Fridge Brilliance / Encanto

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• Color-Coding:
  • As detailed on the characters page, the Madrigal family is color-coded, with Abuela Alma wearing violet-red, Pepa's side wearing red, orange and yellow, Bruno wearing green, and Julieta's side wearing blue and violet. However, while Mirabel wears predominantly blue in her skirt, the embroidery on her clothes also includes yellow and pink, and her glasses are green. By the end of the movie, she manages to unite everybody into one big family. Her embroidery also includes the candle that represents the miracle on her skirt, and at the end of the movie, it's her touch that revitalizes Casita.
  • Isabela's crazy colored pollen in "What Else Can I Do" looks a lot like the dyed rice flour that is thrown with wild abandon during Holi, the spring festival of India. This may or may not have been intentional. There is a small but active Indian community in Colombia; India's had an embassy in Bogotá since 1959. There's a lot of sharing and friendly exchange between their cultures. It's not outside the realm of possibility that some ancestor of the Madrigals was one of these.
  • Isabela's original color scheme is violet/purple. Purple is a cool color and represents that she is on Julieta's side of the family, but its also right on the line between blue and red. Red/maroon is Alma's signature color, so this visually demonstrates how Isabela is the favorite in the family. Post-makeover, Isabela wears a bunch of colors, but primarily a much darker and cooler shade of indigo, showing that she's stepping beyond Alma's expectations for her and becoming her own person.
  • Also, Isabela's post-makeover dress has a plethora of different colors. While this makes sense because she's sick of symmetry and perfection, it also could be because Mirabel, the only other character with a rainbow scheme on their design, is the one who helped her to be her true self. Mirabel is decidedly "imperfect", and Isabela mirroring her scheme is another way to show that she's embracing imperfection and Mirabel.
  • Mirabel wears green glasses and Bruno's main color scheme is green. Alma is the only Madrigal member to wear all red. Green and red are both opposing colors.
    • Also, Mirabel wears blue to signify that she is on Julieta's side, but the specific shade of blue is teal (a shade of blue mixed with a bit of green), also signifying that she is tied symbolically to Bruno.
  • Mirabel's clothing shows her connection to each family member with a symbol of them on her dress. Except, for Pedro and Bruno. However, she does have an article of clothing that represents them: Like her grandfather, she wears a white shirt; like Bruno, she wears something green, specifically, her glasses which connects to how Bruno's eyes glow green when using his gift.
  • In contrast with the more navy blue to purple tones that her husband and daughters wear, Julieta stands out among her branch with a teal blue. Under certain lights and to certain people, teal can look greenish; between her and Pepa, Julieta is the one closest to Bruno and the only one who knew him who never badmouthed him, and it reflects on her signature color.
  • Bruno wears green, Julieta wears blue, and Pepa wears yellow. When green is separated into two hues, they are blue and yellow. When Bruno (green) disappears, the remaining triplets (blue and yellow) are "separated" i.e., not as close as they were when he was with them, and when he reappears, all of them are truly connected again.
  • Bruno's gift primarily seems to show future dangers and misfortunes, and using it makes his eyes glow a vivid green. His gift almost literally gives him Jade-Colored Glasses.
• Viewing the characters through Latino folk Catholicism explains a few things:
  • First, why their magic is tolerated in the first place. Just stating it's a "miracle" more or less cuts it, but even though Catholic communities in rural areas are more tolerant of rituals, usually via syncretism with earlier indigenous practices. The Madrigals are about as well-respected as they can be in a Christian setting.
  • Even then, Alma goes to the extra length to make it so her family is useful to the community. It's a lot easier to pacify potential social unrest if you reinforce your usefulness, after all. White Magic is both literally and figuratively the only time folk rituals and remedies are tolerated in rural Christian communities.
• Interpreting the gifts as a metaphor for talents, it becomes clear the magic's true purpose is to add an extra oomph to the Madrigals' passions. Luisa is strong because she wants to be of service, Isabela makes flowers because she's fascinated by plants, and Antonio speaks to animals because he loves animals. Now, what is Mirabel passionate about? Helping her loved ones be at their best as human beings. That's why she never got a gift. Mirabel was born with the necessary loving heart and bottomless empathy, so there was nothing the magic needed to emphasize.
• Agustín is shown to be accident prone and suffers from Amusing Injuries. Since Julieta is essentially the town medic with her ability to heal, it's likely they interacted often, and they fell in love with each other during his numerous treatments. This has been confirmed by Word of God.
• Since it premiered around Thanksgiving and released on streaming on Christmas Eve, it's appropriate that part of the movie's story is about being thankful for who you have and not just what you have. Alma had to learn this the hard way, as her grief of losing Pedro not only made her blind to the family she still had, but also left her too focused on preserving the miracle to remember what it was for: her loved ones.
  • Fittingly, the movie's lesson also has applicability to the holidays: your loved ones (Pedro) don't bestow gifts to you (the collective Madrigals) because you've been necessarily worthy or "earned" them, gifts are because they love you.
  • Mirabel's lack thereof of a gift also has the same applicability as well: just because the Miracle-slash-Pedro's spirit didn't give her a gift doesn't mean he doesn't love her. If anything, her lack of gift helped her see her that family was the greatest gift of all.
• Dolores does everything she can to be quiet due to her super hearing. During Antonio's ceremony while everyone else claps their hands, she "claps" with her fingertips.
• The song title "All of You" is doubly appropriate — it not only means "every part of you," but also "every one of you". Not only is Alma realizing everything besides a gift inside a person is what makes them important, but everyone — family and townsfolk included — coming together to help one another is what makes the magic work.
• At one point during the story, Alma worriedly declares that the Madrigals must "protect [their] home". On the surface, it seems straight-forward enough. However, at the same time, it reflects Alma's mindset: she has the wrong idea about how to go about protecting their "home". As they say, home is not a place, but a people. If that's so, then Alma was half-right: they have to protect their home — not their house, but their bond as a family.
• From the looks of Abuela in the flashback, she bears a striking resemblance to Isabela, which may be why she seems to favor her the most out of her grandchildren. She sees herself in Isabela.
• In the flashback where Mirabel didn't get a gift, Alma's candle flickered. On the surface, it seems to give off a bad omen that Mirabel will be responsible for the magic going away. But once one learns that the magic is going away because of the strain of Alma's perfectionism on the family, it makes more sense in hindsight. Alma previously had a good relationship with Mirabel before it was revealed she had no gift. Even then, the candle didn't flicker once as Mirabel's door disappeared, but only when Alma realized what was happening and that her own expectations weren't going to be met. This now strained the outlook she had on her own granddaughter, and by extent, their relationship.
• Dolores, who can hear even the smallest sounds, therefore knows a lot of secrets of others. This also means she is more aware than anyone that people can be very two-faced. On top of that, chances are she is thrown off by a lot of people, knowing aspects of their personality they'd rather keep in the dark. Mariano, on the other hand, is shown to be blunt and a fairly simple man. Chances are Dolores fell for him because he's one of the most genuine people in town.
  • And Dolores falls for a genuinely nice guy in part because she’s following in the footsteps of her mother, grandmother and aunt, all of whom married nice guys.
• Encanto can serve as a Spiritual Antithesis to Meet the Robinsons. The Robinsons are a clan of quirky inventors and the like who are eccentric and goofy, but they have no pretenses of being the perfect family. They don't treat inventing as a mandatory obligation for the greater good of mankind. On the contrary, they encourage the concept that it's okay to make mistakes, and they invent because it's what they love to do. Because of this, they are happier for it. Meanwhile, you have the Madrigals who come off as magical, mysterious, and wondrous. However, under the surface, this seemingly perfect family is strained by the high expectations they've had for years, never allowing themselves to make mistakes or do what they want with their gifts.
  • Adding onto their Foil, there's a certain Irony to how each family goes about perfection (or lack thereof). The Robinsons don't try to be perfect, but because of that, they're the perfect family for Lewis. Meanwhile, you have the Madrigals who strive for perfection, but become the least perfect family for it, as evidenced by how both Mirabel and the gifted Madrigals suffer for it.
• Similarly, despite being made different studios, Encanto could be seen as a Spiritual Successor to Coco, both being fantastical films centering on a minor protagonist from a large Hispanic Multi Generational Household, said protagonist having to struggle with not fitting the confirmities set by their families' respective matriarchs and eventually meets the disgraced relative of their family, both using music as a major component of the story, as well as featuring Generational Trauma as a major theme, but with many differences that set both films apart, and even contrast with each other:
  • Encanto is a traditional musical, while Coco is a story centered around music.
  • Encanto is a small-scale dramedy that doesn’t feature any antagonist, while Coco is a big-scale adventure featuring Ernesto de la Cruz as the antagonist.
  • Encanto is about Mirabel having to redeem her family, while Coco is about Miguel having to redeem a single person, Hector.
  • Encanto takes place in the world of the living, while Coco takes place in the world of the dead.
  • Encanto is about Mirabel wanting to fit in with her family's conformities, while Coco is about Miguel wanting to get out of his family's conformities.
  • One of the lessons from Encanto is about the importance of moving forward (as shown by Alma having to let go of the trauma caused by Pedro's death, which represented the root of the family's problems), while one of the lessons from Coco is about the importance of remembering the past (as shown by Coco remembering Hector, which ultimately saved him from Final Death).
  • Encanto has as protagonist a female teenager wearing glasses, while Coco has as protagonist a male preteen with healthy eyes.
  • Encanto is about a regular individual from a family of (literally) gifted people, while Coco is about a (figuratively) gifted individual from a family of regular people.
  • Encanto puts the spotlight on the entire Madrigal family, while Coco predomiently puts the spotlight on Miguel, Hector, Imelda, and Coco, with the rest of the relatives being pushed aside.
  • Encanto is set in Colombia (South America), while Coco is set in Mexico (North America).
  • On a meta-level, Encanto was produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, while Coco was produced by Pixar.
• Remember when rats and uncles used to be go-to villains and bad guys in a Disney movie? Whether it was intentional or not, Bruno being a genuinely good man and his rats being benign creatures perfectly reflects the nature of the movie: no real villains, only people who are either misunderstood (like Bruno and Mirabel) or highly flawed but able to change (like Alma).
• During "We Don't Talk About Bruno", Camilo claims that Bruno was seven feet tall, when in reality Bruno isn't significantly taller than any other adult in the family (and is in fact the shortest triplet). Camilo is less than a year older than Mirabel, who was five when Bruno disappeared. Younger children have been known to perceive unfamiliar adults as large and intimidating, and since Bruno wasn't around for the rest of his childhood, Camilo only remembers seeing his uncle as a towering, lanky giant.
  • Also, a bit of foreshadowing when Camilo says that Bruno had "rats along his back" and Dolores tells Mirabel that she could hear the rats talking in the walls. It's later revealed that she knew Bruno was hiding in the walls all along but did not give away his secret because she sympathized with his situation.
  • Related to this, Camilo portrays Bruno as a menacing, borderline evil figure during his impression of him. He and Mirabel are the same age (Camilo being the slightly older of the two), which means he, like his cousin, has little to no memories of Bruno, making his demonization seem unfair. However, when you remember Pepa's story of Bruno ruining her wedding and how Camilo is implied to be a Momma's Boy, it makes sense that Camilo would see the man who "ruined" his mother's wedding as evil.
