- Mirabel's powers will be based on connections and how she affects your powers depends on how she connects with you. Her family, who she loves dearly, gets a subtle power boost they never noticed prior to The Reveal while the villain, who is trying to hurt her beloved family, will find Mirabel acting as living Anti-Magic.
- Or her gift is something extremely specific that's only apparent when there's need.note
- Jossed. Mirabel ends the movie with no magical powers.
- Or her gift is something extremely specific that's only apparent when there's need.note
- Jossed, there's No Antagonist.
- Magic is usually not meant to be used frivolously, but the Madrigals use their powers for things like decorating and showing themselves off. This could build to a point where the Casita has had enough and goes full-on Te Ka on the family. As the only Madrigal without powers, Mirabel is the only one who can heal the house.
- Jossed. The Film has No Antagonist
- Plus they're shown mostly using their Gifts to help out in the community.
- In fact, totally inverted. While helping others got them a Karmic Jackpot in the end, being too utilitarian and entirely duty-bound towards serving the community restricted the family's self-expression and created an extremely ableist environment in which family members were valued for their utility and ability to fill serviceable roles for the community rather than their personhood. This trashed the mental health of many in the family as they felt pressured to surrender their happiness for duty and resulted in those who couldn't fit the "useful" "helpful" mold becoming scapegoats. Because of the toxic value system that arose from the total dedication to duty and community service and the conflation of conformity to utility with love, Alma throughout the film increasingly treats the "unhelpful" Mirabel who "won't stand aside" like she's a threat to the family instead of a loving member of it, and this all turns out to be what destroys the house and the family's powers. The House, meanwhile, suffers a Disney Death trying to protect the family to the end. In fact, Isabella's frivolous use of her powers to create things she's interested in temporarily makes the magic strong again, because it gives her and Mirabel a better appreciation for each other as people.
- They'll be, like Mirabel, a Muggle Born of Mages. Instead of trying to prove those who mocked them for it wrong, they instead abandoned their family. The person became bitter towards those with magical abilities regardless, having let their rage fester and grow over time. They will tempt Mirabel to leave the other Madrigals so they can become a "new family".
- They'll be the only magical person from a family of normal people, who has an insanely huge ego because of it. They treat their family worse than any of the other Madrigals have Mirabel, but seeing this will nonetheless cause the family to rethink some things.
- Jossed. The Film has No Antagonist
- Will covet the Madrigals' magic for themself, or perhaps magic as a whole.
- Will be a Visionary, Well-Intentioned Extremist who thinks that the world will be a better place under their own power once they get it.
- If male, will be voiced by Lin-Manuel Miranda in a very hammy fashion and in a rare instance of him voicing a villain.
- Jossed. The Film has No Antagonist
Going hand in hand with the above WMG, even the villain will voice disgusted by this, and fitting in with their Well-Intentioned Extremist idea, will assume that with how the Madrigals abuse their magic, only the villain themself is thus worthy of magic, and the film won't refute the former being in the wrong for it. He may even try to persuade Mirabel to join them because of it.
- Jossed.
- Jossed, they aren't perfect but they aren't intentionally cruel to Mirabel. Alma is strict and demanding but not like a "cruel lady".
- Jossed.
- Jossed. While Mirabel does run away it's out of sadness and shame over thinking she caused Casita to be destroyed.
She will inevitably find a way to restore Encanto’s magic and get her family’s gifts back. However, the Madrigals will unanimously decide that Mirabel is the one who truly deserves to be special and will all willingly give up their powers to her in gratitude for saving them and as apologies for how they treated her.
- That feels like it would undermine the film's seeming message of not letting a lack of abilities define you. Instead, she'd probably turn it down politely, or alternatively find a way to give it all to the village's people so everyone can have them and not just one family.
- Jossed.
- The official trailer seems to indicate otherwise, as right as Maribel calls the toucan as a friend, it flies off to her annoyance. Bit early to say Jossed, though.
- Jossed. It follows for her some time but doesn't become her sidekick.
- Isabela: She's described as being very perfect girl, so it may turn out she's an Alpha Bitch in Sheep's Clothing. Her pink colour and Flower powers feel like they belong to a good, kind girl so much it would be more surprising if they actually did the latter and not subvert. She and Mirabel are even described as having "a complicated relationship".note
- Could be a good guess in light of the quick bit where she flips her hair and hits Mirabel in the face with it and knocks half the goodies off her tray. Either it's passive-aggressive or she's just so full of herself she fails to notice and part of the story will be something sort of along the lines of Break the Haughty.
- And sure enough, in this sneak peak, Isabela dismissively sighs and rolls her eyes before condescendingly saying if Mirabel didn't try so hard she wouldn't be in her way as "sisterly advice", so this does look more so.
- Could be a good guess in light of the quick bit where she flips her hair and hits Mirabel in the face with it and knocks half the goodies off her tray. Either it's passive-aggressive or she's just so full of herself she fails to notice and part of the story will be something sort of along the lines of Break the Haughty.
- Abuela: She seems like a pious, stern woman, and may see Mirabel as being an omen of something very bad, maybe even link to the magic slipping away.
- One shot from the teaser depicts her looking up in realisation. Maybe it comes after she drives Maribel away and she is having a My God, What Have I Done? moment (and while Mirabel is behind her, its possible this maybe a case of Never Trust a Trailer).
- Pepa: She is described as being very emotional and overdramatic according to one article, so there could be a part where she blows up at Maribel hard.
- Dolores: She has super hearing powers and is mentioned as knowing everyone's dirt, so maybe she'll be this when she finds out something about Mirabel.
- Jossed. The closest antagonist is Alma but it's not out of hatred towards Mirabel but misguided ideals of perfection. Her other family members aren't perfect but love Mirabel dearly, including Alma.
- Jossed. Mirabel resembles her mother, Julieta, too much for it to be adoption.
Bruno foresaw this and tried to do something about it, but the family either refused to change their ways or didn't believe him and thought he was the bigger threat or had an ulterior motive. They exiled him either way, hence his rather disheveled appearance and living conditions seen in the first trailer.
Best case scenario is that Mirabel's quest gets the valley more magic and the Madrigals finally accept they were the cause of it and vow to be more responsible with their usage. Worst case, they fail to realize it in time and The Magic Goes Away, taking the Encanto with it, and they must emigrate somewhere else where there's magic (though they may not even be able to use it), and must try not to misuse the magic this time.
- Jossed.
- Jossed. The third baby is Bruno, the brother of Julieta and and Pepa. He's the one who was sent away because his prophetic visions showed something bad was going to happen.
- Jossed.
- Jossed.
- Maybe her Gift is being able to take break the fourth wall.
- Alternatively, maybe being highly wise and enlightened in the setting can also make you do so. For Alma, it will be no more then a few Aside Glances while Bruno will acknowledge us, albeit more as thinking they're spirits of the otherworld or something like it, while only Mirabel can talk to the audience.
- Maybe her Gift is being able to take break the fourth wall.
- Jossed
- Jossed.
- As mentioned above, maybe they could be Lin-Manuel Miranda Playing Against Type as a very hammy fashion. I'm picturing it being the song about them draining both the Madrigals and Casita of what little magic there is as they taunt them over their own failures.
- Maybe the Villain will pull a "The Reason You Suck" Speech in the song to the Madrigals for their treatment to Mirabel as he gives it to the members of the family. And it fits in with one aforementioned WMG.
- But even if the film has no conventional villain, the Madrigal who's the most antagonistic will undoubtedly have a song.
- Jossed. The Film has No Antagonist
- If this is the case, the grand finale probably will involve Mirabel getting the Quinceañera of every girl's dreams, finally seen for who she is and always has been.
- Good one! I had assumed Mirabel, being already 15, had had her quinceañera and that she was still infantilized and stuck in the nursery simply due to "no Gift, no new room". She certainly acts as if she hasn't celebrated her passage. With the level of research that was done, if they don't bring this up in the story, many who know the tradition will notice it's missing.
- Jossed.
- This theory would be especially fitting if some variation of "Mirabel's gift is to be the guardian of the house" because saving the magic for Antonio's sake is definitely in line with being a family guardian/protector.
- Jossed.
- Completely agree it's got something to do with how they've been innocently insensitive to her and their excluding of uncle Bruno.
- Confirmed.
- Semi-confirmed.
- Actually, I believe its actually a kind of Boogeyman figure from Columbia's folklore called Booboo (No really)
- He does, but only as an illusion of Luisa's musical number. It's hinted she's knowledgeable and a geek about history and Greek mythology.
- Plus, despite being a Madrigal herself, Alma doesn't have a gift either. The trailer showed a young Alma at the time the house first appeared. And every Madrigal child gets their gift at age 5. Except Mirabel. So, Mirabel's moment to have a gift has passed.
