YMMV / Encanto

YMMV tropes for the Encanto

The following have their own pages:

• Alternative Character Interpretation
• Fanon
• Memetic Mutation

Other examples:

A-F

• Adorkable:
  • Despite being a 50-year-old man who has lived with rats for the past ten years, many people have found Bruno's awkwardness and klutziness combined with his sympathetic backstory endearing, and his physical appearance is easy on the eyes as well. Being voiced by John Leguizamo just adds to the charm. It'd be easier to count the posts and/or comments on the internet that don't call him cute or adorable in some way.
  • Mirabel is a cute, bubbly, and sweet-natured teenage girl who really wants to prove herself to her family but has her occasional clumsy and awkward moments. Even the creators described her as "weird and quirky", which is pretty common for these types of characters. This is helped by her Quirky Curls, Youthful Freckles, and huge round glasses.
  • For how temperamental and petty she can be at first glance, Isabela can be surprisingly cheerful and childish when she begins to express her true self, such as having fun dyeing her dress in various colors while joking around with Mirabel or her enthusiasm for planting some cactus she is working on the reconstruction of the house with her sisters.
  • Pedro's shy but kind attitude in his flashbacks, doting father moments, and playful joking with Alma (who acts coldly without his company and influence in the present) make him an adorable guy.
• Applicability:
  • Mirabel's lack of a gift can be seen as an allegory for disability, as she doesn't have the same abilities as the rest of her family and as a result feels unaccepted by and excluded from her family, even though this is unintentional on the Madrigals' part. Indeed, many disabled viewers found that Mirabel's struggle with self-worth and acceptance resonated strongly with their own experiences. In particular, her having to sleep in the nursery could be an allegory for the infantilization of disabled people.
  • Bruno, being shy, reserved and aware that many see him as the source of the bad luck they experience, resonates with those who have ADHD or are autistic who feel shunned for a misunderstood part of who they are that they cannot change.
    • His various rituals and superstitious behavior ("knock-knock-knock-knock, knock on wood", etc) as well as anxiety about his visions resonates with a lot of viewers who have OCD. Though the visions are an interesting inversion of some experiences of OCD: in real life, sufferers can be scared that their intrusive thoughts ("visions") will come true unless they do specific rituals to prevent it; while in Bruno's case everyone else sees his visions as inevitable and blame him for them while Bruno himself knows the visions might change depending on one's choices. Bruno being blamed by everyone for the things he foresees might be one of an OCD sufferer's worst nightmares.
  • Isabela's character arc can also potentially apply to the experiences of neurodivergent people, particular autism. Isabela actively tries to project an image of perfection, similar to how many autistic people feel the need to "mask" their atypical traits to protect themselves, but she unintentionally instead comes across at best as insensitive and at worst as mean. "What Else Can I Do" reveals that Isabela doesn't particularly care for conventionally beautiful plants like roses, preferring more bizarre plants like cacti and strangler figs, which is relatable for autistic viewers with more "unusual" special interests. Further adding onto this is that Isabela is pressured into making conventionally beautiful plants, which is relatable in that autistic people are often pressured into developing a special interest in something "exploitable", or how some autistic people try to please everyone.
  • Many people relate to Luisa's song "Surface Pressure", where the weight of expectations overburdens them. Notably, some "male cover" variants don't replace "sister" with "brother", but "father". The burden placed on providers to never fail causes the same strain Luisa feels in the movie.
  • The film can also be seen an allegory for "gifted" programs in school. Mirabel feels inferior to her family because she doesn't have a gift, mirroring how students who don't qualify for gifted programs may feel inferior and excluded. Meanwhile, Luisa and Isabela struggle to live up to the high expectations given to them because of their powers, mirroring how students who are considered "gifted" often have heavy feelings of imposter syndrome and don't match their intellectual maturity with emotional maturity.
  • This is to say nothing of the familial conflict at the heart of the movie. Many people can relate to the issues of generational conflict seen between Alma and Mirabel, particularly how Alma's trauma causes her to (unintentionally) burden her children and grandchildren, something many families can relate to, not to mention The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry between Isabela and Mirabel born from neither understanding the problems the others deal with and the resentment born from it. At least some viewers have commented that the film made them reevaluate their own family dynamics and come to see their family members under a more empathetic light after the film.
• Award Snub:
  • "We Don't Talk About Bruno" was hands down the most beloved and praised song in the whole film when it first came out, to the point that fans were nothing but shocked about Disney not even submitting it for Best Original Song and instead going with "Dos Oruguitas" as what many deemed a much safer choice.
  • "Dos Oruguitas" still got a lot of support in the category though thanks to both its place as a major emotional crux in the film and also to many wanting to see Lin-Manuel Miranda get his Oscar and in turn, get his EGOT as well. Before the awards, there was heavy debate as to whether or not it would take the award over the titular song from No Time to Die. While it ultimately didn't best "No Time to Die", the results were still pretty widely accepted though.