    • Plus, there's also the fact that Camilo is a big teaser and would jump at the opportunity to mess with his cousin's mind, likely riffing on the villagers' detractions of his uncle as a scary boogieman.
    • It would also explain why Camilo's version of Bruno has green glowing eyes all the time, despite Bruno himself only gaining them when he uses his powers. Since Bruno likely kept to himself even before he withdrew from civilization, and the family and villagers only seem to mention Bruno when talking about his visions, they would probably recount that as his most recognizable feature, which (along with the Mural that also depicts Bruno when he's using his powers) is what Camilo would base his imitation of Bruno off.
  • At first it seems as though Isabela's recounting of the vision Bruno gave her is just humble bragging, as Mirabel certainly seems to think. But when you remember that Isabela was the first grandchild, it's possible that Alma specifically requested Bruno look to see if the second generation would also receive gifts. When he told her that Isabela's life would be perfect and she would be blessed with the greatest powers, Alma probably had a lot of expectations from an absurdly young age. Isabela herself mentions being "stuck" acting perfect for her entire life, meaning this vision might have happened as early as birth with it repeated to her constantly. Even a "positive" vision such as this can have lasting negative effects on children.
    • In the last segment, the only ones smiling and dancing around Mirabel as she pieces the prophecy back together are Pepa and Félix (their "prophecy" was just a poor joke) and Camilo (who didn't get one). Isabela is frowning and looking distressed as she dances with the others who have received terrible prophecies (fish lady and Dolores), suggesting that she isn't as happy with her "positive" prophecy as it seems.
    • That being said, Isabela's positive experience with Bruno is Mirabel's (and the audience's) first clue that he's not the boogie man everyone else made him out to be. As annoyed as Mirabel was, Isabela's story was the closest to the truth about Bruno's character: someone who genuinely wants to help those around him with his visions and insight.
    • Specifically, Bruno's prophecy for Isabela predicted that her power would grow like thriving grapes. The ideal soil for grapes is gritty, acidic loam. Isabela's ideal conditions aren't to live like a perfect little princess like she's pretending, but like the free spirit she's been hiding from her family.
    • Isabela has a rather aggressive demand towards Mirabel to not wanting to hear a single word. While this could be just her vain demeanor, it might also be a hint that she truly resents her uncle for what under her perspective was something akin to Maleficent's curse of Aurora.
• In Dolores's segment of "We Don't Talk About Bruno," a Meaningful Background Event involves Bruno's shadow quietly creeping across the second floor. It is here when Dolores's dancing is emphasized, her boots clacking loudly on the tile floor (almost like she's trying to get Mirabel to look at the floor) as she directs Mirabel's gaze to the direction opposite to him. When Mirabel begins walking in the same direction as Bruno, Dolores' eyes briefly widen before she pulls Mirabel back in the other direction. Her lyrics all point to her knowing about Bruno in present tense (her knowing he was there the whole time is outright confirmed at the end of the movie), so it is possible that she was subtly but very deliberately trying to help him get away unnoticed.
  • Also, her segment ends with her shifting gears and points out the kind of burden Bruno's gift would be ("It's a heavy lift with a gift so humbling/Always left Abuela and the family fumbling") before stepping up on a stool (possibly to hide Bruno, as Mirabel is still facing a direction where she could see him) and asking "Do you understand?" with a pleading look, almost as if she's letting Mirabel in on the secret without actually telling her.
  • Not to mention that it's not just Dolores' steps that are loud in that scene: her movements are accentuated with sound effects, and they're notably louder than most of the sound effects in the movie. Why? Because it's Dolores' section of the song, and the sound effects are at the same volume as they would be for her!
    • Also, unlike the other people in the song, when Dolores talks about Bruno, the whole room she and Mirabel are in is the brightest. In other words, out of every singer in the song, Dolores has the clearest understanding of Bruno.
  • Unlike everyone else, Dolores and Camilo talk about Bruno in the present tense instead of the past tense. While Camilo does this to add to his urban legend viewpoint of his uncle, Dolores is straight out admitting that Bruno is close enough for her to hear him. Why else would she say, "I can always hear him sort of muttering and mumbling" instead of "I could always hear him"?
• In the climactic scene of "We Don't Talk About Bruno" when everyone is singing their verse at the same time, Dolores's verse is absolutely drowned by everybody else. Dolores is actually sympathizing with her uncle while everyone else is demonizing him so nobody would listen to her. The only time she's actually heard is when she recalls her fated tragic love, another bad omen that people would blame on Bruno and therefore listen to because it coincides with their biases.
  • Also during this scene, Agustin is out of step with Felix and Camilo. Part of it is definitely his Butt-Monkey status, but Agustin is also the only person we see during this section of the song who isn't talking about Bruno. He is literally not on the same page as the others, because he wouldn't gossip about or mock Bruno the way they are.
  • At the same time, Isabela's suitor is coming to visit, which seems an odd addition to the song... until the Madrigals shout "HE'S HERE!" The song's all about Mirabel trying to find out what happened to Bruno, so the line is unwittingly about Bruno, too.
  • And what was the last lyric before that scene? Mirabel singing "Gimme the truth and the whole truth, Bruno"!
  • Dolores' final verses ("It's like I can hear him now... I can hear him now.... I can hear him now!") is deceptively blended in with Isabela's verse chiding Mirabel and telling her not to cause a scene at dinner. While the way it's framed makes it seem like Dolores is referring to Mariano, she sings these lines after reflecting on Bruno's prophesy, meaning Dolores subtly gives away that she's currently hearing Bruno at that very moment.
• At least two of Bruno's visions could have been a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy— after all, two negative effects of stress are weight gain (growing a gut) and hair loss. The two men who were told they would get fat and bald spent so much time worrying about it, they actually sped up the process! And considering the tiny fishbowl that lady had her fish in, it's possible he simply gave her some common-sense advice: "You better get that fish a bigger tank or it's gonna die."
  • Also, Osvaldo, the man who grew the gut, apparently eats a lot, given one scene has him munching on an entire candy jar by himself. Like the fish lady, Bruno was probably just stating a simple fact that Osvaldo should cut back on the sweets or else he'd "grow a gut."
• And coming back to the very structure of "Bruno". The final part is an arrangement of several voices of the various members of the family in something like an orchestral harmony. Such arrangements, usually done without music, are usually led by a conductor, who does not play the music themselves, but helps keep them directed and in harmony. The happens to be the role Alma has played in the family, which is now coming to Mirabel by the end. Oh, and such an arrangement of voices does have a name: it's called a Madrigal.
• Following the Gifts being Personality Powers, it makes sense that Bruno was able to see the future. Bruno is a kind soul who wants to help his loved ones and keep them from distress, like trying to cheer up Pepa with a joke to help her relax on her wedding day, so of course he would have the ability to see bad stuff that could happen to those around him in order to warn them so they could either avoid danger or change their circumstances. Unfortunately, people took his powers as set-in-stone omens of bad luck instead of the warnings they're meant to be, and when he saw that he himself was causing distress for everyone, Bruno removed himself from the community.
  • Dolores is practically the only Madrigal to be sympathetic to Bruno before Mirabel finds him; as Fridge Horror points out, her "gift" actually isn't that great: she has a reputation for being a busybody even though she does her best to be discreet, and it can't be fun to know everyone's secrets involuntarily and without their consent. She knows full well how people could misinterpret Bruno's power.
  • Alternatively, Bruno doesn't predict the future. He SEES the future. Everything he sees and every prediction in the song comes literally and completely true, but it's not the whole truth. For example, Dolores is told that she would be heartbroken when her crush is betrothed to another. Note he said "betrothed," not "married." He didn't see the later twist of Mariano and Isabela not working out.
  • Bruno's visions seem like a case of Bad Powers, Good People, but, from a practical standpoint, visions are generally more useful when used to warn people of bad events to come because it allows for preventative measures. There is very little practicality in a vision that simply reassures someone that things will be alright, because the events of the future are always directly impacted by the present, and people who are given a cosmic guarantee that their future will be problem-free will grow lazy and complacent, which could change their future to be less fulfilling because they don't work for it. This is why most of Bruno's visions are so ominous; they serve to warn people to create the future they want. This is also where many of the townsfolk misunderstand Bruno's powers; many probably want Bruno to be a Yes-Man rather than the bearer of bad news who tells them where they will have time to think of what caused the problem and eliminate possible causes before the actual problem presented at the vision would come true or taking certain steps to achieve a certain outcome shown at the vision instead. One may see the people of Encanto as fatalistic and have tenuous and shaky grasp to cause and effect for failing to see the overall benefit of Bruno's precognition.
• One of the lyrics to "Surface Pressure", a song centered on Luisa's hidden anxiety, is "I'm as tough as the crust of the earth is." The crust is the earth's weakest layer.
  • Another Analogy Backfire in her song is "Was Hercules ever like, 'Yo, I don't wanna fight Cerberus?'" ... Except in mythology, Heracles didn't have to fight Cerberus; he was simply tasked to capture Cerberus and bring it back to Eurystheus. Although in some versions of the myth he did choose to subdue Cerberus by force, typically Hades further permits him to take Cerberus if Heracles can subdue the beast without weapons, but in other versions he is simply given Cerberus in chains by Persephone. In other words, this reflects that Luisa needs to learn to ask for help, instead of trying to shoulder it for the sake of obligation.
  • Furthermore, in some versions Cerberus reacts violently to being exposed to sunlight for the first time, and Heracles requires the help of Theseus to drag it fully out of the Underworld, showing that even the World's Strongest Man requires help sometimes.
  • Why do donkeys keep showing up during Luisa's scenes? Because she's become a beast of burden, always doing the grunt work for everyone else.
• Dolores talks in whispers due to her superhuman hearing skewing her perception of her own volume. She might not even realize she talks so quietly. So, when she talks at a normal volume during the proposal dinner, it's her equivalent to screaming, and when she actually screams in her mind, she's shrieking.
• The Isabela/Mariano/Dolores Love Triangle:
  • Isabela and Dolores' mirroring personalities are showcased in "We Don't Talk About Bruno" during the second half. While Isabela is singing about her promised wonderful life in front of a crowd of people while descending from her vine swing, Dolores is singing about her promised broken heart upstairs, alone, as she watches Abuela bring Mariano, her crush, to their home.
  • Isabela sings that Bruno "told me that the life of my dreams would be promised, and someday be mine." Not the love of her dreams, the life she dreamed of, a chance to be something more than "the angelic flower maiden."
  • Mariano wanted to first sing a song he wrote for Isabela before proposing. This is another sign he's not suited for her. Isabela is all about visual beauty and appearance, to her a proper gift would be something like a flower arrangement or a painting. However, Dolores not only already knows and likes his singing voice, but her concept art revealed she was supposed to be into music, so even from then the movie shows she's a better match for him.
• Only two family members make no appearance during the musical number about Bruno: Antonio and Julieta. This makes sense for both practical and thematic reasons. Practically, Antonio is too little to help set the table, and Julieta is busy in the kitchen preparing the meal. Thematically, Antonio was born after Bruno disappeared, and Julieta has the most sympathetic view of her brother (other than Dolores).
• Antonio's animals messing around during dinner and putting the vision of Mirabel together was likely to up the tension and comedy, but Antonio later finds Bruno and Mirabel as he says that "the rats told me everything". He was likely keeping an eye on Mirabel since she said that the Casita was breaking down and wanted to help her, however he could. Earlier, his toucan friend may have briefed him on what Mirabel was doing since it followed her into Bruno's tower, so in his own way, he was trying to help out the family.
