because she just didn't try to understand him as a person she just saw his gift except for when she asked bruno to use his gift after mirabel's door disappeared and even then it was only to benefit herself, Bruno left at a cost to himself to protect mirabel whereas abuelas only priority was the candle not mirabel the candles successor who i would argue is equally as important as the candle which bruno's vision highlighted, the candles fate and Mirabel's fate are the same thing that's why the house only let mirabel save the candle and everyone else had to get out. Just like abuela said herself i think it was her fault as the head of the family because she lost sight of what the miracle was supposed to be for and it was to hold the family together. Only someone in the family without powers really has the right to comment on the real issues and problems within the family, because they are the most neutral they become the mediator and their intentions aren't tainted by the gifts its still "Pure" in a way and let's be honest all families' have a mediator, in my family it would be me and knowing my luck i wouldn't get a gift either but i also understand luisa on a personal level everytime her song comes up i end up red faced and puffy eyed from crying it's just such a beautiful movie about family dynamics i love that it doesn't need a villain. bonus thoughts on bruno he was patching the cracks in the house but he was afraid of abuela seeing him loitering so he didn't patch the cracks in her room so abuela knew full well that the house was crumbling and she was still gaslighting mirabel! she also saw the vision plus her room would be the first to crumble because that's where the candle is kept and the cracks came from the candle itself so she knew the day mirabel was denied a gift and she changed nothing that bugs me to no end
As a Colombian is kinda hard when people compare us to Mexico as if all Latin America was Mexico. Although we do love our Mexican siblings, we are very different. Other than that I do love your reaction and it was very entertaining to see how invested you were.
I understand that. The only reason I was comparing is I was connecting to what I had experienced. I’d only ever been to Mexico…wasn’t at all any sort of disrespect
Basically Isabela wasnt able to be anything other than the perfect little doll for her family. She only acted in a way that her family(mostly abuela). She wasn't able to act out how she feel, wasn't able to marry or date who she wanted and had to do everything that made the family look good. No she shouldn't have been as hard on mirabel as she was, but in the book Disney made for it she apparently felr resentful of her. Her parents coddled her more than the other two since Isa was 13 because she didn't have a gift and unlike with Isabela(the oldest if the grandkid) no one expected Mira to be more than who she was. To be a perfect child is so mentally draining. You have to dress right, keep up a smile, give up on finding your own love, never cry, never be anything other than what your elders want you to be. It's a terrible life and most people break under that type of life and either end it all or run away at the isle and never come back.
Mirabell and her family remind me of what Dr. Erskine said in Captain America: The First Avenger, "A strong man who has known power all his life can lose respect for that power, but a weak man knows the value of strength and knows compassion", her family has known power and they have lost respect for it, but she greatly respects it and I feel like she's more compassionate like when she helps her cousin. Also now I have "we don't wanna lose Bruno, no, no, no" stuck in my head from when you said "we do wanna lose Bruno" when he was on the horse.
Fun fact, even though the movie is based in Colombia when he said it was Ecuador I giggle a little because yeah we actually were a single nation a long ago called Gran Colombia, including Venezuela, and that is Why we have the same colour flag, We gained our freedom thanks Simon Bolivar a general, there is a Netflix Series called Bolivar where they explain all of this, quite good.
I think it’s sad that Isabela struggle is downplayed or negated because she is mean to mirabel. While it is understandable to call out her treatment of mirabel, as Isabela words and attitude are hurtful, that meanness doesn’t erase her own hurts. Yes, being “perfect” is a difficult job, though rewarding. Yes, she had to practice every pose for hours and train herself to control every aspect of her gift, she can’t complain about it and she doesn’t allow herself the privilege of making mistakes. And yes, she is taking it out on mirabel, as she can’t complain about her situation so she found an escape and another channel to do so. And yes, mirabel didn’t deserve it. Doesn’t make Isabela struggles less painful. Why is everything a competition about who has it worse or about you are mean so you mustn’t have any feelings?
One of my favorite jokes if speak Spanish. On 23:40 after Dolores overhears Mirabel and her dad talking. The dad says “Miercoles” (it means Wednesday) that cracked me up because its the friendly way say “Mierda” it literally means “Shit”. But because is Disney they use the pun version, meaning more shoot or crap. lmao.
I was waiting for this commentary and you guys didn’t disappoint. Being from Colombia and loving all of your videos, I almost cried with your reaction. Thank you!🇨🇴❤️🔥
There's a lot of pressure put on everyone and of course it starts with Abuela. It was her candle/Encanto which separated everyone from the rest of the world so everyone would have looked up to her and her family for help as it was indirectly her "fault" as such that they have no access to anything else. A lot of the time one good deed gets forgotten and turns into a "bad thing" in the mind of people unfortunately.
59:40 I think the first cracks in the house were because of Mirabel finally expressing that she was not okay. That song she sings after watching Antonio's ceremony and being reminded of her own was the first time she let her pain out, and the magic responded
Finally got around to watching this reaction and was not disappointed! Always good to hear yalls perspective! Something I wanted to add that I liked, the donkeys in Surface Pressure were cute as heck, but they're also super interesting symbolism! A donkey is a Beast of Burden, literally bred to carry a heavy load. No milk, wool, eggs, etc. to give like other farm animals, theyre literally just there to work hard. Great symbolism for how Luisa feels! I of course related to her the most lol (and a little Camilo!) Thanks for the reaction guys!
I made this comment your brother Thor's reaction actually and thought to put it here as well. 1) With Isabella, as I completed the film and watched many reactions I realised just HOW tough she had it. She was the first grandchild. The only one at the time that the grandmother had to shape and form to perfection after her kids grew up. The obsession with perfection and the expectation from the town was not spread out amongst the family members that we know now. It was all concentrated into her, her parents and the aunt and uncle. Her annoyance with Mirabel is basically that every moment she is supposed to be perfect (24/7 basically), Mirabel makes a mistake or is being clumsy which kind of ruins the expectations she has been conditioned to think is normal so she is unnecessarily hard towards Mirabel. I also think Isabela is jealous of mirabel because to her Mirabel doesn't have to face these overbearing expectations when you get your gift (which to me goes with one of the themes of the movie which is basically "the grass is greener on the other side"). Isabela basically has to even practice posing to satisfy her grandmother which is something that a lot of people could relate to. Like not being able to fully be yourself to make sure that your family loves who they created you to be. It's way too much on one person. You even notice that in her room, that was the first time she really let out her frustrations because she can't even show emotions that aren't "pretty" publicly. Also at the breakfast table, if you pay close attention, you could see that she is visibly breathing really fast while having a fake smile on her face while they're talking about the proposal. She is constantly putting up a front and that's so stressful. It's kind of weird because I could even see that she has adopted Abuelita's characteristics especially when it comes to constantly scolding Mirabel. As if she was being brought up to be the next matriarch because they never planned for it to be Mirabel. I wrote this as my first point because Isabela's struggle in the family gets overlooked a lot by viewers which I find interesting because in the real world the "perfect first born" kid usually gets overlooked when it comes to their mental wellbeing. 2) In many cultures people are very superstitious especially when it comes to things that do not benefit them. So even though to us what Bruno says are just normal things that happen in life, to the people in the town they see it as him calling bad things into existence. It makes his situation so sad because it's not just pressure from his mother and family but also the people in the town who contribute to his mental downfall. That discomfort of the people in the town when it comes to his gift basically created his superstition he has against his gift. 3) The gifts didn't seem like things that would be practical or beneficial to the individual. They seemed like things that could be used to maintain the village and benefit the people. So even though Isabela's power didn't seem so special, it is beneficial for people once she actually figures out that it isn't just flowers but what she allows herself to create outside of what is perfect. Even Bruno's power which in my opinion was the worst to get because of how people reacted to it, it helped the town and family in the end to maintain what they've built for themselves. Or Antonio's power could help a lot with caring for the animals who ended up inside the barrier and maintaining the peace between people and animals in that space. 4) Out of all the siblings I felt the most sorry for Louisa honestly because even though it was funny that her background dancers were donkeys, it just shows that she's the mule of the family and town. Because of her physical strength, more is expected of her physically for literally EVERYTHING in town. The people got so spoiled by the Madrigal's powers that even the simplest things they should be able to do (catching their own donkeys for example), they put that on her. They don't even bother to practice certain skills as long as the Madrigals can handle it. She walks through town and all she gets are demands. Like the rest of the family, her gift is a never ending job but I feel as though her own is the worst (besides Bruno of course). 5) Even though I really disliked how the grandmother was treating Mirabel and basically everyone else with all of her expectations, her story is really just so depressing. Like on the day she gave birth to triplets (most likely a natural birth at home), she had to go on the run with her newborn babies and husband because of terrorism, then her husband dies to save the people. All in one day. That's way too much for anyone to handle in one year, far less a day. Then she has to basically be the leader of an entire community because the responsibility of that miracle was placed on her back. She never got to grieve properly or just be human. That's why I think she never saw any issue with how intense she was. To her she went through the worst so she's just giving her family what she lost. Not realising that they're individuals with their own needs and lives to live so they won't have the same obsession she has to maintain the community she lost. She doesn't see that she's harming the ones she love. She's a traumatised refugee that is too scared to mess up or else she'd go back to the worst moments of her life (losing everything). They handled generational trauma really well for a children's film. Also, the miracle was made from the grandmother's grief and pain. You see the difference in the storytelling from what she was telling Mirabel in the beginning of the movie compared to the end. She believed that the grandfather's sacrifice created the miracle because she didn't see what happened while she was crying. But you see the candle turn into a magical one when she screams out in pain. It was made from her but she never knew this. She didn't realize the magic was basically in her this entire time and it is also affected by her (and eventually Maribel as she is the next matriarch in line). 6) Also I think I'm a mix of Isabella (I have a weird obsession with perfection), Louisa (I get extremely anxious from the pressures of expectation to hold up), Mirabel (I still mess up a lot unintentionally), Pepa (embarrassingly emotionally unstable), Julieta (I express my love by cooking for the people I care about and I'm always worrying about them) and Bruno (kinda like the idea of disappearing forever in the future and just living my life even though I know he didn't intentionally want that). Basically a chaotic mess🤣. 7) Whenever you have a few minutes to yourself you should really check out "Steph Anya, LMFT" on TH-cam. As a family therapist she did an amazing breakdown of the members in the Madrigal family and it was really interesting seeing how she explained their lives in relation to clients and families she has come across. It's a great watch if you're interested in that.