- Semi-jossed. The reason Mirabel didn't get a gift was because her "role" was to be the emotional center of her family.
- On the first poster, the door shows the symbols of everyone's gifts, and the door is blue-green, Mirabel's signature color. In the second poster, Mirabel stands in front of the house, perhaps foreshadowing her as its keeper. In the first teaser, the house is shown to react to music, which seems to be Mirabel's talent, judging by her signature item being the accordion. What if Mirabel is a musician to help her care for the house? Mirabel's symbols are butterflies and flowers, the very things that decorate the house. As Abuela also has butterfly motifs on her clothing, Mirabel may not have been born with a gift because she will inherit the guardian position. Mirabel also seems to be the only Madrigal with a connection to the Casita, controlling it to an extent and seeing its cracks. Mirabel being the next guardian is why she didn't get a typical gift, as the Casita decided to have an inheritor ready to fix Abuela's mistakes with Bruno and Isabela. However, being the guardian makes the entire Casita her room, allowing her to access every chamber and care for the candle that blesses the family. As the Madrigals haven't been through a changing of the guard before, they don't connect the dots from "Mirabel doesn't have a flashy gift" to "Mirabel is Abuela's successor." Mirabel succeeding Abuela also means that she will become the Madrigals' matriarch one day.
- On this theory, the house is usually passed down from oldest child to oldest child, but the house skipped Isabel and Luisa because Mirabel had a better temperament.
- Supported by the writers having revealed that (as seen in Mirabel's absence from the family photo, and the trailers where she stands in the shadows) Alma asks Mirabel to stay away from Antonio's party as she feared Mirabel's presence might affect Antonio's ability to receive his Gift; Mirabel starts seeing the cracks that night and no one else can see them; her own mother thinks she's making it up for attention.
- Semi-confirmed. In context, Alma didn't forbade Mirabel from coming to Antonio's party just that she shouldn't help with the prepping. On the other hand, Mirabel's "role" IS to be the emotional center of the family.
- Confirmed, the film begins with Mirabel at five-years-old and we even get a brief flashback of Alma as a young woman.
- Semi-confirmed, it's not her entire family just her grandmother. And while her family is insensitive at worst they aren't intentionally cruel.
- Confirmed.
- The director says that as each family member receives a Gift, the house creates a new room for them to use their Gift in. Mirabel's been sharing with Antonio; as a matter of fact, they've been living in the nursery, which of course Antonio would move out when he receives his Gift, leaving Mirabel, who is fifteen, in the nursery. This goes with the fact that she is slightly infantilized, patronized or treated as lesser by some others in the familynote . If the home is rebuilt, she will get her own room now, representing that her family accepts her as a mature person and she accepts herself now.
- Semi-confirmed.
- Confirmed.
- Confirmed.
- Given they seem to be close from what can be see, maybe add Luisa to the sans part there too.
- Heck, Luisa may agree with her. She's probably assumed that it doesn't have to be at a particular age and figures Mirabel will find her Gift eventually OR find a way to be happy without a Gift.
- On the other hand, it may turn out Luisa may sometimes come off as overbearing and smothering, think she always needs to be protected just because she has no powers, as though she were incredibly fragile; thus Luisa will get called out for such.
- Heck, Luisa may agree with her. She's probably assumed that it doesn't have to be at a particular age and figures Mirabel will find her Gift eventually OR find a way to be happy without a Gift.
- Adding on to this speech, Mirabel could also call out how the family unjustly banished Bruno for warning them that the events would happen. Even if one of them (my money is on Alma) tries to justify it, Mirabel will point out that his predictions were right and ignoring him and kicking him out was selfish of them. Even going as far as asking if they'll exile her like they did with Bruno.
- And might even have contributed to the house's destruction and the loss of their Gifts. You can't just throw someone out because he reminds you of a painful truth. If you read the Green-Sky Trilogy by Zilpha Keatley Snydernote , you can see this big mistake and its consequences on a societal scale.
- Confirmed, though it's implied The Reason You Suck speech was the last straw that broke the Encanto.
The "flashy gift" comment is astute. It's likely not everything is known about the magic and it may not always work exactly the same way. There may be elements to it aside from the "golden door when you're five" tradition. The encanto, as a living thing, may even be kind of evolving new aspects over time. Alma may just not be aware of this. The miracle happened when she was a young woman with infant triplets, so the magic as the family knows it has only been around that long — perhaps forty years.
Also in the trailer, we hear Mirabel say "even in our darkest time, there's light where we least expect it " so it's likely that Mirabel's gift will come out during Darkest Hour. One will notice that Mirabel is often shown in the light (whether in the sunlight or light of a candle) and she's always eager to help out her family despite the seeming lack of a magical gift.
- Semi-confirmed. She has nothing to do with light but is meant to support her family.
- Confirmed. It's a heartbreaking moment.
- Confirmed.
- If that's the case, then God help everyone if Pepa discovers the existence of a certain British kids' cartoon...
- The film seems to suggest it's the mid 20th century in rural Colombia (based on Bruno mentioning telenovelas and Agustín's suit). So if Mirabel is added to the Princess line, she would be the most "recent" princess in and out of universe. (Before her, the only princess set in "modern times" was Tiana).
Isabela's and Dolores' prophecies were the only legit ones.
- Some quotes from the creators indicate this is going to happen.
- Bruno mentions that the mountains around the town are very high and difficult to pass over, which is why he stuck to hiding in the walls. In the flashback showing how the miracle came to be/Pedro's death, a whole range of mountains appears and protects Alma and the other displaced townspeople. Given how only the townspeople seem to know about the Madrigal's powers and there is no mentions of outsiders coming in, this seems plausible.
- A short that involves Antonio bringing more and more animals into the Casita, gradually leading to problems between them and the other Madrigals. The above theory with Camilo could be incorporated here.
- Camilo endures Shapeshifter Mode Lock and gets mistaken for someone else, while the actual person gets stuck with the Madrigals. They eventually realize this person isn't Camilo, so they must find him and help him change back.
- However, it might be possible her hearing is that good to the point she can hear the air being moved by the sign language and know what she they're saying.
- an corrupted CEO or businessperson wanting to destroy the hometown for money.
- a antagonist who seek for the Madrigals’s gifts.
- A cult leader who wants to "enlighten" the world by using the gifts.
- Someone who is similar to Mirabel or Bruno but unlike them, abandoned his/her/their family due to mistreatment from a counterpart to Alma.
- The soldiers return for the escapees, now that there is a hole in the mountain.
- Camilo will be more prominent, as he's practically a theatre kid in all but name. (Though his shapeshifting powers may require some clever stagework to represent)
- The gag where he shapeshifts into Dolores might be made even funnier as audiences could actually see Felix and Dolores approach behind Mirabel and Camilo's backs.
- To be fair, I think his powers might be changed to something else if Encanto got a stage adaptation. Or sadly enough, he just might be removed altogether.
- The "Dolores can hear this whole chorus" bit will be represented by her actress walking out in the nosebleeds,
- Yes, the faceless horsemen could be seen as evil, but if we meet their descendants or successors, it will be from a more personal perspective, as real people instead of faceless bogeymen.
- Exploring over the town
- The Madrigal Family bonding together.
- The residents of the Encanto venturing outside for the first time in decades.
With their being a future for Encanto,there are possibilities for the future of its franchise.
- Isabela: After the events of the film, Isabela now becomes creative while creating plants.
- Luisa: Luisa, now having relax, goes on her adventures while helping people out.
- Mirabel: It’ll focuse on her adventures as she explores over the town.
- Dolores: It’ll focuse on Dolores, as she hears about problems while helping solving them, while going on adventures.
- Camilo: It’ll focuse in Camilo using his shapeshifter forms.
- Antonio: It’ll focus on him having fun with his animal friends.
- Julieta and Pepa: Julieta and Pepa, start on helping each other with Julieta helping to heal injuries.
- Augustìn and Felìx: It’ll focuse on how the duo do besides helping their wife’s.
- Alma: Will focuse on her time with her family, as she spends time with the,
- Bruno: Will focus on him practicing his powers for the future and threats.
- From Antonio - a jaguar, 2 toucans, 3 coatimundis, two capybaras, one snake (an anaconda) and one tapir.
- From Bruno - his three rats.
- From Luisa - three to four donkeys.
- Camilo gaining a chameleon at some point in the future.
- With one of the mountains keeping them isolated split, more refugees will show up, as the bandits are still going strong all this time later, and the town initially welcomes those fleeing them. Things get tense as the newcomers don't respect the authority of the Madrigals and even hold them in fear and suspicion (one can foresee anything we do, one can hear anything we say and another can impersonate anyone perfectly?! And that's not even including the unstoppable super-strength one!) One of them befriends Mirabel for a time, but it turns out its because they want to convince her that her family should be using their gifts to drive the bandits out/destroy them outright. When Mirabel and Abuela refuse, fearing the consequences of war and the ramifications of using their gifts in such a way, the refugee resolves to lead the bandits to the town in order to force the Madrigals to fight them.