• Awesome Art: Everything about Encanto, from its vividly beautiful range of colors to its fantastic scenery to its unique character designs to the jaw-dropping displays in its songs (Especially in "What Else Can I Do?"), makes it among Disney's most visually-spectacular films to date!
• Awesome Ego: Camilo Madrigal may be the family member with the least plot impact, but thanks to his racy personality and natural love of being the center of attention, he quickly became one of the most popular and well-remembered characters from the film among fans.
• Base-Breaking Character: Abuela Alma. Some fans hate her for being an abusive and selfish Control Freak who was too Easily Forgiven while some fans thought that she had good intentions and was just trying to keep the family together. The Broken Base on if she deserves forgiveness or not didn't help matters.
• Broken Base: Ever since the day the film was released, the loudest and most persistent argument among fans is whether or not Abuela did enough to deserve forgiveness for her actions. Some feel as if her remorse was genuine and that her traumatic backstory explains enough of her struggle to make her sympathetic, in addition to her seemingly applying what she learned by the film’s end. Others say that she should have received more appropriate and harsh retribution from the rest of the Madrigals and see her quick forgiveness as not only turning her to a Karma Houdini, but also gives off an unfortunate Accidental Aesop that mental and emotional abusers should be always forgiven if and because they are family, and/or if they endured trauma themselves.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • After Mirabel manages to bond with Isabela for the first time in the movie (and possibly her entire life), Alma treats their Character Development as an unsightly disturbance of the status quo and is quick to blame Mirabel for everything bad that has been happening. Rather than sitting there and taking it, Mirabel throws Alma's own toxic behavior back in her face. Unfortunately, as satisfying as it is to see Mirabel finally stand up for herself and the family, the timing is awful as the ensuing argument is the straw that breaks the camel's back and dooms the Casita.
  • The moment during "Dos Oruguitas" when the miracle is born and the candle causes a massive shockwave to throw back the four horsemen who had set fire to her home town and whom Alma witnessed murdering her husband, Pedro.
• Crack Ship:
  • Isabela is often shipped with a background character named Lili.
  • Osvaldo and the Bald Priest have been pretty popular on the Twitter side of the fandom.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Everything that happens during the proposal dinner, especially to poor Mariano, which would be cringeworthy if it weren't so over the top. From Camilo getting stuck with Fish Eyes, to Felix spit-taking over Mariano’s caldo, to a bevy of horrified Jaw Drops. The cherry on top is the entire town bursting in to tell them congratulations the moment the would-be groom has just gotten punched in the face by the would-be bride. Later he gets punched a second time and is reduced to tears.
  • Camilo is doing his best to help his mother relax by serving her tea when she accidentally electrocutes him with a loose lightning bolt. He involuntarily shifts into his family members from shock and slams his butt against a piece of furniture (scalding himself with spilled tea in the process), then immediately shapeshifts into the accident-prone Agustín while yelping in pain. Poor Pepa can only look in horror at what she just did to her own son.
• Crossover Ship:
  • Isabela/Elsa is beginning to develop a fanbase, mostly due to both being commonly believed to be LGBT+ and their Signature Songs being I Want Songs about being free to do what they want and the expectations of their family.
  • As Luisa is a large woman with super strength, she's often paired with men who are large of stature and also have great strength such as Luisa/Ralph, Luisa/Obelix or Luisa/Maui.
  • Mirabel/Quasimodo due to their being essentially outcasts that don't fit in and suffering emotional abuse from their relative. Claude Frollo towards Quasimodo, and Abuela towards Mirabel.
  • Mirabel/Merida considering that both female protagonists have siblings, lack a male love interest, and have large expectations they must live up to as well as dealing with a domineering emotionally abusive perfectionist female relative. Like Queen Elinor is towards Merida and Alma is towards Mirabel.
  • Camilo/Ethan Clade mainly because they are energetic teen boys with Hidden Depths, members of multi-Generational Trauma families, and are popular with the LGBT Fanbase.
  • Camilo/Alberto has have fans thanks to their yellow Color Motif, being green eyed shapeshifters and Friend to All Children, and having charismatic personalities that draws people towards them.
• Dry Docking:
  • Bruno. There are possibly hundreds of pieces of fanart and fanfics of people shipping their self-inserts and OCs with him.
  • To a far lesser extent, Luisa and Isabela get this as well.
  • Especially among Latin American fans Camilo is incredibly popular, with many fanfics on both Wattpad and TikTok videos with fans shipping themselves along with him.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Pepa’s side of the family (Pepa and her husband Félix, and their children Dolores, Camilo, and Antonio) are popular with fans despite their limited screen time compared to the rest of the Madrigal family, attracting fan art and headcanons either individually or as a group. This is helped by their distinctive designs and personalities, and the family relationships between them. It also helps that the group (besides Félix) all have interesting powers to explore; Pepa’s Weather Manipulation tied to her emotions, Dolores’ Super-Hearing, Camilo’s Humanshifting, and Antonio’s animal communication.