• Camilo's reaction to Bruno is much more disgruntled than the rest of the family, who are just happy to have Bruno back. This may seem odd, even a little cruel, until you remember that Camilo is the only Madrigal kid to have been left entirely out of the loop about Bruno throughout the movie, with "We Don't Talk About Bruno" being the only time he speaks on the subject. No wonder he's so confused: he has almost no idea what's happening other than "Uncle Bruno is back."
• Abuela's conviction that the family must "earn" the Gifts they've received reflects a common misconception among Catholics concerning Grace, which is a Gift freely given by God and is not earned. You can and should use such gifts to do good, as the Madrigals do for the community, but you're not "earning" grace by so doing. The family receives more grace when they lose their Gifts and the community, unasked, comes together to help them out.
  • Another Catholic theme in the picture is the everlasting candle, reflecting the Eternal Light in churches that represents God's presence.
  • While the Catholic resonance can be found there, Abuela's insistence on "earning" the gifts that came with the house and its miracles might be more directly a reflection of the refugee experience. People who leave traumatic pasts for a new land often feel a need to "earn" their place in their new home, which puts a lot of pressure on their children and contributes to intergenerational trauma. This also explains why Abuela is determined to make sure that everyone in their village loves her family and wants to keep them around.
  • There are other parts of this story that resonate with immigrant experience: for instance, that the strong oldest child in the newest generation, the one who's asked to carry the world on her back, is a daughter. Eldest daughters in immigrant families often have to help carry the household. Even though Luisa is really the middle child, this still applies.
  • It definitely applies to Julieta, who is the oldest of Abuela's children and thus the eldest daughter. What is her gift? Healing with her cooking. Just about the most traditional caregiver power possible.
• The townsfolk are seen asking Luisa for favors both big (moving the church and redirecting the river) and small (rounding up wayward donkeys). Julieta, meanwhile, uses her gift to treat everything from minor cuts and bruises to severe allergic reactions and broken bones. This is all demonstrating that the town has become too reliant on the Madrigals' gifts over the years and turns to them even for tasks that a normal human can accomplish with a bit of work, while upping the pressure the family members feel about Abuela's demand that they should dedicate themselves to earning the miracle bestowed upon them.
  • This may have also contributed to Bruno's outcast status; as previously mentioned, Bruno is able to see how events could potentially play out in multiple ways, so he tries to warn people so they can work for a better outcome. But as the various incidents indicate, the people he was trying to warn took his predictions as set in stone, rather than things that could change if they worked on it (such as changing the fish's living conditions or cutting back on candy). The same complacency from the townsfolk with the Madrigal family's gifts made it difficult for Bruno to help people with his gift, which is only effective if the person involved takes initiative in their own lives.
• Bruno uses sand reading to see his visions, to the point where Dolores tells Mirabel that she associates their uncle with "the sound of falling sand." This is a familiar method with many styles and traditions found in indigenous cultures worldwide, and a fitting method for Bruno's gift. Sand is not always a solid substance, and its shape and volume can be easily changed by the forces around it. Bruno's premonitions of the future are not set in stone as the people around him had assumed and can be altered or prevented depending on the choices they make.
  • The images created from Bruno's visions are glass, which is made from sand. The glass is another indication that the futures he sees are not inevitable fates that are "sealed when your prophecy is read."
  • A reoccurring motif for Bruno is also hourglasses. Why? Hourglasses are filled with sand to show when time is running out, and also because Bruno sees the (or a) future.
  • "The sound of falling sand" is also "shh." (In the song, Dolores makes the sound "shh" and puts a finger to her lips right after the lyric.) Obviously, "shh" goes really well with the sentiment "don't talk about Bruno."
  • The sound also matches up with the salt - and sugar that one time - that he keeps tossing over his shoulder.
• When Mirabel first sees the cracks forming in Casita, they disappear by the time Abuela and the others come out to see, making it seem like Mirabel is just making it up for attention. It's later revealed that the cracks form and are repaired depending on the strength of the family's bond, and in particular, the fading magic is heavily implied to be caused by Alma's harsh treatment of Mirabel. The moment Mirabel told her about the cracks, Alma genuinely listened to her granddaughter and followed her without hesitation, and this small act of trust was just enough to hold off the cracks a little while longer.
• Abuela Alma is associated with a maroon color as the original progenitor. Only two other people wear those colors in the family: Isabela and Dolores, the firstborn daughters of the third generation of Madrigals, and the two old enough to bring forth the fourth.
• Pepa is a woman who can control the weather with her moods, and she is usually stressed out 24/7. Who is the only one who keeps her calm for the most part? Her ever upbeat and loving husband, Félix, who dresses in sunny colors. In a sense, he's the sunshine that keeps her weather in check.
  • This may be one of the reasons Alma prefers Félix over Agustín: by keeping Pepa sunny, he keeps the family perfect.
• During the dinner with the Guzmán's, you can notice that the adults have wine glasses whereas the children, such as Mirabel and Camilo, have cups with juice instead. However, you can see that Pepa has juice instead of wine despite being an adult. Given that her weather powers are already unstable due to her Mood-Swinger tendencies, there's no telling what she could do with her powers in the event that she gets drunk.
• Bruno's prediction of Mirabel showing the house broken and whole was both literal and figurative. Casita really was breaking and healing as Mirabel watched, and partly because of her. But it is also figurative in that she would be at the center of breaking and fixing what the house represented.
  • In "All of You," Agustín comments to Julieta that Mirabel takes after her mother. He's saying that Mirabel too is a gifted healer.
• It's been confirmed that Mirabel is skilled at embroidery, which is about creating new material. In a sense, she is the one that creates a newer and healthier dynamic in her family.
  • Another interpretation of Mirabel's sewing talent is that she is the one who "stitches" the family back together, like patching a ripped quilt.
• On the time period when the film is set— we can probably narrow it down based on the technology (1) that's around the house and (2) that the characters are aware of, which we can see as mental images in their songs. For instance, Luisa is aware of big steamships like the Titanic, but she gives no indication of being familiar with passenger planes. We can probably place the film in the early 1900s.
  • The exception to this is Bruno, who uses rats and handmade theater backdrops to recreate telenovelas. But Bruno can see the future, which means that he could have feasibly learned about telenovelas from his visions.
  • Based on the outfits, the movie is probably set from the 1920s-onward (Mirabel's father wearing a classical suit with vest and tie). It's implied Luisa is well-read and knows of random facts and trivia (her mentioning Hercules in her song), so she probably knew of the Titanic based on newspapers or a book.
  • Based on some of the pop culture references made by characters other than Bruno, the movie can't have been set before the 1960s. When giving Antonio a present Mirabel references the "This message will self-destruct" line from Mission Impossible, which premiered in 1966.
  • In Colombia, forced displacements began during the 40s and 50s in an era known as la violencia (the Violence), a time when Pedro's death could have occurred. If we consider Alma's age, that Agustín knows the chords of "En Barranquilla Me Quedo" (first released circa 1989) and that in Colombia many towns were isolated and without electricity until the 90s, the film could be set from the late 70s to the early 90s.
• In Bruno's room, the walls, stairs, and other non-sand parts of the room appear to be made from limestone and other sedimentary stones, which are made from compressed sand (and other sediments). If this is the case, it has to be a deliberate choice, because usually scary stone walls in films are made of slate or granite.
  • His visions also materialize as green glass panes. Glass is formed from heated sand, and green is the default color of glass made with regular, non-purified sand.
• Whenever Bruno goes, "Knock knock knock, knock on wood" and knocks on wood, he ends by knocking his own head. This reads as a bit of physical comedy, but it's also an old joke that people who knock wood sometimes make in real life. The joke is that your head is made of wood, that you're a blockhead.
• Listen to the Family Madrigal song and play close attention to Alma's verse. It's almost the exact melody of "Dos Oruguitas", showcasing how she dedicates so much to the community, thinking of them as extended family; to preserve Pedro's love and memory, so his sacrifice would never be in vain. Aww.
• Even when the magic fades, Luisa keeps her muscular physique and is still the strongest member of the family. Antonio’s ceremony shows that gaining a magical gift doesn’t actually cause a visible change, and he physically looks exactly the same after receiving his. Luisa’s Super-Strength was bestowed by magic, but she gradually bulked up over time due to years of constant heavy lifting, so her larger, stronger frame is completely natural.
  • She's also not relying entirely on her gift. During her introduction, she's seen working out with dumbbells while running.
• How was Bruno able to get out of the crumbling Casita with only using a bucket on his head to punch a hole through the wall? First, he's been patching up the cracks for who knows how long, so he best knows where the weakest part is. Second, combined with the first reason, the house was already crumbling, meaning it wasn't as structurally strong as it was in the beginning. Third, Casita was shown helping the rest of the family escape, so it could've deliberately weakened the wall for him.
• The reason Alma's door says Abuela and not her name is because, like the rest of the family, she is playing a role. Just as her descendants are defined by their gifts, she defines herself as "Abuela", the ideal matriarch with all the answers, while hiding "Alma", the woman suffering from grief and constant fear of losing everything again.
• There's a lot of Brilliance in the genres chosen for each song, one of them being Isabela's song. Miranda openly stated he based her song on Shakira's 90s output, and it works perfectly for Isabela (aside from the Colombian connection). She's the most "traditionally Disney" sister in the movie, and for many Latina girls who grew up adoring Disney, they also grew up listening to Shakira, with her often being their introduction to Latin-Rock. This also adds to the narrative of the movie, since Isabela feels pressured by her family, and many of Shakira's songs in the 90s dealt with issues that women often faced: sexism, limitations imposed by their gender, and the joy in exploring their female identities freely. Makes absolutely perfect sense to pair the sister searching for freedom with the pioneer in female Latin-rock.
• Mirabel calling Dolores her favorite older cousin (which was only to pump information out of her about the magic fading) might not have just been an unknowing jab at Camilo. Camilo's described as 'barely older' than Mirabel (compared to Dolores being described as a few months younger than Isabela, the gap is somewhere around one or two months, if not less). It's possible Mirabel (especially in the tense situation she was in) doesn't consider Camilo older in her mind since they're almost the same age.
  • It might just not faze Camilo, since he might just naturally assume the girls would be closer or see through the obvious flattery. That, or it happens all the time.
  • Alternatively, Spanish has a distinction between primo (male cousin) and prima (female cousin), therefore Camilo wouldn't feel insulted when Mirabel calls Dolores her "favorite female cousin".
• Alma is the oldest Madrigal member and acts simultaneously as both Team Mom and Team Dad. The next two oldest people of the Madrigal family are Félix and Julieta, who then have the Team Dad and Team Mom roles, respectively.
• When Camilo attempts to comfort his mother during the reveal of Mirabel in Bruno's vision, Pepa accidentally shocks him, and he transforms into three family members (Félix, Alma, and Agustín). Why it may seem random, remember Camilo is trying to comfort his mother in a mature manner, so he would try to emulate reliable adults— Félix is her beloved husband who helps soothe her anxieties, Alma is her mother who is the matriarch of the family and considered the unofficial leader of the town, and Agustín, who may be clumsy, is a diligent father and Papa Wolf.