- The Horseman has a (grand)child that ends up in a Dating Catwoman scenario with Isabella, Luisa, Mirabel, Camilo, or even Bruno.
- That already happened. Augustin or Felix was their son(or agent) sent to find them, only for them to have a High-Heel–Face Turn and fall in love with Julieta/Pepa.
- The Casita does not give her a golden door and room, however, so that can't qualify as a Gift. Indeed, that it does not do this actually makes the problems in the family worse.
Also, this is why Mirabel and Alma fighting is what ultimately wrecks Casita. They're both tied to the magic as keystones and their conflict critically destabilizes the entire thing.
And this is why Mirabel doesn't have her own set of rooms. She's supposed to inherent Alma's, but Casita is a house and doesn't really get how frustrating it is for Mirabel to be stuck in the nursery, nor how it is affecting the family.
- Casita wasn't more explicit about her choice because she's in a "Damned if you do, damned if you don't situation". Making it clear that Mirabel is the next matriarch would've caused Alma to either put too much pressure on her or offended her as she would be considered replaceable. Making it vague caused the events of the film. Even Mirabel getting her own room (which would come with a mural showing her holding the candle) would've given the plan away.
- There's also the Personality Powers aspect of the gifts. Even as a little girl, Mirabel's defining goal in life was to help her family and make them proud, so she would be the most qualified person to be the next custodian of the miracle.
- It's been established that the family's love for each other is literally the foundation of the household. And Mirabel is the Madrigal most attuned to others' emotions.
- Also, the timing of the cracks is another clue. They appear throughout the film, of course, due to the family's stress and hidden pressure, but think about when they really appear. It's always when Mirabel feels worried or distressed.
- The first time is when Mirabel finally admits her frustrations about feeling like an outcast in "Waiting on a Miracle."
- The next time is when she climbs up to Bruno's tower and starts assembling the vision. She would undoubtably start feeling worried seeing herself in a shattered vision. And it makes no sense that it was triggered by another thing, as no one but Mirabel was even seen doing anything unusual at the time. The only other explanation is Luisa, and then it would've started far before Mirabel even entered Bruno's tower.
- The next time is when Bruno's vision spreads like wildfire around the dinner table. Her family thinking she is doomed to destroy the house is sure to cause anyone stress. The cracks start forming faster when Mirabel accidentally reveals the vision to Alma. this should be self explanatory.
- Next is when Alma and Julieta and Augustin are fighting over what to do about Mirabel. This is the only time the cracks start forming without any connection to Mirabel's emotions, and this is when everyone else's emotions are at a peak.
- Finally, the biggest and final cracks appear when Mirabel argues with her abuela. This argument is certainly the point in the movie where Mirabel is most enraged, and this is the only time the cracks grow beyond the casita, going far enough to split the mountain.
- Mirabel is the most attuned to the casita, being the one it interacts with and who interacts with it the most throughout the film. Also, when the candle is going out, the casita gets everyone out, trusting Mirabel to save it, but when it comes crashing down, its final act is to protect Mirabel by shielding her.
- This could be why she doesn't get a gift. She already is the embodiment of the miracle, so she cannot get a gift, as she is already magic.
- There's also abuela's quote after they reconcile by the river. "I asked Pedro for a miracle. He gave me you."
- This would explain why there was ever a door for her in the first place. If she were meant not to have a Gift, no door would ever have appeared. (If she received no Gift because she was supposed to take Alma's place, there'd have been some other sign or guidance.) Instead, there was every indication that this night would be like all the other gift ceremonies until she put her hand on the doorknob.
- I considered that initially, but then realized it doesn't track with Antonio getting his Gift just fine several years later.
- I was thinking about this too and came to a conclusion: Over the years it's likely that the ceremony of the door became more about duty and being useful to the community than the bond of the family. Even though she was given the stink eye for it, the small act of Mirabel taking Antonio's hand when he asked for it might be what allowed him to receive his gift.
- OP here. My thinking is that it was a one-time failure, essentially the magic "glitching" out in that specific moment, so Antonio was still able to get his Gift before things really started falling apart.
- Actually you do see the candle flicker and react to the door fading, so it's likely that the magic faltered then. But it holds itself together for 10 years, which might be why it rapidly declines even though ultimately it seems Alma is treating her youngest granddaughter no differently than normal since the day her door failed to manifest and things have only gotten worse for Bruno. The door failing to manifest properly for Mirabel was the first pang of pain from a headache before you die of a brain tumor.
- The door might be generic about a family member being able to get their gifts, but since Mirabel didn't end up with one, it started to fade? Casita has some control over the doors, but not beyond them, since the rooms are created and maintained by the magic itself. Since Mirabel's gift did not awaken, no room was generated for her, and the door vanished, since it wouldn't make sense for there to be a door with no room.
- As a variation on this, when Alma tells the story to Mirabel of what truly happened to Pedro and how the miracle came about, we see in the flashback her walking through Casita and becoming more and more stern and matriarchal before she finally reaches Mirabel. At the same time this occurs, she tells present-day Mirabel that she was so afraid of losing the miracle, and with it her family, that she held on too tightly. So it would seem it was this fear, as well as her focusing too much on the miracle instead of who it was meant for, that caused the candle flame to flicker and the door to disappear. I.e., being a miracle, its power came from faith. It was having doubts and insecurities (failing to have faith in themselves) and being pressured to perform well so as to keep being worthy of the miracle that made the various Madrigal family members have Power Incontinence or otherwise have their powers weaken. But it actually all started with Alma herself losing faith due to her fears and worries, and that's how she failed the test, even before how she mistreated Mirabel in the years after. This even still works with some theories below about why Mirabel had no gift: it's not that Casita specifically chose not to give her one, it's that the reason behind it means the only way the miracle and Casita can be saved is for the one who had so much doubt and insecurity to come to believe in herself, without relying on the miracle—and that would allow her to inspire the rest of the family to look past their gifts, conquer their own fears and insecurities, and come together again as a family, stronger than ever, by having faith in each other.
- In fact, the door likely dissolved because it was absorbed into Mirabel, forming the seed for the miracle's restoration. After all, when was the house restored? When she placed the doorknob.
- The doorknob was the final piece needed to "complete" Casita. If she had completed another part instead, or someone else had done it, the same thing probably would have happened.
- Casita doesn't have control over the rooms themselves. They're generated and maintained by the magic. Casita's influence stops at the door.
- The rooms themselves are meant to help the giftbearer, not just be a representation/storage space for their gifts. Otherwise, Antonio's room would not have a waterfall or tree, since neither of those are relevant to his gifts.
- Building on this, the Casita can create rooms for the family members, but cannot affect the inside of those rooms as well as it can the main areas of the house. Mirabel not having a room of her own to retreat to ended up making her closer to the Casita, as she interacted with it more often.
How do we understand this? I don't think Mirabel is always literally reality-warping based on characters' reactions during songs. But I think the musical numbers represent to the audience that Mirabel is being given some kind of sudden insight where she is able to hear someone's inner thoughts and confessions. It doesn't usually have to be magical, just a character trait - except for her magical vision of la casita crumbling, which was not itself a musical number and which she did not assume was a metaphor.
This would also explain why she is given her own door at the end along with her entire family. Why not originally? Because her gift relies on Maribel not being the center of attention. (All of her musical scenes with other characters rely on the other characters' input, not her own.) In that case, her door vanishing may be part of the gift itself - in order to use the gift, she needed to be a supportive and background part of the family, and a room would isolate her and prevent her from using the gift. Maybe a front door would always have given her "her own door."
So, Mirabel’s gift is basically the same as Zoey’s from Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist.
- "But let's be clear, Abuela runs this show." As becomes apparent later in the film, the family's own celebrations of itself have become a choreographed perfect show, to the point where many in the family are secretly miserable even on occasions that are supposed to be happy, like a child's birthday or an engagement. Further, it's Abuela's impressing of her personal utilitarian value system onto her family that has turned it into a dysfunctional facade, because she's put more value on the outward perception of the perfect family than on the family's actual internal wellbeing.
- "The beauty and the brawn can do no wrong." Isabela and Luisa, "the beauty and the brawn," feel they cannot afford to do wrong or even acknowledge the possibility, because their generation has been raised to believe their lives must be dedicated to their "use," which Alma finds for them—Isabela can create beauty and so she's only "right" when she's beautiful and spreading beauty, Luisa is strong and so she's only "right" if using her gift for manual labor. To be otherwise is to be lazy, misbehaving, and/or a disappointment. Alma couldn't think of a use for Mirabel, and so, consciously or not, treats her as a failure and tries to push her out.