  • Of the Madrigal family, Camilo himself has possibly the least amount of screentime, but he quickly became one of the film's favorite characters and has gained a huge number of fans thanks to being a joker with a Heart of Gold, a Pretty Boy, and his Shapeshifting gift; the very last also made him popular with the LGBT Fanbase. It also doesn't hurt that actor Rhenzy Feliz, not known for his musical talent, does his own singing and shines in "We Don't Talk About Bruno." He was popular enough that several people consider him to be a wasted character and even wish to have him be given A Day in the Limelight short.
  • Bruno's rats don't even have names and are on the screen less than 2 minutes, but they are by far the most popular animals in the film. Thanks to their Undying Loyalty to Bruno, their cute design and the funny joke of the novelas that is a common theme in fanfics.
  • Outside of the family, Señora Pezmuerto is quite well liked, and has garnered a decent bit of fan art for someone who constitutes a bit character.
  • Juancho, the boy who loves coffee, also has his fair share of fans. Lin-Manuel Miranda even said on Twitter that the boy "is [[his]] everything".
  • Mariano has developed quite the fan club, mainly due to the fact that Dolores' super-hearing confirms that he is a genuine Nice Guy and she will be able to temper his In Love with Love tendencies since she firmly tells him to "slow down" after his instant marriage proposal.
  • A particular background character, a dark-skinned woman with a yellow dress named Lili is a fan-favorite due to her design. She often gets shipped with Isabela.
• Epileptic Trees: At Mirabel's ceremony, she wipes her hands on her dress after touching the candle. Some fans theorize that this is the sole reason why she didn't get a gift, because she accidentally rubbed the magic off. This has been completely debunked by Jared Bush who said it was simply a character beat put in by the animators to reflect the actions of a nervous 5-year-old.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: While much happier than most examples, as the family as a whole is much better off at the end than they were at the beginning, some fans think that the Madrigals regaining their magic gifts isn't as good as it's presented in the movie. Mainly for characters like Pepa and Dolores, whose issues with their powers came largely from the gifts themselves rather than how the people around them treated them.
• Estrogen Brigade: Watching Camilo, it's not hard to see why he's has attracted a hurricane of fangirls, and even fanboys, despite having such a limited presence. Apart from having a surprisingly good singing voice, he's a slender teenage boy, with full cheeks, a cocky grin, mischievous green eyes, bouncy curly hair, and a golden complexion that mixes the contrasting skin tones of both his parents.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Rat Man" or some variation thereof is a common nickname given to Bruno by some fans. In an affectionate way, of course. Not related to Doug Rattmann ("Rat Man") from the Portal series, another bearded man hiding within the walls of a giant facility.
  • "Fish Lady" or "Dead Fish Lady" for Señora Pezmuerto thanks to her rather memorable part in "We Don't Talk Bruno" where she says that Bruno predicted that her fish would die and that it did. (Her surname literally means "Dead Fish".)
  • Before Word of God revealed that her name was Lili, a background character with dark skin and a yellow dress was nicknamed 'Oshian Lady' after the colors of the oshian flag.^note "Oshian" is a relatively recent umbrella term for black sapphics
  • Pepa, Bruno and Julieta, who are usually introduced in that order, are commonly referred to as simply PB&J or the PB&J triplets.
• Fandom Rivalry: Mainly due to the awarding of the Oscars there was some dispute between those who wanted Encanto to win and those who wanted The Mitchells vs. the Machines to win.
• Fandom-Specific Plot:
  • There has been a curious trend of AU fanfics where Bruno is Mirabel's parent instead of Julieta and Agustín. Occasionally, some of the other children are Bruno's kids as well.
  • Another popular plot are AUs where Bruno becomes an antagonist to Mirabel's protagonist, via wanting to snuff the candle/miracle out. The reasons why he wants to do so ^note to get back at his family and Encanto at large for turning him into the Black Sheep and The Scapegoat, to "free" his family from what he views as a "curse," or to protect Mirabel by intentionally making himself into a scapegoat for Casita's destruction being the three most popular, and whether or not he's a Well-Intentioned Extremist or an outright villain varies heavily on the writer.
  • Similarly, Mirabel getting the Adaptational Villainy treatment is also a popular Alternate Universe idea for fan works. They often involve her getting fed up with how her family treats her and seeking to end The Miracle as retribution.
  • Another popular plot is Bruno leaving the family after his vision about Mirabel and Casita to protect her as he does in canon... except he takes Mirabel with him. This either leads to Mirabel living in the walls with him or them outright leaving the Encanto and her becoming an example of Girl in the Tower. Again, this is popular among those who subscribe to the "Papa Bruno" AU, and this plot tends to portray him as a Papa Wolf and a Deadpan Snarker. Typical for this plot is that they're reunited with the rest of the family after one of the other kids (commonly Isabela or Camilo) go searching for one or both of them. In these types of stories, expect to see Dolores keep her role as a Secret Secret-Keeper.
