Graphic by Liam Healy
Renee Lu
Arts Reporter
After its release 2 years ago, The Encanto Musical has regained popularity due to the success of its soundtrack. Songs such as “We don’t talk about Bruno” and “The Family Madrigal” have been charting on the Billboard top 100.
Encanto is the most recently released Disney movie. It portrays the story of Mirabel in the Madrigal. It showcases a magical family, where everyone born into the family has magical power. When it came time for Mirabel to find out what powers she had, she ended up with none. Fast forward 10 years, and Mirabel is seeing the power of her family and the house they live in waning. She decides that it’s her job to save the magic, and throughout the movie we see her fix the house, and hear some amazing songs in the process.
The beginning contains a flashback to how the house was created. It is told by the grandmother, Abuela Alma. She was escaping from Spain with her husband and three kids. Her husband sacrifices his life to save them, and in her moment of pain, a candle appears. Not any ordinary candle, this forever-lit candle is the one that gives the Madrigal family its magic. A house appears and they are saved.
“The Family Madrigal ” is the very first song which introduces most members of the family and their powers. This song is sung by Mirabel who is played by Stephanie Beatriz. We follow this song with “Waiting on a Miracle,” where after Mirabel’s younger cousin Antonio has received his gift, and Abuela Alma has remarked that it’s a perfect night, Mirabel feels upset. She sings about how she knows it’s not her fault that she didn’t get a gift, and she shouldn’t feel sad about it.
She sings, “I would move the mountains, Make new trees and flowers grow, Someone please just let me know, where do I go?”, showing that she wants to get a gift and help the community, and she is just waiting for how she can help, with or without a gift. At the end of this song, she sees the house start to crack and the candle almost go out, and she runs to the party to tell everyone the house is endangered. However, when there are no cracks in real life, nobody believes her.
“Surface Pressure ” is the next song, sung by Luisa, and it touches on themes of feeling inadequate. Luisa tells Mirabel to go to Bruno’s tower if she wants to try to save the miracle. Mirabel goes to Bruno’s Tower, goes up a ton of stairs, and at the top she finds a broken piece of a puzzle, and she puts them all in her bag before she is forced to leave. She starts to put the pieces together but then her Aunt Carolina walks into the room with her husband, and Mirabel asks about Bruno. This is where the song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is sung, and this song passed Frozen’s “Let It Go” as the biggest Disney animated hit in 26 years. At the end of the song Mirabel puts the pieces together and sees that she is the reason the miracle is fading. Her father and Dolores (Mirabel’s cousin) learn of why it’s fading, and during dinner everything is ruined.
The Madrigal’s learn that Bruno never ran away, and that he had been living in the house for years unknown to anyone else. She convinces Bruno to have another vision, and she realizes to save the miracle she must hug Isabella, her sister. However, Isabella is still mad at Mirabel, and is appalled that Mirabel would ask for her forgiveness. In this moment of anger, she makes a cactus, which is a plant she has never made before. Meanwhile, she sings “What Else Can I Do?” which currently sits at 31 on the Billboard top 100. Isabella sings about how unhappy she is and how she doesn’t want to be perfect anymore. Their song ends in a hug, but the miracle isn’t fixed—it is actually destroyed when Abuela Alma sees Isabella all free and not perfect. The house is destroyed after some harsh words from Mirabel to her grandma, followed by Mirabel running away.
Abuela Alma eventually figures out where Mirabel is, and they have a heartfelt conversation, where the next song “Dos Arruguitas” takes place. The song is the story of what happened to Abuela Alma before the house. Then Bueno comes out of hiding, and the three of them return to the broken house, and everyone helps fix the house where the final song “All of you” is sung by everyone in the town. At the end, Mirabel gets the doorknob to open the door, and the magic returns to the house.
Overall, Encanto was a great movie, and the songs hit major themes that are experienced in the world today. It is also great that it was the first ever Hispanic musical, adding representation to an underrepresented minority in the world.