- Considering her treatment of Mirabel at Antonio's gift ceremony, she might also be pushing Mirabel away to prevent her "bad luck" from affecting the other's gifts.
- She seems to be aware of the issues on some level, but not how they relate to the problems with the magic, or the cracks in the Casita.
Let's consider the original triplets: Julieta and her healing food, Bruno and his prophecies no one wants, and a Pepa and her (often) imperfect control of her weather power. Of the three, one stands out as being the greatest service to the community on a day-to-day basis. As such, Abuela's obsession and expectation was present, but relatively tempered by logistics.
Then Dolores and Isabelle are born, and again, we have an imbalance in capacity to serve. I'm not saying super-hearing isn't useful in certain situations, but willing plant life into being (and generally being considered "the perfect one") outweighs it significantly. Now not only do we know that grandkids are getting gifts, but Abuela may be seeing a particular branch of the family she should be having high expectations for.
Then we get Luisa and Camilo, and that gap widens significantly. Luisa is, arguably after her mother, probably the most tangibly beneficial Madrigal to the "help the community" mission, which we know is the attitude that ultimately leads to the magic failing in the end. Camilo is...entertaining. A great kid all around. Certainly more than willing to try and do his part. But his powers just aren't focused in the area of mundane utility like Luisa and Julieta. Now it's clear to Abuela that Julieta's family are the ones to watch out for, to keep them "worthy" of the miracle. So when little Mirabel's ceremony arrives, Abuela (and to some extent the rest of family and community) are at peak expectations.
Which is what we know causes the magic to fail.
The pressure they're putting on Mirabel internally, before she even has a gift, causes the first big glitch in the system, and for her ceremony to fail. When Antonio's turn comes up he gets one, both because people are half-expecting him to not get either, and because Abuela never had the same expectations for Pepa's children, so the magic works fine.
- * The house will give one or more children of every other generation no powers to test how the other family members will react, which fits into the narrative that the Encanto was granted by God's power. It wasn't just meant to test only Alma, but to send a clear message to the rest of the family that the powerless Madrigals are equally as important as they are.
- We've only seen three generations of the family in the town, and, while Mirabel is the first powerless Madrigal born into the Encanto, there's nothing to prove that she'll be the last one, or even the only one in a given generation. By skipping members every now and then, Casita gives the Madrigals some perspective on the people they're supposed to be helping in the first place. It's so they don't get too caught up in the magic that they stop caring about their family and the wellbeing of others. This would also be a good way to curb any Madrigals from going Drunk with Power, as its a lot harder to develop a superiority complex when the non-empowered people you look down on include your own relatives, especially in such a tight-knit community as the Encanto. Mirabel is merely the first of many powerless Madrigals to be born, and any sequels will prove it.
- This is also why the Madrigals are given a second chance, even though Casita crumbled the first time. The miracle expected them to screw up the message the first time, so they got off easy. Next time, Casita might not be so lenient.
Her despairing at Antonio's gift ceremony when he gets one, and is then excluded from the family photo made her wonder if it was too late for her to get a miracle/gift, as she mentions in "Waiting for a Miracle". The exclusion put a wedge between her and the family, making the cracks show up. If nothing had happened to the magic, she might have been permanently sidelined as the only blood-related Madrigal with no gift.
- Her confrontation in the climax being the last straw. Abuela did not see her favourably, thinking that Mirabel was acting out and sabotaging the others out of jealousy. Abuela might have cut her out of the family then, splitting it apart, causing the magic to fail completely, even though she didn't meant to break it.
- More to the point, he is kindhearted and generous like Pedro. He may not have chemistry for Isa, but would definitely be a good addition to the family.
- The Candle was an indicator of how well the family magic was.
- Mirabel has no Gift like the rest of her family because she was chosen by the family magic to be the next focus.
- After a while, the house will manifest a new Candle.
In the song "We Don't Talk About Bruno", it can be subtly hinted that it was actually indirectly Alma's fault that Pepa's weather "ruined" her wedding, not Bruno's as everyone thinks.
During the wedding fiasco storyline, after Bruno tells Pepa that "it looks like rain", Félix mentions that Abuela "takes the umbrella". Although Pepa took Bruno's attempted prank badly, it was Abuela who deceived her. Alma was the one who took Bruno's words as an inevitable event, going so far as to bring an umbrella even before the hurricane happens. Considering that Pepa thought that her mother thought that she would make it rain on her big day, Pepa accidentally turned her concern over Bruno's words into a self-fulfilling prophecy and the wedding was ruined. However, Bruno's predictions have already earned him a reputation for doomsday, so after the event everyone blamed Bruno.
Despite being the deuteragonist of the film, Abuela is one of the least remembered characters by fans and does not have the same popularity as most of her relatives, to the point of having almost no merchandise or promotional images. Considering that her character arc has already been properly developed and she has learned that family is more important than magic, if there is a Encanto sequel or series, the film's creators would consider giving Alma a supporting role in the future.
- She would still have moments where her Character Development would be shown after the events of the film, but with Alma transitioning from being a main character to a supporting character, the plot of the new story would focus on the members of the Madrigal Family more loved and less developed, like Bruno or Camilo.
- Alternatively, Alma will be Rescued from the Scrappy Heap. Since the producers will realize that she is not as well liked by the fans, the new story will still keep Alma as a main character in order to focus on making her a more beloved and likable character for the audience.
Given that Abuela was perhaps the first person to find out that Bruno disappeared after asking him for a vision of why Mirabel had not received a gift, the sadness of losing her only child combined with the rage she had that he had abandoned her the family so suddenly made her believe Bruno's taboo so she wouldn't have to remember the pain his departure caused her.
The rule "Don't talk about Bruno" only applies when Alma is around. Thus, it isn't a firm, 24/7 mandate, but more akin to the concept, "Don't upset Abuela." Since the movie underscores the expectations Alma places on all her family members, it makes sense that the rule about Bruno would be specifically tailored to keep her happy. This is reinforced by realizing that many family members are willing to talk about Bruno when her is not around.
- This lines up well with the evidence in the movie, as Abuela seems to be the Madrigal who is most upset with Bruno. But for all her anger/disappointment, she clearly cares about her son a lot too, which is what forms the tragedy of Bruno being hidden for 10 years. Alma missing Bruno while also being keenly aware of how his gifts alarmed the community forms a solid basis of reasoning for why the family would avoid bringing him up around her. Along with the fact that Alma is the unquestioned head of the Madrigal household, this helps to explain why the rule "Don't talk about Bruno when Abuela is around" would come to be, as a way to avoid upsetting her or getting in trouble.
- Even mentioning Bruno also upsets Pepa, with disastrous consequences for the local climate. Her rule about not talking about Bruno might be to stop Pepa from getting mad from hearing people talking about him, or to stop the rest of the family from being asked about him.
She is mostly unaware of the emotional damage she has done to her family with her desire for perfection, so it is likely that Alma also did not realize that Isabela did not want to marry Mariano. Let's remember that Isabela is too polite/afraid of upsetting or contradicting her family, accepting what her Abuela wants for her. When Dolores mentions that Mariano wants to start a family, Isabela smiles at Alma and the two are later seen talking calmly about the impending wedding, furthering the belief that Isabela was excited about the wedding.
Adding the factor that all the adult women in the family are married and have children, she could misunderstand that Isabela wanted the same thing. Alma was angry during most of her argument with Mirabel about whose fault the magic is in danger, but when Mirabel mentions that Isabela was not happy, Abuela momentarily changes her expression from angry to sad as she blames Mirabel for ruining dinner proposal, not knowing that Mirabel actually meant that Isabela was not happy being perfect. Alma really thought that marrying Mariano was what Isabela wanted and from her perspective she was not forcing her favorite granddaughter to do something she didn't want, but rather helping Isabela fulfill what she thought was her dream.
- Possibly this was also the perspective of the rest of the family members. Like Abuela, everyone (with the exception of Dolores) was excited or worried about how the proposal dinner would go, including Isabela's parents and aunt, who are the closest adults in the family to her. Like Abuela, everyone thought that Isabela really wanted to marry Mariano because she never dared to tell them otherwise.
- Jossed.
- Jossed.
- Jossed, there's No Antagonist.
- Before Bruno went into hiding, he would retreat to his tower to perform his vision ritual. Climbing all those stairs would be a strong deterrent even to family members; and indeed, when Bruno has his first vision about Mirabel, none of the family were with him, and the vision remained a mystery until Mirabel went looking for it in his tower years later.
