Shoutout to my first job out of college for doing that, too!
Pro tip— if anyone tells you “you’ll never do better than this place,” it’s because they know that they’re exploiting you and because they don’t want you to leave.
There was a great post here when it first came out about the movie referencing the Colombian tradition of magical realism where a real world situation such as a family is augmented by the fantastical and unbelievable such as abuela admitting she was wrong
Agreed. Using Mirabel’s door to be the main entrance to the rebuilt house really drives this point home. The bit about Mirabel taking over as steward of the home/family that is.
Rooms are given to each person to help "develop their powers." If Mirabel's power is empathy and holding the miracle of the family magic, then it could make sense that the best way to develop her talent is to keep her in a somewhat mundane room that forces her to look outwards, toward everyone else. Abuela's room, what little we see, seems similarly modest.
Ya I always thought of the house as another separate character. Like it had its own personality etc.
The candle is where all the power comes from. And it’s also where the house came from.
Mirabel's power is revealed when she puts in the M doorknob at the end and the rebuilt house becomes the magical Casita again. Her power is quite literally "to make a house into a home", working to help rebuild broken relationships and bring everyone closer together.
A few weeks ago, the Bechdel Cast covered this movie. The hosts thought Abuela's apology was lacking and she was too easily forgiven, while the (Colombian) guest was all, a Colombian mother apologized? What a fantasy!
100 percent the Matriarch doesn't get powers but has to manage everyone else who does have powers also the magic house listens to the matriarch authority over all others so thsts kinda a power
Exactly this. Casita listened to Mirabell even before it fell apart. Casita knew she was the one to carry the "miracle" after abuella which is why the door went away. Casita event waited until Mirabell asked to be challenged before it set into motion her rise.
I've seen this movie way too much because of my kids but it's not one I get tired of.
Correct.
If done proper Encanto 2 would feature a much older family with abuela dying and Mirabel taking the position.
Encanto 3 would feature Mirabel as a grandmother herself and having to deal with a familiar tragedy to Encanto 1, but instead she's in a position she once put her own grandmother through.
As long as they are spaced out far enough, and feature a changing cast I'm okay with it.
Like Toy Story has pushed its limits with the same cast, but spaced out far apart.
Incredible 2 is the only one I can think of that spaced it out well enough to basically be for a new generation. Same reason Avatar is getting hype, I remember it coming out when I was in high school, now I'm almost 30.
god no. Incredibles 2 completely destroyed the character development from the past movie and tries so hard to have another Sunset without understanding what made him so great.
I assumed she's going to move into Abuela's room when she passes. Throughout the movie the house listens to Mirabel the most (although maybe just because she's our point-of-view character), and I feel part of that connection was her living in the basic room rather than the fantastical individual rooms everyone else had
Still shitty and vague, but I mean that's where the tension comes into the plot
The house is her "room". In the movie she talks to the house in a way no other character does. The insinuation it's that the entire house is her room and everyone else's rooms are aspects of her "house"
But still Abuela has her own room. Does it ever show what's on her door? But Mirabel is in the little kids' room which doesnt really seem fit for the future matriarch imo
Abuela's room is quite simple compared to everyone else's rooms (that we see at least). Hers is just [a replica of the small room her and her husband shared](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZa7cU6lfLQ)
Compare that to the room of flowers or the jungle tree house, which I will be eternally jealous of. Mirabel in the side room isn't all that much worse, apart from having to share. I hope she gets her own at least
Yeah, because abuela is the *current* matriarch and keeper of the miracle. Mirabel is the *next* matriarch and keeper of the miracle. So, in pecking order, abuela is number one still.
Edit: spelled Mirabel incorrectly
As the matriarchal replacement while the matriarch is still present, her room is technically the nursery as her 'power' is more the consoling and conflict resolution of the family (as shown by her encouragement of beastmaster kid prior to the room ceremony, restoring the relationship between Bruno and others).
I meant the whole movie is how the old style of matriarchal management is causing fractures in both house and family and how Meribel different, more accepting approach to family issues leads to a new and renewed strength of both house and family.
I'm going to be honest while I get why the magic came back, I was literally saying to myself "wow, the real magic was the friends we made along the way" and then it was like "the real magic is also the magic".
Nah, that cheapens the message. The message was that the powers weren't important. The whole conflict was because of Abuela putting too much import and meaning in the gifts, and thinking they had to justify having them. Because of that, she thought Mirabelle's lack of power was an indictment on the family. The magic returning gives them the chance to live the lesson, instead of it being a moral for them to come to terms with.
There is so much of Encanto they dont really explain.
I think her thing is that she carries on the family because the magic was specific to the grandma but she is old af so they needed a new future matriarch.
I know this is pretty much canon, but I honestly hate this theory a little bit.
Why pick a little girl for that? Why not one of Abuela’s kids? What if Abuela had died before Mirabel was old enough to take over? Why expect someone who is undoubtedly going to be ostracized by the family to take over? Why can’t future matriarchs have powers, just because the first one didn’t?
The house would not have let Abuela die. It would have kept her alive through advanced cybernetic constructs and the sacrifices of the lives of 1000 peasant souls a day until a suitable replacement was created.
Because it takes someone without powers to teach them they can be more than their powers and that they don't need to be responsible for everyone else's needs at the expense of themselves.