Exactly! Dolores' power is very similar to what those of us on the Autism Spectrum experience. We can't tune out background noises the way that most people can. I often lose track of what the person right in front of me is saying because the far away noises are so overwhelming. As a result, I take CBD oil and Ashwagandha for anxiety and even still, I grind my teeth in my sleep and have constant neck pain due to tension 😅🤷
I relate to it so much especially to Isabela. I consider my gift falls on arts but my family consider my gift as the smart one, the one with good grades. And I did even enter med school. But I secretly hate it. But I want to be perfect so I keep it up until one breaking point. I finished med school but didn't pursue for professional degree. Until now everyone sees it as a waste (it is), but I don't care because I love something else and I have so much freedom now that I don't look back anymore
Good for you!! Be prudent in following those “dreams”, understand that there’s more than just jobs and what not in life, but don’t ever make yourself miserable just for appearances sake
Abuela Alma has survivors guilt and PTSD, she clings to the candle for all she's worth because it's the thing that saved her from destitution. She is still mourning Pedro (her black shawl which she has worn for 50 years)... She has spent 5 decades trying to raise 3 kids, then the grandkids and shouldering the responsibility of the entire community relying on her. She, being a decent person, saw the gift as something that had to be earned and cultivated and honoured... this is very relatable for 1st generation immigrants who strive to "deserve" the benefit of living in the countries they migrate to to escape war, poverty or famine. Everything becomes a matter of duty, especially to the family. She is the source of generational trauma that trickles down from her to every member of the family. She is the matriarch, which in her culture also put her in a natural position of authority and responsibility. For reference, it is entirely possible for 2nd and even 3rd generations who never lived through specific traumatic experiences to exhibit traits of PTSD that they have internalised from those who have. Bruno is easy.. his gift made him very unpopular and misunderstood. it was hard to find a way to use it for the benefit of the community. He shoulders the obligations of the family, but can't make himself useful, so he isolates himself and sacrifices 10 years of his life to defend his niece.. he is 50 and single, and broken in a million ways, his own gift being one of them. Pepa is a walking drama..she must keep her emotions always in check in order to avoid natural disasters, which means any little thing ends up triggering her. Not only that.. if she is always happy, guess what happens? no rain....so she has to actively make herself sad to allow crops to raise. This has to be a farming community. By the way, and I may be mistaken in this, but I think that of the "parents" she's the only one who doesn't wear a wedding ring, which would make sense, since it would be made of metal and she's constantly surrounded by thunder and lightning... not sure about that though. Felix is a model supporting husband who spends his days placating her state of mind. Julieta is the subdued daughter whose purpose is to feed the entire family and heal her community. (that's how she got to meet Augustin, who was always accident prone). She lacks the strength or independence to stand up to her mother. Augustin is also a supporting model father, if a little more of a comic relief. Like everybody else, he walks on eggshells around Alma. Isabela is the eldest grandchild and the spitting image of Alma when she was younger. She is the golden child on whom all the expectations of Abuela Alma are placed. Alma lives vicariously through her and wants her to have the perfect life she never had, to the point that she fixes him up with the perfect husband, who looks a lot like Pedro and shares the same gentle soul. Isabela takes her place in the designs Alma has for her and is the dutiful daughter/granddaughter, who hides her personality to not rock the boat (one theory floated online is that she might be queer, according to the colour schemes she chooses as soon as she is "liberated").. if this is true, this compounds the pressure she is under for having to marry Mariano. Every kid who has been put into football camp or dance school because that's what their parents wanted to do and never got to do is an Isabela. Every kid who has had parents pushing them hard on things that they themselves failed to accomplish, knows that struggle. Dolores, she has been keeping the secrets of the entire valley for 2 decades (they get the gift when they are 5 and she's 25 like Isabela). She is just about ready to burst and maybe she reveals Maribel's secret as a last bid to stop the proposal from going ahead, since she's actually in love with Mariano. She always whispers, even when singing, because voices in our heads are louder than those outside of it, and she hears EVERYTHING louder. Luisa is the strong one, in character and body, she embodies all the children who have to take on parenting roles with their siblings to support the family, or maybe a single parent, those who are seen as reliable and steady and therefore are heavily leaned upon by everybody. She is on the verge of breaking down and her sense of self is tied to her being of service to the family and community. She can never catch a break. Camilo embodies all those kids who have a relative, sometimes indeed a parent, who need special attention, who have a domestic situation that is very stressful, where they have to repress themselves to allow for the house to not become a madhouse. He is a carer who does what he can to help his mother stay in control, and uses humour as a coping mechanism. Maribel has the stigma of failure attached to her and Abuela Alma sees what happened to her as an actual danger to their entire livelihood and way of life. In a sense, grandma is not wrong, because if Maribel is a sign of things to come, and the magic is indeed dying, with it dies the Encanto and the protection they have had over the decades from the violence that still exists around them. She wants to help but can't find any self worth no matter how brave a face she puts up. She feels unseen and unvalued. She is the living embodiment of the trauma Alma carries around Even little Antonio, who in the entire movie is a positive, confident and smart kid, (and let's face it..we would all riot if something happened to him) is bricking it in the beginning because he is terrified of disappointing his family and ending up like Maribel, forever stuck in the nursery. he already sees the trauma as a 5 year old kid. I relate to that as my parents separated when I was 5 and some of my earliest memories are of the tensions of those days and the conflict between my parents that took several more years to be resolved and turned around.. so I know for a fact that Antonio was well aware of the situation around him. Abuela is right, in the end.. they are broken.. each and every one of them... and this movie does a great job at representing the many ways in which generational trauma and the experience of the desplazados (forced migration due to the guerrilla violence in Colombia) can affect entire generations and in fact does still affect to this day, millions of Colombians. I genuinely think this is the best animation movie Disney has produced in at least a decade if not more... for representing all of the above.. and that's even without touching on the extensive research they both musically and culturally and in terms of fauna and flora represented, which in and of itself deserves another wall of text but I've already written more than most people will want to read anyway. just as a little nugget, have a google at what Madrigal actually means.
definitely agree they upted their game on the animation of facial expressions. there were several detailed expressions that ive never seen them do before (maribel scrunching up her nose talking to antonio under the bed, the agony on young abuela`s face crying out for her husband, the way abuela tidys her hair when talking about the guzman`s arrival). very realistic
Abuela also has a lot of pressure. When the miracle was given it created a natural frontier [the mountains around Encanto], that protects the townspeople from the villains of the exterior. That's why since Mirabel didn't get the miracle you see the abuela trying to convince the people in town that the magic is still strong. That the Encanto [the town] is still protected. She feels like it's her duty to protect "Encanto", if the miracle is gone the town will be burn again from those outsiders.
I really wish that this can have a series show. There's so many things that needs to show. About the other characters, the townfolks and the rooms. This is the most colorful, beautiful and related movie for a long time.
I relate to Mirabel so so much as the youngest of three myself and always hearing about their lives and accomplishments, there is something so grating about constantly being told what your older siblings did or do but not getting the same spotlight. I had that for years while still living at home with my parents and feeling the pressure of becoming like one of my siblings. Like I am my own person and isn't that enough? Hahah. So Mirabels growth and character really hit home.
Thank You for commenting on the donkeys dancing! There have been a million reactors posting about Surface Pressure and not a single one mentioned the dancing donkeys until you!
This is such a great movie! It’s amazing how much effort they put into representing Colombian culture. One really interesting theory about Mirabel is that she didn’t get a gift because she is going to become the next “candle-holder” or leader of the household. Abuela didn’t gain a magical power; she gained a magical candle/home and the ability to lead future generations. Mirabel seems to interact with and talk to Casita the most out of any of the family members, and she wants to help everyone that she can. So instead of bestowing a gift, the magic chose her to be the next leader of the family.
Me and mirabel were talking, I am stressed and felt like I was letting everyone down and now I'm loosing my gift, things are heavy. What abuela heard: Mirabel, talk, loosing gift. "Mirabel, what did you do?"
She seems to be a reservoir for the magic. Everyone else DRAWS from a source- mirabel IS a source of magic. And you can see it in her personality. She feeds everyone else.
And you can see it in Waiting on a Miracle- the mountains rise around her, the house rises at her gesture, just like it did for the candle. When she fell apart, so did the house.
In watching and rewatching the movie one thing I really noticed with Isabela is that the flowers she blooms in that panic attack moment are literally ALWAYS present in some way - when in town, when talking with Abuela about the pending marriage, heavily featured in her room - and I saw a tweet about it last month highlighting that she's basically always anxious but because she makes it look good/pretty no one really checks on her. I do think an additional short scene before Mirabel enters Bruno's room could've added more to her but with each rewatch I truly got that sense of hiding emotions and projecting perfection because she had no idea how to deal with things or even, in some part, who she actually is outside of familial obligations and expectations (which - RELATABLE CONTENT for me for years and years when I was in my early 20s like she is) . The wording of her response to being called selfish was a little clunky but I definitely got what she meant by saying she's been 'stuck being perfect her whole life'. And yet it's that awkardness that makes the moment feel so true (honestly, who ever wrote that 'hug it out' scene TRULY has siblings LOL)
I relate so much to Isabella. I am the one everyone can count on. The smart one, the one who won’t disappoint, the perfect daughter. I wanted to work with special needs kids but I have health issues. So I let my family convince me to aim lower and not go for what I want. I’m studying computer science, I’m top of my class and I hate it. I’m succeeding and I’m not even happy but everyone else is so I continue.
There’s definitely a balance not shown in this movie, and sacrifice is a part of life, whether we like it or not, but don’t make urself miserable just to please others. Not unless there’s a good reason
I love the symbolism of Brunos tower being the first large structure to fall and bring the entirety of the rest of the house down with it almost immediately after, just like how Bruno was the first to be rejected from the family.
I love everything about Encanto, even the flaws. What I really admire is the magic of Casita and the Gifts it gives. The Casita and the Encanto were actually gifts *to* Alma. She needed a home to grow and protect her family, and the candle just happened to help give things a bit more oomph. When the Casita was born, it knew its future automatically. It knew it needed more than one “Alma.” This is why all the doors show what everyone would look like the day Casita would fall. (Mirabel’s cousin’s door was a child - not adult.) What Bruno saw wasn’t an undecided future; it was one path. He saw the house broken, and the healed house, on the night of Mirabel’s ceremony. He saw how she would get her door. Also, if you pay attention to Mirabel’s outfit, her top has butterflies and her skirt has all the symbols of everyone else’s, including the candle. All of this explains why she didn’t receive a Gift, a door - because she is the next Matriarch.
There's this common stereotype amongst like first generation kids/ kids of hispanic parents where the first born daughter is always expected to be perfect and mature and gets so much pressure and responsibility forced onto them from the beginning. I watched this w my sisters and we all saw ourselves as the sisters in the movie, and of course my oldest sister resonated with Isabela because my mom had engrained into her head "we did not sacrifice everything to build a better life in this country for you to not be perfect" growing up. She didn't even have a normal childhood because she had to be responsible and essentially raise her sisters and be the one to get perfect grades and get a good job and marry a good guy and be a good example for us and there was a point where I was so confused why she didnt seem to like me but I ended up realizing she was just a kid who resented us in a way because she didn't get to have the childhood she made sure to let us have. Of course its not right to take your anger out on your little sister but I can totally understand why someone who was never allowed to express their emotions openly would not know how to properly deal with them in a healthy way. I think it matters to understand all the characters in the movie because they're all dealing with generational trauma and its a hard thing to break but in the end they find a way to start healing from it.
What's sad is it's SO obvious that they all treat Mirabel worse than everyone else that Antonio is so worried about not getting a gift and being treated the same. If Mirabel was treated just as cherished as the rest of her family was, I don't think he'd be so nervous, because the worse thing that would happen is they'd continue to share a room if he didn't get his own either, which he's not super against because he's really close with Mirabel. Little Antonio sees how blatantly his family treats the one without a gift and he's so scared to end up the same
Everything at the dinner starts getting chaotic and horrible, then you say: "This is like... Thanksgiving!" Me: "Are you okay? Do we need to send help?" 😅
I recommend watching this one again and again! I keep realizing more and more each time. Like how Bruno's prophecy for Isabela didn't mean what she thought. Bruno said she would have "the life of her dreams," which she took to mean that she would continue having to maintain her perfect image. But it actually meant that she would eventually be able to express herself and be free of that image, thus allowing her power to grow "like grapes," not like flowers. She would come to see herself and her gift as substantial, not just decorative. Another thing I just realized while watching your reaction is why Bruno's room is so inhospitable. It probably didn't start out that way, but he gradually made it harder and harder to reach him as people kept bothering him for prophecies and then blaming him for what he saw.
One thing I love about this movie is how they explain death to a child vs an older child… Abuela didn’t outright say their grandfather was killed just lost to them to a young mirabel and when she’s older she learns the true story
I don't know if people already mentioned this in the comments, I don't believe the main messaging around the movie was about the gifts/self worth at all. Encanto to me is a story of confronting and healing generational trauma. I don't know if you know this, but the disney short that played in theatres before Encanto played was the same theme (it was about a racoon who was injured as a child then became overprotective of it's child in a harmful way - I won't go too much into it, but it's worth a watch). We can see in during the Dos Orugitas song Abuela's history, where she was displaced from her home, had no power at all, lost her only support, and was forced to step up to be the hope of the community without the chance to process her grief. To her, the miracle was what kept her, her family, and her community safe, and so she put so much importance in it because it was, in her perspective, what kept her family safe - fostering the miracle was her (misguided) way of protecting her family. And since she saw the miracle as their protector, it makes sense that Mirabel not getting a gift scared her. Due to her history/place in the communty and unhealed traumas, she most likely felt that feeling/showing fear was weak, or that it could have negative impacts on the community. Obviously over time, that fear caused her to start ostracizing Mirabel, the one who reminded her of their 'weakness'. Her manerisms and attitude are things that a lot of people whose grandparents experienced conflict in their time can relate to. It's like the saying 'hurt people, hurt people' - Abuela was hurting, and in her efforts to protect the family, she ended up hurting them. When Mirabel and Abuela had their confrontation, it was a turning point for Abuela. After Casita fell, she was able to see how her family was suffering, and realized her part in it. That realization, I believe, was healing in a way. It was her first step to moving forward. This is represented by her finally taking off her black mourning shall at the end - she was finally able to start processing her grief, and by doing that it allowed her to finally start growing after being stuck in time at that river where she lost Pedro. I know a lot of people who come from South American/Carribbean households cried a lot at this movie, because of how accurate the family dynamics were, espcially with Abuela, but also because most of us know that our grandparents will most likely never apologize to us.
