Encanto: A Fantastic Display of Family Dynamics
Which member of the Family Madrigal do you identify with?
My partner and I watched Encanto, the latest Disney animated film, last week, and holy crap did it hit home for both of us. Well, it hit home for us and millions of other people like us, based on the amount of hype it’s getting.
Be warned, I am going to try my best to avoid major spoilers, but there will likely be a few here or there. I’m going to be talking about the family dynamics a bit, so watching it first will help you understand more anyway.
The Madrigal family is headed by Alma Madrigal, who fled her town with her three triplets and started the namesake town of Encanto. During the trip, her husband sacrificed himself to save her, their children, and other fleeing townsfolk, creating the enchanted candle that holds the magic. This magic created the magical sentient house they live in, known as Casita, and gives each person in the family a special gift, which they receive on their fifth birthday. Alma, also known as Abuela, is the keeper of the candle that holds the magic and has no power of her own.
Her three children are Julieta, Pepa, and Bruno. Julieta is the oldest daughter and has the power to heal people with food. Pepa is the middle child and can control the weather based on what she’s feeling. Bruno (we don’t talk about Bruno!) is the youngest and has the power to see the future.
Pepa has three children with her husband Felix: Dolores, Camilo, and Antonio. Dolores has superhuman hearing, able to hear a pin drop or, in one case, a character’s eyes twitching. Camilo can shapeshift into other people, taking the form of whomever he wants. Antonio is the youngest, receiving his gift in the opening act of the movie, and can talk to animals.
Julieta has three children with her husband Agustin: Isabela, Luisa, and Mirabel. Isabela is, as the film states, perfect in every way, and can control and create plants and flowers. Luisa is incredibly strong, being able to lift buildings and reroute rivers. Mirabel, the film protagonist, has no gift and is the only member of the family to not receive one.
Because receiving a gift is a big deal, the whole village is present for the ceremony. Mirabel is the youngest of Julieta’s children and the second-youngest overall, so her ceremony failing is still fresh in the minds of the village, the family, and especially Alma, who is a bit of a controlling matriarch and village elder. There is much fussing about Antonio’s gift ceremony since they need the ceremony to work this time to reassure the townsfolk that the magic is still strong.
You’ll notice that I didn’t really talk about Bruno. Bruno is seen as a bit of a town pariah since his predictions often come true to the frustration of the townsfolk. He predicts that one woman’s fish will die, and it does the next day. He predicts that one man will grow a gut and another will lose his hair, and both come true.
Pepa in particular is upset with Bruno because he told her “it looks like rain” on her wedding day, which had been clear up to that point. She wound up getting so upset that she and Felix got married “in a hurricane.” So, as a result, we got a whole song called “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” in which everyone talks about Bruno, why nobody likes him, and why he seems to have disappeared.
A significant amount of the movie is spent exploring the family dynamics of the Madrigals, and much of the conflict is focused on interpersonal quarrels and insecurities within the family. This, I think, is why the movie is so relatable. Pretty much everyone I’ve talked to identifies with at least one of the Madrigals, and there are many videos and articles that break down the family dynamics.
Pepa, for example, controls the weather with her emotions. She does her best to manage her emotions, but it rapidly becomes apparent that she’s a nervous wreck half the time trying to keep herself locked down. Luisa has a whole song (Surface Pressure) dedicated to her anxiety about being the town strongwoman — everyone relies on her to lift heavy things, but she never gets a break and, as such, is on the verge of a breakdown.
As the movie progresses, each of the Madrigals exhibits some level of negative quirks around their powers. Isabela feels cornered into being the perfect one and doesn’t feel like she can be herself. Dolores is often overwhelmed by everything she hears and copes with it in various unhealthy ways, like gossiping. Camilo is rarely seen in his original form, often mirroring other people and masking (by shapeshifting) to be what everyone wants him to be.
Antonio, who receives his gift early in the film, is a quiet and shy kid who is nervous about his ceremony failing like Mirabel’s. He is under a lot of pressure from his family — particularly Alma — to have his ceremony go well, even though he has no control over it. As such, he is seen hiding from his family at the beginning of the ceremony and needs Mirabel, who is a comforting presence to him, to walk him to his door for the ceremony.