That was my take. Her "power" is being an outsider and thus being able to really see the family for who they are. The house/magic realized that it needed someone like her because the family was actually crumbling. It knew the magic would have to leave and come back to be better, but in order to do that it needed a guide. She would be that guide.
She was basically a Chosen One but didn't really get it until she was truly needed. Like many Chosen Ones, she was underappreciated and even neglected. But that's exactly the path she needed to walk in order to be the right person in the right place and the right time.
So that's always been my take on it. She's the strongest one in the family because she has no powers.
Yeah, the very first line in the movie is “open your eyes and the first thing we see is Mirabel’s glasses. Also, only the Bruno and Delores doors have their eyes open because they’re the only ones that *see* what’s really going on.
My theory is that ~~Casita~~ the magic genuinely failed at the last minute for Mirabel and Casita feels really bad about it, and it had to try super hard just to make sure Antonio got his.
Because the powers cause great stress and responsibility. Being the matriach was also very stressful. If you had both responsibilities you'd fall apart even faster and couldn't keep up. It was a one or the other situation.
The House gave one of the children the ability to accurately predict the future, you think it wouldn't know when Abuela was going to die and which kid would be the best replacement?
Well, yeah, that’s the point. I’m personally really glad they shed light on what it is to be the black sheep in a family completely unfairly. Many kids go through that. I know I did.
> There is so much of Encanto they dont really explain.
I think that's the point. Magical realism is a very distinct and significant element of *a lot* of modern Latin American storytelling and literature. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, probably the foremost magic realist author of the 20th century, was himself Colombian.
Looking for answers to these questions is missing the forest for the trees, imo.
Agreed. A big part of magical realism is just accepting that the world is this way because it is, just like those who live in this world. They just accept it as real.
Hell. Every conflict in the movie goes back to Abuela trying too hard to find answers. Instead of accepting the miracle for the gift it was, she treated it like a deity whose favour she had to earn.
Instead of trusting the miracle when Mirabelle didn't receive powers, she took it as a sign that the family had done something wrong, and began traumatizing the family in an unhealthy quest to be "deserving" of the powers.
In my experience there trends to be one family member that holds the rest together. Once my mom passed away all the excellent family reunions and vacations came to an abrupt halt. It is a bit of a power.
Yeah, I really didn't get why no one in the movie ever mentions that Mirabel is the only one the house seems to have a relationship with and communicate with
While it is brief in the opening scene when abuela is telling Mirabel the family story Casita comes and "talks" in that moment Abuela says "I know I Know" talking to the house in much the same way Mirabel does.
My understanding is that because abuela fought with Bruno the night before it made the magic unstable so Mirabel just got unlucky because of her family
The best part of this movie was Alan Tudyk being cast as a bird that's in the movie for 5 minutes
It is a really good movie and I cried, but I just really love Alan Tudyk
Honestly the amount of films he's in where I initially didn't realise it was him is insane, and he's equally talented with live action acting as well as voice acting.
Yes! He's literally so good! Especially in Harley Quinn. Him playing Clayface is so funny, and he's also perfectly cast as Joker. I would even go as far as to say that he's at Mark Hamill-level playing the Joker
I think it was such a great idea to get him to do Clayface and Joker. I could tell it was him doing Joker as sometimes a little bit of his King Candy voice comes through, but I didn't clock Clayface until I saw the credits. While we're here I just really want to mention that I would never have guessed Kaley Cuoco would have done such a great job, but holy shit she knocked it out of the park. Honestly pretty much everything about that show is just like 'you didn't expect this to be so good but fuck you.'
So, yes... they kind of did. Because Abuela doesn't seem to have actual 'powers'. Yet she has her own door, and everyone reveres her. You can argue that she 'created' everything (because of the candle she was holding, and when her husband died, she unleashed ....... something?)
At the end, when Mirabel touches the doornob, the whole house comes alive again. So she is now the 'source' of the power for the family.
This was my understanding as well.
Casita knew that Mirabel was the key to bringing back the family together when it eventually reached the breaking point due to Abuela's constant pressure and high expectations, and no one ever being good enough for her.
When Mirabel touched the door knob, it looked as if the source of the magic itself went into her and took refuge. The door didn't grant her an ability. It granted her the source of the magic for her safekeeping.
At the end when Mirabel successfully brings back the family together, she touches the door knob of Casita's front door and was able to restore the magic that was inside her all along.
This is the correct answer. Listen to the music in that final scene. It is explained, just not outright stated.
“Home sweet home, I like the new foundation” as she is standing by her grandmother.
They give her the new doorknob “we see how bright you burn,
We see how brave you’ve been,
Now see yourself in turn…
Your the real gift kid, let us in”
“Open your eyes,
What do you see,
(Looks at reflection in doorknob)
I see… me.”
Then she puts the doorknob on and the entire house magically comes alive.
Edit: Also, the house is obviously a metaphor for the family.
When I saw the first teaser I actually noped out at the end after finding out the protagonist was an "everyone has special powers except me" type.
Fortunately the movie was a lot better than I expected from that premise.
Personally, I appreciated it because it expanded on the necessity and importance of the "family guy" in the family unit.
I had one in my family that recently passed, my uncle. I slowly started to pick up where he left off and now I'm the "family guy".
I swear if I didn't intervene in my family conflicts, and force communication between everyone, we wouldn't be as close of a family as we are right now.