• There's more to the "Don't Talk About Bruno" rule than a childish grudge. Pepa's gift is crazy volatile. It's either happy and sunny or tense and stormy, no middle ground. Remembering what Bruno did is not simply unpleasant for her, but the resulting bad weather would inconvenience everyone around her. Just like the rest of the Madrigals, Pepa is bottling up her feelings to avoid displeasing others.
• Some of Bruno’s lines reference Let It Go. Maybe he used his ability and somehow managed to watch the movie with it!
  • Even better, maybe he’s somehow linked to Olaf, thus Olaf being able to do Olaf Presents — Bruno’s powers allows Olaf to see into other movies!
  • Also, "Let It Go" is sung at a point where Elsa decides not to be afraid of her powers and what she can do with them... a theme explored in this very movie with a Madrigals (Bruno especially).
• Mirabel's name not being the more correct "Maribel" might be intentional, considering the cast and some of the crew would know better and it's a very easy correction to make. It really highlights how odd Mirabel is in the family, even compared to those who married in. It also highlights how ostracized she is.
• Mirabel is a fairly common name that comes from the Latin mirabilis, meaning "wonderous". Both the meaning and the similarity to the word miracle are very suited for the character.
• This may count as a subtle form of medium foreshadowing. When Alma is talking about Isabela's engagement, the camera zooms into her and Alma's reaction, but keeps Dolores in the shot, symbolizing how this matter concerns her too, in light of her feelings for Mariano.
  • When asked about a date for a proposal, Dolores only listens for about a second before giving the details and adding he wants 5 babies, flustering Isabela. It's likely that a) Mariano had already set a date for when he planned to propose, and Dolores knew in advance and b) that second detail is possibly a lie to fluster Isabela and make her more reluctant to marry him. Why? Dolores likely already knows Isabela doesn't want to marry him — she likely could have overheard Isabela talk about it — and Dolores is probably giving Isabela more reasons why she shouldn't so she can still have a chance with him.
• Julieta is eventually revealed as the only Madrigal child not to angst over her gift. While she's far from perfect (she leaves Mirabel out of the photo at the beginning, same as the rest), she doesn't view her gift as healing, but as loving her family and neighbors. Julieta is the only family member who doesn't need to be "fixed" to be happy.
• As Mirabel and Bruno try to look for another part of his vision of Mirabel and the Casita, a butterfly appears. This could be the "butterfly effect", as Bruno even says that there are different branches to decisions. Mirabel even sees it during her discussion with Abuela, which allows them to patch up their relationship.
• Bruno's prediction for Isabela seems odd in that it's the only positive one. He foresaw Isabela growing up to be adored by the town for her beauty and gift, and that must sound like a dream to a pariah like Bruno. Except it is revealed Isabela's forcing a smile to hide how stifled and unhappy she is. Bruno did see his niece's worst possible future; he just couldn't tell what was wrong.
  • Except he didn't tell her that. He said that the "life of her dreams" would be hers. Which comes true when she breaks away from Abuela's expectations and learns to express herself. So, it was a positive vision, but everyone besides Isabela assumed that "life of her dreams" meant marriage and having grandchildren (which is Abuela's dream).
  • It's possible that as Isabela was very young at the time, her dream when the predication was made was to get married and have children like her parents and as she grew up and discovered more about herself, she found that wasn't what she actually wanted for herself. So, she may have believed Bruno had seen her having her innocent dream she thought she wanted when the vision happened, it just wasn't what she wanted anymore.
  • There's another layer to it as well. Bruno's prophecy to Isabela wasn't just that she'd have the life of her dreams, but also that "[Isabela's] powers would grow like the grapes that thrive on the vine". We eventually learn that Isabela's powers haven't actually been allowed to grow; on the contrary, they've been stifled presumably since she first received her Gift to ensure she only created flowers and pretty things rather than the imperfect things that would give her the "life of her dreams". She's not upset by the prophecy itself, as is the case with the others, she's upset that (at the time the song takes place) the positive prophecy Bruno gave her never came true.
• "Saving the miracle with a hug" ended up coming true. It's just that it happened when Mirabel hugging Abuela fully saved the miracle. It was just another possible outcome, but Bruno wasn't sure since, during the vision, he said things were "out of order".
  • The vague outline of the woman Mirabel hugs in the vision looks like young Alma before solidifying into Isabela.
• When rebuilding the house, Bruno is drawing an outline of a to-be-built part in sand and when the house is complete, it looks just as it did before. Why? Given how Bruno lived in the walls of the house for long, it's only natural that he has the layout of the house memorized.
• Why does Dolores — who has been able to keep quiet about Bruno hiding for 10 years — have such a hard time keeping the secret about Bruno's last vision? Part of it could be the prophecy, a very big deal for all of Encanto, which she's only known about for a few minutes and is still coming to grips with, but part of it is that she's also in the middle of watching the person she loves get betrothed to another, just like Bruno had told her would happen so long ago. Her stress must be very high, and she may be grabbing at anything to stop Mariano from going through with the proposal, maybe even hoping that if she proves that the prophecy about Mirabel is wrong, the prophecy about Dolores can also be proved wrong.
  • Not to mention, considering the Fridge Horror with Dolores's powers, she likely was also overwhelmed by the amount of sound everywhere. Even normal people can suffer Sensory Overload from the sounds of utensils making contact with plates and bowls, and with her gift, that would be emphasized. She can also hear Nervous Tics such as Luisa's eye twitching (and no doubt Luisa was likely still eye-twitching due to her fading strength) so likely she also could pick up Mirabel and Agustín's. Plus, Bruno eats right next to them in the walls, and she likely can hear him too. All this overwhelming atmosphere would have made anyone crack.
  • And then there's the fact that she didn't. She outright said that Bruno never left, often enough to go I Told You So when Bruno came back - it's just that no one listened to her, and, eventually, We Don't Talk About Bruno came into play.
• Counts as foreshadowing, but when Luisa tells Mirabel to find the vision, Mirabel is understandably confused because "how do you find a vision?" Luisa says, "if you find it, you'll know". Later, it turns out she was talking about the shattered glass pane that showcased the vision.
• Another parallel between Bruno and Mirabel, besides both being outcasts, is that they both try to encourage their sisters to use their powers as a form of self-expression even if it results in something imperfect. Mirabel encourages Isabela to express herself with plants other than "pretty, perfect" flowers during "What Else Can I Do". Bruno's verse in "All of You" implies that he was trying to do this for Pepa at her wedding; by saying, "it looks like rain." He was trying to make a joke and wanted to reassure her that it was okay for her to express her negative emotions as rain and snow, but she interpreted it as a bad omen instead.
• At the end of the movie, Bruno asked Pepa for forgiveness and explained that his "looks like rain" phrase was a joke, not a prophecy. Considering her eldest child is 21, how's that Bruno took 20-30 years to finally apologize? Let's remember that Pepa's powers go berserk with her mood, and the mere mention of her brother caused her to "thunder"; Bruno most likely tried to apologize many times before but Pepa would get upset and the weather would reflect it, causing either Bruno to turn tail to avoid anger her further or Alma stopping the uncomfortable but necessary moment, so it took him more than twenty years, Pepa being overjoyed of seeing him again, and her losing her powers for Bruno to actually get the words out.
• Bruno's vision cave is at the top of a really long staircase, around fifty stories high, with a huge gap in between. It could reflect his tendency towards isolation after his bad reputation pushed him from society, and he himself mentioning how exhausting it is to climb shows how this attitude is detrimental for him.
  • Since his mother has pushed him to use his power for the good of the town, the difficulty to reach his cave could be a way to discourage people who come looking for his "services".
• Alma spends most of the movie arranging Isabela's marriage to ensure a new generation of Madrigals is born, yet there's no indication that she did so for her own children, given that Bruno never married, and her daughters are clearly in love with their husbands. She only started focusing on making good matches for her grandchildren after Mirabel didn't get a gift, out of concern that the gifts would die out with that generation. This also helps explain Isabela's snarky, dismissive attitude towards Mirabel, since Isabela is being pushed into a life she doesn't want in order to make up for Mirabel's perceived shortcomings.
• Blink and you'll miss it, but we can logically conclude that the bedroom Younger Alma sits in after losing Pedro is, in fact, the inside of her room in Casita, since she'd be the only one with a room at this point and that definitely isn't the nursery. If you watch Alma's second flashback carefully, you realize that Alma's room in Casita is identical to the room she shared with Pedro before they had to flee their previous home. That's why it has the candle on the door; it was part of their original room and it's implied to be their marriage candle. The entire room is a symbol of their marriage. And since we know the Candle was a Magic Feather, this means it's likely that, rather than being magic itself, the candle was preserved and kept burning through magic for Alma.
• Why didn't Dolores defend Mirabel when Casita began to crack during Antonio's ceremony celebration? With her powers, she should have been able to hear it and she wouldn't have much reason to keep it a secret. One could argue that it was simply too loud for her to pick up on it properly, but there's another possibility. Luisa reveals that during the party, she felt weak. It's entirely likely that she wasn't the only one who had a hiccup in her powers, Dolores's super hearing might have fizzled out or weakened at the same time. It's possible it happened to some of the others as well, but most of the family has powers that aren't always "on", so they likely didn't notice.
• It might be unintentional, but the Madrigals’ powers could be seen as Pedro giving his family (and the town by extension) the means to defend themselves if Encanto was ever attacked. Luisa is a One-Woman Army, Pepa and Isabela are capable of widespread destruction, Dolores could hear enemy plans and alert the family if they were approaching, Camilo, with his shape shifting, and Antonio, through his animals, would be useful in gathering information, Bruno can foresee potential future outcomes and warn the family, and Julieta can heal anyone who was injured in an attack.
• When Mirabel makes her way to Bruno's room, there is a big gap between the sand stairs and Bruno's cave of visions. So, you could say that Bruno burned/collapsed his bridges with the family.
• Why could Dolores hear Bruno but never successfully identified his exact location? Without knowing that the walls are actually Bigger on the Inside, she could at best only approximate but never pinpoint his hiding spot.
• While Bruno is associated with the sand element, the sound of falling sand picked up by Dolores is actually that of Bruno throwing salt and sugar over his shoulder, which would produce similar sound as well.
• Despite all of the Madrigals using their powers to help the town, Luisa is the busiest because her Super-Strength is the most versatile compared to the others’ powers falling under a certain niche. It probably helps that she doesn’t suffer from Power Incontinence like Pepa and that she can use it instantly without needing to prepare (Julieta’s requires her to cook food and Bruno’s requires a ritual).
• The men who killed Pedro and nearly killed Alma and the baby triplets were four and were riding on horses. They, in this case, were the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
• While Pepa was annoyed she and Félix got married in a hurricane, rain during a wedding is actually often a sign of good luck — it means that the couple will last and be hard to unravel. In present time, Pepa and Félix are a Happily Married, loving couple with the latter not even being bothered by the unusual wedding.
• The first three scenes after Alma and Pedro meet represent the future gifts of their children: First, they are eating together (Julieta), get married during a sunny day (Pepa), and Alma shows a cutout of triplet babies to Pedro (Bruno). It also shows the triplets' order of oldest to youngest.
• When the grandkids (sans Antonio) are dancing at the beginning of "The Family Madrigal" song, when they all spin, Mirabel's spin is delayed. The symbolization? They all have gotten their own gifts and magical door while Mirabel didn't. This small moment shows Mirabel being out of step with her family.
• Bruno and Dolores' portraits on their respective doors shows their eyes open. Why? Because they have the more sensory type of gifts. Bruno can see the future and Dolores has super hearing.