- It would explain why there was so much misunderstanding about the difference between Bruno's offhand observations vs. his true visions. Even his own sister didn't understand that Bruno's remark about rain on her wedding day was an attempt at a lighthearted joke rather than a prophecy. Had Pepa ever actually seen Bruno having a vision, she at least would have known to ask if he was talking about something he had seen in one of his incredibly elaborate vision rituals
- Maybe he's gay and/or he doesn't want children of his own.
- One possibility is that because of his "gift", no woman or man is willing to be with him.
- Everyone outside the family seems to be afraid of him, so I doubt he got many dates
- Maybe simply hasn't met his future wife... yet.
- He's been stuck inside the house for more than ten years. I reckon his social abilities are a little impaired due to it. (And that's not even counting if he smells...)
- Or he could simply be aro/ace.
- One will have Time Travel as their Gift. It will only extend as far back as to when the Casita was first created but going forward is near limitless.
In the film, Bruno's vision for Mirabel shows her both destroying and fixing the Casita. The conclusion reached in the film, and evidently by most of the audience, is that there are two possible futures, and Mirabel's actions will either doom or save the home. That's a bit inconsistent though; Everyone acts as though Bruno's predictions do always happen, why would just this one suddenly be showing multiple possible timelines instead of just the one that's going to happen?
In fact, his vision was working exactly as it normally does. After all, both of those possibilities turn out to be true: Mirabel's efforts to fix the miracle do wind up causing the cracks, as they're caused by cracks in the family dynamic that she exposes (even if she wasn't the cause of those issues), and her work getting the family to acknowledge the pressure they feel, and helping them to fix their relationship issues, culminates in the Casita being reborn in the rebuilt home. It wasn't one or the other, it was both.
- I actually thought this too. If you don't get it, try picturing each part of the vision at separate points in a video, and moving it around scrolls back and forth between them.
- Since Bruno's visions aren't perfectly sequential, he might have mistaken multiple similar scenes for overlapping futures in his vision of Mirabel. She fights and hugs Isabella, and the Candle both goes out and gets brighter.
The question is who could have negative thoughts towards Bruno and what would be the reasons.
- Dolores: He told her when she was just a child that the "man of her dreams" would be out of her reach because he would be engaged to someone else and after he abandoned her leaving her all alone with that knowledge. Thanks to Bruno, she grew up believing that she could never be together with the man of her dreams and no one would realize the pain that the idea of Mariano marrying someone else caused her. Also, Dolores was forced to hide the fact that he was still hiding in the walls of the house and knowing that he never had the courage to come out of hiding from her to go back to the family.
- Isabela: Although most would think that the vision that Bruno gave her when she was a child is positive, she would grow up thinking that the opposite is true. Since Bruno had a vision in which she would have the dream life, Alma would over the years increase her expectations of perfection on Isabela thus only increasing the pressure on Isabela to meet Abuela's expectations as she grew older.
- Camilo: He would be very bitter and uncomfortable with Bruno's return to the family because he abandoned Camilo when he was just a child, which means that Bruno was absent throughout his life and then returned seemingly out of nowhere. In addition to the fact that he is the Momma's Boy, so perhaps Pepa's initial bad thoughts about Bruno could have been intentionally transferred to Camilo, the fact that she and the rest of the adults in the family accepted Bruno back without a doubt would only increase the Camilo's confusion.
- Somewhat Jossed. Director Jared Bush exclusively uses "he/him" pronouns when referring to Camilo.
- Mirabel also refers to Camilo as "he" during the song "The Family Madrigal". This WMG is left to headcanons."My primo Camilo won't stop until he makes you smile today!"
- Alternatively, they may simply have or had a mischievous streak and loves to pull pranks by impersonating with his shapeshifting. I say "had" because the icon of them on their door looks to be younger then he currently is, so what I think is that when he was young and gained his gift, they was a mischievous troublemaker who used their powers for such, but something happened to them that made Camilo grow out of such (most likely being scolded for such and being threated with banishment). Even though they did such and doesn't pull such trickery anymore (if not that much), the damage was done and his door icon displayed him with a malicious grin.
- Jossed. The Film has No Antagonist
- If this were to happen, He would have a position in the franchise similar to that of Isabela or Bruno. Because he would become a main character he would get his own song, a character discovery arc to come to terms with himself by accepting his flaws and showing the relationship he has with his family.
- He is a cheerful, sociable and energetic teenager, if he ends up seeing what the world is like outside of Encanto he will realize that he will not want to be locked up in the town all his life.
- Unlike his brothers and cousins (who resolved emotional conflicts they had) Camilo is the only one who has not had a character arc and is described as someone who "doesn't quite know who he is yet". Because he is not very comfortable with who he is, he may doubt what he really wants for his future and whether he wants the same life as his relatives have had or to have a different option.
- Although he loves Casa Madrigal, he is not shown to have such a strong bond with the house so he would not feel as attached to the Casita as Mirabel or Abuela. If he solves his identity problems and at the same time becomes attached to a new place that he knows, Camilo could realize that he does not feel completely happy in his home and instead he wants to know places and new things.
- The gifts of each family member are connected to their personalities, so connecting Camilo's power with his personality, he would like the changes. He enjoys constantly changing his appearance with his shapeshifting ability, but his desire to change may not only relate to his appearance but also his environment. If Camilo likes what is different, he would enjoy environments that are new to him.
- The fact that Camilo likes to change his appearance means that he would also like the most modern clothes of city people and thanks to this he would have a significant wardrobe change that would better show his desire to stay in the new location.
Although it is seen that he likes to annoy his cousin for fun similar to an Annoying Younger Sibling, Camilo may have some resentment towards Isabela for being Abuela's favorite. Since he is the same age as Mirabel, he also lived watching Isabela be Abuela's darling and possibly he was jealous at some point because of the special attention that Alma gave her. Perhaps this is why he always takes advantage of any opportunity to play a prank on his older cousin, Camilo is annoyed at being ignored by his grandmother in favor of Isabela.
This can be seen in some moments of the movie. At breakfast, Camilo carefully watches Abuela being affectionate with Isabela and as soon as she leaves the scene, he takes the opportunity to make fun of his cousin about her imminent marriage proposal. Another example is when Alma informs Isabela during "We Don't Talk About Bruno" about Mariano's arrival at the Casa Mdrigal, where just seconds after she speaks, Camilo takes the opportunity to make fun of Isabela again informing her of the arrival of her fiancé at the house.
- A more extreme case is that magic wants Camilo to transform into Pedro to indirectly help the family to overcome the pain of their loss so that they can have a more peaceful last image of him because the strongest memory that have of Pedro is his murder. But since the family has a hard time understanding the miracle's actions, Camilo would immediately be horrified by transforming into his deceased grandfather and everyone would believe that he is losing control of his gift or that the magic in the house is failing again.
If this happens, Camilo would try to hide the form of his grandfather from the family, which would start the plot of the episode. If he wouldn't be able to return to normal, he would ask his siblings and cousins for help, since they were all born after Pedro's death. Everyone would think that the error is in Camilo's powers and would actively try to fix the problem while trying to keep the adults in the family from seeing it, which would cause a chain reaction of the secret eventually being revealed to everyone in the house.
- Her skin is too dark for her to be Julieta's daughter, so, she likely comes from Sr. Madrigal's previous marriage.
- Or a dark-skinned ancestor's genes could have skipped a generation or two. (Maybe he liked flowers and gardens too and this also was passed on.)
- Jossed, they are sisters and it is possible for two people to be related even if one has a darker skin tone.
- Or a dark-skinned ancestor's genes could have skipped a generation or two. (Maybe he liked flowers and gardens too and this also was passed on.)
Isabela will smother and/or doubt Mirabel in her ability to save Encanto and try to take it upon herself to save the house, but in the process, she insensitively puts down Mirabel for not having magic. Mirabel will think Isabel is trying to hog the spotlight, and in an emotional Darkest Hour, Isabela will reveal that she's scared of letting everyone down and/or that if Mirabel gets hurt or fails, she'll be wrecked with guilt that she failed her baby sister. [Some remarks by the writing team bear this out.]
In the end, when the day is saved, Mirabel and Isabela will understand that the other is imperfect and that's okay, and the events of the movie will have brought them closer together.
- Confirmed.
- Jossed, If anything she would be horrified at the thought of that. Although she does sprout flowers when she hears he wants five kids already.
- Many cacti are edible, so she's already doing this in the film.
- After she has received her gift, Pepa will have taught her how to control her emotions so that she can have better control of her power. Isabela gently calms down Pepa when she sees her stressed and nervous, so she is returning the favor to her aunt for having taught her to control her power when she was a kid.
- On the night of Antonio's gift ceremony, Isabela does the same dance that Pepa would do after the reconstruction of the Casita. This implies that Isabela has learned some dance steps from Pepa.