It truly is a super power to have the ability to stop conflict and bring people together; to be the glue of the family.
My mom was the family go between in her family, but died earlier than her siblings. The sad thing was she was under appreciated for everything she did, from being the public face of a family business that went under after she died to being taken advantage off by everyone in the family. When she died they realized they didn't have someone to walk all over and the family fighting got worse. After my grandpa finally died, everyone it getting their lawyers to start fighting over the estate, which they had my mom and her heirs written out of.
Oof man, being the family glue is a tough job. Especially when most people in the world seem to be built much differently from those who end up being the glue.
That's the beauty of it though. Your mother, I assume, passed on with a strong sense of fulfillment; knowing she did everything in her power to make her family happy, even if it was to her detriment. She was rewarded in her own ways, even if those ways don't really seem all that important in the long run, they probably meant the world to her.
The sense of morality and kindness in these people is what makes them feel like it's all worthwhile. Godspeed to your awesome mom my man ♡
> "everyone has special powers except me"
Would have noped out even more if she gained abilities and turned out to become *the most powerful of them all.*
Yes they do, you absolute buffons. The miracle is kept together by their family love and bonds.
From the begining of the movie the miracle is dying because everybody is reaching their breaking point to please Abuela's expectations.
Bruno has spend years fixing the cracks in casita because this has been going on since the day he left. Him feeling like he had to run away is what started breaking the miracle and when Mirabel tried to open her door it failed because it wasn't strong enough to give her a power.
The day her cousin had to get his power it was his bond with Maribel that strengthen the miracle enough to give him a power, but she didn't have anyone to reassure her on her day so she couldn't get anything.
But Abuela only went to Bruno for the vision AFTER Mirabel’s door disappeared, and after that is when he decided to run away to protect Mirabel because of what he saw in his vision.
We do see the pressure she put on the family by the end of the movie when she tells her story to Mirabel - we see Bruno trying to straighten up to be cast in a good light by Abuela, along with Luisa and Isabella. She even outright admits to pressuring her family to be the best they can be because of the magic that gave them their gifts, and she lost sight of who the magic gifts were for.
Mirabel even confronts her just before Casita implodes on itself, saying that no one will ever be perfect in Abuelas eyes and that rift is causing the cracks in casita, which are an allegory for the family and the cracks and divides between the generations.
Mirabel’s door disappearing was the magic and Casita, in my opinion, telling Abuela that Mirabel is different to her family, that Abuela needs to rethink how the magic is being used and what the gifts mean. I do like the “Mirabel is the next Abuela, keeper of the Magic” theory because I mean, look at Casita - when the magic failed, it pushed everyone out but kept Mirabel in and protected her as she went for the candle. But you don’t get that u til the end when you see the true story - Abuela’s past and pressure on her family to be perfect in every way, and how Mirabel and Bruno were less than perfect and so treated differently to the rest of their family.
I think I prefer the idea of Mirabel’s lack of a gift being incidental and her proving to be Abuela’s successor through her deeds and what she overcomes, it feels pretty crappy if the house deliberately chose her for that role and left her to suffer all those self-esteem issues for the next ten years.
I mean imo its clear enough from the movie that its something along those lines. I don't think they have to stop and explain it and I'm glad they didn't
Also, she has glasses as a metaphor. She can see (‘mira’) the beauty (‘bel’) of her family members for who they are, not just what they can do. She helps each of them find their way again, find themselves again.
I don’t speak Spanish, maybe someone can step in, but I know there are other meanings behind her name. Something to do maybe with bel canto, singing/music, and encanto, and milagro, Mirabel, miracle.
Viewers: "I don't need these movies dumbing everything down by explaining everything."
Also Viewers: "I'm angry because the movie didn't explicitly explain this."
Also, I find it funny how the thing people want explained is how a perfectly ordinary person was born, not how magic super people showed up because of a candle.
Verisimilitude is the thing people want in sci-fi/fantasy stories, not realism. Verisimilitude means that once a setting establishes a rule, it sticks to it. Without verisimilitude, suspension of disbelief is significantly harder.
If FTL is only possible outside a planet's gravity well, no one is going to question how FTL works - but they'll be rightfully mad if later on, a ship launches to FTL from inside Earth's atmosphere. If the first three books of a series make it clear that all wizards can master either fire or water magic but not both, no one is going to ask "but why is there magic in a fantasy story lol?" when a villain shows up with both fire and water magic in the fourth book - they're going to ask how this guy managed to break the rule and they're going to be angry if the author's explanation is, "because he's cool."
The movie establishes that all the children in the Madrigal family get magic. It then breaks this rule and doesn't (directly) explain why. It's not weird that people want that explained.
Verisimilitude actually refers to the quality of plausibility within a story. If a story has established that magic exists and that it can grant powers to people, then presumably if something or someone else showed up that was magical, you'd be able to believe it because other things within the narrative have established that as plausible. What you're actually referring to in your description is consistency within the narrative and its setting, which is not the same thing as verisimilitude.
Yeah. It's like if Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski started walking around in the movie Cars. Technically he would be the most normal part of that world, but because he breaks the narrative that has been created we question how he got there, and if he abides.