  • One common pre-movie plot that's Played for Laughs by the fanbase involves Dolores listening in on Bruno's rat theater and having genuine reactions to the plot points that the rest of the family notice, and that she has to explain away.
  • Mirabel succeeding Alma as head of the family, often (but not necessarily) related to the fan theory she has no gift because the miracle intended this role for her.
  • Other family members joining Mirabel in calling out Alma during the climax is beginning to become popular. Isabela is the most common (mostly because she had just been bonding with Mirabel), but there are stories with the others as well.
  • Quite a few post movie fanfics run with the idea that Isabela becomes something a rebel or prankster, generally because she's trying to live the childhood she never got to fully experience.
  • More than a few fans have speculated what could have happened if Pedro didn't die trying to save his family.
  • As an alternative to the "Bruno adopts Mirabel" plot, some fanfics have Pepa adopt Mirabel instead and take her into her and Felix's side of the family, usually after Alma decides to disown her.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • Similar to the My Hero Academia fandom, a favorite plot fans tend to make is "what if Mirabel actually got her gift and room at the gift ceremony" instead of being the odd one out. Some of these stories also explore what it'd be like if another Madrigal was the giftless one instead, sometimes even giving Mirabel that character's gift.
  • The Madrigal family's rooms. They're all suited to their power, and if Antonio's room could manifest as an entire jungle, then it's safe to assume they can be anything. What would the rooms for all the other family members be like? And did Casita give Alma and Mirabel new rooms after the end of the movie?
  • Bruno's reintegration into the family, and back into society at large, has been the basis for many fanfics.
  • The Faceless Horsemen who murdered Pedro in the flashback. Who were they? Why did they attack Alma's original home? Did they kill more people besides Pedro? What happened to them after the miracle is born? Could any of them or their descendants end up meeting the Madrigal family?
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: A commonly expressed missed opportunity fans lament over is how the Hercules briefly featured in "Surface Pressure" should have resembled Disney's Hercules. In truth, this was considered, but the creators didn't have the funds to create a new model for such a short visual joke and would have had to remove one of the featured animals to accomplish this.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Some fans jokingly invoke this trope in order to ship Bruno with Señora Pezmuerto.
• Franchise Original Sin: This was the first Disney animated film to use the idea of Generational Trauma as the central conflict while avoiding a major villainous presence, and, while the following films that used it (Turning Red and Strange World) would gain heavy flak, this movie would avoid it. However, unlike those two films, the movie came after a wave of films that had very unpopular Twist Villains, so having a different conflict was a breath of fresh air, whereas the other two films were accused of ripping off this one via using the exact same style of conflict, which is a major reason that the idea of using Twist Villains would fall out of favor. Furthermore, the movie goes into how said trauma has affected pretty much everyone in the family, while other films to use it would usually only focus on the main character, their parent and maybe a grandparent as well, making said conflict feel much more watered down.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Any fan of Coco will most likely appreciate this movie due to having a few similar plot points; both stories feature broken families as the stars, the Black Sheep saving the day, an opposing Abuela as the stubborn matriarch, and an estranged relative who joins the family again in the climax.
  • Fans of The Magnus Archives were quick to jump onto the movie as soon as Bruno was introduced, seeing as the character bears a striking resemblance to common fan interpretations of Jonathan Sims. The fact that the podcast ended ambiguously with the idea of Jon and Martin being transported to a new world further intensified interest.
  • An odd example that's crossed with Fandom Rivalry, there's an overlap between fans of this film and both detractors and fans of Miraculous Ladybug. This came about as a response to the series' controversial creator criticizing the film, leading to both detractors of the show and fans that dislike him jumping to the movie's defense.
  • Fans of Encanto tend to also be fans of Luca, mostly because of the "Silenzio, Bruno!" running gag. It's common to see fanart of Bruno interacting with Alberto.
  • There is overlap between fans of this film and fans of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Both works center around families whose members all possess unique supernatural abilities, with the Madrigal family being described as the Colombian counterpart of the Joestars, particularly Johnny Joestar and his descendants from the new continuity. It helps that some of the gifts possessed by the Madrigals are uncannily similar to some of the Stand abilities seen in the Jojo series, namely Julieta Madrigal and Tonio Trussardi's ability to heal people with their cooking◊, and Pepa Madrigal and Weather Report's control over the weather.
  • There has also been fanart depicting Mirabel with Izuku Midoriya due to both characters both wanting powers (a Gift and a Quirk respectively) to fit in, while being surrounded by people who do have those powers and feeling outcast for not being special.
  • Turning Red fans also like to include Mei in the mix. The relation between the two grew stronger when it was revealed that one of the themes was generational trauma, with Mei Lee calling out her mom for her high expectations and emotionally supporting her after learning of her past trauma, just like Mirabel did with Abuela Alma.

