I've Been Thinking...About Encanto
If you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend it. The visual backgrounds and animation are incredible, and the music is catchy and fun. If you haven't figured out why we don't talk about Bruno, you really need to watch this movie. My favorite part about the movie is the familial dynamics that make up the center of the story. I also like that there is no villain.
I've been thinking about this movie for a long time, and now I am finally ready to start talking about it all.
If you have seen the movie, Encanto, then you know that it is about Mirabel and her family, the Madrigals. Does anyone else love that they are named after a song type? We find out that they have lived in a place of magic for many years - magic that was gifted to Abuela, the matriarch, after the tragic death of her husband. She received magic in the form of a candle that transformed the desolate place she found into a house and town where the mountains protect all inhabitants.
The family grows, and each person receives a gift. The first gifts were somewhat useful and assisted the family with protection. One daughter, Pepa, can control the weather. The other daughter, Julieta, can heal people by making food to nourish them. The son, Bruno, who we don't talk about - made clear in the very first song in the movie - has visions of the future. The next generation of magical people have other gifts - possibly less focused on protection and more focused on the day-to-day acts of life. One granddaughter makes flowers - interestingly, she can make other things as well but has been placed in the role of making things pretty. One granddaughter can hear things for miles and miles. Another granddaughter is strong and is the one who is called on to move, place, fix just about anything. The sole grandson can speak to animals, and then there is Mirabel.
Mirabel is the only person in her family not to have a magic door and role to play in the family. This has some stigma attached to it, and she seems to go into a role that many of us play when we feel like what we do is not good enough or what our elders want use to do - she seems to do a bit of everything, and never up to the standards of her Abuela. When we meet Mirabel, she is helping her family prepare for a ceremony for her younger cousin who is due to receive his gift.
Mirabel is perky, she sings about her family with great love and glee. When the children of the town press her about her own gift, she deflects the attention back to her gifted family members. When it is revealed that she does not have a gift, the children call her out and tell her that she should be really sad about being the only one who isn't gifted.
Here's my take on this entire story. I think that Mirabel does have a gift, one that was given to her during her own gift ceremony but that the family did not recognize as the gift. I think that Mirabel was given Casita (the name of the house) during that ceremony, and that her gift was to be the next family matriarch.
Abuela is getting older. She protected her infant triplets after her husband was killed. She was focused on safety, protection, and survival, so the gifts given helped her with those goals for her children. As the family grew, the gifts were acknowledged but were less important to recovering from the trauma that Abuela experienced. Abuela seems to assign importance to her family members based on their gifts, but she is pretty short-sighted when it comes to her family members.
At its core, Encanto is a story about trauma. Generational trauma, secondary trauma, and attempting to encase the self in safety in any way possible. Abuela is always scared of others coming to the protected valley where the magic protects her children and grandchildren. Mirabel, someone who has only heard stories about what happened to her grandfather and who has never experienced that trauma, is selected by Casita to move the family towards resilience and resolution.
I rewatched the movie several times this week - I listened to it when I was driving to work, and then I actually watched it during my documentation time when I was at work (I am more efficient if I am listening to movies or television shows when I work as compared to when I listen to music). My focus was on the flashback when Mirabel is denied a gift by Casita. The magic door appeared - just like all the others had appeared when it was time - and when Mirabel touched the doorknob, the door dissolved into the walls of Casita. Since no other ceremony had ended that particular way, no one knew what that meant. I think Casita knew.
Throughout the film, Mirabel seems to have the closest connection to Casita. Casita does things for other family members, but it seems that Casita pays attention to what Mirabel wants and needs more than others. During the scene where Casita collapses, the house helps Mirabel get to the magic candle but moves the others out of the house. The siblings and cousins attempt to help Mirabel, but Casita moves them away. The house knows that Mirabel is the way into the future, so Mirabel is the one who is given the gift of the magic.
I believe that the house knew that from the very beginning and that the dissolving door meant that Mirabel's gift was the family and the magic. She did not need a gift of her own because she was the gift. She and Casita would work together to help navigate the generational trauma and sense of insecurity that Abuela brought with her into the valley. From the start, Mirabel was to be the center of home and healing. I think that is why the house comes to life when Mirabel turns the doorknob in the new and improved Casita.
After the house falls, Abuela has to move from the position of grand matriarch for her family and for all the others who live nearby into a place of cooperation and, not really dependence but to accepting assistance from others - I guess to share the burden of being the head of the family and to realize that it was not her job to protect everyone - that vulnerability is allowed and part of the human condition. Casita had a lesson for Abuela as well as one for Mirabel. We humans work better when we share with others. No man is an island - thank you, John Donne. Human systems (like families) work best when there is cooperation and shared responsibilities.
I love how this movie allows Mirabel to connect with her sisters in ways that they have never connected before. Mirabel and her sister Luisa share an experience where they share that they feel the same way. The strong sister is not always happy. The strong sister feels the pressure of the role she has been given. Isabella, the sister who makes things pretty, seems to be the perpetual thorn in Mirabel's side, but they also connect. Isabella finds that she can do more than just make things pretty. She can be useful. That was a big revelation for someone who always felt the pressure to be perfect!
At the end of the movie, the family works together as a unit to rebuild their house. The first house was made by magic. Abuela and her triplets watched Casita come together, but Casita, version two, was made by the family and by the villagers. They put Casita together using their selves - not their magical gifts. Once the house is finished, it is just a regular house - until Mirabel turns the doorknob. Casita then lights up, starts to participate in the life of the family, and we get to enter with them as they go home. We do not find out if the magical powers that the family members had and lost when Casita fell ever return - we don't see that happening, but I think that they really didn't need their magic anymore, so if the gifts did not return, I think the family would be able to continue. They learned that they could do more than what they thought because they worked together.
Now we can talk about Bruno.
Well, not today, but he is back in his family and no longer a pariah.
Comments
Post a Comment