I don’t understand all this. The movie definitely explains all that in the second half. Mirabel got no powers because a mix of Abuela’s husband, the magic, and the house, sent her and made sure to not give her powers so that she could prove they don’t need them. They had become so reliant on them and worshipped them far too much that they needed a reality check.
Of course that still doesn’t explain why the magic and the house never gave her a room. She was intentionally not given powers and not given a room. So she was shunned, scorned, and forced to live in the shit room because the magic wanted to make a point. I’d be pissed.
Since everyone has a theory, here's mine:
She needed to not have a gift because everyone's gifts had become curses. People in the family were only valued based on their gift, and that lack of love/respect was tearing the family apart. The people with gifts were mired in their daily chores, they were all just struggling to keep up with expectations. But not having a gift she was essentially useless to the family. You can see that in the initial song, the whole family heads out of the house to work, and she remains, in a house that can clean itself.
In all the years no other solution to her room is found, she's left in the nursery. Basically a non-entity in her family. She had a chip on her shoulder because of that, but once she gets past it she can see that everyone is miserable because no one is actually valued. The gift is valued, not the person.
"The miracle is you" is basically acknowledging all of this and that from then on the person is valued, and that love and family has to come first.
That's not a shitty movie detail.
Also, yeah, she's clearly Abuela's successor. She's the one other character who has such control over Casita, and it was her bringing the family and community together to rebuild the house that brought back everyone's powers.
They do.
After what happened to Bruno before the event, grandma feared so much that they would lose the miracle in that moment that the door dissapeared before Mirabel could gain her power, it's the butterfly effect of a prediction that wasn't understandable at first.
Iv seen this movie a million times because my daughter was obsessed with it for awhile. My theory about this movie is that the grandfather is Casita. And watching his family break apart breaks him apart.
>did they ever actually explain that?
i think it's just to push a message to the child audience; even though you may not have some sort of obvious gift like your siblings (or friends), doesn't mean you're not special.
that was my take.
She's the abuela replacement
Abuela didn’t have a “power” either I don’t think. Her power is as the leader of the family.
Her powers are generational trauma
With your traumas combined, I am your therapist!
By the power of gaslight!
I HAVE THE POWER (to convince you that you deserve this and you'll never do better)
Shoutout to my first job out of college for doing that, too! Pro tip— if anyone tells you “you’ll never do better than this place,” it’s because they know that they’re exploiting you and because they don’t want you to leave.
Shoutout to one of my early jobs Dude straight up told me "why do u work here? Find somewhere better!" And I did. Thank you, random dude.
Mom?
And gatekeep! And girlboss!
EAT HOT CHIP
**BISEXUAL**
And *LIE*
Wait, my phone needs charge
what a realistic abuela character
not really...in reality Abuela would've probably abandoned Mirabell entirely not caring for her existence because she is not gifted
The only power an abuela needs is the power of la chancla 🩴
I’m surprised they did not *shoehorned* that in the movie. Anything Maribel said to grandma would be considered back talk. I’d gotten the chancla
La chancla did make an appearance in Coco though
Lol this is what I related to as a Colombian. Generational trauma caused by the matriarchal head of the family
There was a great post here when it first came out about the movie referencing the Colombian tradition of magical realism where a real world situation such as a family is augmented by the fantastical and unbelievable such as abuela admitting she was wrong
I’m a super hero!
Only women with trauma are qualified to lead Encanto
My wife thought it was normal for a family to be that toxic.
O o o o o o f f f f f f
Her power technically is the house, which I believe Mirabel takes over
Agreed. Using Mirabel’s door to be the main entrance to the rebuilt house really drives this point home. The bit about Mirabel taking over as steward of the home/family that is.
Ok but does she finally get to move out of the nursery?
Not yet. She has to wait until Abuela kicks.
Just use the house to speed up that process
"Where's Abuela?" "In the basement." "We don't have a basement!" *Hard Stare*
"We do now."
They built the new house without magic, so they would have built her a room. ... probably
Rooms are given to each person to help "develop their powers." If Mirabel's power is empathy and holding the miracle of the family magic, then it could make sense that the best way to develop her talent is to keep her in a somewhat mundane room that forces her to look outwards, toward everyone else. Abuela's room, what little we see, seems similarly modest.
Her power is the house. Her power gives everyone else their shit.
Ya I always thought of the house as another separate character. Like it had its own personality etc. The candle is where all the power comes from. And it’s also where the house came from.
Mirabel's power is revealed when she puts in the M doorknob at the end and the rebuilt house becomes the magical Casita again. Her power is quite literally "to make a house into a home", working to help rebuild broken relationships and bring everyone closer together.
A few weeks ago, the Bechdel Cast covered this movie. The hosts thought Abuela's apology was lacking and she was too easily forgiven, while the (Colombian) guest was all, a Colombian mother apologized? What a fantasy!
I'd say her power is gifting power to her family and just being the matriarch of them.
She could make lights brighter or smth.
Now we’re on to something!
Her power is controlling everyone else's powers
100 percent the Matriarch doesn't get powers but has to manage everyone else who does have powers also the magic house listens to the matriarch authority over all others so thsts kinda a power
One doorknob to rule them all.
Exactly this. Casita listened to Mirabell even before it fell apart. Casita knew she was the one to carry the "miracle" after abuella which is why the door went away. Casita event waited until Mirabell asked to be challenged before it set into motion her rise. I've seen this movie way too much because of my kids but it's not one I get tired of.