- The only moment Isabela doesn't have a fake smile about her proposal with Mariano is when she sets the table for dinner in "We Don't Talk About Bruno". For a moment, while she was having fun dancing it with Pepa during the song, she forgot about the proposal because she was having fun with her aunt.
- And she would have had no choice but to learn about several topics way too early for a five-year-old.
Despite the fact that she knew that Bruno was still hiding in the Casa Madrigal the whole time, as shown when she comments that "can always hear him" or "I knew he never left, I heard him every day", Dolores has never done anything to get her uncle back to the family and decides not to talk about him like the rest of her relatives. She becomes privy to important information through her super-hearing, but then chooses not to share or do anything about it. If Dolores really didn't want the miracle to go away, Why didn't she say anything, even though she could obviously hear that Mirabel was looking for Bruno? Why didn't she help save the miracle with the usefulness of her gift to listen to others? If she cared about Bruno, Why did she never tell the family that Bruno was hiding in the house and hiding the secret for years?
Dolores wanted the magic and candle to disappear, hiding valuable information from others so they couldn't save the miracle. She has the worst gift in the family and instead of bringing her happiness it has only brought her pain, if the magic disappeared she would finally be able to get rid of her magical gift and be able to express herself as she wants. She is often overlooked because her gift, of being able to hear everything, isn’t as useful to the family as some of their other miracles. She doesn’t really get praised for using it like the others do, and she can see how many of her family members are unhappy and stressed with the burden of their gifts.
She also loves Mariano, who is obsessed with Isabela and her gift, so if Isabela didn't have any gift and stopped being perfect, Dolores might have more of a shot with him. Dolores is the one to ruin the engagement dinner by telling everyone of the vision Mirabel saw and then not trying to help her cousin when she was being blamed for causing the magic to disappear. She wanted to do all this on purpose so that Mariano wouldn't marry Isabela and at the same time make the magic disappear faster. And the reason why she never said that her uncle hid all the time in the walls of the house is because Bruno made her believe since she was just a little girl that she could never be with the man of her dreams and after he abandon the family.
- Adding onto this, simply raiding their voice could be their own way off spanking her.
- She can't stand loud noises due to the sensitivity of her gift. Pepa is always making a lot of noise with her powerful gift and this would hurt Dolores' ears. Félix doesn't have a gift and never raises his voice even when he's angry, so it's impossible that he hurt Dolores' ears in any way.
- She is quiet and not very emotional, while Pepa is melodramatic and is always stressed or upset in some way, it would be quite difficult for Dolores to have a long conversation with her mother. Félix is laid-back, calm and almost never gets angry, so Dolores would feel more comfortable talking to her father.
- One of the children will be named Pedro in dedication and honor to Dolores' deceased grandfather, as well as being a nice name. Pedro Jr will also be an Identical Grandson given his father’s visual similarities to Pedro Sr while the other two children will be more similar to his mother, having names related to the bible just like his parents.
- In her song "Surface Pressure," Luisa readily makes references to the Earth's crust and to the Labours of Hercules; so it's not unreasonable to guess that in the little spare time that she has, she's been reading up on natural sciences and Greek mythology.
Previous to Luisa's gift, the family had just been a help to the village; however, upon Luisa's Gifting, a Madrigal now was subjected to immense amounts of manual labor and an obscene amount of pressure to fulfill a role.
While Pepa, Julieta and Bruno had powerful gifts, their gifts would only come in handy every so often (as needed). Same with the other children (Dolores, Camilo, Isabela) would have gifts that could be used as needed, mostly for entertainment purposes. However, Luisa was the first one whose gift gave her a never-ending list of tasks to complete. This can be seen before the song "Surface Pressure" when the villagers are essentially swarming Luisa with tasks to complete. And when preparing for Antonio's Gifting Ceremony, we see her jump from task to task, even if the current task was not finished.
She even suggests in her song that she wonders what it would be to just enjoy her gift, to just relax. After Luisa received her gift, Abuela pressured her to be the family yes-man, and to take on any manual task. And after seeing the results of Luisa's contributions to the village, Abuela took that as a success and put even more pressure on the rest of the family.
- The coffee-obsessed kidnote , the one girl named Cecilia, and the dark-skinned girl who's starting a meme. They are frequently seen throughout the movie, and it's mentioned Antonio isn't good with people, so these three will be his very first and closest friends.
- Pedro's sacrifice brought the magic, so maybe in wishing to protect and shield his family, he was turned into a house: a place to shelter his loved ones. And was given awareness so he could keep taking care of them.
- That would also explain why it's so affected by the family's internal struggle, he's seeing his family suffer and in turn suffers for it.
- In the beginning when Abuela is recounting the story of how they got their miracle, one of the casita's shutters gives her a little wave, and she waves back. This is similar to the flashback by the river when her and Pedro first meet and give each other little waves across the crowd.
- Casita is shown playing favorites, pranking the family, occasionally disciplining them, and generally reacting in a very "human" way, because it may have been a human before. Also, that is what a loving grandpa would do.
- Adding to the above theory, the reason Casita!Pedro is so visibly fond of Mirabel may be that something in her reminds it of himself-when-alive or of a younger Alma.
- It's also possible that when Alma herself dies, she and Pedro will move on together, and the Casita will be left in Mirabel's control.
- Pepa's weather manipulation and Bruno's future sight just sort of happen to them, with little control on their part. But Julieta's gift is incredibly specific. It probably took her some time to realize what it actually was, likely cooking something to cheer up one of her siblings or Abuela after they were injured.
- From the facts we see onscreen alone we know that: 1) The horsemen were setting buildings on fire, 2)they were chasing refugees across the jungle and 3)unarmed Pedro expected to stop/stall them just by making his presence known, arms raised and all. Therefore yes, he might have known them and hoped to reason with them... But also consider that he himself might have been the target all along, a community or political leader who the opposing faction wanted to get rid of. After all, Pedro and Alma were the first of a large number of refugees, and still they let everyone pass by in order to be the first to face the horsemen by the river (and without taking the opportunity to gather more people that might have helped defend the group).
(Also, Julieta hasn't had more kids then just three if this is the case because she probably cooks food-based contraceptives too)
(Also also, I am so sorry for this)
- Well.. Kinda hard to compete with the fact that Pepa probably summons storms while she and Felix are in bed. Although that probably comes with a massive downside cause it means the entire town might know when they're being intimate.
- OP: Given the risk, Pepa and Felix are probably celibate and don't have sex that often. If they did and given how Pepa's powers work, the euphoria of it would probably instead leave the entire skies extremely still and flood with either moonlight or sunlight. Also, anytime the former probably happens, Dolores probably just sighs at the prospects and does her best to cover her ears or just retreat into her room doing her best to ignore Julieta screaming "SI! SI!" over and over in hers.
- Buñuelos are infamous for exploding if the oil used to make them is too hot. Julieta wielding a pan full of buñuelo bombs and hot oil would be terrifying.
Given his young age, Antonio himself might try this in secret.
Camilo would take Bruno's return to the family negatively at first, he would not show much joy for the presence of his uncle or he would actively try to avoid it. Bruno would notice this and he would try to get closer to Camilo to find out why he is not comfortable with him returning to the family, similar to how Mirabel tried to get closer to Alma even though she tried to avoid her.
- At first it would be difficult for both parties to interact⁏
- Camilo would have trouble accepting Bruno's return because he grew up hearing horrible things about his uncle from the adults in the family since he was just a child and then, from his point of view, they acted as if nothing had happened. He wouldn't have any hatred towards Bruno, rather his confusion from everything that happened would not make him feel comfortable around Bruno and he would have a hard time seeing him as family.
- Bruno will be bothered that Camilo saw him for years as a demonic and evil figure, without realizing that the family is partly responsible for his nephew's way of thinking about him. Also, since he was absent during all his life, Bruno practically doesn't know Camilo and wouldn't know how to try to get close to him. While trying to bond with him, Bruno would realize that Camilo has a hard time seeing him as family so he would try to show him that he loves him.
Although they would try, they would not be able to bond because neither of them knows the difficulty that the other is going through due to the consequences of the taboo about Bruno. In the end, the confusion that Camilo has accumulated that everyone in the house acts as if Bruno had never left the family will turn into hatred and he will vent his anger on Bruno (in parallel to how Alma vented her anger on Mirabel) . Bruno will be unable to yell at his nephew and even if he tries to calm him down by trying to say something like "We are family and I love you", Camilo will intentionally say "You are not my family!".
