Warning: This movie review contains spoilers!
People are going crazy over the new Disney movie Encanto, which came out November 24th of 2021. The movie has grown more popular mainly for the message that hides in between the lines that only a few people have been able to dig out.
Encanto is about a family called the Madrigals who have special abilities, except for one, her name is Mirabel. She is the only one in her family who did not receive an ability or “gift” as said in the movie. She’s always trying to make her Abuela proud by helping around the house and putting extra effort in things so that people don’t see her as any different from anyone else in her special family.
Mirabel’s uncle or Bruno as mentioned in the movie, had a bad reputation to his name because of the gift he had. Bruno could see things in the future which later ended up helping Mirabel save the Encanto or “the miracle” as said in the movie. Mirabel decides that she wants to save “La casita” after seeing it crack and break. She goes to Bruno’s room and finds the broken pieces of what looks like to be what Bruno used to see his visions. Marabel takes them with her and starts to put them together, what she finds is her standing in front of La Casita while it is being cracked and broken.
People who have watched the movie love it because of the meaning behind everything that happens in the Encanto. Let’s talk about that for a second. “Abuela”, Mirabel’s grandmother discovered the Encantó/Miracle after she and her husband were forced out of their home, which eventually led up to her husband’s death. The miracle gifted the family with a home, their magical abilities, and a town where other people can live as well, and ever since then everyone born into the family Madrigal received a gift. Now that you have the backstory let’s actually get into the meaning of the movie.
Many people say that since Abuela experienced so much trauma in her past with losing her home and husband, that she put a lot of pressure and stress on her family members to keep their reputation. For example, Luisa. In the movie Luisa has the gift of super strength, near the middle of the movie Luisa sings the song “ Under the surface”.
In the song she sings about how on the outside she feels unstoppable and like she could do anything, but on the inside she feels stress and pressure to not let the family down, to protect the family, and to keep Abuela proud. Mirabel tells Luisa to stop putting herself under so much stress which later causes Luisa to become weak, and to lose her power for a while. Viewers believe that Mirabel saw how much stress she was in and temporarily took Luisa’s powers away.
Near the end Mirabel turns to her uncle Bruno for help because she wants to know why she was in his vision. He tells her that he doesn’t know and shows her that the vision changes meaning that the future isn’t yet decided. Bruno tells Mirabel that the fate of La casita and the Miracle are in her hands. Mirabel asks Bruno if he can see more of the vision to see if there’s any way he can help her save La Casita and the Miracle.
After finding out what she has to do she goes to her other sister Isabela’s room who has the gift of perfection and can make pretty flowers bloom, all Mirabel would have to do was hug Isabela and the Casita and Miracle would be saved. Isabela had been angry with Mirabel so it was difficult for Mirabel to hug her, but after making Isabela so angry and making her bloom a cactus which she had never done before, Isabelais happy that she can make other things other than perfect flowers all the time, she’s finally happy. Abuela finds out and makes Mirabel feel bad about helping Isabela feel happy again, because she wasn’t perfect anymore. Which makes Mirabel realize that she wasn’t the problem it was Abuela, she gives Abuela a piece of her mind and Casita starts to crack and break for real.
Everybody leaves the casita before it completely collapses except for Mirabel she went to get the candle which held the Miracle in it, even after all that Mirabel couldn’t keep the candle from going out and the families magic abilities were taken away. Mirabel felt as if it was her fault and fled, her family looked for her for days and later Abuela found her in the exact place where Abuela’s husband had been killed. Abuela apologizes for everything and the two make up. Mirabel, Abuela, and Bruno all go back to where their house used to be and Mirabel decides that they will just rebuild the house.
After the completion of the Casita, Mirabel’s family makes her a special doorknob with her initials on it, she goes to open the door of the house and then all of a sudden all of the magic that was lost comes back to the house and the family gets their gifts back.
Many viewers were still upset because Mirabel still didn’t get her gift, but I and many other viewers think that the reason she didn’t get her power was because she will be the new guardian of the candle since Abuela is getting older. What do you think?