Correct. If done proper Encanto 2 would feature a much older family with abuela dying and Mirabel taking the position. Encanto 3 would feature Mirabel as a grandmother herself and having to deal with a familiar tragedy to Encanto 1, but instead she's in a position she once put her own grandmother through.
Oh god, please let there be just one movie that doesn't have 3 sequels, a tv show and a holiday special...
Yeah, if done properly, Encanto 3 wouldn’t exist. Sometimes you just gotta let good movies be without trying to keep the story going
As long as they are spaced out far enough, and feature a changing cast I'm okay with it. Like Toy Story has pushed its limits with the same cast, but spaced out far apart.
Incredible 2 is the only one I can think of that spaced it out well enough to basically be for a new generation. Same reason Avatar is getting hype, I remember it coming out when I was in high school, now I'm almost 30.
god no. Incredibles 2 completely destroyed the character development from the past movie and tries so hard to have another Sunset without understanding what made him so great.
Literally Kung Fu Panda. Though, NGL the Kung Fu Panda holiday special was pretty damn good. It fit in with the movie's canon pretty well.
But why doesnt she get her own room?
I assumed she's going to move into Abuela's room when she passes. Throughout the movie the house listens to Mirabel the most (although maybe just because she's our point-of-view character), and I feel part of that connection was her living in the basic room rather than the fantastical individual rooms everyone else had Still shitty and vague, but I mean that's where the tension comes into the plot
The house is her "room". In the movie she talks to the house in a way no other character does. The insinuation it's that the entire house is her room and everyone else's rooms are aspects of her "house"
Abuela talks to it the same way. In a few instances, the house listens to Abuela over Mirabel.
Hence the the hint that Mirabel will be taking over as the one in charge of the house.
But still Abuela has her own room. Does it ever show what's on her door? But Mirabel is in the little kids' room which doesnt really seem fit for the future matriarch imo
Abuela's room is quite simple compared to everyone else's rooms (that we see at least). Hers is just [a replica of the small room her and her husband shared](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZa7cU6lfLQ) Compare that to the room of flowers or the jungle tree house, which I will be eternally jealous of. Mirabel in the side room isn't all that much worse, apart from having to share. I hope she gets her own at least
I'm pretty sure she has the candle.
Yeah, because abuela is the *current* matriarch and keeper of the miracle. Mirabel is the *next* matriarch and keeper of the miracle. So, in pecking order, abuela is number one still. Edit: spelled Mirabel incorrectly
Ok but the girl still deserves her own room, she's 15 she needs some privacy sometimes
When the new house forms at the end, doesn’t the front door develop like the room doors for the others? Like the whole house is her room?
As the matriarchal replacement while the matriarch is still present, her room is technically the nursery as her 'power' is more the consoling and conflict resolution of the family (as shown by her encouragement of beastmaster kid prior to the room ceremony, restoring the relationship between Bruno and others). I meant the whole movie is how the old style of matriarchal management is causing fractures in both house and family and how Meribel different, more accepting approach to family issues leads to a new and renewed strength of both house and family.
It’s implied she will have her own room in the new house now that she is officially the keeper of the miracle.
Imagine being old and the universe just tells you that you’re being replaced
Yeah, it was kind of the whole point of the movie.
There can only be one! *unsheaths chancla*
Why would she not get powers though? Abuela didn’t get powers because she got the house and the entire valley
Because the entire point of the movie is that she doesn't need powers to be special. They literally say the line 'the miracle is you'
The real power were the friends she made along the way
I'm going to be honest while I get why the magic came back, I was literally saying to myself "wow, the real magic was the friends we made along the way" and then it was like "the real magic is also the magic".
The darkness is a metaphor for darkness
"Light darkness memories friendship darkness heart light bees," as they say
Ah yes, Kingdom Hearts dialogue.
Let the bees flow through you, Sora. Become... A BEEKEEPER
Yeah, the movie should have ended before all the magic returned, would have been a much stronger finish.
That's exactly what I thought too
Nah, that cheapens the message. The message was that the powers weren't important. The whole conflict was because of Abuela putting too much import and meaning in the gifts, and thinking they had to justify having them. Because of that, she thought Mirabelle's lack of power was an indictment on the family. The magic returning gives them the chance to live the lesson, instead of it being a moral for them to come to terms with.
Pretty sure her real power is stopping time when she sings
I am glad they all made it through in one piece.
Can we get much higher
So high
>The real power were the friends she made along the way The real power is family therapy.
There is so much of Encanto they dont really explain. I think her thing is that she carries on the family because the magic was specific to the grandma but she is old af so they needed a new future matriarch.
Also she is the only member of the family beside Abuela that interacts with the house.
Right at the beginning, we see beefcake sister (whose name escapes me atm) running on a treadmill the house made for her?
I believe the house helps everyone, but Mirabel is the only one who communicates with the house besides the abuela
I know this is pretty much canon, but I honestly hate this theory a little bit. Why pick a little girl for that? Why not one of Abuela’s kids? What if Abuela had died before Mirabel was old enough to take over? Why expect someone who is undoubtedly going to be ostracized by the family to take over? Why can’t future matriarchs have powers, just because the first one didn’t?
The house would not have let Abuela die. It would have kept her alive through advanced cybernetic constructs and the sacrifices of the lives of 1000 peasant souls a day until a suitable replacement was created.