After that discussion, hurt by the previous discussion, they will have a conversation in which Camilo will ask Bruno for forgiveness and he will listen to him, realizing the reasons why it was so difficult for his nephew to get close to him. Bruno will tell Camilo the pain that never being able to be with the family caused him and the younger will realize that in the end the whole situation was always out of Bruno's control. Thanks to the fact that they will have that heart-to-heart conversion, they will realize that they are similar in personalities and abilities, so they will begin to get closer to the point of looking like father and son.
- Luisa would be the only one of her sisters who would enjoy Camilo's mischievous and joking personality. Being the most patient and tolerant, she would not be cold and dismissive towards of him like Isabela or show irritation and annoyance at his antics like Mirabel, instead she would genuinely be amused by her cousin's pranks knowing that he is not malicious and will be happy to see him be himself. Being one of the youngest in the family, Luisa would also be protective of Camilo and would have an Big Sister Instinct with him.
- On Camilo's side, he would get along very well with Luisa and admire her as an Cool Big Sis. Unlike the more complicated relationship he has with Isabela, whom he enjoys teasing and making fun, Luisa will be one of the few people he does not play pranks on given her loving and caring nature, enjoying her cousin's company and bonding with her to share the housework.
- Alternatively, Bruno can easily be read as being ace. As for Isabela, there were early boards showing she had a secret nerdy paramour. So although it didn't make the cut, maybe she's simply happy to wait for the 'one', and/or demiace/demiromantic.
- Maybe as a counterpart to Luisa having Super-Strength, a future Madrigal can have super speed.
- A Madrigal who can control the elements, although not in the same way Pepa (sort of) does and more in a way similar to Elsa.
- Or control over a specific element, like fire, lightning, earth, or water.
- Elasticity
- Self-duplication (or even the ability to duplicate things/people in general)
- Telepathy, like Dolores' gift up to eleven.
- Telekinesis
- Teleportation
- Flight
- Seeing spirits and ghosts
- Summoning spirits
- Eventually, shamanism
- Size Shifting
- Invisibility
- Super-Intelligence
- Magic, ala Zatanna, Raven or the Scarlet Witch.
- maybe they can be a potion maker
- Phasing, like Shadowcat.
- Resurrecting the dead note
- Time Travel
- Opening Time Portals
- A storyteller with very strong imagination who can create visual illusions of any story they tell.
- That would be neat, as another nod to magical realism and Gabriel García Marquez' works. Perhaps this family member turns into an author and writes the story of the Madrigals as a book?
- Aaaaand their ability to create visual illusions of the story they tell is would be what causes the in-universe existence of the movie itself!
- A pair of twins who are actually linked together to the extent that one can sometimes see what the other sees.
- Or use Twin Telepathy like a telephone!
- Fourth-Wall Observer.
- Bringing toys to life
- Cue the inevitable theory they'd be responsible for Toy Story.
- The ability to manipulate time.
- Art Initiates Life
- Vocal Mimicry
- Lycanthropy (or some other kind of shapeshifting into an animal).
- Ghosts
- Ability to turn invisible.
- A trio of triplets who could have masks with legion voices.
- Given that the Madrigals aren't immortal, some future children could end up with the same gifts as their relatives. That way, the ability doesn't die with the bearer, there are no disruptions to the community, and the old guard can teach the new blood things they've learned about using their power.
- All for this to end with the most powerful Madrigal in the future, possibly being a harvester of all the previous powers combined.
- Abuela says Antonio's gift ceremony was on the 50th anniversary of the miracle. What if Antonio's gift strained the last of its strength? Afterwards, it was more susceptible to emotional shifts like Isabela's argument and reconciliation with Mirabel. The showdown with Abuela was the final straw.
- Abuela's iteration of the family includes her children and grandchildren. Maybe the first miracle ended with her last grandchild's ceremony, and Mirabel's new beginning will sustain itself even longer.
- Whatever force is behind the miracle read Mirabel's character and deliberately set her apart to "save up" all her magical potential, seeing that she'd move heaven and earth to repair the family. Her life's worth of unused, latent magic catalyzed the new miracle in one burst and revived the others' powers.
- If Camilo's room is connected to his shapeshifting ability and theatrical personality, it would be filled with mirrors and other reflective surfaces for him to practice his transformations. To really lean into the theatrics of his power, Camilo's room could even be styled like an auditorium so that family members and friends can come to watch him perform.
- Alternatively, Camilo's room is that it's an environment that changes as he does. Depending on his mood, or perhaps depending on who he shapeshifts into, the room can change and rearrange itself to match.
- Julieta and Augustin have a fairly modest and "normal" room a la the nursery, though there is a garden for Julieta's plants.
- It could also have an enormous kitchen and pantry so Julieta can both experiment with recipes and cook her comfort food whenever she wants to.
- Pepa's (and Felix) has access to an open sky.
- It's an eternally sunny beach that can help calm herself down.
- Dolores's room is actually sound proof.
- Concept art showed Dolores holding musical instruments, suggesting that her room might have been set up like a concert hall.
- Luisa's room is snowy mountain environment with a gym, a climbing wall, and hot springs for her to relax in.
- She may also have an amusement park where she can play around and relax in, just like in concept art. Keywword may as she may have felt anything like this would distract from duties and never lasted beyond a day or two.
- Though we saw Isabela's room, after the events of the film it's probably shifted to a much more chaotic garden filled with all manner of plants she can think of, and it's never the same layout twice.
- Alma's room would be her first home with Pedro, as a way for her to keep their original family dreams alive.
- Luisa could have just been tired given super strength doesn’t mean unlimited stamina.
- Camilo’s shape shifting glitching out has shown to be a side effect of shock. He could also take after his mom in terms of emotions linking to power outbursts.
- given the madness at the dinner scene and Isabella not wanting to marry the guy in the first place and her wavering composure to be “perfect golden child” her powers could have glitched as well or maybe she was taking advantage of the situation and tried to make him break up with her but that’s a different theory.
- Bottom Line- The stress was the cause of all the glitching.
- A admired teenage girl who has an obsession with Luisa.
- Alternatively, a boy who's a bit weak in the body at best or has something like osteogenesis imperfecta at worst but is very strong-willed.
- Camillo could get together with somebody who's just as mischievous as he is.. or it's a case of Opposites Attract and he winds up falling for the most well manner guy/girl around.
- Mirabel is a caring person and to some extent maternal, so she could follow in her mother's footsteps. She would marry a good-hearted boy who, although he would sometimes need her help, would be a person who appreciates the family as much as she does and the two of them would form a family.
- A admired teenage girl who has an obsession with Luisa.
- Alma: A Grande Dame with the power to brainwash or puppet people, mirroring what Alma was (accidentally) doing to the family through non-magical means.
- Julieta: A cruel harlequin-esque prankster who creates food that rather than healing others, causes bizarre and humiliating side effects like transformations for their own amusement, and most importantly hates everyone with a passion, seeing them only as tsrgets.
- Pepa: A weather master who holds her locale captive (perhaps as a False Utopia) with the threat of her getting angry or unhappy if her every whim isn't followed exactly.
- Bruno: A Chessmaster who has future sight (or says he does) and tells everyone just enough to manipulate them into doing what he wants (which also fulfills the "prophecy" and "confirms" his words).
- Agustin: The partner of said cruel prankster coming up with different new combination of foods that cause new humiliating and awful side effects.
- Felix: A non-powered husband with a powerful wife who doesn't love her and simply manipulates her and her abilities for his own benefit, regardless of the effect on anyone else.
- Isabela:
- Either grows thorny and poisonous plants, cultivating a Garden of Evil or a Poisonous Person who can sap the life out of plants and cause famines.
- A Favoured child who was aware of being viewed as the Golden Child, but instead of conforming, decide to rebel and disobey entirely.
- Luisa:
- A person equally short-statured and short-tempered who can sap strength from others with a single touch and is incredibly arrogant and irresponsible.
- The Brute who uses their Super-Strength to threaten people and cause destruction.
- Mirabel: A Muggle Born of Mages who has become The Resenter thanks to being ostracized and is determined to become special by any means necessary.
- Dolores: A telepathic spymaster who blackmails people into doing her bidding by threatening to reveal their deepest, darkest secrets.
- Camilo: A shapeshifter who enjoys using his powers to frighten others and/or ruin their lives through framing them for some kind of jerk-ish or evil deed.
- Antonio: A Beastmaster who is either power-mad or who believes humans are inferior to animals.
- The "faceless horsemen" from the past conquered the land, but their descendants, now two generations removed, are decent people, who live in a city outside of the giant mountains. To them, the magical family living in the mountains is a fairy tale, and some fear that the Madrigal's intend to take revenge.
More specifically⁏ What would happen if a Madrigal wanted to leave the house and the Encanto?