• All of Bruno's prophecies about his family seem like typical "Bruno only sees bad futures" at first, but they all ultimately end up positive. Mirabel is in front of Casita cracking/being repaired because she was there when it was destroyed and later rebuilt. He told Dolores her beloved was betrothed to another, but the relationship ends up not working out (even before an engagement happened) and she gets the guy in the end. Isabela lives both versions of "the life of her dreams"; the one where everyone sees her as "perfect" and then the one where she can truly be herself.
• As The Medic, Julieta watches over the well-being of her entire community. No wonder Agustín thinks Mirabel takes after her when she becomes The Heart of her family.
• In the final family picture, Mirabel is at the middle and center of the two branches, alongside the family matriarch, as the bringer of the new magic.
  • Bruno can be seen holding her arm; not only he has no branch of his own, he of course would latch on to the only family member who accepted him while in the very new experience of being among people again.
• There's a Freeze-Frame Bonus that the doorknobs of the enchanted doors have the initials of the owners' first name (a 'B' can be seen right as Mirabel enters Bruno's room). When the house is rebuilt, Mirabel is given a handmade doorknob with an 'M' on it, which she puts in the front door. But that doesn't mean her name. It stands for "Madrigal".
• Besides the aforementioned reason as to why Alma prefers Félix over Agustín (see above), another reason could be because of how Félix fulfills the Team Dad role of the Madrigal family. Something that Pedro would've done had he not been murdered.
• Pepa being a Mood-Swinger with Weather Manipulation powers makes sense — the weather has been known to change without warning.
  • She is very literally mercurial.
• On their gift ceremony, the Madrigal wears white. Now, who is the only Madrigal seen in all white? Pedro. In this sense, they are honoring Pedro's sacrifice.
• Why is Dolores the most sympathetic to Bruno, despite having gotten a pretty downer vision from him? Well, it's because she understands what it is like to have a gift that reveals things to you, whether you like it or not. Dolores has no control over what she hears, any more than Bruno has over what he sees. The rest of the family have some level of control over their powers, some more so than others, so none of them can understand what it is like for Bruno. Of all of the family, these two are as much the odd ones out as Mirabel.
  • Also, because of her Super-Hearing, Dolores overheard Bruno talking to himself within the walls over the years, and, having context to his thoughts that no one else did, understands that he's not a bad person and really does love his family.
    • She tells Mirabel that among the few beings worried about the house/magic crumbling are "the rats in the walls." Unlike Antonio, she can't understand the rats' communication - but it makes sense if "the rats in the walls" is her discreet way of referring to Bruno, who is certainly worried about that and has been chatting to himself and patching the cracks loudly enough for Dolores to have picked up on it all.
• The secluded nature of the Encanto can symbolize the walls around Alma's heart. The mountains sprung up immediately after her husband's death, which is when Alma, drowning in grief, started keeping everyone at a distance. The Encanto she helped build from the ground up became an idealized world where she could pretend her traumatic past never happened. When the miracle vanishes and the mountain splits into a pass, Alma's shell has finally cracked, and she can't hide from reality anymore.
• The first time Mirabel realizes the Casita is in danger, she cuts her hand open on a broken tile that's fallen from the roof. Immediately after this injury, the cracks begin to spread across the floor and along the walls, with the damages getting worse until the candle nearly goes out; at this point, Mirabel rallies the family in an effort to save the house. This entire sequence serves as a metaphor and foreshadowing for the movie's entire plot. Who is the Madrigal most deeply wounded by her family's perfectionism and near-worship of the miracle? Mirabel — who is consequently also the only Madrigal shown to be injured to the point of bleeding by the Casita falling apart. Whose suffering exposes the rifts in the family's already unstable foundation? Mirabel's, starting from the night she failed to receive a gift. Who is it that uncovers and then finally opens the family's eyes to the suffering they each endure and unintentionally bring in each other? Mirabel, who is also the only one to see the first cracks in the Casita. Who rallies the family to rebuild after the Casita has fallen, starting with Abuela Alma? Mirabel, who ran to grab Abuela Alma when the cracks first appeared. And the candle flickered for the very first-time during Mirabel's ceremony; of course, she would be the first one to see it happening again.
• Camilo's Fish Eyes are in the same placement as his animal symbol — The chameleon.
• Both Dolores and Mirabel are out of sync in "We Don't Talk About Bruno":
  • Dolores — while she participates in the song and proposal dinner, she's a step behind her family. Because while she will go through it for the family, she honestly doesn't want to because she's in love with Mariano. Also, since the song is about Bruno, it can also hint at her being aware of where he truly is.
  • Mirabel — She is more concerned with the cracks and how she is part of that in Bruno's vision. She needs to ask more questions about the latter to better understand the prophecy.
• Luisa is the first to feel her powers waning and the first to willingly reveal to Mirabel about her insecurities and the first to talk to Mirabel about Bruno. In other words, Luisa is the first to crack under the pressure.
• The "Surface Pressure" number throws up a reference to Hercules battling Cerberus in an arena — except that according to the actual myth, Hercules had to travel to the underworld to get to Cerberus, where there presumably was less of an audience. It's a representation of how Luisa feels there's way more attention and pressure on her to deliver than there actually is.
• Crossing over with Fridge Horror, Alma's cold and strict behavior with Mirabel makes sense near the end — it's implied that it was Pedro's sacrifice that birthed the miracle and Bruno disappeared after being asked by Alma to look into the future after Mirabel's failed gift ceremony. In Alma's traumatized mind, Mirabel not getting a gift (not her fault though) made the former think Pedro's death would be in vain and caused her only son (who has the strongest resemblance to Pedro) to mysteriously leave.
• Given the Catholic undertones of the movie, Mariano's desire to get married quickly and mentioning how his heart burns with love means he is likely to be following 1 Corinthians 7:9 "But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion."
• During the breakfast scene when Mirabel is attempting to probe Luisa for information, Antonio has some animals sit on Abuela Alma's seat to warm it up for her. Alma instead reacts with annoyance at the animals on her seat (even as she is thankful of Antonio's good intentions) and told her grandson that the family would find a way to 'put (Antonio)'s blessings to good use', implying that she doesn't quite approve of Antonio's action and wish for him to do something different with his gift which suited her needs as well — another subtle clue to Alma's ultimate character flaw which is currently threatening her family.
• In the beginning of the movie Mirabel has to walk with a scared Antonio during his gift ceremony. At the very end of the movie Antonio is the one that gives Mirabel the doorknob, and then walks with her to put it on the door. Ultimately both managed to walk the other down the aisle to opening 'their' door and gift.
• It makes sense why Isabela is the Madrigal who appeared in Bruno's completed vision as the person Mirabel needs to hug: she's the one family member whom Mirabel has the most beef with. To truly begin to fix the family, Mirabel has to first make amends with the person whom she disliked the most first (and vice versa as well, since Isabela also has a mutual dislike of Mirabel). If she and Isabela can make peace with each other, then having other family members coming clean with their personal issues and try to resolve them together would not be that much difficult to do.
• The girl with pigtails quips that "maybe [Mirabel's] gift is being in denial." This ends up being ironic in that isn't presented as a unique trait of Mirabel's, but rather a problem that almost everyone in the family has — including and especially the matriarch, Abuela Alma — and Mirabel is uniquely positioned to help them get out of this mindset.
• Luisa seems considerably less surprised when Mirabel comes out to walk Antonio to his door than the other Madrigals we see in the same shot or Abuela. Of course, she would completely understand why someone would go out of their way to help a younger relative, even if it caused them distress.
• Alma's children represent past, present, and future. Julieta's food heals past wounds, Pepa's emotions control present weather, and Bruno can see into the future. Coincidentally, this is also the order the triplets were born in.
• Isabela, Mirabel, and Luisa together represent the Beauty, Brains, and Brawn trope. Mirabel refers to her sisters as "the beauty and the brawn" while introducing them in the opening number, while she herself uses her brains (emotional intelligence) to save the miracle and move the family into a new era.
• Notice how the Madrigal mothers (Alma, Julieta, and Pepa) have a habit of holding the cheeks of their children/grandchildren and (sometimes) kissing their cheek. Why the pattern? Before Pedro sacrificed himself, he held Alma's cheek before kissing her on the lips and kissed the head on the heads of his children. In a sense, Alma was passing on Pedro's last physical affection to her children/grandchildren.
• The creators deliberately gave Mirabel green glasses to symbolize her different perspective from the rest of her family and during the songs of "Surface Pressure", "We Don't Talk About Bruno", and "Dos Oruguitas", Mirabel goes through a Musical World Hypotheses. In other words, Mirabel is seeing the respective people's feelings through their perspective.
• Unlike the other songs, neither Alma nor Pedro sings during "Dos Oruguitas". But it makes sense given how Mirabel is "seeing" the past through her perspective. However, since this song contains a younger Alma and deceased Pedro, Mirabel can't make out their voices because she doesn't know how their voices sounded during that time.
• Bruno says the "Sana sana, colita de rana" rhyme while skipping over the cracks on the floor; the rhyme is a Latin American saying said by parents to children when they're hurting, and at that time it was Casita the one injured and Bruno, with his patching up, has been attempting to heal it.
• In both sequences we see Pedro sacrificing himself to save his family, we see only him opposing the bandits, why were no other people helping him? Because this is from Abuela Alma's point of view, if there were other men fighting alongside with Pedro, Alma must have not seen them as she had all her attention on her husband in that moment.
  • Given the flashback's vagueness it is difficult to tell if the attack was just random violence by some bandits or something more warlike or politically driven. However, the fact that the horsemen were chasing the refugees through the forest suggests they weren't after loot or mindless destruction, but rather targeting specific people. Pedro might have been a well-known leader of the community who gave himself up to spare the others.
  • Pedro probably was a well-known leader of the village and thus a leader of the refugees when the horsemen attacked the village! After he and Alma left their house with their infants, we next see them leading the refugees out of the village and across the river! That suggests that they had taken charge of leading the other refugees to safety. Which would suggest that if the horsemen were after certain people (maybe even Pedro himself), that his leadership role would explain why Pedro was the one to face the horsemen and try to get them to stop.
• All of the family is blinded by denial and the weight of expectations. The only two characters who never seem to lose sight of what's truly important are Mirabel (obviously) and Agustín (who remembers to keep his daughter's well-being over the family need for perfection). They're the only two characters with glasses, a tool that literally helps them see clearly.
  • Indeed, part of the lesson the family learns and personified by Bruno is that while you can prepare for the future, sometimes moving forward means confronting something you don't want to confront; that the future will not be pristine perfect and that trying to make it so only causes more harm than good. Enduring hardship and working (especially performing emotional work) are important parts of going through life; while certainly a parent shouldn't be harsh, it's important for parents to guide and advance their children... and then at some point, trust that their children are walking down a path that gets their children to where they want to go, even if that isn't where their parents would like it to be.
• Alma's children (Pepa, Julieta, Bruno) and the way Alma treated them, metaphorically represent her approach to trauma and pain. Julieta's power is fixing past injury and Alma's desire to serve the community and fix everyone's problems. Pepa's power works in the present and Alma's approach is to sternly shut down any processing; rather than talk about what might be causing Pepa to be anxious or distressed or even happy, Alma simply demands an outwardly pleasant façade. And Bruno is, of course, the future — but the future can be as scary as it can be comforting. And by not talking about Bruno (the future), no one is able to handle or prepare for hardship; they can only react in the moment.