G-P

• Genius Bonus: From 1899 to 1902, Colombia suffered a civil war known as the Thousand Days' War. The war was caused by numerous political ideologies warring against the governing structure of the country for varying reasons, and caused over a hundred thousand deaths. Based on the timing of the war historically and its infamously high death toll, there is significant possibility that Pedro was murdered by a member of one of the various political parties in a desperate effort to buy his wife and children time to escape. Knowing this detail makes an already heart-wrenching scene even more devastating.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Filipino audiences love the movie given that they can relate to the concept of family and generational trauma shown by the Madrigals. It helps that when Disney+ became available in the Philippines, Tagalog translations of the movie's songs were released which many Filipino music fans enjoyed. There's also a meme of local commercials edited with scenes from the movie (with the audio from those commercials) showing Luisa, Isabela, Abuela Alma and even Juancho (The coffee addicted kid) getting one!
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • It was revealed a few months after the film's release that Stephanie Beatriz went into labor while recording "Waiting For a Miracle" and didn't tell anyone so she could finish the song. Many fans noted the touching coincidence of the song's title and the fact that her first child was born mere hours later.
  • Because "Dos Oruguitas" (sung by Sebastián Yatra) was heard during the flashbacks with Pedro, many viewers believe that if Pedro had spoken, it would've been perfect for Yatra to voice him, and Jared Bush apparently agrees.
• He Really Can Act: Actor Rhenzy Feliz was originally not well-known for his musical talent and had only been known for his lead role in the television series Runaways. However, during the song "We Don't Talk About Bruno", he does an exceptional job as Camilo, singing what are some of the most iconic lines from the film in just a few seconds on screen.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • "We Don't Talk About Bruno" was already funny for being an entire song about someone they apparently don't talk about, ever — now that Bruno's proven to be a major Ensemble Dark Horse, even the fans are talking about him more than anyone else.
  • "Surface Pressure" has Luisa sing how the pressure she faces goes "tick, tick, tick 'til it's ready to blow," as in an explosion. The Lin-Manuel Miranda-directed film adaptation of the very similarly-named tick, tick... BOOM! was released within a few days of Encanto, making the line appear as an unintentional case of Production Foreshadowing.
• Incest Yay Shipping: Because the film focuses mainly on the Madrigal family with a limited glimpse of the villagers, a segment of the fandom ships the Madrigals with each other, which is often collected under the tag "Madrigalcest". Bruno's rat telenova, with its Surprise Incest story where an amnesiac aunt falls in love with her nephew, is something the aforementioned shippers have gotten a lot of mileage from, making jokes about it and working it into their own fan-fics.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: One of the main reasons Alma has quickly become a Base-Breaking Character and a Ron the Death Eater is because she reminds viewers so much of their own similar strict neglectful relatives with Control Freak tendencies, putting not only unrealistic pressures on her family for decades, but she also cherished their gifts over their well-being and treats as The Unfavorites those who mars her vision of perfection. Even though Alma gets her family's sympathy in the end, she doesn't very much from the audience. By contrast, the faceless Horsemen, despite being the closest thing the film has to an antagonist and being remorseless killers, don't nearly get as many hate due to being a One-Scene Wonder and being well, faceless and nondescript.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Isabela. She initially comes off as a self-centered jerk, being referred to as a "prima donna" and "señorita perfecta" by Mirabel, but it's later revealed she feels greatly pressured to be perfect, even being willing to marry a man she doesn't love to please her family. Her song is entirely about breaking free from their expectations and doing what makes her happy.
  • Abuela Madrigal, too, at first comes off as neglectful and could be considered toxic in her treatment of her family and the pressure she puts on them. Later on, once it's explained in detail how she raised her family from the ground up after losing her husband in a gruesome manner and fleeing her home, more people understand how her pain shaped her.
• LGBT Fanbase: Should be expected from anything associated with Disney:
  • Luisa has earned a lot of lady admirers due to her strength and muscular build. It's common to see pictures of her captioned with some variation of the "not to be a lesbian but" meme.
  • Camilo is also popular to interpret as genderfluid because he shapeshifts into women as easily as he does into men, and this does not present any problem in-universe but is considered wonderful.
  • Isabela’s situation resonates with many lesbians and asexual people. She feels pressured to be perfect and marry a man she doesn’t love for the good of the family and the community, but this is not true to her heart or who she really is.
  • Bruno’s situation is particularly touching; he is fifty, unmarried, and estranged from his family because of something about him he cannot control or turn off. He has massive self-worth issues because he feels he can never make his family proud.
  • Mirabel has a small rainbow with the colors of the bi pride flag embroidered on her dress, and a bisexual voice actress to boot.
  • Mariano's status as a muscular hunk with nice hair and sun-kissed skin has earned him a lot of bara fanworks.
  • "Waiting on a Miracle" resonates with many people who are aroace, as they have experience with something intangible that is expected to show up during a specific period of their life not showing up, waiting several years to make sure it's not simply showing up late and how mentally taxing the latter can be. The fact that the titular miracle is also something Mirabel eventually learns to be happy without after growing up in a social environment that acted as if its absence made her incomplete in some way adds to the similarities.
