THE PLOT

The Madrigals are an extraordinary family who lives in the mountains of Columbia, in a charmed place called the Encanto. The mysterious magic of the Encanto gives each child in the family special powers when they reach 5 years of age. Everyone has powers. Antonio can talk to animals, Pepa can control the weather, and Dolores has super hearing. Everyone except for the main character Mirabel. When she touches the magic candle and touches the door to her room, nothing happens. This in turn, makes her "perfect" sister Isabella always act and feel like Mirabel is not on her level, flipping her silky hair in Mirabel's face when she tries to help, and covering her with flowers when she gets in the way of the decorations. She is constantly comforted by her aunt and uncle, her other sister, and her parents, but they never seem to have any effect on her sadness. But as she starts hearing things about her other uncle Bruno, she starts snooping around to find out why the family (quite literally) doesn't talk about Bruno. This, in turn, sends the family and Casita on a downhill slope. Dolores finds out about Mirabel's snooping, and so does her father at the same time. Later that day, Abuela and Mirabel get in a fight about always being pushed to be perfect, like Abuela making Pepa repeat "Clear skies" when she gets emotional. Though this did also help Pepa to regulate her emotions, at first glance it is a little strange. But after this, the family makes up and the villagers help them to rebuild the casita. They get their powers back, Bruno is accepted back into the family, and Bruno gets to feel like he's at home again.

OVERALL REACTIONS

I loved the film, and so did my mum and grandmother. It is a wholesome and funny film, and many people on the internet liked it as we did. I don't think I've seen anyone say anything negative about Encanto. The biggest thing I like about Encanto is the skin tones of the characters. And I know this must sound strange, but it's interesting to see the diverse skin tones of the characters. For example, Felix's darker skin tone, Pepa's pale skin, and Antonio's mixture of the two. Plus, Antonio is so freaking cute, my heart melted at every scene he was in. He's precious, and Luisa is amazing too. I think she should be a Disney princess. We could use more strong princesses. We only have Mulan, Pocahontas, and Merida. But I'm gonna make a whole nother episode about Disney forgetting Merida's existence... So we could use some more strong princesses, and Luisa is the perfect candidate. Plus, the story is deep, and many of the characters have lots of pressure on them. Literally.

THE TRUE MEANING

The true meaning is similar to the meaning of Turning Red, pressure to be perfect and generational trauma. Look at Isabella's personality and lines, and Luisa's solo song "Surface Pressure". Isabella was supposed to be married off to another family to strengthen and continue the great Madrigal family, and due to Luisa only being "helpful" when she's carrying something when she started to discover her powers fading, she felt like she was becoming useless. Her song outright says this with the lines "I'm pretty sure I'm worthless if I can't be of service", and "Who am I if I can't run with the ball if I falter?". Same with Bruno! His power is to predict the future. The villagers were unhappy with his predictions and basically started acting like he caused the predictions to come to exist, so Bruno hid in the walls of the house so he wouldn't annoy anyone. The movie ends with the family accepting the fact that they can't possibly be perfect, they accept Bruno again, and the sisters (Luisa, Isabella, and Mirabel) love each other again. That's where the movie ends, after about an hour and a half. So, yes! The film is amazing.