Every adult in the family (except Bruno) have followed a path for their future⁏ falling in love, getting married and having children, increasing the family members in Casa Madrigal, so it would be expected that the third generation members (Isabela, Dolores, Luisa, Camilo, Mirabel, and Antonio) would also do the same when they grow up. But what if one of the grandchildren doesn't want the same future that their parents and grandparents have had? If they could choose a different option and become independent?
Now that the mountains that kept the town isolated from the outside are gone, the Madrigals will be free to step out of the Encanto after more than 50 years and discover new places they never imagined. At some point at least one of the family members would be interested in knowing what they have been missing locked up in the village all their lives and would like the outside world (or someone). But⁏ What would be the reaction of the other family members to they departure? And who would be more likely to want to leave home?
- Of course, this could also just be wishful thinking. While Disney has adapted lesser-known stories in the past (Dumbo, the Flying Elephant and A Day with Wilbur Robinson being examples), when it comes to actual fairy tales, they usually avoid more obscure ones like The Green Bird. The similarities between the Disney movie and the fairy tale could just be coincidence.
- Lin-Manuel Miranda said he wanted this to be set in the same universe as Moana, but Disney has turned down the idea of multiple entries of their Animated Canon colliding before. (One of their films had a character that was implied to be Prince Hans' cousin, but they said no because they didn't want people to feel like there was a cinematic universe between their entries) But, that doesn't mean there can't be a reference or two somewhere.
Columbians celebrate Dia de los Muertos much the same way as it is celebrated in Mexico. To that end, the Casita maintains an ofrenda and automatically displays it outside the front door every year on November 1, not just for the Madrigals, but for the whole town. Given the magical nature of the Casita, the townspeople are able to talk to the ghosts of their loved ones. Every year, Abueala Alma is able to speak to her beloved Pedro, and to let him know how the family is doing. On the first Day of the Dead after the events of the movie, Mirabel was also able to see Pedro, who told his granddaughter that he was very proud of her.
- Meanwhile, Bruno's return to the bosom of his family means that he dodged a supernatural bullet. If Bruno hadn't made the choice to reveal himself to Abuela and his siblings, there was a real chance that his soul would have been lost forever; if he had died while hiding out in the Casita, his family might not have even found his body for months. Even if they had, Abuela was so upset at him for abandoning the Madrigal family that she may have forbidden her family from placing a portrait or any mementos of him on the family ofrenda, thus leaving him unable to return to the land of the living on Day of the Dead. After a couple of generations the family insisting "We don't talk about Bruno", it would not be long until Bruno's soul underwent the Final Death and faded into oblivion.
- Although it is a nice idea, it would be difficult for it to happen, since in real life "Dia de los Muertos" is an strictly Mexican celebration (and it is not even celebrated in all the regions of that country), and the other Latin American countries, in Most of them don't celebrate it.
- If that does happen, Sora might become fast friends with Mirabel, and try to sympathize with her when she tells him about her lack of magic when he is a magic-user, and possibly contemplate the family using their gifts to protect the village from criminals, but won't tell this to Alma, due to him noticing something off about the family and Alma being at the heart of it.
- They won't fight Heartless, but Unversed. While Heartless are souls of people who gave into the darkness, Unversed are tied to negative emotions, which the Madrigals feel boatloads of, and maybe the Madrigals are unknowingly making the Unversed appear in the Encanto, proving Vanitas isn't the only one who can make them.
- When Sora realizes that the stress the family feels is spawning the Unversed, and that he unintentionally caused it to increase, he'll try to fight the Unversed himself, but Mirabel and Luisa will try to help him regardless, which leads to Alma noticing the Keyblade.
- The Guest Party Member at the Encanto is Mirabel during peaceful travel and exploration. But whenever a battle encounter starts up, you hear Dolores call for Luisa, who tags in to fight.
- He'll meet up with Antonio, and positively compare him to a younger Roxas.
- He'll meet up with Camilo, and positively compare him to Axel.
- When someone tells Sora why nobody talks about Bruno, he'll be Disappointed by the Motive. He'll rather quickly point out that even if Bruno had bad intentions when he told Pepa about the chance of rain, he remembers that her gift lets her control the weather, which only sped up the process. He'll also point out how ridiculous it is to shun someone (especially someone from your family), all because they made predictions that the people didn't like. Mirabel, especially after they meet Bruno, will agree with him in some way.
- When Mirabel and Sora meet up with Bruno, Bruno will tell him that in some way, Alma has seen the Keyblade before and predicts that she'll try to confront Sora about it. Sora will also open up a bit about his past, and how his friends became his family, especially Riku, Donald & Goofy, telling Mirabel that friends can also be family.
- Alma, after noticing Sora holding the Keyblade, will try to understand how it works so she can use it to protect the Encanto. Sora, who has been rather iffy around her, and most likely still feeling sour from what happened to Tron during the Mark of Mastery test, will refuse.
- After Mirabel and Alma argue with each other, this time most likely more intense, this will all ultimately culminate into the Casita itself not falling apart, but becoming a massive Unversed that threatens the Encanto.
- After Sora & the Madrigals defeat the Unversed Casita, after the family makes up, Alma will reveal why she was so interested in the Keyblade Sora held; because Pedro had been a Keyblade wielder prior to his death.
- This is AWESOME. It also works really well.
- Maybe when the magic comes back, Mirabel might finally get a gift of her own...in the form of Pedro's Keyblade.
- If it serves as a sequel like the Pixar worlds in 3, this will occur:
- Unversed are starting to appear due to negative emotions manifesting again.
- Several members of the family will fear that they aren't supporting each other the way they promised to by the end of the movie and sequester themselves in their room. This will lead to Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Mirabel navigating various worlds-within-worlds to bring them back to the Casita.
- When everyone finally reunites, the family will have realize that some tension will never go away and their attempt to be a new kind of perfect is just as counterproductive as how things were before. After all, everyone has a little bit of negativity and darkness within them - the important thing is remembering the positive things and light around yourself that can come from a family helping each other. This in turn will give Sora a boost to help fight the final boss.
- After everything is fixed, Casita itself will reveal the Keyhole to Sora now that he's proven he can protect the Encanto just as well as the Madrigals.
- Either way, this could serve as a good opportunity for Vanitas to return.
- Ira will appear and refuse to believe that the community is as wonderful as it appears and claim that it will fall just like Daybreak Town. Not only will this reinforce the darkness, but it'll reflect both his drive to root out the traitor back during Back Cover, but also could play into any guilt he has about being unable to stop the fall.
- The Family Madrigal: Diegetic/Adaptation. Mirabel is heard singing a variation of it with altered lyrics during her climb up Bruno’s tower, and during the song itself we see some of the townspeople providing the background music (and Casita in the beginning provides the accompanying beats), but the town kids’s lines and the townsfolk’s line about Bruno don’t seem scripted.
- Waiting on a Miracle: All in their heads. Other than the end, this number uses fantasy sequences a lot.
- Surface Pressure: All in their heads with the numerous fantasy sequences but Mirabel being able to interact with them makes it a bit fuzzy. Potentially Diegetic from the external interactions.
- We Don’t Talk About Bruno: All in their heads, Diegetic AND Adaptation. Flashback sequences are used, but Mirabel still interacts with the fantasy surroundings. Dolores’s and Camilo’s verses also feel like it can be a normal conversation.
- What Else Can I Do: Same as Surface Pressure. Fantasy sequences that a non-singer interacts with often.
- Dos Oruguitas: This one seems to be a flashback, with the singer being out of universe. No hypothesis.
- All of You: Has to be Adaptation. Many lines are like a conversation or comments on others, and the whole musical sequence takes place as a time-lapse over a series of months.
- Both stories feature Caribbean Latinx and Afro-Latinx families that practice magic and gain specific gifts when coming of age. Colombia has a coast with the Caribbean sea and other Bruja families in the books come from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic.
- If their magic isn't some form of brujería, the Land of the Adas could be close enough to the Encanto to share power.
- The differences how their Gifts work versus how magic works at Hogwarts boils down to cultural differences.
- Mirabel is a Squib.
- Hogawarts is implied to be alive, similar to the Madrigals’ casita.
Clearly the International Statute of Secrecy doesn't exist among the Encanto, to the bewilderment of other Wizarding community.
- I mean, the Wizarding World does seem stuck in the past. "International" to witches and wizards in Britain probably means Europe, North America, and Japan. A family in rural Colombia probably doesn't register on their radar.
- The miracle is fueled by love (initially Pedro's love for his family, and subsequently their love for each other), which is exactly how the magic of the Light works.
- Calling could either be Grace or Mender, depending on whether you see Mirabel's actions as being more about bringing out the best in her family or healing dysfunctional relationships.
- It's a general rule in the Chronicles of Darkness that someone with a major supernatural template (such as a Princess) can't recieve other supernatural powers, which might explain why Mirabel didn't recieve a Gift.