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • There's a lot of fans who believe Mirabel should have gotten a gift or try to speculate what her "true" gift is, despite the ultimate message of the movie being that she (as well as every other Madrigal) doesn't need a gift to be complete, and that being herself is enough for her family.
  • A small portion of fans believe that Mirabel and Bruno should have left the Madrigal family and never come back. Some even going as far as to say that Mirabel should have allowed the miracle to die out before doing so. This ignores the fact that Mirabel and Bruno love their family and that the Madrigals are clearly very loving if a bit dysfunctional due to the pressure put onto them as providers of the village as well as Alma's unresolved trauma that affected that family in the first place.
  • There's a portion of fans that praise Luisa for being a "strong female character" while dismissing Isabela as just another pretty face, missing the movie's point that neither of them fit neatly into their own stereotypes and suffer from the weight of the expectations placed upon them by those roles. In other words, they ironically do the exact same thing Abuela did before her Heel Realization.
• Misaimed Merchandising: Executives reportedly tried to push a different body type for Luisa as they believed her muscular build made her less relatable to the target audience, and the toy makers similarly assumed that she would be less popular than Isabela because of her canon body type. This led to them making few Luisa toys and many Isabela toys (under the assumption that the princess-like Isabela would be very popular among young girls). Luisa, however, ended up becoming the far more popular of Mirabel’s two sisters. This resulted in a high demand for her toys vs low stock. Likewise, the majority of Isabela toys have received no end of criticism for portraying her prior to her character development, thus presenting her as the "perfect, beautiful, golden child" and completely missing the point of her character arc.
• Moe:
  • Antonio. With his wide smile; shy, gentle nature; and love for animals, the boy has won the hearts of many.
  • Young Mirabel is so freaking adorable. Teenage Mirabel is too, between her kind heart, sheer earnestness in trying to be a good family member, and clumsy moments being very endearing.
  • Dolores, with her cute appearance, soft voice, sweet personality, ability to hear faraway things making her come across as concerned for others most of the time, and the little honking sound she makes whenever she's nervous.
  • Even Bruno tends to be seen as this among fans, despite being a scruffy middle aged man. This is mostly because of his Quirky Curls, big eyes, Endearingly Dorky mannerisms, genuinely caring and well-meaning personality, soft voice, heartbreaking backstory and circumstances and the fact that he doesn't really look like he's 50. Even the fact that he is so scruffy makes him endearing to some fans, in an Unkempt Beauty kind of way.
• Nightmare Retardant: Camilo's depiction of Bruno should seem scary due to his grey, haggard appearence and the Sickly Green Glow present, but the fact he's clearly just having fun dramatizing his apparent Evil Uncle and the sheer Awesome Music makes it more cool than unnerving.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Camilo is the only member of the family who is Out of Focus and has only a few scenes in the story, however he became one of the biggest Ensemble Dark Horses in Disney history, having millions of pieces of fan art based off of him and several YouTube videos that have gotten a lot of comments, with people either talking about how much they love him or how they wish he was in more of the movie.
  • Lili, one of the townspeople who has two cameos at the beginning and end of the movie, doesn't even speak but has gained her own group of fans thanks to her much more detailed and outstanding design than the rest of the Encanto residents.
• Play-Along Meme: Fans tend to play along with Bruno's characters Hernando and Jorge, pretending that the three of them are separate individuals, rather than just Bruno's blatant character-acting. For example, Pepa's verse in "We Don't Talk About Bruno" will be recontextualized as though Hernando framed Bruno for causing the hurricane, as Hernando is merely Bruno with his hood up, which is how Bruno appears at the wedding. Another example is fans being thankful that Jorge was there to save Bruno when the Casita was collapsing.

R-W

• Rainbow Lens: Like Merida and Elsa before her, Isabela has developed a few fanfics based on her surrounding the idea that she is a lesbian, or at the very least is not straight, through clues in the narrative. Like the former, it starts with her refusal to go along with entering a marriage with a man in spite of immense social pressure in doing so, a narrative that in-turn was enforced by those around her under the assumption that it's how it's supposed to work. For the latter, her "coming out" takes the form of a bombastic "I Am Becoming" Song where she embraces the applications of her abilities, ending with a fancy new wardrobe produced by those powers that reflect the new "her."
• Realism-Induced Horror:
  • The film's main conflict centers around a relatable situation, the influence that Abuela Alma holds over the family. As their matriarch, she constantly demands that they strive to give back to the community to show they are worthy of the miracle they were given. This pressure has an effect on her children and grandchildren, nearly all of whom struggle with various crippling insecurities. The fact that Alma herself is oblivious to the damage she is causing only makes this worse, and her ignorance can hit very close to home for viewers that grew up with similarly strict parental figures.