• "We Don't Talk About Bruno" is a song that begins with the whole family and village on the same page, in sync, talking about Bruno in the past tense. The song changes, however, when Alma shows up and the conversation turns to the present day and, by proxy, the unspoken tension of Isabela being forced to marry someone she doesn't want to. At this point, Dolores and Isabela start singing over each other as does the rest of the family, still sounding nice as a song but lyrically very 'chaotic' — representing a nice overall picture that on second look is only loosely working against each other. This is also when Luisa shows up (who isn't singing and is in fact in distress but only Mirabel notices).
• Why is Bruno so surprised when Abuela hugs him after he tries to confront her? Because while he has been keeping tabs on his family through the cracks on the walls all these years, this is the first time Alma has seen her son in a decade. Even without her Heel Realization she would have probably run to hug him.
• When Mirabel is putting together Bruno's vision, Agustín steps in the nursery and freaks out almost immediately; however, from the door (and because Mirabel's hiding it) he couldn't possibly see what the vision actually depicted. He's not freaking out because his daughter is destined to destroy Casita, but rather because it's the first time in over ten years he has seen the sickly green glow of one of Bruno's prophecies.
• The night of the proposal, both Mariano and his mother insist he sing a song to Isabela, since "everyone here has a gift." They probably feel completely overwhelmed in the presence of the almost legendary Madrigals and surely tried to find a way, any way to display a gift of their own to impress them. They might have rehearsed the proposal for hours on end, trying to be absolutely perfect. Señora Guzmán's comment at the beginning "let's hope nothing goes horribly wrong" might have been less a light joke to break the ice and more a nervous plea they measure up.
• Mirabel does everything she says she could do in "Waiting on a Miracle." "I would move the mountains" = Her argument with Alma literally splits the surrounding mountain ranges. "Make new trees and flowers grow" = She enables Isabela to grow new different plants rather than identical blossoms. "I would heal what's broken" = She healed the family's obsession with perfection and brought them all back together. "Show this family something new" = She rebuilt Casita on a new foundation and led a healthier way forward.
• This film averts the Latino Is Brown trope excellently by having the family marry men of different races. By making the family so numerous, they showcase all the different skin tones that are prominent in Latin America, with a logical in-story explanation: the women married with men of different races and their children would naturally reflect that. In this manner, Disney avoided showing the same dark-skinned family as in Coco, thus following the typical Latino stereotype; or making another Honey Lemon fiasco (where the character seemed pretty much white to audiences, and you would only know she's Latina by interviews). Unlike the USA, Latin America never had miscegenation laws, so interracial marriage was never seen as a social taboo. (Rather, it was a law enforced in the colonial times, but later on arranged to be free from "the castas" and have more positive connotations).
• It's strongly hinted, especially in the "We Don't Talk About Bruno" song that Pepa and Isabela have a close relationship. This makes sense because weather (Pepa) helps flowers/plants (Isabela) grow and mature.
• After Mirabel gets into a heated argument with Isabela, with the latter revealing he real feelings, she grows a cactus for the first time. And remember Mirabel is often associated with butterflies. Butterflies help cacti grow.
  • It's also been noted how Isabela snaps at being called selfish but she never contradicts being called entitled. Given the stress and expectations heaped upon her that she's spent years trying to live up to, Isabela probably does feel like she's entitled and far from selfish. Little wonder that specific accusation is what sets her off.
• It's implied that Mirabel has some knowledge of architecture because she is shown looking at a schematic from Alma during the rebuilding of Casita. Of course, Mirabel would know about architecture - besides Alma, Mirabel has the closest bond with Casita.
• The creators have confirmed that Julieta is the Madrigal who has got it most together. Why? First, out of her siblings, she was given a gift (healing with food) that was both beneficial and helpful to the community without accidentally causing harm; this meant she was less likely to be scolded by Alma and her high expectations. Second, while cooking can be taxing, it can also help with stress relief. Third, unlike her mother, Julieta was able to be happily married to her husband and raise their children in peace. Fourth, because cooking takes time to prepare, she can't always be expected to be in the village as food does run out, so she isn't taxed with having to help the village all day.
• Mirabel's conversations/songs with her sisters leads to some change in regard to their powers:
  • Luisa - she is under constant pressure to be strong and would like to be able to relax from the work. Her next scene has her revealing to Alma and Mirabel that her powers are waning, so she wouldn't be able to do the chores that was causing her stress.
  • Isabela - she feels stifled with being "perfect" and being unable to truly tap into her powers. During her duet with Mirabel, she begins growing new plants, showing how much power her gift truly has.
• Julieta's Prim and Proper Bun makes sense - it's held up because she's a doctor and chef, but it isn't tight (like Alma's), also showing that she's more relaxed.
• The creators confirmed that Antonio regards Bruno as his pal. Why? First, he was told by his uncle's rat friends his whole story. Second, because of the first reason, Antonio knows and most likely deeply appreciates the lengths Bruno went to, to protect Mirabel (the person Antonio most looks up to). Third, both uncle and nephew have more in common than noticeable— have a gift that is hard to give a job for the community, bond with animals and not people (rats mainly for Bruno) and are The Baby of the Bunch in their respective sibling group.
• Alma's verse in "The Family Madrigal" follows the same tune as "Dos Oruguitas", symbolizing that she's still caught up in the past. the next time she sings, in "All of You", she's learned to let go of that mindset, and is the first one to sing the new melody (Mirabel's first verse in "All of You" is a reprise of "Family Madrigal"), symbolic of the new era being ushered in.
• Pepa's verse in "We Don't Talk about Bruno" is different than the others. The townspeople's lines follow a format of "Bruno said something bad would happen, the bad thing happened, therefore Bruno caused the bad thing to happen." Pepa's included an extra step in the middle: "Bruno mentioned rain, he floods my brain, and then I made it rain." Pepa isn't even accusing Bruno of having a vision, she's recognizing that he used the power of suggestion to trigger her powers. She's known her brother and his powers since they were 5 years old, so she has the most understanding of anyone in the song of how they work, and she recognizes that the prophecies themselves aren't the problem; she also recognizes that, whether he meant it or not, her brother stressed her out on her wedding day and caused her to ruin it. While treating him as an Un-person is Disproportionate Retribution, it is a legitimate complaint.
• Bruno going into hiding to protect Mirabel and patching the cracks in secret are similar— he has the best intentions, but his choice of hiding the perceived problems in his family doesn't help the family because it leaves the actual problem unresolved and only delays the eventual collapse.
• Both Isabela and Luisa feel pressured by Alma to live up to her expectations of them and are more alike than they first seem: Isabela feel she needs to have the perfect appearance and demeanor, and Luisa needs to be able to handle any chore given to her. Both are cracking under the pressure and have similar insecurities about not living up the expectations and what it would mean for the family should they fail to do so.
• Now that Antonio can speak to animals, maybe he can get the donkeys to stay where they're supposed to be and let Luisa relax from rounding them up so often.
• When trying to reconcile with Isabela to fulfill Bruno's prophecy, Mirabel attempts to play the situation into the hug. She's acting like their Abuela. When she engages with Isabela as a sister, encouraging her to explore the scope of her powers during "What Else Can I Do?", the hug does happen and the cracks seal over.
• Skilled chefs would know how many servings their ingredients yield, so how is it that Julieta doesn't notice the missing servings that Bruno takes? Camilo. His line "worth a shot" implies he's had a history of taking a lot more extra for himself in the past and this was just another attempt.
• The candle can be seen as a representation of the Madrigals' dysfunction and misunderstanding, given the lyrics of "All of You". Mirabel points out that she used to think the family was a perfect constellation shining forever, but now realizes the metaphor is flawed, since constellations burn and change just like people should be allowed to make shifts and changes in their identities and roles. What was the magical eternal candle? An object that was designed to burn away that the Madrigals wanted to constantly shine and never change. When the family falls apart, the candle burns away, but the discord is also the catalyst for necessary healthy change. At the end, the Encanto being restored does not include the candle— the Madrigals have burned like they are supposed to, no longer believe stasis is correct, and are all the more happy for it.
• Isabela's song "What Else Can I Do?" is about her discovering her plant powers were broader than she thought and finding fulfillment and identity through it. The title thus works to express awe at discovering new skills— "what other things do I have yet to discover?" and as a rhetorical confirmation that there is no other positive path forward— "what other options do I have that can make me happy?" [None!] It also serves as a comment on how this is Isabela's true nature— what else can she do but fully explore and express her powers and be herself?
• The Madrigals' powers are implied to have been granted by God or some other higher power. Several of them possess powers God granted in the Bible. Luisa has Super-Strength like Samson; Julieta can heal, something multiple prophets have done and even the odd way it manifests isn't that unusual (Jesus healed with such methods as spitting on the ground and rubbing mud in people's eyes); and of course Bruno can see the future, being a prophet.
  • In that vein, Mirabel being without powers ends up having some biblical implications in and of itself; she ends up testing the Madrigals' love for each other and Abuela limits to hiding the family's problems. In other words, Mirabel's plight is a test from God for Abuela.
• The resolution of the film is really well-constructed to deliver the message of "sometimes things must be broken to be healed", with the most obvious aspect being the Madrigals losing their miracle as a jolt that prompts reconciliation. However, the loss also proves directly necessary for healing in a more subtle, literal narrative sense. When Mirabel reconciles with Abuela, she's run away to the river out of fear and guilt, and Abuela finds her there. At this point in the story, everything has been laid out on the table and the family discord has caused pain that cannot be ignored— the two characters are on the same page now and can start to heal. Both for storytelling purposes and likely being true to the character dynamics, this reconciliation between the two opposing characters is deliberately occurring while the two are alone and able to have the space to discuss the family troubles. With the rest of the family around, such a scene wouldn't be able to take place. And the family aren't around, they haven't found Mirabel yet, because the Madrigals, most notably super-hearing Dolores, lost their powers. The house crumbling was not only a metaphorical emotional reckoning for the family, but the loss of the miracle also served as a mechanical necessity to stall the family and give Mirabel and Abuela the space they needed to reconcile and cement a new direction.
• Alma exerted control over her family via their gifts, giving them each job she believes would best help the community, which also meant they usually defer to her. However, Mirabel not receiving a gift meant she wouldn't be under that control. And because of that, Mirabel could better see the harm Alma was unknowingly causing.
• Between Isabela and Luisa, the latter is shown to be more of a Cool Big Sis to Mirabel than the former. Why? It's implied that Isabela resented how Mirabel supposedly had an easy time without a gift and Isabela had to handle so much pressure. Luisa has been doing daily chores for the village and her family, so she was arguably better at handling pressure than Isabela.
  • Also, Alma was more controlling of Isabela in both her personal and duty life, while she only was concerned for Luisa fulfilling her duties. As such, Luisa only had to deal with a specific pressure that she was used to dealing with.
• During Mirabel's fantasy of getting a Gift in "Waiting on a Miracle", Pepa's side of the family is close together, and all five are there, while Julieta's side has a gap, and only has four. Why does Julieta's side have a gap and one less person? The gap is for Bruno. Mirabel had been shown to hold no animosity towards her estranged uncle, even before learning that he left to protect her, so she likely wishes he could be there if she ever gets a Gift, even if it's only subconsciously, but left him out of her fantasy because you know why.