Bruno, who “disappeared” around the time of Mirabel’s failed ceremony, has been living in the walls of the family home. Even though he sees the future and simply relays what he sees, people didn’t appreciate his visions, since they were often bad — the woman whose fish died, for example. As such, he found himself exiled and spends his time hanging out with rats and patching up the cracks that have been forming in Casita.
All of this is overseen by the overly-controlling Abuela, the family matriarch, who insists that things need to be perfect so that the townsfolk know that they are safe. She instructs the Madrigals to use their powers to help people in the village, which contributes to the various neuroses that each member develops.
Alma puts a lot of pressure on Isabela to be perfect, marry well, and carry on the family line, even though that’s not necessarily what she wants. Luisa is pushed to help anyone and everyone with their manual labor to the point where she simply can’t handle the constant work. Camilo spends so much time shapeshifting as other people that I’m not convinced that he has a strong sense of self, even though it’s not really explored.
Honestly, that’s one of my only gripes about the film: it could’ve been an hour longer to explore the various family dynamics and I wouldn’t have complained. Heck, they probably could have wrapped it up into a four-minute catchy song and it would’ve been fine.
That was a lot of space dedicated to the family dynamics of a fictional family in a Disney movie, and I could’ve gone on much longer. However, I think that’s the biggest benefit of the movie: the characters are complex and unique, so most people can identify with at least one of them.
Whether you’re a Bruno, a black sheep who isn’t welcome in their family; or an Isabela, feeling pushed to be absolutely perfect even though you want other things; or a Mirabel, who feels like a superfluous family member, acknowledged but not appreciated; someone in the family Madrigal likely speaks to you.
My partner identifies strongly with Luisa, having spent so much time putting her body on the line for others. She has taken beatings and abuse in order to protect other people, both loved ones and near-strangers, for so long that Luisa’s arc in the film made her cry at least once.
I identify strongly with Mirabel in a lot of ways: it always felt like I was present in family gatherings, and even acknowledged and appreciated, but I never felt as though I fit in. My partner pointed out that I also fit well with Camilo: constantly putting on a mask to be what my family, particularly my father, wanted me to be at the time.
I suspect that my sister, who I have always seen as “miss perfect,” would identify a bit with Isabela — at least, I see her that way. I definitely identify my father as an Alma — he’s a very particular person who needs things done his way, and he can become very controlling and manipulative to get things to go the way he wants. My mother is a bit of a Julieta in some ways — a somewhat meek but calming presence, just kind of there in the background.
As I’ve said, most people can identify with at least one of the Madrigals. Whether you’re a black sheep like Bruno, a shy Antonio who doesn’t appreciate the pressure you’re under, a Pepa who is constantly pushed to control your emotions, or a Dolores who is under constant stress from everything you hear, there is a Madrigal for you.
(Major spoiler warning for the next three paragraphs! Seriously, go watch the film if you can.)
I think that’s what makes Encanto one of the best Disney films in a while, and definitely the best film without a traditional villain. The primary conflict in the movie is that the magic is dying and the candle is in danger of going out, but the source of all of this is the conflict within the family unit.
There is so much interpersonal strife between the Madrigals that the family unit is in danger of collapse, and as the family dynamics break down, so too does the power of the magic candle. Only by working through their various issues and problems can they save the magic, and even then it’s not an instantaneous thing.
At the climax of the film, the candle goes out and the magic dies. Only by revisiting the origins of the magic and coping with the generational trauma that it caused does the magic return, and even then it takes a while before it does. Sure, it happens over the course of a musical montage, but as the family heals from their collective trauma and conflict, so too does the magic. Mirabel, who was at the center of everything, is acknowledged as an important member of the family and not a failure and winds up being the one who eventually brings the magic back.
(Major spoilers are over!)
The display of family dynamics within the Madrigals is such a relatable story device that I’m surprised Disney didn’t do it sooner. I think it started with Frozen, where the dynamics between Anna and Elsa drive most of the plot, but dedicating a whole movie to a multigenerational family is what made Encanto truly great.
And, while having such a large cast might hurt many other movies, it really helped viewers relate to Encanto. As I’ve said, there’s a Madrigal for everyone, and while I think they could’ve spent another hour or so on the family dynamics, it is a movie for kids after all. That said, I believe that this is probably the best Disney outing in quite a while.
Also, it helps that the music absolutely slaps.
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