  • "Surface Pressure" has the realistic fear of someone trying to live up to family expectations but faltering, and fearing the ones they love will suffer as a result of their failure. They risk burnout and are afraid to ask for help, because it's simply not done or encouraged. Speaking up means they get shut down, and have to suffer alone. Luisa tries to lie to Mirabel that she is fine, and not to worry about the cracks because it's not Mirabel's responsibility. When Mirabel notes that Luisa's eye is twitching, Luisa starts belting about how she has to be the strong older sister because it's been her only purpose since she was a kid. She asks who she is if she can't be strong anymore, and how it would be her fault if her family got hurt from her failures. The song shows her constantly protecting Mirabel from harm, while struggling with her many duties and how they are accumulating over time. She's devastated after La Casita collapses because Mirabel disappears, and she's frantic when searching for her little sister, with her worst fears coming to life.
  • Arguably the scariest part of "We Don't Talk About Bruno" is the unchecked character assassination of a decent person, all based around petty misunderstandings and rumors, which happens all too often in Real Life.
  • The flashback showing armed horsemen burning towns and (implicitly) killing people hits very close to home for viewers who are aware of Colombia's history of violent political conflicts and civilian displacements.
• Refrain from Assuming: "Surface Pressure"'s title is never actually a phrase in the song's lyrics, despite the two words of the title appearing frequently within it. Because of this, a lot of people will misname the song as either "Under the Surface" or "No Pressure".
• Ron the Death Eater:
  • Many viewers complain that Abuela Alma was too Easily Forgiven for her treatment of her family, seeing her as a toxic, borderline abusive matriarch who would gladly dismiss Madrigal family members for falling short of her idealised standards. (The existence of the tags "Alma Madrigal Bashing" and "Bad Parent Alma Madrigal" on Archive of Our Own also bear mentioning.) These criticisms often ignore the fact that Alma's intense perfectionism has a tragic reasoning behind it and she doesn't pursue it out of malice or selfishness, instead genuinely believing that it's necessary to maintain her family and community's prosperity. The film itself also doesn't downplay the harm that her harsh treatment of the family is causing, and Alma sincerely regrets her actions when she is finally made aware of this.
  • Isabela receives this treatment due to her behavior in the first half of the movie, even after she and Mirabel bonded in "What Else Can I Do". While she could have owned up to her stand-offish behavior with an apology, when you see from her perspective and how she was molded into being the golden child by Alma, than her grumpy demeanor in the first half is understandable.
  • Some viewers interpret the whole Madrigal family (sans Bruno) as being disappointed in Mirabel's lack of Gift and treating her like a burden because of it. The only family members that actually act antagonistically towards Mirabel are Isabela and Alma. A lot of fanfictions, however, portrays Alma and the entire family as being outright hateful towards Mirabel and/or Bruno, sometimes to the point of kicking them out of the Casita.
  • One of the villagers, Osvaldo, has also been hit with this due to rubbing in Mirabel's lack of a gift and blaming Bruno for growing a gut rather than his own health habits. In canon, he's a decent fellow whose main flaw is his lack of tact.
  • There is a specific variation involving Julieta and Agustín. In some fanfics, instead of being turned into Abusive Parents, they become Useless Bystander Parents who stand by and let Abuela heap abuse on Mirabel without saying a word, leaving it to anther family member (usually Bruno, but sometimes Pepa or even one of the older children) to step up and defend her. In the most extreme cases, they won't even object to Abuela throwing Mirabel out of the Casita — for having no Gift, for having an undesirable Gift, or for any other reason. In the movie itself, Agustín tries to hide the glass vision to protect Mirabel for fear of Abuela's reaction to it, and both parents stand up to Abuela without hesitation when they think she is being too hard on Mirabel, but fanfic writers seem to forget that.
• Signature Song: Undisputedly "We Don't Talk About Bruno", which also doubles as the most popular scene in the movie. The song became a global sensation, the likes of which haven't been seen from Disney since "Let It Go". It became so popular, that it even surpassed the aforementioned song on the Billboard charts as it actually topped the charts there (which is something that hasn't happened to a Disney song since the pop version of "A Whole New World"), and even became the first original Disney song ever to top the UK charts.
• Spiritual Adaptation: A young girl living in a magical ancestral home who deals with family secrets that center around prophecies and seeing the future? Could be a Lighter and Softer South American adaptation of the Amber House book series.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • A common criticism about the movie is that it didn't properly utilize all of the Madrigal family members and how some of them have their own anxieties/stress over Alma's strictness over being perfect.
  • Camilo stands out in particular, as he has the least amount of screentime and lines. It doesn't help that one press release said he was trying to find an identity of his own, but this struggle never seems to be overtly presented in the final film. In particular, director Jared Bush himself admitted that he regretted not including Camilo more in the film once he realized his potential and revealed that if Encanto becomes a franchise he would like to see Camilo become an Ascended Extra in the future.
• Trailer Joke Decay: Several trailers and clips constantly repeat the scene where Antonio says that the rats told him everything while instructing his jaguar Parce not to eat the rats.