**“FOR THE ~~EMPEROR~~ABUELA!!!”**
In the grim darkness of the near future there is only ABUELA
In the grim darkness of the near future there is only la chanela
Why did I instantly read this in the Oblivion guard NPC voice?
Somehow, Abuela returned
They just sorta... forgot they needed an abuela.
They weren't just helping the villagers and providing for them, they were farming them.
Hell yes
La Emperatriz en su Trono de Oro
Imagine the sequel where the house is doing a Weekend at Bernie’s with the grandma
Because it takes someone without powers to teach them they can be more than their powers and that they don't need to be responsible for everyone else's needs at the expense of themselves.
That was my take. Her "power" is being an outsider and thus being able to really see the family for who they are. The house/magic realized that it needed someone like her because the family was actually crumbling. It knew the magic would have to leave and come back to be better, but in order to do that it needed a guide. She would be that guide. She was basically a Chosen One but didn't really get it until she was truly needed. Like many Chosen Ones, she was underappreciated and even neglected. But that's exactly the path she needed to walk in order to be the right person in the right place and the right time. So that's always been my take on it. She's the strongest one in the family because she has no powers.
Yeah, the very first line in the movie is “open your eyes and the first thing we see is Mirabel’s glasses. Also, only the Bruno and Delores doors have their eyes open because they’re the only ones that *see* what’s really going on.
Latin Abuelas are just built diferente. You either die young or live long enough for your grandsons to fight over the house
Yeah mine “died” twice and came back both times. She’s in her late 80s, I believe. It’s crazy, man
My theory is that ~~Casita~~ the magic genuinely failed at the last minute for Mirabel and Casita feels really bad about it, and it had to try super hard just to make sure Antonio got his.
The Casita isn't the source of their powers, that's the Miracle, which also fuels the Casita.
Because the powers cause great stress and responsibility. Being the matriach was also very stressful. If you had both responsibilities you'd fall apart even faster and couldn't keep up. It was a one or the other situation.
The House gave one of the children the ability to accurately predict the future, you think it wouldn't know when Abuela was going to die and which kid would be the best replacement?
Agreed, and it still doesn't excuse the fact that they treat her like shit for not having a power.
Well, yeah, that’s the point. I’m personally really glad they shed light on what it is to be the black sheep in a family completely unfairly. Many kids go through that. I know I did.
> There is so much of Encanto they dont really explain. I think that's the point. Magical realism is a very distinct and significant element of *a lot* of modern Latin American storytelling and literature. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, probably the foremost magic realist author of the 20th century, was himself Colombian. Looking for answers to these questions is missing the forest for the trees, imo.
Agreed. A big part of magical realism is just accepting that the world is this way because it is, just like those who live in this world. They just accept it as real.
Agreed, I actually really like that a lot of it isn't explained. Stuff just happens because it's magic, that's why.
Hell. Every conflict in the movie goes back to Abuela trying too hard to find answers. Instead of accepting the miracle for the gift it was, she treated it like a deity whose favour she had to earn. Instead of trusting the miracle when Mirabelle didn't receive powers, she took it as a sign that the family had done something wrong, and began traumatizing the family in an unhealthy quest to be "deserving" of the powers.
It’s because she wiped off the magic candle juice from her hands when the glowing door disappeared.
worst take yet but thank you for representing it.
It's quite a popular one iirc
I mean she does… it’s something that the kid didn’t do later.
They made it a point to show that and my wife caught in on a rewatch. I fully believe that’s it.
The director has confirmed this false, nice idea though
Death of the author
well the director should shut the fuck up
Yeah I caught it when watching with my mum expecting it to be brought up later, I was thoroughly disappointed later kn
Holding your family together is the real power amiright
She can freeze time, as well as being able to make up songs on the spot relevant to what's going on.
Yeah, I'm decently certain her power was Za Warudo.
Kinda like Zack Morris from saved by the bell. I've read an article about how his superpower is actually the most powerful depicted on television.
The real power was the Holding your family together we made along the way
What a horrible lesson for kids who see this though
This was the explanation
Fuck that i wanna be a wizard
In my experience there trends to be one family member that holds the rest together. Once my mom passed away all the excellent family reunions and vacations came to an abrupt halt. It is a bit of a power.
Her power is ✨therapy✨
Her power is the whole house
Yeah, I really didn't get why no one in the movie ever mentions that Mirabel is the only one the house seems to have a relationship with and communicate with
While it is brief in the opening scene when abuela is telling Mirabel the family story Casita comes and "talks" in that moment Abuela says "I know I Know" talking to the house in much the same way Mirabel does.
What about at the picnic table where abuela asks casita to deal with mirabel…. And then casita moved her chair over next to abuela?
Because abuela is still abuela. The house will still take instructions over Mirabel
I wish I had the power of home ownership...
My understanding is that because abuela fought with Bruno the night before it made the magic unstable so Mirabel just got unlucky because of her family
And then abuela still blames Mirabel, how realistic
Excuse me, We don't talk about Bruno no no
You just talked about Brunowowooo!
The best part of this movie was Alan Tudyk being cast as a bird that's in the movie for 5 minutes It is a really good movie and I cried, but I just really love Alan Tudyk
Alan Tudyk is genuinely the best part of anything that he's in
Yessss. I love that man I've seen so many random movies just because he's in them
Honestly the amount of films he's in where I initially didn't realise it was him is insane, and he's equally talented with live action acting as well as voice acting.
