Encanto is a stunning new Disney movie that sweeps viewers away with themes of magical realism and colorful visuals encapsulating Colombian culture.
If you haven’t had the chance to check it out yet, I would highly recommend it! In addition to the stunning visual experience, the music is incredible (I have not stopped singing “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”), and the plot has depth as it touches on issues of family toxicity and even the trauma of imperialism.
Throughout this beautiful story, femininity is represented through a wide variety of forms. The casita Madrigal is made up of several generations of strong women, each challenging the compulsory reality and constraints set before them.
Femininity is not portrayed through just one facet, but several, representing the multiplicity of experience women go through in the real world.
While all the women in this film have fascinating stories, I will focus on the three daughters on Julieta and Agustin’s side of the family. This includes the graceful Isabella, the strong Luisa, and our main character, the brave Mirabel. (Spoilers ahead!)
Isabella is the eldest granddaughter of the family and early on in the film we see that everyone perceives her as the epitome of perfection. In the opening song she is even referred to as “the perfect golden child.”
In a wall among photos of Abuela Alma with each of her grandchildren, Isabella is the only one being hugged. She is clearly Abuela’s favorite; some online have theorized that this is because Abuela has projected the life she wasn’t able to have onto Isabella.
She is considered the most graceful and beautiful of the Madrigal’s (which in itself is a deconstruction of powerful norms because she has the darkest skin tone and the most indigenous features compared to her family), but this puts unnecessary pressure on her as she strives to be flawless.
Every Madrigal has a magical talent and hers is creating flowers. She grows pink and purple symmetrical flowers like roses and flor de mayo. This is seen as a manifestation of her beauty and perfection.
However, when Isabella lets herself express pure anger, an emotion no proper girl is expected to have, she creates a cactus. This leads into her song, “What Else Can I Do?”
She sings, “I just made something unexpected / Something sharp / Something new / It’s not symmetrical or perfect / But it’s beautiful / And it’s mine / What else can I do?”
This song brings us on a journey with her as she finds out that she has more skills than she ever imagined. Isabella realizes she’s been conditioned to stay within the bounds of what others perceive as perfection, and she doesn’t want to stay confined any longer.
She continues as she sings, “So much hides behind my smile / What could I do if I just grew what I was feeling in the moment? / What could I do if I just knew it didn’t need to be perfect? / It just needed to be?” and then later on “I’m so sick of pretty, I want something true.”
Isabella is representative of women who are pressured into appearing put-together and perfect. Her character illustrates the prosperity and happiness that comes from shattering those expectations. She makes waves and exceeds the bounds she thought she was capable of.
Isabella’s sister in turn, Lusia, is the embodiment of strength. She can do things like carry donkeys on her shoulders, pick up the town church, and reroute the river with her magical power.
Not only is it progress that Disney chose this power for a female character, but the portrayal of her strength was not an erasure of her femininity. Instead, she is shown as a strong and feminine woman. One quite tangible way this is represented is through her dress adorning dumbbells on the bottom.
While seemingly secure, Luisa confides in Mirabel through her hit song, “Surface Pressure” where she sings about all the weight she carries.
Luisa sings, “Under the surface / I’m pretty sure I’m worthless if I can’t be of service…/ It’s pressure like a drip, drip, drip, that’ll never stop.” She represents the often feminine expectation of carrying an enormous amount of responsibility and pressure.
In the middle of the song all of the rigid warrior imagery goes away as she floats into the clouds and sings, “But wait / If I could shake / The crushing weight of expectations / Would that free some room up for joy / Or relaxation or simple pleasure? / Instead we measure this growing pressure.”
Like many daughters, she desires to simply relax and relieve the pressures associated with her life. Oftentimes girls in families, especially immigrant families like the Madrigals, are handed more responsibility at a young age and lose their childhood. We never see her room in the film, but I found out from Tik Tok (lol) that the Art of Encanto book shows that her room mockup was a rigid training gym with a secret door to a circus where she could just be a child again.
The song continues and goes even deeper as she discloses, “Give it to your sister, it doesn’t hurt and / See if she can handle every family burden.” In this sense, Lusia’s strength is metaphorical for carrying the weight of emotional trauma.
By the end of the film she realizes that she is more than her gift and she deserves to both relax and share the weight of the world around her.
Finally, Mirabel Madrigal is the multi-layered heroine of the film. She is the youngest daughter of the family, yet she becomes the group’s leader.
She is resilient and fights back against the compulsory norms that were set before her. Mirabel, like many women, is often put down and told to stay in her lane. Instead of conforming to what others expect of her, she resists and liberates others in her family to do the same.
In this sense, Mirabel is a symbol of transformation throughout the film. One cool way Disney represents this is through butterflies, a common symbol of metamorphosis and change. Look out for them in the film, they appear many times!
It is also cool to note that, Mirabel is the first Disney heroine to ever wear glasses. This is wonderful representation for children to see a role model wearing something so relatable. Mirabel is bubbly, adventurous, and approachable – a far cry from the old traditional disney princess mold.
In addition, I saw a Tik Tok (I clearly have a problem haha) about how the glasses represent Mirabel’s ability to see things from a different perspective than her family. She provides a different framework for her family members as she helps them see that they are more than just their gifts.
Speaking of gifts, we find out early on that Mirabel is the only Madrigal child without a magical gift! We eventually find out that Mirabel herself is the miracle and takes on the role of the magical flame in a human form.
This reality is up to interpretation, but there are lots of intriguing theories out there about Mirabel’s gift or lack thereof. Some say that her gift is to break down barriers, which is why her magical door disappears when she touches it. This would also explain why she was able to break down her family’s emotional walls and the toxicity surrounding her family.
Others theorize that she is the guardian of the magic which is why she was not given a specific gift. In this sense, she is destined to grow up and take over Abuela’s role as matriarch of the family. This would also explain why she was more in tune to the candle than the others.
One last and more realistic theory (from my boyfriend Zach, gotta give him credit) is that Mirabel purposefully does not have a gift to show kids that you don’t need a superpower to be special and make change in the world. I think this idea is really sweet.
Isabella, Luisa, and Mirabel are unwavering symbols of the female experience, representing that womanhood contains a multitude of complex experiences and desires. Encanto may be a fictional story, but the story resonates deeply as it connects to the often silenced realities of girls and women in our own world.