Disney said a lot without actually saying a lot in this film. We’re introduced to the Madrigal family, a family who lives in the mountains of Columbia and has a house that was generated by a… magical candle?
This is one of those times in which Disney Magic just did not make any sense to me, although there is a fan theory going around that the candle and the house is actually just the spirit of Pedro Madrigal making its presence known, which is a little confusing because they all refer to it as “La Casita”, which is a female pronoun in Spanish… but… we’ll go with it.
Encanto – A Disney movie about toxic positivity?
Mirabel Madrigal is one of the family members who didn’t seem to get a special gift, she is one of three magical daughters, one is Louisa, who is immensely physically strong, the next is the pretty and perfect Isabel who makes flowers grow and always wears a gorgeous purple gown. Mirabel is simply… Mirabel.
She didn’t get any special gift, in fact, La Casita seemed to absolutely turn its back on her when she was just a child by blocking her from getting her own room in the Madrigal household. Instead, Mirabel remains in the nursery.
Bad Casita
We meet her at her cousin Antonio’s gift receiving ceremony in which he received the ability to talk to animals. During this ceremony, Mirabel receives a warning that something bad is going to happen to the house but no one believes her – the one who especially perpetuates the disbelief is her very own Grandmother, Abuela.
Abuela insists that the house’s magic is strong and that nothing is wrong and everything is fine. Even when it obviously isn’t and the other members of the family have been receiving similar warnings.
When Mirabel tries to talk to them, she gets the same “La la la, I can’t hear you!” reaction from all of the Madrigals, at least at first.
Louisa tells her in a roundabout way that something is wrong… with her, but the one who she really wants to talk to is Dolores, who hears everything and who can’t keep a secret, they delay that interaction for quite a while through.. song and dance numbers. There is one member of the family that the Madrigals don’t talk about though, and that is Bruno.
Bruno seems to be the wet blanket of the family. Much like Mirabel, he sees things for what they are and makes a lot of fair judgments, but he was cast out of the family simply for the fact that not all of his predictions of the future were completely positive. Abuela was not impressed and since Bruno wasn’t going to be allowed to live truthfully, then he just decided to leave…
…Or did he?
As it turns out, Bruno has been there all along he’s just hiding out in the walls of the place and making friends with the rats.
Mirabel finds Bruno’s old vision, (Apparently, they come out as plexiglass plates – who knew?) Which involved her and the housebreaking apart, Mirabel asks him to conjure up another one and Bruno tries to tell her that he doesn’t do visions anymore but she manages to force him to do it, and then, at first glance, it looks like the only thing that will solve this is Mirabel making up with her sister Isabel, only that makes no sense because there was almost no conflict between them before?
What the vision doesn’t actually tell us but what we find out later, is that the only way that La Casa de Madrigal can ever truly be healed is if Abuela Madrigal lets go of the toxic positivity that she has harbored over the years.
We get it, she went through the murder of her husband when she had just had three babies (a truly heartbreaking scene, we all heard that scream even if one was never recorded) and the only hope she had to hold onto was a candle that seems to be the living embodiment of her husband’s soul. But she clung to the positive too tightly and ended up breaking the family in the end.
That is a lot to unpack for a Disney movie and a very mature message to send. While it’s in the keeping with the bright, shiny tone of Disney movies, it also tells us that not everything “negative” is a bad thing, Mirabel’s neutrality and realism is a great counter to her family’s over-the-top almost illogical positivity and Bruno’s warnings actually end up being a good thing, he is no villain in disguise, he’s simply a member of the family.
While the world-building left a bit to be desired, overall, it was a good first attempt at Disney going with a non-traditional theme. Does Mirabel get a gift at the end? No, but, it would seem that she may qualify as the family therapist. Stay tuned!!!
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