What I love about the animation in this is that the smallest nuances are animated down to the peach fuzz on the back of Luisa’s neck to the individual specks of sand on Mirabel’s face.
Which sibling are u???
Definitely the main mirabel the one with no powers .
I relate to her character more than the others.
Mirabel easy lol
Love you guys love your videos your reactions everything.
By the way is your zombie movie marathon over?
No way!!
Camilo :)
My theory on why Bruno's room had so many stairs: To discourage people from just coming to him for unimportant questions. If you were willing to climb those stairs you REALLY needed an answer to your question.
That lady w the fish really wanted to know if her fish was gonna die lmao
@@Cujo4169 lmaoo and she thought he was to blame for it. Like it's a fucking gold fish bro! They have short lifespans man
@@amberlee.nycole.perrine8150 They can live for a long ass time in the correct living conditions, actually. 🤷♀️ like over a decade long.
@@AnxietyRat ooh
@@amberlee.nycole.perrine8150 Umm- they can live up to 30 years old, with 10 to 15 being the average (as few get looked after properly).
The theory why Mirabel didn’t get her gift is that she is the next candle holder. Abuela didn’t get a gift but was seen as the candle holder who made sure the magic safe suggesting she could be the next candle holder as she was able to bring back the magic with the door knob.
Yes! Plus Mirable & Abuela are the only ones who can actually talk to Casita, another layer showing how they're similar.
Exactly! I’m actually about to make a separate comment explaining the magic in Casita and its Gifts.
OMG THAT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE
@@krystleyarbro That was one of the first things I noticed was Mirable being the only one that communicated with Casita, she communicated with it more then even Abuela. But man I love when Casita literally saves and makes sure everyone is safe while dying!
@@Adrianne519 Yes, and the last thing Casita does is protect Mirabel. After the candle goes out, the windowframes that protected her fall, hence the house "dies".
Not gonna lie, I really feel for Isabela. She was placed into a pedestal where she had to maintain the 'perfect' image and that is already a big responsibility. I think she was a bit harsh on Mirabel since she saw her younger sister being free on doing whatever she wants whereas Isa has to put a smile on her face and do what's best for the family. She maybe a bit jealous since Mirabel gets more attention from their parents as well. It's like the typical 'older sibling has to be responsible while younger sibling gets to have all the fun' thing.
Kinda the same for Mirabel too since she resented Isa for being the golden child, everything seemingly going her way and being Alma's favorite so while she wasn't explicitly hating on Isa, she is being passive-aggressive like talking down about her to Mariano (which goes to show that Mirabel isn't above being petty too). They both didn't know the struggles of one another and being a family member's favorite can also unintentionally incite some sibling rivalry.
Yes, I really felt for her too. What a terrible tole to put on someone, to always be perfect, never makes mistakes and have to keep upping themselves to be even more perfect. It showed in "What Else Can I Do" that she never she explored what she could really do and be capable of, before she was stuck just making flowers and roses because anything less is not perfect but when she made the cactus it brought her to life and even though it wasn't a flower it was beautiful and perfect to her because she made it and especially in the moment that she was feeling. I never thought about it but your right Isabella was probably jealous of Mirable's freedom, that's what I love about the movie Mirable also had to learn some things, she didn't just save the day. She thought they were all happy and content from having powers and she was the only one that was sad inside but that's not the case at all. But I gotta say out of all the powers I would have hated wanting Dolores'! I just hope her room was sound proof because how could she sleep if she can hear someone's eye twitch and she also had to hear the man of her dreams gush over her cousin, that must have been torture!
@@Adrianne519 Yeah, Dolores has a really difficult gift to maintain like her mom. She can't help but hear things because that's just what her gift is, kind of the reason she's not being harsh on her Tio Bruno. Plus the quiet tone she uses because it would sound so loud for her.
People also seem to gloss out that Pepa is in a rough bind since her emotions are tied to the weather. Imagine feeling a bit anxious and then everyone starts telling you to calm down but it has the opposite effect. You have to always keep yourself in check and bottle up your feelings because it would be an inconvenience to people around you.
It gets overlooked, but there are scenes where Abuela is speaking with Isabela. And all she is talking about is how perfect everything has to be.
What's beautiful about Isabella finally discovering that her gift isn't simply limited to pretty flowers is the power she discovers within herself--powers that can do so much more than beautify! The gift she was given has so much more potential... She could grow food crops & nourish the entire world! She could grow exotic, endangered plants that have the potential to cure or prevent many diseases! She has the power to combat deforestation and replenish the rainforests that so many animals, insects, etc. rely on! It was a shame & waste of her potential, being restricted to fit into some arbitrary role of "perfection."
As an eldest sister in an immigrant family, I definitely sympathize with Isabela (and also Luisa to an extent).
I do think if during their fight, there was one line that directly stated the reason for her animosity towards Mirabel - “No one expects anything from you, but they expect everything from me” - the general public would be more willing to sympathize with her as well.
Pepa's gift made me really sad...she couldn't have a bad day without being blamed for causing a tornado outside. Nobody really wondered WHY she was upset...the focus was only on the result of her experiencing any emotion at all.
Yeah, she has to keep being on happy, "clear skies, clear skies!" Anytime she is sad or worried her emotions cause rain or thunder and she is chastised for it "you have a cloud!" She isn't really allowed to feel what she feels, she has to keep pushing all her emotions down instead of being allowed to feel how she feels and process that.
Iv'e seen someone comment that everyone always tells Pepa that she has a cloud. But no one ever asks WHY she has a cloud. And that Felix was probably the first person who did and that's why she fell in love with him. That's so wholesome.
Me too i fell bad and pepa Is my favorite character and i will love to have her gift
I know James said he was disappointed that Bruno wasn't a villain and I wanna say I like how Disney subverted those expectations, because up until meeting him they really made you think he would be. Both from the other characters perspectives of him but also in a subtle way of giving him that lime green color that's usually associated with the villains (i.e Scar, Maleficent, Ursula, the Evil Queen, etc)
Yeah that was cool…I would’ve like it more if we had had a good villain recently
@@whitenoisereacts I agree we are lacking in great villains, either we can't really enjoy them because they are a surprise villain or there's not one at all which sometimes I rather take that over the surprise villain and the biggest problem with them are they are never a surprise, everyone sees it coming.
The true villain was the generational trauma
That’s sorta lame…
@@whitenoisereacts damn I guess generational trauma is lame then 😐 you guys aren't seeing it from an ethnic point of view which is why you don't get the impact of intergenerational trauma in this case.
Everyone roles their eyes at isabele having to be perfect but it is a real struggle for her. She can’t ever mess up or she’s gonna disappoint the family. I think that’s why she’s “mean” to mirabel, because mirabel gets to mess up and it’s not a big deal.
SOMEONE SAID IT, THANK YOU
But still…I think it deserves a little eye rolling lol. Definitely still a problem, but if a different kind
I heard this was a book and in the book it mentions that Isabella thinks Mirabel is her parents favorite and that’s why she isn’t nice to Mirabel
I think the eldest sibling factor comes into play as well, she is expected to be what the family NEEDS her to be, regardless of what she wants. Also I see a lot of the LGBT people also relate with her struggle, though less of the ‘prentending to be perfect’ and more so the ‘hiding and stifling who I want to be and what I want to do because what I want to do and who I want to be will be hated by my family’ angle
Sooooo another Disney Princess?
As a former “golden child” and with a younger brother, I see myself in Isabela. I was the second grandchild but I have to be the perfect one because my older cousin never did, so I had the constant pressure of being different to her and my expectations were really high, perfect grades, perfect behavior, forced to accomplish more than I could manage, every fu***** thing and being compared as a role model for everyone else in my family, then you have my brother, not high expectations and getting rewarded for doing the minimun while I wasn’t allowed to do it, of course I resent him and my cousins for it, I even got an anger problem and while I wasn’t mean to them, my minds was full of “ They can fail but why I’m not allowed to be a failure”. I remember crying because things didn’t got like I wanted, that made me so afraid of being a disappointment (which I am now), being forced in that shell is not what I wish for anyone but still I would take it if it mean that the rest of my cousins/brother won’t have that pressure on them.
PD: Sorry for my bad English
No I totally get that
As the oldest grandchild, with two younger siblings (same age gaps too), I found that Mirabel is the only sister I don't relate to within my family. Though I do in my professional life. And it has helped me see and understand that my brother wasn't free of a lack of expectations. The difference was his were more about him failing.
You got the point.
Me, I'm the elder girl so normally I have to be an example for my three sisters, but the two last prefer to follow our other sister's example because I have ASD and they don’t really accept this fact.
As a former "perfect child" who is now barely able to function and is now the disappointment, people really don't understand the burnout of being forced into perfection and how it can (and actually does) destroy people. Things such as neurodiversity and chronic health issues (fibromyalgia, CFS etc) are now being found evidence of being rooted in children having to push themselves too hard for too long.
I really wish they had even tried to understand her character the way that you and the other replies here did because I'm a big fan of them and they've been pretty dismissive of her character and struggle in these comments while here I am a grown adult in therapy and on medications to deal with the effects of being treated similarly to the way Isabella was lol.
I have a theory about Pepa and "We Don't Talk About Bruno". I think she was redirecting her grief of losing a brother into anger because it was easier for her to handle. Her whole life revolves around managing her emotions, because if she doesn't it affects every one around her, and she can't escape that. Talking about Bruno has become a trigger for her emotions, and the least her family could do was to limit those triggers for her. We constantly see her family, especially Felix and Camilo, care for her to help her panic attacks, and the song is predominantly sung by her family, trying to help her avoid triggers.
She is the first to hug Bruno once he returns, after all.
Yes! And it makes sense that they all would feel betrayed by Bruno because Abuela told Bruno to have a vision after Mirable didn't get her gift and since he didn't tell anyone what he saw he just left, so both his siblings must have been so hurt and confused and that turned into anger and resentment.
That, and Pepa constantly gets told "don't make it rain" or "you have a cloud", her having any kind of negative emotion is a burden to her family, so she better be happy and sunny all the time, or else. Also, telling her to not be sad or angry doesn't really help anything, she is still feeling those things, she just feels pressured to hide it more.
Abuela's version of events that "Bruno didn't care about this family" would've upset his sisters, part of a close knit triplet set. You get the impression that Pepa wanted the truth from her brother's mouth, not second hand from her (biased) mother..
@@AnnekeOosterink It's another version of being perfect all the time and also very releatable. There are people especially daughters/children who think they have to keep up a happy fasade all the time to please someone else in the family.
A friend of mine pointed out that Isabela could literally end world hunger, but because she had to be “perfect” she didn’t even know she could do that.
Like, Isabela’s gift is probably the most important one out of all of them
As a colombian, I'm gonna tell you some references in the movie from my country.
1. The colorful river that they show us in the movie is a real river, is called Caño Cristales. It is known as the most beautiful river in the world.
2. In Luisa's song, when the second verse begins, Luisa and Mirabel fall into a coffee grinder
3. The plates where Bruno's visions are seen, are emerald. Colombia is the largest exporter of emerald in the world.
4. All the gifts of the family represent something Colombian. Pepa represents the country's varied and rare climate. Camilo the variety of races and ethnic groups of the country. Dolores gossip. Antonio biodiversity. Isabela the flora. Juliet the gastronomy. Luisa the work of the Colombian, could we say (?