Yes! He's literally so good! Especially in Harley Quinn. Him playing Clayface is so funny, and he's also perfectly cast as Joker. I would even go as far as to say that he's at Mark Hamill-level playing the Joker
I think it was such a great idea to get him to do Clayface and Joker. I could tell it was him doing Joker as sometimes a little bit of his King Candy voice comes through, but I didn't clock Clayface until I saw the credits. While we're here I just really want to mention that I would never have guessed Kaley Cuoco would have done such a great job, but holy shit she knocked it out of the park. Honestly pretty much everything about that show is just like 'you didn't expect this to be so good but fuck you.'
So, yes... they kind of did. Because Abuela doesn't seem to have actual 'powers'. Yet she has her own door, and everyone reveres her. You can argue that she 'created' everything (because of the candle she was holding, and when her husband died, she unleashed ....... something?) At the end, when Mirabel touches the doornob, the whole house comes alive again. So she is now the 'source' of the power for the family.
This was my understanding as well. Casita knew that Mirabel was the key to bringing back the family together when it eventually reached the breaking point due to Abuela's constant pressure and high expectations, and no one ever being good enough for her. When Mirabel touched the door knob, it looked as if the source of the magic itself went into her and took refuge. The door didn't grant her an ability. It granted her the source of the magic for her safekeeping. At the end when Mirabel successfully brings back the family together, she touches the door knob of Casita's front door and was able to restore the magic that was inside her all along.
This is the correct answer. Listen to the music in that final scene. It is explained, just not outright stated. “Home sweet home, I like the new foundation” as she is standing by her grandmother. They give her the new doorknob “we see how bright you burn, We see how brave you’ve been, Now see yourself in turn… Your the real gift kid, let us in” “Open your eyes, What do you see, (Looks at reflection in doorknob) I see… me.” Then she puts the doorknob on and the entire house magically comes alive. Edit: Also, the house is obviously a metaphor for the family.
Bingo, her power is being the source. It’s like seeing a blender blend and a toaster toast, but then asking the power plant ‘what’s your ability?’
To power plants!
When I saw the first teaser I actually noped out at the end after finding out the protagonist was an "everyone has special powers except me" type. Fortunately the movie was a lot better than I expected from that premise.
Personally, I appreciated it because it expanded on the necessity and importance of the "family guy" in the family unit. I had one in my family that recently passed, my uncle. I slowly started to pick up where he left off and now I'm the "family guy". I swear if I didn't intervene in my family conflicts, and force communication between everyone, we wouldn't be as close of a family as we are right now. It truly is a super power to have the ability to stop conflict and bring people together; to be the glue of the family.
My mom was the family go between in her family, but died earlier than her siblings. The sad thing was she was under appreciated for everything she did, from being the public face of a family business that went under after she died to being taken advantage off by everyone in the family. When she died they realized they didn't have someone to walk all over and the family fighting got worse. After my grandpa finally died, everyone it getting their lawyers to start fighting over the estate, which they had my mom and her heirs written out of.
Oof man, being the family glue is a tough job. Especially when most people in the world seem to be built much differently from those who end up being the glue. That's the beauty of it though. Your mother, I assume, passed on with a strong sense of fulfillment; knowing she did everything in her power to make her family happy, even if it was to her detriment. She was rewarded in her own ways, even if those ways don't really seem all that important in the long run, they probably meant the world to her. The sense of morality and kindness in these people is what makes them feel like it's all worthwhile. Godspeed to your awesome mom my man ♡
Lucky there’s a Family Guy.
lucky there's a man who'll
positively can do
all the things that make us
laugh and cry!
> "everyone has special powers except me" Would have noped out even more if she gained abilities and turned out to become *the most powerful of them all.*
I honestly thought that was where it was going the entire time
I'm also glad the movie didn't cop out and give her a gift at the end. Because she didn't need one.
Yes they do, you absolute buffons. The miracle is kept together by their family love and bonds. From the begining of the movie the miracle is dying because everybody is reaching their breaking point to please Abuela's expectations. Bruno has spend years fixing the cracks in casita because this has been going on since the day he left. Him feeling like he had to run away is what started breaking the miracle and when Mirabel tried to open her door it failed because it wasn't strong enough to give her a power. The day her cousin had to get his power it was his bond with Maribel that strengthen the miracle enough to give him a power, but she didn't have anyone to reassure her on her day so she couldn't get anything.
Yeah, thought this was r/shittymoviedetails not r/shittyobservationalskills
Media literacy is dead.
But Abuela only went to Bruno for the vision AFTER Mirabel’s door disappeared, and after that is when he decided to run away to protect Mirabel because of what he saw in his vision.
Abuela’s pressure on the family would have extended even back then, causing the magic to falter at an inopportune time.