• Unpopular Popular Character: Bruno is a social outcast both within the village and with his own family (at least until the end of the movie) who do not even allow the mention of his name, but extremely popular within the fandom, with millions of people who adore him and even some fans stating that they would like to have him as a husband.
• Viewer Name Confusion:
  • When the name of the protagonist was revealed, many members of the Latino community on social media attempted to correct Disney over their use of the "Mirabel" name, a name not common in Colombia (or Latin America in general), against "Maribel", which not only rolls off the tongue much better for Spanish speakers, but it's also a common name. (although in the Portuguese-speaking Brazil Mirabel is the name... of a cookie◊ that became shorthand for "wafer")
  • Isabela's name is frequently misspelled as "Isabella" by English-speaking fans, because that's the more common spelling of the name in those cultures.
  • Luisa's name is also frequently misspelled by US fans as "Louisa", due to "Louis" being the English equivalent to the name "Luis".
  • Dolores' name is often misspelled as "Delores" by US fans.
• Watched It for the Representation: The film attracted a lot of attention for its focus on authentic Colombian culture, especially since Pepa and Félix's side of the family appears to be Afro-Colombian, a demographic that is not often represented in media. One video of a 2-year-old black boy getting excited that Antonio looked like him went viral as a symbol of why "representation matters."
• The Woobie:
  • Mirabel. She is the only child born into her family who did not receive a magical gift, which is not helped by Osvaldo the villager or Dolores bringing it up in front of her. The gifting ceremony is a big public event that takes place when they are five, so Mirabel as just a little girl is publicly humiliated and declared "un-special". Because she didn't receive a gift, she also didn't receive her own room and is stuck in the nursery even in her mid-teens. All this makes it especially easy to empathize with the protagonist.
  • Bruno. His own family believes his gift is an omen of bad luck, his community shunned him thanks to a well-intentioned but badly-worded joke, and he had internalised all these judgments to the point of taking himself out of the family to protect his youngest niece. But he loves his family so much he couldn't bring himself to actually leave, preferring to hide inside Casita in order to try to mend every new crack and to be able to at least see his family together and happy without him.
  • Luisa. Although the strongest of the family physically, she's a Bruiser with a Soft Center who wants to make her family proud. She's only 19 years old yet feels like she has the world literally on her shoulders. Her strong protective instinct towards her family makes her think she needs to always be strong for everyone else.
  • Antonio. He's a sweet, cute child who is extremely nervous and anxious about his gift giving ceremony because of everyone, especially Abuela Alma, hoping he receives a serviceable gift. He can feel the family's worry that Mirabel's lack of a gift might mean the miracle no longer grants powers, and he may not have one either. He was also noted to be an introvert who is not comfortable around other people but is later thrust into the spotlight when his ceremony arrives and desperately calls for Mirabel to accompany him to his door.
  • Dolores. She's (initially) in unrequited love with Mariano and was told when she was still a kid that the man she loved was prophesied to be engaged to someone else (that "someone else" being her own cousin Isabela), not to mention she can hear everything and everyone in town, whether she wants to or not.
  • Julieta and Agustín. While the two are a Happily Married couple and shown to be loving and supportive to their three daughters, the fact that the whole movie centers on their side of the family showers light on sad facts. Despite being good parents, Julieta's mother Alma scares them into a corner with her orders. Their oldest daughter is forced to be a model of perfection and marry a man she doesn't love to impress Alma and the town, their middle daughter faces constant pressure to be strong and help the community and starts losing her gift as the house cracks even more, and their youngest daughter, the only one in the family without any gift, is harshly treated like a scapegoat and misfit by Alma (and maybe the community, to some extent), has grown very distant from her oldest sister, and while they do their very best to support her, not even her parents exactly understand how she feels. There are also hints that Alma prefers Félix over Agustín, not approving of his marriage with Julieta.
  • Pepa. Her power is tied to her emotions: if she's happy, there's warm sunshine, but if she's sad or stressed, there's rain and thunderstorms. Pepa is constantly pressured to be happy and positive at all times by Alma, where the constant demand for perfection lead to Pepa developing rather problematic anxiety and stress problems, which only worsens the weather she creates. Fortunately for Pepa, she has a loving and supportive husband who is able to help ease her mind when needed.
  • Pedro. He was a loving and dedicated Nice Guy and Family Man who was Happily Married to Alma. However, he and his family were forced to flee from their home when invaders threatened them during a war. Then, he sacrificed himself to protect his family. He lost his life at such a young age and never got to see his family grow. And had he survived, Alma most likely would not have become so traumatized that she put way too much pressure on Pepa and her grandchildren and wouldn’t have helped drive Bruno into self-induced exile.
• Woolseyism: A minor example in the Dutch version of the opening song, "The Family Madrigal": Mirabel explains Tía Pepa's gift by saying she's prone to 'buien', a Dutch word which refers to both bad moods and bad weather.

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