5. All the clothes you see in the movie, including hats, are cultural from all over the country. That is why it is disrespectful to us that Disney sells it.
6. Candles represent a lot in our culture, in fact we have a day dedicated to lighting candles. Hence why the candles in the movie.
7.The palma de Cera that is mentioned in Isabela's song, and seen throughout the town, is the national tree of Colombia, and is the largest type of palm in the world.
8. The yellow butterflies represent one of the novels by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a Colombian literature Nobel Prize winner.
9. Violence in Colombia is a very big issue, which continues to be experienced to this day. In the grandmother's past we can see Forced Displacement. Colombia is the country with the most internally displaced people in the world.
How is gossip Columbian?
@@Kingdom_Of_Dreams i think its more of a cultural trait
@@Kingdom_Of_Dreams colombian* and really in Latin America gossip is in every family reunion, without miss lmao
@Piripam : Is Isabela not Elizabeth !!
Who tf is Elizabeth?
There's so many who misunderstand the ''I've been stuck being perfect'' line from Isabela. She isn't saying it in a ''Ooh I'm so perfect my life is sooo hard'' but being perfect doesn't just come out of nowhere. She had to work for it since she got her gift and as the eldest daughter, couldn't have any flaws. Her appearance, attitude and personality had to be forced just so she could satisfy those around her and not dissapoint the family. I mean she was even willing to marry a guy she doesn't like to make them happy. Acting fake for the sake of others can really drive you nuts and thats really what she meant by ''being perfect my whole life''. She was stuck doing this for all her life. Its honestly very heartbreaking especially in a family with toxic family roles. Sure it doesn't justify her being so mean to Mirabel, but lets be real she was jealous of the freedom Mirabel got. She didn't take into account Mirabel's struggles as the only kid with no gift, but Mirabel didn't take into account Isabela's struggles with being the people pleaser all her life either. Basically, they needed to communicate.
A lot of people don’t seem to realize when she admits this Mirabel doesn’t actually care initially and asks for a cheap hug, because she doesn’t understand either. Like she phrased before she thought everything “came easy to Isabella”. So when she hears “woe is me being perfect is hard” she doesn’t realize Isabella never wanted her life this way to begin with, and the whole facade is a persona unintentionally pushed on her mainly by Abeula (and others like Mariano etc). She gets offended when Mirabel calls her selfish because from the age of 5, her dedication to acting like a pretty princess for everyone to gawk and swoon over WAS her selfless dedication. To paraphrase Isabella quite literally said “the family was happy, abeula was happy”, she never said once “I was happy”.
The hug at the end wasn’t really the thing that helped the candle, Mirabel was the only one who encouraged Isabela to express herself differently and was about them coming to a mutual understanding. (Can I just say the shame in Isabelas face when Abeula finds her covered in colors and calls her “out of control”. Very telling….
It also is about how Isabela doesn’t want to be perfect. She just wants freedom to be herself and do what she wants.
She even had to practice perfect poses and facial expressions - like the old Charm Schools, but with never a holiday.
Ah I saw the "camerawork" in We Don't Talk About Bruno it's so cool panning into the wedding and such fluid choreography is gorgeous.
i noticed the same thing during that song except it is the part right after camilos verse when mirabel is walking through a tunnel passing a couple singing characters before ending back up in the town. (idk if that makes sense but the point is that it looked very smooth and fluid and the animation on mirabel looked like a real person since you couldnt see her face. Disney outdid themselves completely.)
I have to disagree on the assessment that Abuela was doing what she was doing for “shallow reasons” and the “clout”. When she was given the miracle, she was forced into a situation where she was now the head of a community of refugees, where her miracle has helped shield everyone in her group from the evil people they were running from. From the moment she was given the miracle, she felt as if she needed to earn its keep, to use it to better her community. She imposed this view on all of her children and grandchildren. By the time of the storyline, it’s less that she’s keeping up appearances for the clout, but rather keeping up appearances for the well-being of the community she heads and serves. She expresses a couple times in the middle of the movie that she’s concerned that the community members might think the family isn’t going to be able to continue to protect the community. And it becomes apparent in the end that she hadn’t considered that the community might be able to help the family in return if they had simply asked for help. (Townsfolk in the last song: “Lay down your load / we’re only down the road / we have no gifts, but we are many / and we’ll do anything for you.”)
that's exactly how i interpreted! a sort of survivor's guilt, working to the bone to make sure she deserved to live. she literally says "we swear to always/ help those around us/ and earn the miracle/ that somehow found us". it definitely does not excuse he actions, but it is a complex and understandable motivation for her character. she was never able to deal with the trauma of being displaced and losing her husband because she was immediately thrown into the role of single mother and leader of the entire village.
@@capn_toad not to mention - we know that everything will turn out fine, but she doesn't! For all we know, the moment Mirabel didn't get her gift, she was fearing that the protection they received with her husband's death would be gone. Who knew if the mountains would fall, if the town would vanish, if the lands would die...Also, after this being the only thing separating them from that kind of violent conflict? I think this mentality is what was on her mind when she said that no one in the family understood how vulnerable they were.
This is a late addition XD but something that always gets me, watching this movie...
The "miracle" also came at the cost of her husband's life, and I don't think she would have willingly made that trade. So not only was she forced into being the leader of this village while grieving and raising her kids alone, she also has to acknowledge herself as 'lucky' for being given this gift while losing so much. I feel like the house and the candle were almost a constant reminder of that, and I love that it ends with them rebuilding the house and not having it be some gift that magically came about at the expense of abuelo
I 1000% percent agree with this assessment. After everything Abuela Alma has suffered through, she looks at that candle and this miraculous magical gift as being the only thing protecting them all. She doesn't refer to their magic _as_ magic, but rather as their *gift* and the *miracle* that blessed them. A miracle is considered to be the work of a divine agency, so it is something her family must _earn_ every day by using it responsibly in ways that help the entire community. And honestly, every one of their gifts is useful for defensive/protection purposes and to help the community thrive. But when they don't get a gift for the first time, Alma is not the only person who gets worried. The whole family and the town do too. And of course she is worried, because now she is wondering "Where have we fallen short so that our miracle will be taken away?" Yeah, the town HAS come to rely on their magic, and Alma feels responsible for them. It isn't clout she is worrying about. Her husband gave his LIFE for this miracle, and the family needs to repay that debt every single day.
I don't know if anyone has brought this to your attention yet, but one fantastic detail I noticed was the stark difference in Abuela Alma's story in the beginning vs. the end. In the beginning it's told like a tale of hope and magic, almost like a fairytale - basically, a "kid's" version of the story, because Mirabel is so young, and it's easier to swallow that way. But the second time you hear the story from Abuela, you see the true magnitude of the trauma and grief she experienced on that day. The second time you see that she literally screams in horror and falls to her knees sobbing in anguish (the animation was heartbreakingly incredible and real there too), you actually see the machete, and you really see how much that one moment traumatized her. For her to have her husband killed in front of her, and left with three (3!!!) children to raise on her own, and then on top of that with a whole town looking to her for help, because the miracle was given to her. It must have been a LOT to take on in such a short time. It really struck me when I saw it, and reminds me of the stories our parents and elders tell us, and how we often get the clean/happily-ever-after versions of those stories, but in reality, we can't even begin to describe the emotions they must have gone through during their times of hardship.
Let's also not forget she was raising children with superpowers. Julietta couldn't hurt anyone with them and neither could Bruno (in fact his visions would help the family prepare for whatever bad thing he saw or find a way to change it, looking at you gut guy). But Pepa? A single tantrum would turn into a hail storm/tornado/hurricane/lightning. That is some town destroying powers right there and then it gets worse!
Isabella can grow flowers, sure, but she could also strangle people with vines, make poisonous or carnivorous flowers grow in every home, she could rip all the crops away even. Louisa can literally re-route a river. The girl could just chuck buildings if she got mad and pretty much single handedly kill everyone in the valleys. Camillo could pretty much assault/murder/rape/steal whatever/whoever he wanted and no one would know it was him. Dolores could make the town kill itself just by letting out a few hard truths (reveal cheating spouses, dark secrets, etc...). Antonio can ask a leopard to eat you or a snake bite you.
Like as time went on it became more and more imperative that the kids learn to serve the community. Problem Abuela clung too tightly, tried to control too much and almost had at least 3 of them (Pepa, Isabella and Louisa) hurtling towards either an epic meltdown or becoming a villian. Mind you I understand where Abuela is coming from and, regardless of everything else, she never wanted to hurt her family and genuinely loved each and everyone of them.
Oh there was a lot to unpack in just that one scene. I was weeping for Abuelo Pedro, and Alma being left with so much to carry
I noticed that. In the first story she told Mirabel that her grandfather got lost. But in the end it was revealed that he was killed. I mean it was so obvious. But she didn't want to freak out little Mirabel
@@KayaaaaDe She didn't saw "got lost". She said "was lost to us", implying that he died in a way that wouldn't traumatiz a child with the full picture.
@@breezy3392 ohhhhh 😭. I am sorry i am dumb
It's funny how everyone I've seen react to this movie forgets bruno's power/gift instantly after hearing the beginning song explaining who everyone is and they're powers/gift
To be fair there is a LOT of information and it's quite amazing already that they processed so much of it
Bruno in the song is very glossed over and the main focus is the idea that he’s a pariah and missing. So it is seen as less important to the plot so it is easy to forget
Bruno is the 'black sheep' of the family. The one who sees things for what they really are and doesn't want to be a part of the family's status quo, purposefully removed from the rest.
so glad you guys talked about the "taking away their talents" ending. like. so true. a lot of ppl wanted them to not get their talents back, but i think that completely defeats the purpose of the whole journey. they're supposed to learn how to use them in a healthy way. the powers were never the problem, it was the way they were handled. taking them away as a lesson would basically be saying you shouldn't want to be special bc it's Bad. and i don't like that.
anyway the animation was so beautiful. i actually cried during the first ten minutes just bc of how amazing the visuals were.
I consider "miracle" to be one big metaphor. Magic both exaggerates the character of the bearer and is a "litmus test" of the state of the family as a whole. The family breaks up - the magic disappears and the house breaks down; the family is strong - the candle shines
FINALLY Y'all reacted to this! That being said, I'm surprised you didn't catch Isabella's problem when she said it (when one of you went "whoop-de-doo!" after she mentioned being stuck being perfect). Her problem wasn't that things just came naturally to her and everything was great, the problem was she was forced by her family into playing the role of the perfect daughter. If you go back and watch the scene where she hears that Mariano wants 5 babies, she sprouts pink flowers in her hair, but one of them is white. Abuela then picks off the white one because it isn't 'perfect' (it doesn't match the others). Which goes to show just how little control she had over her life--even while having a normal, human reaction, abuela can't let her show imperfection for one second. Given what she does to her dress during her song and at the end of the movie, they probably picked out her outfits for her and everything, and her power was stunted because her life was So completely controlled that it never occurred to her that she could ever be more than the stereotype her grandmother had picked out for her.
My parents were not quite as controlling (they signed me up for activities they wanted me to do instead of what I actually wanted to do, I had no input on my wardrobe, my dad was my barber because he wanted to make sure my hair looked the way HE wanted it to look, etc), but being the firstborn (/only child), they were extremely controlling and DID expect me to be perfect and play that role. Me being gay, I knew from like age 4 or 5 that I could never live up to that, so I identified with Isabella pretty hard.
I think this movie was an excellent portrayal of how generational family trauma can cause undue pressure for future generations. Their gifts end up being both a blessing and a curse. Their abuela puts so much pressure on them to use their gifts to help the family and the community that she didn't really allow them to be imperfect, make mistakes, or just be themselves. In Mirabels case since she has no gift, her abuela basically expects nothing of her except for her to stay out of the way and not make waves. It is actually such a sad storyline, but I loved the ending of coming to the realization that the pressure she was putting on her family was tearing them apart. I think it was also such a good message that you don't have to have a special gift to be valuable.
There's a lot of theories about Mirabel and her "gift", but my favorite theory is that Mirabel is the living embodiment of the candle now (aka, the miracle!) Especially since there wasn't a candle to bring the house back the second time around, just Mirabel herself.