• As both "Jorge" and "Hernando", Bruno's eyes are covered by either his ruana or a bucket. He's also covering the body parts that have him see visions.
• As pointed out on the Headscratchers page, Isabela's gift is seriously underutilized (she could provide all manner of food plants, medicinal herbs, and other useful plants to the Encanto instead of just beautifying everything with flowers). The only apparent reason she isn't doing more with her gift is that she never even tried to make anything other than flowers with it. Isabela's arc is all about how being pigeonholed as the "angelic flower maiden" has kept her from exploring her true talents and interests.
  • It's likely why Isabela is stuck making nothing but pretty flowers is because, when she first got her gift at the age of five, simple flowers were probably all she was able to produce. But Alma who, even upon her first grandchild, was already fixated with using each gift to "strengthen the miracle" and whatnot, quickly concluded that Isa's purpose must be making things beautiful. If Isabela's power and interests had been allowed to develop naturally, she almost certainly would make been conjuring more unique flora long before the age of twenty-one.
• At one point during the song "Surface Pressure," Luisa mentions a "light wind" toppling a metaphorical set of dominoes. As she says this, a full-sized tornado taller than a house looms over her and Mirabel— hardly a "light wind"... unless someone is strong enough to literally lift a building. At that point, a tornado is probably the equivalent of a soft breeze from their perspective.
  • Of course, it could also just be Blatant Lies to hide all the pressure she is under
• The Casita cracking makes sense given it lacked proper support. How Casita was created via love specifically Pedro sacrificing himself for his family and Alma's grief over this. Yes, it was The Power of Love but it was still brought forth because of trauma, which Alma never properly addressed for decades. As such, Alma never got any support. And without proper support (literal or metaphorical), the breakdown will come. In contrast, while Mirabel did experience a humiliating and traumatic event resulting in insecurity issues, as well as tense relationships with Isabela and Alma (especially the latter), she still had a support system in her family, even if they made mistakes. As such, even though Casita crumbles, Mirabel is able to remake it with the help of her family and community.
• Pedro, Alma, and Mirabel all have butterflies in their designs. Butterflies symbolize transformation.
  • Pedro's sacrifice would help create the Encanto, take out the invaders, and give hope for a new safe home.
  • Alma pushed aside her own pain and trauma, changing from the cheerful Spirited Young Lady to the serious Apron Matron, guiding the refugees in their new home and starting the tradition of her family using their gifts to help their home.
  • Mirabel revealed the toxic mindset in her family and introduced a healthier mindset.
• During their reconciliation, Alma states that Pedro sent Mirabel to her and the two see a kaleidoscope of yellow butterflies. And remember all of three of them are most associated with butterflies of the Madrigal family. Some believe that seeing butterflies means you are receiving messages from a guardian angel.
• At the end of the "Dos Oruguitas" sequence, young Alma puts on her mourning shawl and walks out of the room with a sense of resignation and/or determination, turning into Abuela. The family members she passes are Bruno, Isabela, and Luisa—mirroring what Alma felt pressured to do when she realized the refugees were all looking to her as their leader. Like Bruno, she had to look out for danger and problems (knowing that she'd be held responsible for anything that went wrong). Like Isabela, she had to be calm, serene, and "perfect" because a leader can't show fear or uncertainty to the people looking to them. Like Luisa, she felt that she needed to be strong and hide her emotional needs, which led to her shouldering the burdens of the whole Encanto on her own (note how the other village elders, who would otherwise be her peers, want Alma to assuage their fears). Just as Bruno, Isabela, and Luisa's powers isolated them from seeking help and support, Alma's position isolated her from the people who could have helped her.
• Abuela's love for photographs represents her desire to keep things exactly as they are, to freeze moments, so to say.
• One reason that Alma might not approve of Agustin as much as Félix? Agustin is very accident prone. Accidents aren't very good for her own view of perfection.
  • Taking this into account, it also makes more sense why Alma would want so much for Mariano to marry Isabela (and likely would be just as glad when he gets together with Dolores). Because Mariano has another trait that Alma would very much admire: Devotion to his own grandmother. This devotion also helps appeal to her sense of perfection.
• Camilo is a Big Eater for two reasons. One, he's fifteen - and probably going to hit another growth spurt. Two? His gift may end up needing a lot of energy.
• Look closely at the background of "Surface Pressure" when Luisa is on the tightrope and carrying literal weights: The background color is magneta. The same color as Alma. In other words, Alma is a surrounding force that is the main reason why Luisa is under great pressure.
• The evidence that Mirabel is meant to take over from Alma as the future/new head of the Madrigals (and eventual Encanto village):
  • Mirabel could only learn to be the emotional rock she was always meant to be from lacking a gift. With a superhuman ability, she would have ended up just as defined by it as her relatives. Being "normal" made her grounded and aware of her limitations. This in turn makes her aware the other Madrigals have limitations too.
    • This also means Mirabel won't be the last Madrigal to not get a gift - another Madrigal will be just like her, but this time? They'll know what it means: That that person will be the head of the family like Alma and later on, Mirabel. Casita will of course obey their orders too.
  • Mirabel's door disappearing makes sense in the finale: her door is the front door. Casita also only responds to two people's direct requests: Alma and Mirabel. Mirabel is Alma's heir, inherits Alma's gift — the house — and is the new head of the family.
    • Adding to this, both Alma and Mirabel are the only blood Madrigals without any powers, potentially giving them a different outlook from the rest of the family. It's also fitting that the head of the family might better connect to the townspeople as the "normal" one in their superpowered family.
    • While Casita does watch out for everyone in the family, it only directly obeys two people: Alma and Mirabel. This is also symbolic as well - Casita has the tightest bond with them because their "Gift" is their family. "House" can be easily interpreted as a family.
    • Casita didn't communicate that it had chosen Mirabel for the new Head of the Family - because it was at that point fairly young and had never done something like that before; therefore, it didn't know how to tell everyone that Mirabel is Alma's successor. In the future, the next Madrigal who doesn't receive a gift (or rather, receives Casita) will be communicated better.
    • Adding onto this - when Mirabel is old enough, she will presumably move into Alma's room. Why keep her, and her eventual successor in the nursery? So, she will be closest to the younger Madrigals.
    • Casita constructing a shelter for Mirabel makes extra sense when you take into consideration that it chose Mirabel to be Alma's successor as the head of the family and their link to the "Normal" people. It has extra reason to want Mirabel to live and had developed the tightest bond with her and Alma.
  • As a successor, their unofficial job is to fix what their predecessor did in the past — Alma saved the Encanto and paved the way for her family to use their gifts for good, but she also unintentionally caused undue pressure on them; Mirabel was the one who taught them that while their gifts are great, they themselves are not just their gifts.
  • Also, Word of God confirmed that before her failed gift ceremony, Mirabel was Alma's favored grandchild. As such, the Casita most likely thought that meant Mirabel was also her preferred heir. And like her grandmother, Mirabel didn't get a gift.
    • Word of God also confirmed that Mirabel is Casita's favorite. And Casita is connected to the Miracle and since Mirabel was Alma's favorite at the time, Casita's choice in making Mirabel the next Matriarch was even more sound. Of course, nobody realized what Casita might have been doing at the time, including Mirabel herself.
  • It was Pedro's love and sacrifice that birthed the Miracle that led to the Casita and Encanto being formed. And there have been many parallels between him and youngest granddaughter: The tie-in novelizations have Alma privately admit Mirabel is a lot like Pedro, the creators stated that it is Mirabel whose personality is the closest to the patriarch, and Mirabel bares one of the strongest physical resemblances to him. Casita may have sensed their similarities and wanted another person like Pedro to birth the new miracle.
  • Similar to how they each directly communicate with Casita, both Mirabel and Alma (at different times), talk to a portrait of Pedro. The Madrigal who was responsible for the Miracle being born.
• Of her entire family, it is Alma who Mirabel wants validation the most. It isn't just because the former is the head of the family but also because she's the only other blood Madrigal with no magical powers like Mirabel. However, unlike her granddaughter, Alma is respected by the family and the villagers.
• Bruno, Dolores, and Mirabel all being considered odd because of some relation to their respective gifts or lack thereof and their knowledge of things:
  • Bruno's gift seemed great, but it ultimately became a problem since the villagers blamed him for something he only saw but couldn't control. And given his visions, he literally has knowledge over the future but if it's not a "good" future, no one wants to hear it and he gets blamed.
  • Dolores' gift of super hearing could only be used in very specific ways, but not so much anywhere else. It's telling that in the first song, she is the only gifted Madrigal not to be shown doing a specific job in the Encanto. Also, she has the info on everyone in the village, which could be a privacy issue given nobody wants a person, who they barely know, to know it.
  • Mirabel is considered the oddest given how she was expected to get a gift but for some reason she never did. She is also met with criticism and disbelief when she initially warns about the cracks in Casita but no one believes her, believing she's making it up for attention.
• Fitting for her status as The Heart, Mirabel is able to parallel each Madrigal member, from personality, predicaments, interests, etc.:
  • With Pedro — Mirabel has one of the physically closest resemblances to the patriarch (along with Camilo and Bruno). In one of the tie-in books, Alma privately thinks Mirabel reminds her of Pedro the most and Word of God confirmed that Mirabel has the closest personality to her grandfather. Out of the entire family, only Pedro and Mirabel are tied specifically with yellow butterflies. They both confront things that could hurt them in order to protect the family (Pedro stopping the raiders to protect his family; Mirabel going to save the candle to protect her family and their magic).
  • With Alma — Both want to protect the family in their own ways but tend to accidentally cause more problems than necessary. They are the only blood Madrigals with no gift inherited gift but communicate with Casita the most. And while Isabela is the grandchild who looks like Alma the most, Mirabel comes in close second. Their respective rooms are in direct opposition of each other. They have a tendency to mask their emotional pain in order to help the family even if it their hurt goes unacknowledged.
  • With Julieta: Of her sisters, Mirabel wears the closest shade of blue to Julieta. Mirabel also has the strongest resemblance to her mother. Both are maternal, feminine Nice Girls who have a typically feminine hobby (embroidery for Mirabel; cooking for Julieta). They are both healers in their own way (Julieta can literally heal physical wounds with her food, Mirabel provides emotional/psychological healing for the more troubled members of her family).
  • With Pepa: They are routinely scolded by Alma to control themselves and suppress their natural emotions/feelings.
  • With Bruno: They are treated as scapegoats in the family (mainly from Alma), because they reveal something that the others fear; Mirabel even states that they are "family weirdos who get a bad rep". They each have a complex/troubled relationship with Alma, as both uncle and niece try to gain approval from her, but mostly falling short. They have a troubled relationship with an older sister (Pepa for Bruno; Isabela for Mirabel), but also end up encouraging said older sisters to express themselves. Both are most associated with the color green (Bruno's green visions and ruana; Mirabel's green glasses); are the only family members to have a recurring eye motif; both have a respective animal motif (rats for Bruno; butterflies, mainly yellow ones, for Mirabel). They each have creative/artsy hobbies (embroidery for Mirabel, rat shows for Bruno). They both bare one of the strongest resemblances to Pedro. Both are also The Baby of the Bunch in their respective sibling groups as well as the shortest.
  • With Félix: They are both fun-loving, non-magical members of the Madrigals. Along with their extroverted energy, both are also skilled in emotionally comforting the more stressed family members.