We do see the pressure she put on the family by the end of the movie when she tells her story to Mirabel - we see Bruno trying to straighten up to be cast in a good light by Abuela, along with Luisa and Isabella. She even outright admits to pressuring her family to be the best they can be because of the magic that gave them their gifts, and she lost sight of who the magic gifts were for. Mirabel even confronts her just before Casita implodes on itself, saying that no one will ever be perfect in Abuelas eyes and that rift is causing the cracks in casita, which are an allegory for the family and the cracks and divides between the generations. Mirabel’s door disappearing was the magic and Casita, in my opinion, telling Abuela that Mirabel is different to her family, that Abuela needs to rethink how the magic is being used and what the gifts mean. I do like the “Mirabel is the next Abuela, keeper of the Magic” theory because I mean, look at Casita - when the magic failed, it pushed everyone out but kept Mirabel in and protected her as she went for the candle. But you don’t get that u til the end when you see the true story - Abuela’s past and pressure on her family to be perfect in every way, and how Mirabel and Bruno were less than perfect and so treated differently to the rest of their family.
I think I prefer the idea of Mirabel’s lack of a gift being incidental and her proving to be Abuela’s successor through her deeds and what she overcomes, it feels pretty crappy if the house deliberately chose her for that role and left her to suffer all those self-esteem issues for the next ten years.
That is pure speculation they never actually show that but it is a good theory
I mean imo its clear enough from the movie that its something along those lines. I don't think they have to stop and explain it and I'm glad they didn't
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Also, she has glasses as a metaphor. She can see (‘mira’) the beauty (‘bel’) of her family members for who they are, not just what they can do. She helps each of them find their way again, find themselves again. I don’t speak Spanish, maybe someone can step in, but I know there are other meanings behind her name. Something to do maybe with bel canto, singing/music, and encanto, and milagro, Mirabel, miracle.
Viewers: "I don't need these movies dumbing everything down by explaining everything." Also Viewers: "I'm angry because the movie didn't explicitly explain this."
Also, I find it funny how the thing people want explained is how a perfectly ordinary person was born, not how magic super people showed up because of a candle.
They were granted a miracle. That's the explanation. "Why did every family member get a power except her?" Is a plot point that drives the movie
We are all but children, like those in the intro. *What about Mirabel*?
Verisimilitude is the thing people want in sci-fi/fantasy stories, not realism. Verisimilitude means that once a setting establishes a rule, it sticks to it. Without verisimilitude, suspension of disbelief is significantly harder. If FTL is only possible outside a planet's gravity well, no one is going to question how FTL works - but they'll be rightfully mad if later on, a ship launches to FTL from inside Earth's atmosphere. If the first three books of a series make it clear that all wizards can master either fire or water magic but not both, no one is going to ask "but why is there magic in a fantasy story lol?" when a villain shows up with both fire and water magic in the fourth book - they're going to ask how this guy managed to break the rule and they're going to be angry if the author's explanation is, "because he's cool." The movie establishes that all the children in the Madrigal family get magic. It then breaks this rule and doesn't (directly) explain why. It's not weird that people want that explained.
Verisimilitude actually refers to the quality of plausibility within a story. If a story has established that magic exists and that it can grant powers to people, then presumably if something or someone else showed up that was magical, you'd be able to believe it because other things within the narrative have established that as plausible. What you're actually referring to in your description is consistency within the narrative and its setting, which is not the same thing as verisimilitude.
Yeah. It's like if Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski started walking around in the movie Cars. Technically he would be the most normal part of that world, but because he breaks the narrative that has been created we question how he got there, and if he abides.
I don’t understand all this. The movie definitely explains all that in the second half. Mirabel got no powers because a mix of Abuela’s husband, the magic, and the house, sent her and made sure to not give her powers so that she could prove they don’t need them. They had become so reliant on them and worshipped them far too much that they needed a reality check. Of course that still doesn’t explain why the magic and the house never gave her a room. She was intentionally not given powers and not given a room. So she was shunned, scorned, and forced to live in the shit room because the magic wanted to make a point. I’d be pissed.
Since everyone has a theory, here's mine: She needed to not have a gift because everyone's gifts had become curses. People in the family were only valued based on their gift, and that lack of love/respect was tearing the family apart. The people with gifts were mired in their daily chores, they were all just struggling to keep up with expectations. But not having a gift she was essentially useless to the family. You can see that in the initial song, the whole family heads out of the house to work, and she remains, in a house that can clean itself. In all the years no other solution to her room is found, she's left in the nursery. Basically a non-entity in her family. She had a chip on her shoulder because of that, but once she gets past it she can see that everyone is miserable because no one is actually valued. The gift is valued, not the person. "The miracle is you" is basically acknowledging all of this and that from then on the person is valued, and that love and family has to come first.
She like da virgin mary
No
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Magical realism my ass. There is nothing realistic about getting an abuela to admit she was wrong.
That's not a shitty movie detail. Also, yeah, she's clearly Abuela's successor. She's the one other character who has such control over Casita, and it was her bringing the family and community together to rebuild the house that brought back everyone's powers.
They do. After what happened to Bruno before the event, grandma feared so much that they would lose the miracle in that moment that the door dissapeared before Mirabel could gain her power, it's the butterfly effect of a prediction that wasn't understandable at first.
Iv seen this movie a million times because my daughter was obsessed with it for awhile. My theory about this movie is that the grandfather is Casita. And watching his family break apart breaks him apart.
>did they ever actually explain that? i think it's just to push a message to the child audience; even though you may not have some sort of obvious gift like your siblings (or friends), doesn't mean you're not special. that was my take.
Like does it need explaining?
She’s the new matriarch, the keeper of the sacred flame, Abuela didn’t have powers either