Which even makes sense as to why she's so connected with the house (she and Abuela are the only ones seen "talking" to the house itself) and also, I think that's why Antonio was able to get his gift! Because Mirabel was the one to walk him up to his door. She's the actual embodiment of the miracle itself!
I sorta like that!!
I agree! Her door disappeared because the magic needed her to be connected to the whole house, not just one room.
20:14 - I guess Bruno's room has so many stairs so he uses his gift for only important stuff. Something that's worth climbing all those stairs.
Hi I’m Colombian and I just got to say that the cultural references in this movie are on point. It really shows Disney did an in-depth research of the Colombian culture from the food we eat such as the “buñuelos” (yucca/cheese fritters) Julieta feeds one of the villagers to heal his broken arm to Mirabel’s dress which the distinctive folk dress from Velez Santander, a beautiful colonial town in northwestern Colombia. This particular dress is traditionally worn with a traditional hat and a double braided ponytail to be cultural exact. The food that the Madrigals are eating during Mariano’s proposal is a typical Colombian dish called “Ajiaco” very popular in the Colombian capital of Bogota which is traditionally serve in this hand-crafted black clay plate which is made in the town of La Chamba, in the department of Tolima. And that green drink is Lulo juice, Lulo is a fruit from northern South America and we Colombians love to drink it. It is so delicious and refreshing. The encanto village is based on the picturesque towns of Barichara , Villa de Leiva and Salento where the Cócora valley is located and is where the story actually takes place. As for the the kid drinking coffee, yes, most of us Colombians start drinking coffee when we’re kids. I started drinking coffee when I was about 9 or 10. Of course, the coffee we drink is not an expresso, it is a light coffee we call “Tinto”. I still remember with fondness when my abuelita used to send me to the corner bakery to get pan, buñuelos, pandebonos, and arepas con queso to accompanied the 6:00 PM Tinto so we could sit down at the table and share with the rest of the family, aunties, uncles and cousins which are as racially diverse as the encanto characters. Happy times!!! I love my family and loved the encanto movie, kudos to Disney for such a master piece.
I love the movie but I do feel the isabella angle is rushed a little... i get what they were going for. Her and Luisa were under pressure in different ways, Luisa to be strong for everyone and isabella to be perfect- delicate, graceful, feminine, marry a traditionally masculine man and have lots of children to hold up the ideal. And I do like on a second watch the snippets sprinkled in to show she didn't like this. Her reaction at being told he wants 5 kids, for example, is to blanch and stare ahead in horror while abuela removes the one flower from her head that didn't match the rest. Subtle but powerful. When she's left to be herself she's actually quite punky and artsy, and that would stick out like a sore thumb in that time, for any daughter, never mind the eldest!
From isabellas perspective it must be frustrating to feel this pressure and watch your youngest sibling be free to do more as she pleases and still be "difficult" by messing things up and walking into walls. Was it petty and silly? Ofc but what siblings aren't? And I'd be lying if I said I hadn't felt resentment when I perceived my sibling as getting "away" with stuff I didn't.
Also, this music is waaaay more traditionally Lin, so if you liked this I'd encourage you to check out his other stuff, like Hamilton and in the heights.
And I am absolutely a combo of pepe and luisa 😂 that is me every day in work in healthcare! Frantically muttering that everything is fine before crying in a corner haha
Oh especially with healthcare!!! Wow I feel that for sure!!
@@whitenoisereacts Just life in these covid days for everyone haha! We're all fine, it's all good... denial is not just a river in Egypt ;) your vids provide some nice escapism though!
The gifts, at least the initial ones, all reflected the generational trauma that Abuela had, and each was triggered by her fears: Bruno could warn them of oncoming threats, Pepa could literally blow any enemies away, and Julietta could heal any injuries. Then, in the next generation, after she lost faith in Bruno's abilities, Dolores got super hearing so she could hear danger coming, Carmelo could impersonate a bandit or army leader, and Louisa could fight them off without being injured. And Isabella could grow crops in case of a natural disaster.
And Antonio got a gift that provided the unconditional love he had learned not to expect from his family, after seeing how Mirabel was treated.
@@Lannisen I saw it more as Mirabel starting to exert her influence over the Casita, with Antonio's gift reflecting Mirabel's view of him, while Abuela couldn't make sense of his gift.
And this is more of a theory, but we don’t necessarily know what the interests were of the kids before their gifts were given. It’s possible they developed those particular hobbies because of their gifts. Antonio’s gift doesn’t have a clear connection to Abuela’s trauma thought, but we know he liked animals beforehand. Maybe his gift foreshadows that the gifts will no longer connect to Abuela’s past, and be for the user instead of the village.
@@koala9112 definately a theory.
While I don't agree that this was the intention, you brought up a huge issue I had with Isabella's gifts. Isabella would be worshipped as a god in some cultures because she literally creates and sustains life. What separates her from Tafiti from Moana?? The script writers treated her as a one trick pony, but she's got the most important gift of all. She could sustain a nation during a famine, and yet they have her growing flowers for aesthetics. Such a waste.
i saw a clip of surface pressure on tiktok before encanto was released and without context, as the oldest of five (would've been of nine) i cried watching it. then seeing the full song in context made cry even more too. this whole movie put me through it and i wish i could watch it for the first time again!
Best song in the movie hands down!!
💯
The reason Isabella is Abuela's favorite is that Isabella looks *exactly* like Abuela when she was young. Also, the man that Isabella was betrothed to looks a lot like Abuela's late husband. She's literally trying to live her definition of a "perfect life" through Isabella
I wish we had gotten a bit more of Isabella to establish her struggle before her "transformation". A scene of her with her parents complaining about the "low expectations" for Mirabel, or a private moment where we see her alone, cracking under the pressure but having to switch to her perfect mask in front of the family. I feel that even ONE extra scene hinting at her true feelings before her "big reveal" would have enhanced her character.
Yeah I agree!! That would’ve helped a lot more.
Look at her face as Mariano pulls out the ring box. That is not the face of a happy person.
@Steph Kuilan Also every time the marriage is brought up her face instantly shifts to uncomfortable
In the song where Mirabel is introducing everyone, she passes by Mariano and doesn’t even look in his direction. An early hint that she might not be in love with him.
I can only remember two hints. The one at the breakfast scene where Dolores mentions how many children Mariano wants and the scene where Mariano almost puts on her ring. Both scenes show her looking stressed as hell but trying to keep it on the down low.
People have mentioned that Isabella's Golden child status is different from western standards.
In a Colombian family she is the example for the rest of the family. She has to be actually perfect all the time. She's strong for having put up to it so long. It says a lot that she had *never* tried something different with her powers ever since she got them, or at least since she assumed her role. The generational trauma is runs deep in her too.
It’s a western movie, so I still think it deserves a little shade. While her pain may feel as real, it’s objectively less difficult than what happened to Bruno
@@whitenoisereacts She was about to be forced into a marriage she didn't want and to be the mother of children to a man she didn't love, and she had to sit and smile and look pretty and perfect about it the whole time because it was her responsibility to continue the perfect magic line. It's not the same trauma as Bruno's but it's still trauma.
It's like saying your depression isn't as bad as my depression based on my metrics so I get to laugh at you. It's kind of a really shitty way of viewing trauma.
@@whitenoisereacts Bruno is literally free, lonely, misunderstood, shunned, pushed away from his family but free from Abuela, Isabella is perceived as a robot by her grandmother because she grows flowers, she isn't even able to choose somebody she loves, that's both equally bad, would you walk up to someone and straight up make their depression invalid because you think yours is worse? You guys have a trashy view, was just about to watch this reaction but these comments saved me
No, because thts very different than analyzing characters in a movie. Their pain is just as valid and dealing with any sort of person like that, that’s 1000 percent the approach to take. But I’m not sure looking at the bigger picture if she has suffered as much as some of the other children, or even Abuala
It’s a movie. There are lots of things people comment on and laugh about that you never would in real life. I think it’s a bit unfair to equate the two. And if we can’t talk and discuss even a movie, I feel like we’re all missing the point. I’m just putting some ideas out there. Don’t assume things that aren’t said, like thts the way I view trauma.
You two are reaching the point where you've seen so many movies your analysis are incredibly spot on almost immediately I love it! Basically guessed the whole conflict with only the first 5 minutes to go off of ahahah
Lmao!!! Well, hopefully we are getting deeper into it and adding things that you haven’t heard before
@@whitenoisereacts absolutely, your reactions are a delight and I love how on point your guesses and interpretations are!
Right? I was really impressed and loved their discussions, both during and after the film!
Dos Oruguitas has me sobbing every time 🥲 I know it doesn’t get as much attention as the other songs do but it’s such a beautiful song and Abuela and Pedro’s story is so heartbreakingly beautiful 🖤
It's the one nominated for an Oscar, though.
The movie has so many layers I realise something new every time I see it, it's a perfect example of any toxic family dynamic no matter the culture, and the fact it's the "villain" is mind-blowing-ly amazing! Abuela belive she could not show her depression due to her loss because she received a miracle when other did not and have 3 children to raise on her own and because of this she develop into a woman of strength, perfection and feeling of obligation to serve her community which she passes on in the family. Her children's gifts are based on personalities that grew from that environment. The healer, the quick changing and overly emotional, and the one who tries making his mother see the hard truths and work through them instead of brushing it under the rug. Instead Abuela blamed every failing on Bruno making him distance himself before he eventually left. (You can even see this in his door having moved backward from the rest) Her grandchildren's gifts again reflecting growing up in a toxic environment. The joker who try to make his mother happy because she's repeatedly told not to make clouds. The gossiper who tell everyone everything in a family who keeps everything hidden, but also know when secrets should be kept like Bruno while keeping him connected to what goes on within the family. Antonio the one who understands and try creating communication. The favourite grandchild who is made the example of how to be perfect, the strong sister who needs to keep her sisters from killing each other and shoulder everyones problems, and on the very day Bruno left Mirabel became the new member who was blamed for everything that goes wrong. The house had to break apart and be rebuilt, again a symbolic metaphor. PS: To anyone irritated Mirabel didn't get a gift at the end or a room, she got more as she became the familie's miracle. She becomes/embodies the candle by the same river. The casita's front door is hers! She's the one giving gifts from now on, or so I hope, and unless she passes it on with the role as the matriarch she'll be a flame that never goes out and therefore she might just be immortal... think on that alternative ;P I love this movie!
I love everything you said but I personally think Mirabel didn't get a gift because she's the new Abuela, she's the future one supposed to keep the family together
@@mindlessscarecrow4886 I agree with that! I think Mirabel will take Abuela's place once she's gone, but there is also no longer a candle, so Mirabel is also taking on that "role" as well. And though I'm not sad Miracle didn't get a gift, I kind of hope that means she'll be able to continue giving the family gifts =)
@@mindlessscarecrow4886 I also think Mirabel didn't get a gift because the family needed to be reminded that the people matter more than the gift, that they are valuable without the gifts
Yeah, I keep realizing new things, even from reaction videos like this. They were wondering why Bruno's room was so inhospitable, and I realized it probably didn't start out that way, but people kept bothering Bruno to tell their futures, and then blaming him for what he saw, so he subconsciously made it as difficult as possible to reach his vision cave. Then when he left, he added the chasm (or broke a bridge that had been there before) so no one would find his last vision.
As a father, I now watch this movie at least four times a days, and the soundtrack plays every time we are in the car. And yes, you bet your ass I sing along to every single song!
Lmao!!
The gifts as I see it is an embodiment of the dominant piece of their personality, it was already a part of them before they received their gift, but even if it's the most noticeable/largest piece it's not the only one in the puzzle that make them who they are, but it is the only one that the others see or define them by and what is expected of them.
Finding out that Mirabel is Rosa Diaz from Brooklyn 99 blew my mind more than King George in Hamilton being Kristoff in Frozen 😱🤯😂
Wait what????
I know !!!!
I love that this movie doesn't have a villain.
This encanto was what they needed- high mountains to keep the dangers out and showed also how abuela runs things.
But eventually things changed and they needed to move forward.
The house was build on trauma and it had to crumble so they could build a healthier foundation of love. You can interpret brunos vision that way too.