  • With Agustín: Both he and Mirabel are the only Madrigals to wear glasses. Like with his daughter, Agustín is a non-magical family member; and while both have some insecurity over this, they don't let said insecurity make them resentful or jealous. Both can play an instrument (piano for Agustín, accordion for Mirabel). They are clumsy, dorky Butt Monkeys willing to stand up to Alma in the defense of another. And like his daughter, Agustín has an (implied) complex relationship with Alma, as Word of God revealed that Alma wasn't initially on board with him marrying Julieta; in other words, both father and daughter know what it's like to be unfairly judged by the Madrigal matriarch.
  • With Isabela: Both put on a facade to make everyone else think they are fine with their roles but are secretly upset and stressed about it. A key reason for their respective facades is that neither one wants to make their grandmother disappointed. They both wanted the other's perceived "better" life without realizing the pressure the other was under, wrongly assuming the worst in their behavior. Both represent the respective downsides of being the golden child (Isabela) and The Unfavorite (Mirabel); Isabela is forced to be perfect all the time while Mirabel is unfairly dismissed and ignored. Also, they are Eccentric Artists in their own way (embroidery and drawing for Mirabel; plant conjuring for Isabela).
  • With Luisa: Both are a Cool Big Sis with protective instincts to their respective younger sibling figures (Mirabel for Luisa, Antonio for Mirabel). Both are left in the shadow of the oldest sister, Isabela, often overlooked/underappreciated by Alma. Both feel inadequate for losing/not having a gift but come to learn they're more than that.
  • With Dolores: The oddballs of the family for their own reasons. They are often overlooked by others, especially in comparison to Isabela, whom they each have a complex relationship with for one reason or another.
  • With Camilo: They are the only 15-year-olds of the family. Both are Friend to All Children and each has a close, loving relationship with Antonio. They each have identity issues and are still trying to figure out who they are, (for Camilo it was confirmed by Word of God while this struggle was shown more explicitly in the movie with Mirabel).
  • With Antonio: Like with Bruno, both he and Mirabel are The Baby of the Bunch in their respective sibling groups, as well as the shortest. Both feel a lot of pressure to be what their older relatives want them to be and are afraid of disappointing them.
• The creators confirmed that Mirabel is Luisa's favorite sister. Why is that? While all of the sisters know what it's like to feel pressure, Luisa can bond with Mirabel in the fact they are both overshadowed by Isabela.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry complex relationship between Mirabel and Isabel has layers to it:
  • Despite the mutual tension on both sides, it's Isabela who's openly more antagonistic and haughtier towards Mirabel while the latter is at worst snarky (and usually either in private or in defense of Isabela's attitude). It all comes down to how they handle their positions in the family — Isabela is the golden child and had to put on an air of perfection since she was five, which only worsened after Mirabel's failed ceremony; Mirabel is both The Unfavorite and The Scapegoat but usually only from Alma and Isabela, and never received a gift, and thus never had to hide her imperfections. In other words, Isabela was never able to release her stress in healthy ways while Mirabel was.
  • Jealousy inversion - In this type of family dynamics, one would expect the giftless and unfavorite Mirabel to jealous of the gifted and favored Isabela. But the truth is the opposite: While Mirabel did have some angst over not having a gift, she doesn't exhibit any jealous tendencies despite what some of her family and villagers may think. Mirabel's only issue with Isabela is the latter's uncalled for snooty attitude towards her. On the other hand, Isabela was pressured into being perfect by her Control Freak grandmother, in her public and private lives. A big part of Isabela was actually jealous of how Mirabel seemingly lived a carefree life while she virtually had none since she was a child.
  • Humility - Tying into the above example, there's a stark difference in each other's pride levels given their positions in the family. Mirabel had low self-esteem given her low status in the family but also could model humility from them, particularly her humble father and doting mother. In contrast, Isabela was constantly doted on by Alma, the matriarch, and the tie-in novel reveals that she never gets in trouble (hinting at Alma's coddling of her). So, in spite of the pressure, Isabela gained a somewhat prideful opinion over herself.
• Camilo's dramatization of Bruno reveals the biggest problem in the family. During "We Don't Talk About Bruno," each family member describes a vision of Bruno's which they use to villainize him. When Camilo shapeshift to look like a version of Bruno it is particularly frightening since it is the part of the song that focuses on Bruno's supposedly spooky appearance. Throughout the film, Camilo's power to shapeshift is utilized many times before this scene but this is the only time where Camilo's form differs drastically from the actual person. In the song, Camilo's version of Bruno is all green, which is the same green as Bruno's powers. While it could be argued that Camilo's Bruno form is exaggerated for spookiness, it is important to note that when the audience sees true Bruno use his powers, his eyes turn green, but the rest of his body remains flesh-colored. Camilo's interpretation of Bruno is connected purely to his powers and the exaggeration of the green demonstrates that interpretation clearly. Since Bruno's powers prophesize the future, the family seem to misinterpret the prophecies as curses rather than predictions that Bruno may not have any control over. This is made even more evident in Camilo's verse in with the line: "He sees your dreams and feasts on your screams," implying that Camilo's interpretation of Bruno is one that uses his powers intentionally maliciously. Camilo isn't the only Madrigal who defines Bruno by his powers during the song. However, Camilo's interpretation of Bruno points to the key issue of the Madrigal family: seeing the individual members as just their powers and this is the issue that nearly tears the family apart.
• The creators stated that Mirabel has a habit of deliberately staying out of family photos due to feelings of inadequacy. This makes sense. Since she was the only blood Madrigal child to not get a gift, that also meant she was the only one to not get her photo taken at her Gift ceremony.
• Each of Julieta's compliments towards Mirabel during their talk are the same exact traits that help save the family and the Miracle:
  • "Wonderful brain" = Mirabel's emotional intelligence allows her to better understand and help each of her distressed family members.
  • "Big heart" = Combined with her above-mentioned smarts and natural empathetic nature enables to better connect with each emotionally stressed Madrigal.
  • "Cool glasses" = The writers confirmed that Mirabel's uniquely, green-colored glasses symbolize her different perspective on things. As such, she can see from a different point-of-view than her family's (especially Alma's) rigidness in maintaining perfection.
• Jared Bush commented that because Antonio was born after Mirabel's failed gift ceremony, he's never seen her as the "giftless Madrigal"; only his wonderful and loving cousin who he adores. This makes logical sense: While the other Madrigals do genuinely love and care for Mirabel, they were all raised to view their gifts as a huge part of their identity. So, when Mirabel didn't get her gift, whether they realized it or not, they began to see her as someone with no clear identity simply because she had no gift. On the other hand, Antonio grew up with Mirabel in the same room before he acquired his gift. So, even though the same mindset was passed onto him to an extent, it was tempered with getting to see Mirabel's strengths that didn't come from a gift.
• "The Encanto Official Movie Magazine" states that Antonio is Mirabel's favorite cousin between him, Camilo, and Dolores; it also states that Antonio is her best friend. This makes sense for a number of a reasons:
  • As stated in the above section, Antonio doesn't see Mirabel as the "giftless one" just his wonderful big cousin/big sister figure he deeply loves. Unlike her family (even the more supportive ones), Antonio fully valued and trusted Mirabel even prior to the events of the movie.
  • While Mirabel's two cousins do love her, like the rest of the family (sans a few), they don't fully respect her and show it in certain moments (i.e., Dolores bluntly telling the children Mirabel has no gift, spilling her secret at the dinner scene, etc). Antonio, on the other hand, shows nothing but trust and admiration for his older cousin.
  • Mirabel has been shown to be a Friend to All Children and so it's understandable she favors the young Antonio over her older cousins.
  • In addition? She sleeps in the nursery... where Antonio slept for several years. No doubt that when he was scared at night, Mirabel would be the first one there.
  • They share an important link in their bond - Both are the youngest child of their respective siblings and are (or were) pressured to have a gift to contribute to their family and community. Mirabel was the first to not receive a gift and it was left unsure if Antonio would get one either. And so, until his birthday, the duo could bond and empathize with each other's plight.
• Antonio not being good with people makes sense given his close bond with Mirabel — the former most likely witnessed how the townspeople often disrespected the latter, whether intentional or not, simply for not having a gift. If strangers could treat his favorite relative so badly, it's no wonder he has trouble socializing with them.
• During and after the disastrous dinner, most of the Madrigals are quick to assume that Mirabel being possibly responsible for the destruction of Casita and the Miracle makes sense given what happened a day earlier: The successful ceremony of Antonio's gift ceremony. In contrast to Mirabel's own failed ceremony, which took place 10 years prior. While they are not said, it's implied that, on some level, they think Mirabel not getting a gift had something to do what was wrong with her.
• Jared Bush commented that Isabela secretly likes the chaos that Pepa can cause with her gift. She initially tried to be perfect, so for some this revelation may be jarring, but for those who have analyzed Isabela's character arc, the reasons for this admiration will be more than clear; Isabela wants to be free to express herself as she wants and expand the nature of her power instead of acting as Alma wanted, just like Pepa does when she stops holding back her emotions accidentally causing chaos around her. Despite acting like the perfect golden child" of the family, Isabela deep down just wanted to be free to express herself as she wanted, just like Pepa does.
• It may seem ridiculous that Dolores blurted out Mirabel's secret at the dinner party, but was able to keep Bruno's secret for years; but in hindsight, it makes perfect sense for a number of reasons:
  • Danger - Bruno secretly living inside the house posed no threat to the magic, Casita, or the Madrigals; however, Dolores did overhear Mirabel stating she may be the reason for the magic disappearing and Casita destroying, right in in earshot of her.
  • Respect - In all honesty, despite Dolores' genuine love for Mirabel, like most of their family (sans a notable few), she doesn't truly respect her younger cousin. Because she's younger and (more subconsciously), she doesn't have a gift like the other blood Madrigals. Bruno is her uncle with probably one of the most powerful gifts in the family.
  • Expectations - Dolores had told everyone that Bruno never left, but this was likely at a point when Bruno had just disappeared, and was therefore dismissed as wishful thinking on the part of a sad child - so eventually she stopped trying. But now Dolores is an adult, the vision is right there for everyone to see, and Casita had already begun cracking. And later we see Alma yelling at Agustín for not telling her about the vision immediately, contrasting with the common sentiment that We Don't Talk About Bruno.
• Some of the plants that Isabela spawns like cacti and carnivorous plants that she's fond of make a bit more sense when y'all realize that those plants are the ones that, in a way, fight back. For the longest, she's mostly grown flowers of plants that don't "fight back"—Ever since she got her gift, she's been kind of passed around and shown off, with very little control over things go and she wants control over that. Similarly, her cacti and carnivorous plants might be a ref to how, in a way, she lashes out at Mirabel.
• The first time we see a yellow butterfly, it's in Bruno's vison. Which is odd, because everything up to that point was monochrome green - except the candle, which glows the same shade of yellow. Those butterflies were a genuine part of the miracle!
• Bruno's "Your future awaits" sign in his room is a big, imposing sculpture of a hand pointing up - a left hand. Truly a sinister omen.
• Mirabel sings "But let's be clear, Abuela runs this show", which is correct since she's the matriarch and leader who keeps the Encanto (dys)functioning and tells people what they should do/be. But what are Mirabel's first lines? "Drawers! Doors! Floors! Let's go!" She's cuing Casita to put on a performance, also running a show of her own - fitting for her implied future position as Alma's heir/replacement as "giftless" leader of the family.

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