By: Phoenix Rivera
Encanto is a whimsical, colorful animated movie produced by Yvett Merino and Clark Spencer and directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard. The plot line is based around 15-year-old Mirabel Madrigal. Her family, The Madrigals, are a family with many “gifts” that aid around the rural village in early 20th century Colombia. The Madrigal’s magic starts to fade, and gift-less Mirabel is determined to find out what is happening to their magic. Encanto as film is pure magic, not only for its story, but its portrayal of diverse cultures that relates to the unique portrayal of its themes.
The attention to detail in the film is outstanding—from the visuals to the colorful characters. The wildlife of the setting in Columbia, which it is best known for. it’s home to 10% of the world’s biodiversity animals like capybaras, boa constrictors, and toucans—a point touched on by the character of Antonio, the smallest Madrigal. The lineup of characters does not stop there. Encanto also includes a wide range of cultural characters, from Afro-Colombians like Felix Madrigal to lighter tone Latinas, like Pepá Madrigal.
Another beautiful element of Encanto is its portrayal of food. The staple Colombian coffee was showcased in multiple scenes, such as breakfast during Mirabel’s “La Familia Madrigal” song. Another classic dish on display is Ajiaco — Colombian Chicken and Potato soup. My favorite represented foods are arepa; cornmeal cakes that have been a part of the culture for generations. They can be customized to fit your snacking needs like Venezuelan arepas that are served with lime, mayonnaise, chicken, and cilantro.
The main strength of the theme was light shone on generational trauma as they start to suspect their magical bond is breaking. The setting is lightly implied to be around the Thousand Day’s War, which explains in everyone in the village, including the characters Pedro, Alma, and their newborn triplets (who we later find out are young abuelo and abuela), flee from the oppressive government. When chased into the jungle by the offenders, Pedro sacrifices his life for the village. This presumably is what creates magic that creates a large mountain and palm trees to shield everyone’s location from harm’s way. Immediately after seeing her husband die, Alma is thrown into a matriarchal position as not only the leader of the town, but the head of her family. She had to raise three children by herself, and not only was she doing this alone, but the children were also gifted superpowers through a candle! But now that we have established Abuela’s trauma, let’s break down the trauma she caused, starting with the triplets.
Let’s start with the eldest of the triplets, Julieta, or “the healer”. Her power is a representation of her trauma. Since she was the oldest, she got her powers first, them being able to heal anyone through meals. Being the eldest of the family means she has a lot of responsibility and due to Alma’s constant stress of helping with the village, when Julieta got her healer powers, it was an obligation for her to use them to aid the village, constantly helping everyone, which she passed to her kids, but I will explain that later. Next is Pepa. Pepa being the middle child is kind of ironic. Pepa’s gift is to control the weather with her emotions. The middle child usually gets neglected, their feelings feeling unheard, and their presence feeling unseen, so when she feels her emotions, instead of letting them out, Alma shuns her, yelling at her to “rid of the cloud” (which is one of the most common emotion-induced weather types we’ve seen in the movie.) In doing so, Alma forces her child to believe the idea that everything needs to be perfect for her to be seen. Last but not least, we have Bruno. Can we just talk about how sad this poor man’s story is? Because of his power to see the unforeseen future, he was excluded from everyone in town after earning a horrific reputation. When Bruno seen Mirabel’s prophecy, he purposefully left EVERYTHING he loved to protect his niece from being treated like him. Even though everyone ostracized him from the family, he still loves them, so he stayed in the walls of Casita, to watch his beloved familia from afar. Jeez.
Of course, the three triplets had to “keep the miracle burning”, so they ended up having kids. Magical kids. Let’s start with Pepa’s side of the family, a personal favorite. The eldest of Pepa’s children is Dolores. Dolores has the power of super hearing. Now as a child, I think almost everyone has revealed some interesting things, so imagine hearing almost every secret in a mile’s radius. As shown in the movie, Dolores has a terrible habit of not keeping a secret, so when she was a child, she was most likely told to hush by her mother and keep quiet, resulting in her having quiet mannerisms and nervous squeaks (that are also deeply rooted in her indigenous Colombian ancestry). She is also scared to disappoint abuela’s high standards of the family, so she only uses her power to help abuela or when asked of her. The second eldest child is Camilo, is the shapeshifter.
Camilo is kinda of like a normal teenager with his constant angst and mocking, but he still has the iconic Madrigal stamp of trauma. He feels the need to be the comic relief, to take the weight off everyone’s shoulders, even though he is only 15. He feels the need to make everyone smile and live up to Abuela’s standards, only to put off the fact he’s just a normal teen trying to figure himself out. Finally, we come to the smallest and youngest out of all the Madrigals and one of my favorite characters, Antonio Madrigal. He is the smallest, which is unfortunate because he’s holding so much responsibility and weight on his shoulders. Even though he’s only 5, he’s stuck in the pattern of the highest standard, receiving your Madrigal gift. He was worried he’d end up disappointing his family, which puts a lot of strain on him. When he got his gift, he was relieved of that pressure (hint, hint).
Let’s talk about the traumatic trio. Isabela, Luisa, and the one and only Mirabel Madrigal. Starting with the eldest, Señorita Perfecta Isabela. Isabela has a lot of issues, including desperately trying to uphold her perfect record and reputation. Abuela had painted this perfect, wonderful mask for Isabella, and Since she was trying to do what’s best for her family, and the “Encanto”, she accepted her pretty picture and pushed her personal feelings down to live up to what abuela wanted her to be even to the extent of marrying a man she doesn’t want to.
Next, we have the crutch of the family, Luisa. Luisa isn’t even the eldest of her side of the family, but because of the powers of her gift, she became the one everyone looked up to and relied on. She does daily chores for the village, lifts the weight of churches, houses, and even family burdens. She even has a song about it! Surface Pressure explains it all.
Finally, we have Mirabel Madrigal. The youngest black sheep in the family because she has no gift. She-like Bruno-was shunned and pushed away from the family. She constantly felt outshined and lived in the other shadow. She felt obligated to find a way to prove to her family, her Abuela, and to herself that she was truly apart from La Familia Madrigal. She ended up being the breaker of years of generational trauma and helped rebuild the foundation of the family, literally. She reunited Bruno together with his family and showed everyone that they are more than just their gift, and they finally embrace each other in a new light.
