#you're valid but also. your interpretation of the movie was so freaking different from mine

[bataranqs]

I’m about to be annoying and talk about Encanto so unfollow me now hsjwigjdkls unless you’re bea in which case did you like the movie? This post is just surface level thoughts so come talk to me about it more please

Mirabel’s character arc and storyline aren’t about her realizing that she’s “actually been special all along” or that everyone is special--in fact, it’s the opposite. Mirabel’s growth is in realizing that the people she’s surrounded by and thought of as special aren’t actually “special” and that it doesn’t matter if you’re special or not.

Mirabel starts the story really insecure about being the only one who isn’t special---which everyone really feeds into (yes I’m looking at you “the not special special” guy... bruh she’s like 16 what made you think that was a good idea???). But in putting her family members on this higher pedestal and focusing on where she lacks, she puts this block in her ability to connect with and listen to them because oh, they’re perfect! They have gifts so they must have perfect lives, etc.

I’ve talked about this before but Casita is a physical representation of the health and connection of the family and Mirabel’s destiny is, yeah, to fix it! Mirabel’s “gift” is like Abuela’s--she’s the next head of the Madrigal household, and her inheritance is Casita.

If Mirabel’s story was about her realizing that she was special, then Casita would have been fixed when Mirabel “realized her own value” (that she was also special). But that doesn’t happen. Casita is fixed as the family becomes closer, as Mirabel listens to others more, as the family members become more honest with each other and stop emotionally isolating themselves.

A perfect example of this is What Else Can I Do? Mirabel starts by trying to fix the problem, thinking that she just needs to hug Isabela and it’ll all be okay somehow--she’s focused on herself saving Casita. She’s not actually seeing or hearing Isabela. It’s only her shift halfway through the song--when she makes the choice to start empathizing with Isabela instead of trying to push her own agenda and thoughts--that makes it possible for the cracks to be fixed.

The most major sign of this is that the ultimate victory, or the way that the situation is fixed, is by Abuela and Mirabel both listening to each other with mutual respect. A lot of people like to act like Abuela was the bad guy and Mirabel the hero--that isn’t the case at all??? Casita falls when Mirabel yells at Abuela--she has never been so close to the rest of her family! In fact, Mirabel is, in part, getting mad on behalf of her family--she’s closer than ever to Isabela, Luisa, and Bruno. So why did Casita break? Because you can’t just freeze out one member of the family Madrigal and act like the family is better for it--case in point Bruno. Abuela isn’t a person who has to be chased out or hated. She’s someone who also needs to be listened to and understood. She’s also part of the family Madrigal.

Most of the movie is shifting Mirabel’s perspective of her family so that the “extraordinary” becomes ordinary. Luisa seems powerful and untouchable? Surface Pressure plays and after that, we often see Luisa being vulnerable and exhausted. Isabela seems effortlessly perfect? She puts in so much effort and half of that image is her lying to try and help the family. So on and so forth.

Rather than elevating Mirabel, the movie more just... takes down the pedestals that she has unconsciously built for her family. Rather than saying “Mirabel didn’t have to change anything, she was special all along”, I think the movie is more saying that Mirabel needed to look past her insecurities to actually listen and see the people around her, and this ability to stop seeing people as special and instead see them as people is what saved her family and, by extension, Casita.