What they needed isn´t the same anymore two generations down the line, which reflects the way generational trauma affects families so well.
I saw the gifts as compensation for the trauma.
The kids sensed the grief of abuela and tried to compensate with their powers unknowingly.
Mirabel didn´t get a gift as she is through being herself the glue and hope of the family.
All the characters seem to have a personalty type that keeps the family from harm that you can find in a disfunctional family represented through their gifts.
Abuela being the matriarch, Dolores the gossip, Luisa the strong one, Pepa the emotional one, Juiletta the nurturer, Isabella the perfect one, Camillo the distractor and Bruno the identiefed patient. Just Mirabel and Antonio don´t seem to really fit in this picture, so i believe they represent the new healthy way the familiy needs to go. A healthy way of dealing with the past - through communication (Antonio), Love, hope and compassion ( Mirabel).
Just the way I saw it. I absolutely love about this movie that you can interpret it in different ways based on your experience and learn from it.
(hope this is understandebly. English is not my native language)
I love that they showed a variety of skin colors, hair textures and body types.
When Mirabel overhears Abuela praying to be able to keep the community safe...it really hits on second viewing that she saw her community destroyed before, her people driven from their homes, loved ones lost, and she is so desperate for that not to happen again so she's clinging to what she thinks makes the family strong without seeing how holding too tightly is hurting others
I think Mirabel's 'thing' is to do with stitching/embroidery if you look at her clothes and the gift she made for her cousin. And I think that's a metaphor for her being the thread that stitches her family together. I noticed every time her heart breaks, the cracks appear or worsen. Her worst heartbreak and argue with her abuela leads to the house being completely destroyed.
there's so much to this movie that i love, so many moments that tugged at my heart strings. bruno's plate on his table, the house using the last bit of power to save mirabel, the moment the miracle bursts to live as abuela falls to the ground in grief, isabela admitting she didn't want to marry, luisa's whole song, the community coming to help build the house. i could go on. i love that they made mirabel's door the front door which is why her bedroom door didn't work when she was five and that she is the next generation miracle keeper like abuela was. coming from a toxic household i could recognise and relate to a lot and there's videos on tiktok and probably youtube now comparing each character to a different trait/person in a toxic/abusive household. the fact abuela actually gets called out and then apologises for real, and the whole message is very important and i am glad kids will get to see this and take that on. after i watched it the first time i knew it would be one of my favourite films forever. also, love pepa and félix's relationship - the whole time he never cares about her mood weather e.g. in we don't talk about bruno when she is complaining about being married in a hurricane his response is 'what a joyous day but anyway', and julieta and agustin's love for mirabel, calling abuela out and always trying to support her. these standards will be set in kids that watch it. also! the diversity!! the animation for the different hair texture's was amazing. the animators had to also fight for luisa to have muscles that would represent her strength. i'll stop my enamoured rambling here...lol
Luisa’s song hits so hard for me, cause I know what’s it’s like to be the “strong one” in the family. And that pressure of always having to be on point and to make sure things went smoothly.
Never being able to crack, and always having to make sure you handle everything that’s out on your back. Until you really feel like you’re gonna break. It’s not just about being strong physically, but mentally and emotionally to always have to carry the weight of your family on your back. To the point that any sight of weakness is considered a flaw. It’s such a bop, but it always makes me cry.
I swear this movie has gotten BETTER AND BETTER the more I have seen it and thought about it
I LOVE this movie. Love to see more people getting to know my country. Hello from Colombia. 🇨🇴🇨🇴🇨🇴
Fun fact: Bruno was able to bust through the wall with the bucket on his head because the house was already cracked therefore the walls were already weak.
I'm a mixture of Luisa and Isabela. I was always the good child, always doing what was told, a role model for others, all the adults trusted me. And that then turned into Luisa's "taking on all the tasks of the family". I do everything for my mother. It's super exhausting and I wish she would do it all herself because I have my own life but I can't tell her that because I get the "you are ungrateful, you never do anything for me"....
That’s rough, but keep in mind what this movie doesn’t say is that there is merit in what ur doing. It’s rough, but beautiful that ur willing to sacrifice for ur family
She didn't 'get the gift', because she was the gift to safekeep the miracle, her room was the whole house.
During the ending song before Bruno makes the Frozen “Let it Go” reference, you can here the beginning of “Let it Go play” on the piano and I find that really cool and I didn’t catch it the first time around :D
I think as the eldest child I really understand Isabella. It would be very hard to realize how real the trauma is if you're not in the same role. Isabella was feeling like it was her one job in the family to get married and start a new generation even if it meant giving away her own happiness. Some people would think/say it's not as traumatic as what some other characters like Bruno went through, but all trauma is trauma and that's what she had to deal with, the feeling that she had to give her dream and future just to make her family proud of her.
I saying this because I don't want her feelings to be thrown away because it wasn't thought of as bad enough
But she did go about the wrong way of handling those feeling.
It's not that the talents were bad or over depended on. The Talents were more like music talent. They were out of harmony with each other. The name Magrigal points to this as Magrigal is a form of singing without instrumentation. Meribell had no actual gift because her job was to harmonize the others. Kind of like the conductor. This is also shown musically as all others songs were in four four time but her and the original grandmother were on three four time. She had to bring them into proper harmony. That's why they got the gifts back they still had to be the Madrigals.
Out of harmony, I really like that!!!
Personally, I think it was really beautiful (and mature) of Disney to craft a film where the villain is intergenerational trauma. I think it was a STRONG choice and an important one. I loved seeing a “small” story centered on one family and the community they serve, and their own struggles in facing the problems underlying the facade they put up for the sake of the villagers.
For kids watching this film, I think it’s a much more relatable and helpful message - magical realism aside (and honestly all of the gifts were metaphors for familial roles and talents anyway), how often are kids going to run across a dastardly villain that’s trying to take over the world? Never. How many of them are going to encounter family pressure and expectations, and face the reality that their parents and grandparents are people too, and make mistakes? That maybe everyone is a little bit wrong in HOW they go about loving and caring for their families, but that this doesn’t detract from how much they love them? Arguably, most of them. I really, REALLY loved this story, and this concentration on Colombian culture and history.
For Colombian families, who look like this and whose elder generations were largely displaced due to guerrilla warfare like Abuela was, this film is an eye-opening and touching tribute to the strength of their culture, and a beautiful example of how to start healing from past traumas that are leaking through to the kids and the grandkids. Every Colombian I know who has seen this film, and many Latinx friends, relate SO HUGELY with these themes , and for such an underrepresented group? To see themselves represented so beautifully and empathetically in a hit Disney movie? This is fantastic.
Not to mention as an eldest daughter AND a black sheep, Isabela and Luisa and especially Bruno’s characters resonated with me so hard. It’s incredibly difficult to feel like you can’t mess up - either to pull away from the ‘perfect’ image people have constructed for you or to feel like by taking a break you’re letting them down or by warning them of danger you’re causing them misfortune - throughout your whole life, fearing that (and after what happened to Bruno and then Mirabel, KNOWING that) if you do, you’ll be estranged or cast aside. Awful. So much pressure. Isabela was pretty bitchy, yeah, but I understand where she was coming from, so I can’t hold it against her.
I feel the crew did an incredible job crafting TWELVE distinct and loveable main characters, all with issues and roles we see represented in our own families, and balancing that with a story that held itself up emotionally.
I still cry during the entire last fifteen minutes, and I’ve seen this film thirty times. I do concede that it really needed another ten or fifteen minutes to really wrap things up, that the ending felt rushed, but I do know from storyboards that they DID initially have this written. It just got cut for reasons unknown. I feel it would have been a 10/10 for me with that added closure.
And the animation? GOD SO GORGEOUS. Exactly what James was saying, with the eyes moving from side to side and the intricacy of the facial expressions??? That was a big thing for me too. As a general note, the animation of the different curl textures and the lighting and coloration and the FABRIC MOVEMENT overall was just exquisite. The audio/visual panning in the dance sequences? To DIE for. Fantastic work by the Disney animation and writing team.
Thanks for watching!
I love love, love Dolores' design. The big red bow is just so adorable.
Answer to the question of 'which sibling are you?' I look a lot like Mirabel, which makes me very happy. Get me green glasses and I'd be halfway to cosplaying her.
Personality wise I think most people are a mix of multiple people. I don't even know who's closet to me, maybe Julieta.
I also love the animation. I've watch this movie 3 times already. The animation on the hair, the skirt.
The fantastical imagery for the musical numbers are stunning! I can't stop geeking out!
if no ones said it i will its to do with brunos vision of mirabel about the hug she needed to bond with the two family members who were the most hostile within themselves and towards mirabel which was isabella and abuela who look suspiciously similar but that was the crack in the family its cracked because of how they treated mirabel (the new candle holder). In abuelas flashback we see that they look alike, i feel like abuela saw herself in isabella so she picked the man that looked closest to her husband for isabella she was trying to recreate her love story that she lost but for isabella even though its not what she wanted.
i do think the only reason isabella is the way she is is because abuela was basically trying to make isabella into herself when in reality it was mirabel who is the closest to being like abuela because they both dont have powers, i believe mirabel will be the next candle holder like other comments have mentioned she will be the one to hold the family together in the way the candle was made for to provide shelter and a place to grow and be yourself that's the way it's intended to be used. Abuela got so caught up trying to keep up with a family where everyone has abilities that she doesn't have, i think she felt inadequate so she had the family do the things that she would do if she had their powers. I don't think abuela would want to use bruno's powers which is why she cast him out as a bad guy because she just didn't try to understand him as a person she just saw his gift except for when she asked bruno to use his gift after mirabel's door disappeared and even then it was only to benefit herself, Bruno left at a cost to himself to protect mirabel whereas abuelas only priority was the candle not mirabel the candles successor who i would argue is equally as important as the candle which bruno's vision highlighted, the candles fate and Mirabel's fate are the same thing that's why the house only let mirabel save the candle and everyone else had to get out.
Just like abuela said herself i think it was her fault as the head of the family because she lost sight of what the miracle was supposed to be for and it was to hold the family together. Only someone in the family without powers really has the right to comment on the real issues and problems within the family, because they are the most neutral they become the mediator and their intentions aren't tainted by the gifts its still "Pure" in a way and let's be honest all families' have a mediator, in my family it would be me and knowing my luck i wouldn't get a gift either but i also understand luisa on a personal level everytime her song comes up i end up red faced and puffy eyed from crying it's just such a beautiful movie about family dynamics i love that it doesn't need a villain.
bonus thoughts on bruno he was patching the cracks in the house but he was afraid of abuela seeing him loitering so he didn't patch the cracks in her room so abuela knew full well that the house was crumbling and she was still gaslighting mirabel! she also saw the vision plus her room would be the first to crumble because that's where the candle is kept and the cracks came from the candle itself so she knew the day mirabel was denied a gift and she changed nothing that bugs me to no end
As a Colombian is kinda hard when people compare us to Mexico as if all Latin America was Mexico. Although we do love our Mexican siblings, we are very different. Other than that I do love your reaction and it was very entertaining to see how invested you were.
I understand that. The only reason I was comparing is I was connecting to what I had experienced. I’d only ever been to Mexico…wasn’t at all any sort of disrespect
Basically Isabela wasnt able to be anything other than the perfect little doll for her family. She only acted in a way that her family(mostly abuela). She wasn't able to act out how she feel, wasn't able to marry or date who she wanted and had to do everything that made the family look good. No she shouldn't have been as hard on mirabel as she was, but in the book Disney made for it she apparently felr resentful of her. Her parents coddled her more than the other two since Isa was 13 because she didn't have a gift and unlike with Isabela(the oldest if the grandkid) no one expected Mira to be more than who she was. To be a perfect child is so mentally draining. You have to dress right, keep up a smile, give up on finding your own love, never cry, never be anything other than what your elders want you to be. It's a terrible life and most people break under that type of life and either end it all or run away at the isle and never come back.
Yeah I agree. I’m glad she got her happy ending
Mirabell and her family remind me of what Dr. Erskine said in Captain America: The First Avenger, "A strong man who has known power all his life can lose respect for that power, but a weak man knows the value of strength and knows compassion", her family has known power and they have lost respect for it, but she greatly respects it and I feel like she's more compassionate like when she helps her cousin. Also now I have "we don't wanna lose Bruno, no, no, no" stuck in my head from when you said "we do wanna lose Bruno" when he was on the horse.
Fun fact, even though the movie is based in Colombia when he said it was Ecuador I giggle a little because yeah we actually were a single nation a long ago called Gran Colombia, including Venezuela, and that is Why we have the same colour flag, We gained our freedom thanks Simon Bolivar a general, there is a Netflix Series called Bolivar where they explain all of this, quite good.
him: "i think this movie is ecuadorian"
the big ass sign in the back: "COLOMBIA"
me: bruh-
Pepa's side of family is the best, I said what I said.
I think it’s sad that Isabela struggle is downplayed or negated because she is mean to mirabel.
While it is understandable to call out her treatment of mirabel, as Isabela words and attitude are hurtful, that meanness doesn’t erase her own hurts.
Yes, being “perfect” is a difficult job, though rewarding.
Yes, she had to practice every pose for hours and train herself to control every aspect of her gift, she can’t complain about it and she doesn’t allow herself the privilege of making mistakes.
And yes, she is taking it out on mirabel, as she can’t complain about her situation so she found an escape and another channel to do so.
And yes, mirabel didn’t deserve it.
Doesn’t make Isabela struggles less painful.
Why is everything a competition about who has it worse or about you are mean so you mustn’t have any feelings?
One of my favorite jokes if speak Spanish. On 23:40 after Dolores overhears Mirabel and her dad talking. The dad says “Miercoles” (it means Wednesday)
that cracked me up because its the friendly way say “Mierda” it literally means “Shit”. But because is Disney they use the pun version, meaning more shoot or crap. lmao.
I was waiting for this commentary and you guys didn’t disappoint. Being from Colombia and loving all of your videos, I almost cried with your reaction. Thank you!🇨🇴❤️🔥
Awww, I’m glad u enjoyed it
There's a lot of pressure put on everyone and of course it starts with Abuela. It was her candle/Encanto which separated everyone from the rest of the world so everyone would have looked up to her and her family for help as it was indirectly her "fault" as such that they have no access to anything else. A lot of the time one good deed gets forgotten and turns into a "bad thing" in the mind of people unfortunately.
59:40 I think the first cracks in the house were because of Mirabel finally expressing that she was not okay. That song she sings after watching Antonio's ceremony and being reminded of her own was the first time she let her pain out, and the magic responded
My daughter is now officially OBSESSED with this movie 😂
Finally got around to watching this reaction and was not disappointed! Always good to hear yalls perspective! Something I wanted to add that I liked, the donkeys in Surface Pressure were cute as heck, but they're also super interesting symbolism! A donkey is a Beast of Burden, literally bred to carry a heavy load. No milk, wool, eggs, etc. to give like other farm animals, theyre literally just there to work hard. Great symbolism for how Luisa feels! I of course related to her the most lol (and a little Camilo!) Thanks for the reaction guys!
Yeah, I think they may have just been there to look cute, but that’s an interesting observation
I made this comment your brother Thor's reaction actually and thought to put it here as well.
1) With Isabella, as I completed the film and watched many reactions I realised just HOW tough she had it. She was the first grandchild. The only one at the time that the grandmother had to shape and form to perfection after her kids grew up. The obsession with perfection and the expectation from the town was not spread out amongst the family members that we know now. It was all concentrated into her, her parents and the aunt and uncle. Her annoyance with Mirabel is basically that every moment she is supposed to be perfect (24/7 basically), Mirabel makes a mistake or is being clumsy which kind of ruins the expectations she has been conditioned to think is normal so she is unnecessarily hard towards Mirabel. I also think Isabela is jealous of mirabel because to her Mirabel doesn't have to face these overbearing expectations when you get your gift (which to me goes with one of the themes of the movie which is basically "the grass is greener on the other side"). Isabela basically has to even practice posing to satisfy her grandmother which is something that a lot of people could relate to. Like not being able to fully be yourself to make sure that your family loves who they created you to be. It's way too much on one person. You even notice that in her room, that was the first time she really let out her frustrations because she can't even show emotions that aren't "pretty" publicly.
Also at the breakfast table, if you pay close attention, you could see that she is visibly breathing really fast while having a fake smile on her face while they're talking about the proposal. She is constantly putting up a front and that's so stressful. It's kind of weird because I could even see that she has adopted Abuelita's characteristics especially when it comes to constantly scolding Mirabel. As if she was being brought up to be the next matriarch because they never planned for it to be Mirabel. I wrote this as my first point because Isabela's struggle in the family gets overlooked a lot by viewers which I find interesting because in the real world the "perfect first born" kid usually gets overlooked when it comes to their mental wellbeing.
2) In many cultures people are very superstitious especially when it comes to things that do not benefit them. So even though to us what Bruno says are just normal things that happen in life, to the people in the town they see it as him calling bad things into existence. It makes his situation so sad because it's not just pressure from his mother and family but also the people in the town who contribute to his mental downfall. That discomfort of the people in the town when it comes to his gift basically created his superstition he has against his gift.
3) The gifts didn't seem like things that would be practical or beneficial to the individual. They seemed like things that could be used to maintain the village and benefit the people. So even though Isabela's power didn't seem so special, it is beneficial for people once she actually figures out that it isn't just flowers but what she allows herself to create outside of what is perfect. Even Bruno's power which in my opinion was the worst to get because of how people reacted to it, it helped the town and family in the end to maintain what they've built for themselves. Or Antonio's power could help a lot with caring for the animals who ended up inside the barrier and maintaining the peace between people and animals in that space.
4) Out of all the siblings I felt the most sorry for Louisa honestly because even though it was funny that her background dancers were donkeys, it just shows that she's the mule of the family and town. Because of her physical strength, more is expected of her physically for literally EVERYTHING in town. The people got so spoiled by the Madrigal's powers that even the simplest things they should be able to do (catching their own donkeys for example), they put that on her. They don't even bother to practice certain skills as long as the Madrigals can handle it. She walks through town and all she gets are demands. Like the rest of the family, her gift is a never ending job but I feel as though her own is the worst (besides Bruno of course).
5) Even though I really disliked how the grandmother was treating Mirabel and basically everyone else with all of her expectations, her story is really just so depressing. Like on the day she gave birth to triplets (most likely a natural birth at home), she had to go on the run with her newborn babies and husband because of terrorism, then her husband dies to save the people. All in one day. That's way too much for anyone to handle in one year, far less a day. Then she has to basically be the leader of an entire community because the responsibility of that miracle was placed on her back. She never got to grieve properly or just be human. That's why I think she never saw any issue with how intense she was. To her she went through the worst so she's just giving her family what she lost. Not realising that they're individuals with their own needs and lives to live so they won't have the same obsession she has to maintain the community she lost. She doesn't see that she's harming the ones she love.
She's a traumatised refugee that is too scared to mess up or else she'd go back to the worst moments of her life (losing everything). They handled generational trauma really well for a children's film.
Also, the miracle was made from the grandmother's grief and pain. You see the difference in the storytelling from what she was telling Mirabel in the beginning of the movie compared to the end. She believed that the grandfather's sacrifice created the miracle because she didn't see what happened while she was crying. But you see the candle turn into a magical one when she screams out in pain. It was made from her but she never knew this. She didn't realize the magic was basically in her this entire time and it is also affected by her (and eventually Maribel as she is the next matriarch in line).
6) Also I think I'm a mix of Isabella (I have a weird obsession with perfection), Louisa (I get extremely anxious from the pressures of expectation to hold up), Mirabel (I still mess up a lot unintentionally), Pepa (embarrassingly emotionally unstable), Julieta (I express my love by cooking for the people I care about and I'm always worrying about them) and Bruno (kinda like the idea of disappearing forever in the future and just living my life even though I know he didn't intentionally want that). Basically a chaotic mess🤣.
7) Whenever you have a few minutes to yourself you should really check out "Steph Anya, LMFT" on TH-cam. As a family therapist she did an amazing breakdown of the members in the Madrigal family and it was really interesting seeing how she explained their lives in relation to clients and families she has come across. It's a great watch if you're interested in that.
"How does this lady (Delores) sleep? It's horrible!"
Me: She probably gets head aches very often. Poor thing.
Exactly! Dolores' power is very similar to what those of us on the Autism Spectrum experience. We can't tune out background noises the way that most people can.
I often lose track of what the person right in front of me is saying because the far away noises are so overwhelming.
As a result, I take CBD oil and Ashwagandha for anxiety and even still, I grind my teeth in my sleep and have constant neck pain due to tension 😅🤷
I relate to it so much especially to Isabela. I consider my gift falls on arts but my family consider my gift as the smart one, the one with good grades. And I did even enter med school. But I secretly hate it. But I want to be perfect so I keep it up until one breaking point. I finished med school but didn't pursue for professional degree. Until now everyone sees it as a waste (it is), but I don't care because I love something else and I have so much freedom now that I don't look back anymore
Good for you!! Be prudent in following those “dreams”, understand that there’s more than just jobs and what not in life, but don’t ever make yourself miserable just for appearances sake
@@whitenoisereacts yeah it feels freeing now that I'm now expressing myself truer to what I want
Literally my life😫
Abuela Alma has survivors guilt and PTSD, she clings to the candle for all she's worth because it's the thing that saved her from destitution. She is still mourning Pedro (her black shawl which she has worn for 50 years)... She has spent 5 decades trying to raise 3 kids, then the grandkids and shouldering the responsibility of the entire community relying on her. She, being a decent person, saw the gift as something that had to be earned and cultivated and honoured... this is very relatable for 1st generation immigrants who strive to "deserve" the benefit of living in the countries they migrate to to escape war, poverty or famine. Everything becomes a matter of duty, especially to the family. She is the source of generational trauma that trickles down from her to every member of the family.
She is the matriarch, which in her culture also put her in a natural position of authority and responsibility.
For reference, it is entirely possible for 2nd and even 3rd generations who never lived through specific traumatic experiences to exhibit traits of PTSD that they have internalised from those who have.
Bruno is easy.. his gift made him very unpopular and misunderstood. it was hard to find a way to use it for the benefit of the community. He shoulders the obligations of the family, but can't make himself useful, so he isolates himself and sacrifices 10 years of his life to defend his niece.. he is 50 and single, and broken in a million ways, his own gift being one of them.
Pepa is a walking drama..she must keep her emotions always in check in order to avoid natural disasters, which means any little thing ends up triggering her. Not only that.. if she is always happy, guess what happens? no rain....so she has to actively make herself sad to allow crops to raise. This has to be a farming community. By the way, and I may be mistaken in this, but I think that of the "parents" she's the only one who doesn't wear a wedding ring, which would make sense, since it would be made of metal and she's constantly surrounded by thunder and lightning... not sure about that though.
Felix is a model supporting husband who spends his days placating her state of mind.
Julieta is the subdued daughter whose purpose is to feed the entire family and heal her community. (that's how she got to meet Augustin, who was always accident prone).
She lacks the strength or independence to stand up to her mother.
Augustin is also a supporting model father, if a little more of a comic relief. Like everybody else, he walks on eggshells around Alma.
Isabela is the eldest grandchild and the spitting image of Alma when she was younger. She is the golden child on whom all the expectations of Abuela Alma are placed. Alma lives vicariously through her and wants her to have the perfect life she never had, to the point that she fixes him up with the perfect husband, who looks a lot like Pedro and shares the same gentle soul. Isabela takes her place in the designs Alma has for her and is the dutiful daughter/granddaughter, who hides her personality to not rock the boat (one theory floated online is that she might be queer, according to the colour schemes she chooses as soon as she is "liberated").. if this is true, this compounds the pressure she is under for having to marry Mariano.
Every kid who has been put into football camp or dance school because that's what their parents wanted to do and never got to do is an Isabela. Every kid who has had parents pushing them hard on things that they themselves failed to accomplish, knows that struggle.
Dolores, she has been keeping the secrets of the entire valley for 2 decades (they get the gift when they are 5 and she's 25 like Isabela). She is just about ready to burst and maybe she reveals Maribel's secret as a last bid to stop the proposal from going ahead, since she's actually in love with Mariano. She always whispers, even when singing, because voices in our heads are louder than those outside of it, and she hears EVERYTHING louder.
Luisa is the strong one, in character and body, she embodies all the children who have to take on parenting roles with their siblings to support the family, or maybe a single parent, those who are seen as reliable and steady and therefore are heavily leaned upon by everybody. She is on the verge of breaking down and her sense of self is tied to her being of service to the family and community. She can never catch a break.
Camilo embodies all those kids who have a relative, sometimes indeed a parent, who need special attention, who have a domestic situation that is very stressful, where they have to repress themselves to allow for the house to not become a madhouse. He is a carer who does what he can to help his mother stay in control, and uses humour as a coping mechanism.
Maribel has the stigma of failure attached to her and Abuela Alma sees what happened to her as an actual danger to their entire livelihood and way of life. In a sense, grandma is not wrong, because if Maribel is a sign of things to come, and the magic is indeed dying, with it dies the Encanto and the protection they have had over the decades from the violence that still exists around them.
She wants to help but can't find any self worth no matter how brave a face she puts up. She feels unseen and unvalued.
She is the living embodiment of the trauma Alma carries around
Even little Antonio, who in the entire movie is a positive, confident and smart kid, (and let's face it..we would all riot if something happened to him) is bricking it in the beginning because he is terrified of disappointing his family and ending up like Maribel, forever stuck in the nursery. he already sees the trauma as a 5 year old kid. I relate to that as my parents separated when I was 5 and some of my earliest memories are of the tensions of those days and the conflict between my parents that took several more years to be resolved and turned around.. so I know for a fact that Antonio was well aware of the situation around him.
Abuela is right, in the end.. they are broken.. each and every one of them...
and this movie does a great job at representing the many ways in which generational trauma and the experience of the desplazados (forced migration due to the guerrilla violence in Colombia) can affect entire generations and in fact does still affect to this day, millions of Colombians.
I genuinely think this is the best animation movie Disney has produced in at least a decade if not more... for representing all of the above.. and that's even without touching on the extensive research they both musically and culturally and in terms of fauna and flora represented, which in and of itself deserves another wall of text but I've already written more than most people will want to read anyway.
just as a little nugget, have a google at what Madrigal actually means.
definitely agree they upted their game on the animation of facial expressions. there were several detailed expressions that ive never seen them do before (maribel scrunching up her nose talking to antonio under the bed, the agony on young abuela`s face crying out for her husband, the way abuela tidys her hair when talking about the guzman`s arrival). very realistic
I think there’s one scene where you can literally see texture on isabela’s skin and the detail shocked me.
" may be your gift is being in denial " 😂😁 that kid is a Mood !!!
Abuela also has a lot of pressure. When the miracle was given it created a natural frontier [the mountains around Encanto], that protects the townspeople from the villains of the exterior. That's why since Mirabel didn't get the miracle you see the abuela trying to convince the people in town that the magic is still strong. That the Encanto [the town] is still protected. She feels like it's her duty to protect "Encanto", if the miracle is gone the town will be burn again from those outsiders.
The best description of We Don't Talk About Bruno I've ever seen is that its a town-wide diss track
Poor Bruno is a bit loopy, but I love him!
I really wish that this can have a series show. There's so many things that needs to show. About the other characters, the townfolks and the rooms.
This is the most colorful, beautiful and related movie for a long time.
I relate to Mirabel so so much as the youngest of three myself and always hearing about their lives and accomplishments, there is something so grating about constantly being told what your older siblings did or do but not getting the same spotlight. I had that for years while still living at home with my parents and feeling the pressure of becoming like one of my siblings. Like I am my own person and isn't that enough? Hahah. So Mirabels growth and character really hit home.
It´s really nice to see someone finally talking about the animation! It´s insanee
Thank You for commenting on the donkeys dancing! There have been a million reactors posting about Surface Pressure and not a single one mentioned the dancing donkeys until you!
This is such a great movie! It’s amazing how much effort they put into representing Colombian culture. One really interesting theory about Mirabel is that she didn’t get a gift because she is going to become the next “candle-holder” or leader of the household. Abuela didn’t gain a magical power; she gained a magical candle/home and the ability to lead future generations. Mirabel seems to interact with and talk to Casita the most out of any of the family members, and she wants to help everyone that she can. So instead of bestowing a gift, the magic chose her to be the next leader of the family.
Me and mirabel were talking, I am stressed and felt like I was letting everyone down and now I'm loosing my gift, things are heavy.
What abuela heard: Mirabel, talk, loosing gift. "Mirabel, what did you do?"
She seems to be a reservoir for the magic. Everyone else DRAWS from a source- mirabel IS a source of magic. And you can see it in her personality. She feeds everyone else.
And you can see it in Waiting on a Miracle- the mountains rise around her, the house rises at her gesture, just like it did for the candle. When she fell apart, so did the house.
Lin manuel miranda wrote the songs, he also wrote Hamilton and directed Tick Tick Boom.. Did you guys watch those? Did you like them?
In watching and rewatching the movie one thing I really noticed with Isabela is that the flowers she blooms in that panic attack moment are literally ALWAYS present in some way - when in town, when talking with Abuela about the pending marriage, heavily featured in her room - and I saw a tweet about it last month highlighting that she's basically always anxious but because she makes it look good/pretty no one really checks on her.
I do think an additional short scene before Mirabel enters Bruno's room could've added more to her but with each rewatch I truly got that sense of hiding emotions and projecting perfection because she had no idea how to deal with things or even, in some part, who she actually is outside of familial obligations and expectations (which - RELATABLE CONTENT for me for years and years when I was in my early 20s like she is) . The wording of her response to being called selfish was a little clunky but I definitely got what she meant by saying she's been 'stuck being perfect her whole life'. And yet it's that awkardness that makes the moment feel so true (honestly, who ever wrote that 'hug it out' scene TRULY has siblings LOL)
I relate so much to Isabella. I am the one everyone can count on. The smart one, the one who won’t disappoint, the perfect daughter. I wanted to work with special needs kids but I have health issues. So I let my family convince me to aim lower and not go for what I want. I’m studying computer science, I’m top of my class and I hate it. I’m succeeding and I’m not even happy but everyone else is so I continue.
There’s definitely a balance not shown in this movie, and sacrifice is a part of life, whether we like it or not, but don’t make urself miserable just to please others. Not unless there’s a good reason
I love the symbolism of Brunos tower being the first large structure to fall and bring the entirety of the rest of the house down with it almost immediately after, just like how Bruno was the first to be rejected from the family.
I love everything about Encanto, even the flaws. What I really admire is the magic of Casita and the Gifts it gives.
The Casita and the Encanto were actually gifts *to* Alma. She needed a home to grow and protect her family, and the candle just happened to help give things a bit more oomph. When the Casita was born, it knew its future automatically. It knew it needed more than one “Alma.” This is why all the doors show what everyone would look like the day Casita would fall. (Mirabel’s cousin’s door was a child - not adult.)
What Bruno saw wasn’t an undecided future; it was one path. He saw the house broken, and the healed house, on the night of Mirabel’s ceremony. He saw how she would get her door. Also, if you pay attention to Mirabel’s outfit, her top has butterflies and her skirt has all the symbols of everyone else’s, including the candle. All of this explains why she didn’t receive a Gift, a door - because she is the next Matriarch.
There's this common stereotype amongst like first generation kids/ kids of hispanic parents where the first born daughter is always expected to be perfect and mature and gets so much pressure and responsibility forced onto them from the beginning. I watched this w my sisters and we all saw ourselves as the sisters in the movie, and of course my oldest sister resonated with Isabela because my mom had engrained into her head "we did not sacrifice everything to build a better life in this country for you to not be perfect" growing up. She didn't even have a normal childhood because she had to be responsible and essentially raise her sisters and be the one to get perfect grades and get a good job and marry a good guy and be a good example for us and there was a point where I was so confused why she didnt seem to like me but I ended up realizing she was just a kid who resented us in a way because she didn't get to have the childhood she made sure to let us have. Of course its not right to take your anger out on your little sister but I can totally understand why someone who was never allowed to express their emotions openly would not know how to properly deal with them in a healthy way. I think it matters to understand all the characters in the movie because they're all dealing with generational trauma and its a hard thing to break but in the end they find a way to start healing from it.
Just 7:16 minutes in the movie you guys already got the lesson,wow.
33:39 love how the Animal (forgot the name) was like, "I´ve seen this Fudge soooo many Times".
This movie had us grown adults crying our eyes out 😭😭😂 I love it
I'm so excited you did this!
What's sad is it's SO obvious that they all treat Mirabel worse than everyone else that Antonio is so worried about not getting a gift and being treated the same. If Mirabel was treated just as cherished as the rest of her family was, I don't think he'd be so nervous, because the worse thing that would happen is they'd continue to share a room if he didn't get his own either, which he's not super against because he's really close with Mirabel.
Little Antonio sees how blatantly his family treats the one without a gift and he's so scared to end up the same
Everything at the dinner starts getting chaotic and horrible, then you say: "This is like... Thanksgiving!"
Me: "Are you okay? Do we need to send help?" 😅
I recommend watching this one again and again! I keep realizing more and more each time. Like how Bruno's prophecy for Isabela didn't mean what she thought. Bruno said she would have "the life of her dreams," which she took to mean that she would continue having to maintain her perfect image. But it actually meant that she would eventually be able to express herself and be free of that image, thus allowing her power to grow "like grapes," not like flowers. She would come to see herself and her gift as substantial, not just decorative.
Another thing I just realized while watching your reaction is why Bruno's room is so inhospitable. It probably didn't start out that way, but he gradually made it harder and harder to reach him as people kept bothering him for prophecies and then blaming him for what he saw.
I'm so excited for this!
When Delores is singing to Mirabel during "We Don't Talk About Bruno" if you look in the background you can see Bruno in the background.
One thing I love about this movie is how they explain death to a child vs an older child… Abuela didn’t outright say their grandfather was killed just lost to them to a young mirabel and when she’s older she learns the true story
I don't know if people already mentioned this in the comments, I don't believe the main messaging around the movie was about the gifts/self worth at all. Encanto to me is a story of confronting and healing generational trauma. I don't know if you know this, but the disney short that played in theatres before Encanto played was the same theme (it was about a racoon who was injured as a child then became overprotective of it's child in a harmful way - I won't go too much into it, but it's worth a watch).
We can see in during the Dos Orugitas song Abuela's history, where she was displaced from her home, had no power at all, lost her only support, and was forced to step up to be the hope of the community without the chance to process her grief. To her, the miracle was what kept her, her family, and her community safe, and so she put so much importance in it because it was, in her perspective, what kept her family safe - fostering the miracle was her (misguided) way of protecting her family. And since she saw the miracle as their protector, it makes sense that Mirabel not getting a gift scared her. Due to her history/place in the communty and unhealed traumas, she most likely felt that feeling/showing fear was weak, or that it could have negative impacts on the community. Obviously over time, that fear caused her to start ostracizing Mirabel, the one who reminded her of their 'weakness'. Her manerisms and attitude are things that a lot of people whose grandparents experienced conflict in their time can relate to. It's like the saying 'hurt people, hurt people' - Abuela was hurting, and in her efforts to protect the family, she ended up hurting them.
When Mirabel and Abuela had their confrontation, it was a turning point for Abuela. After Casita fell, she was able to see how her family was suffering, and realized her part in it. That realization, I believe, was healing in a way. It was her first step to moving forward. This is represented by her finally taking off her black mourning shall at the end - she was finally able to start processing her grief, and by doing that it allowed her to finally start growing after being stuck in time at that river where she lost Pedro.
I know a lot of people who come from South American/Carribbean households cried a lot at this movie, because of how accurate the family dynamics were, espcially with Abuela, but also because most of us know that our grandparents will most likely never apologize to us.
What I love about the animation in this is that the smallest nuances are animated down to the peach fuzz on the back of Luisa’s neck to the individual specks of sand on Mirabel’s face.
Been hoping you guys would watch this one! This has been my obsession