Encanto — Life Lessons

I recently watched Encanto, and it was a very heartwarming and innovative film about family and belonging. It won the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film in 2021, and its soundtracks topped the US billboards. I would definitely recommend it for all audiences.

Image Source

In this article, I will give a brief summary of the story (spoiler alert) and share my learnings and reflections.

Part 1: Summary

Alma and Pedro Madrigal were a happy couple living in Colombia with their recently born triplets, Julieta, Pepa, and Bruno. But everything changed one night when armed forces arrived and started raiding the village and setting fire to the houses. Everyone in the village fled for their lives.

While the soldiers were raiding the village, the villagers all fled into the mountains. Later, the soldiers chased after them to try to kill them. Seeing the soldiers getting closer, Pedro told Alma to run ahead with the children while he stayed behind to slow down the soldiers.

Alma saw Pedro being killed, and she burst into tears. At that moment, the candle she was carrying suddenly burst out magical power that sent the soldiers flying off their horses. At the same time, a magical house named Casita emerged from the ground. The soldiers then fled, and the villagers decided to resettle and create a new village around Casita.

The candle became a magical candle with a flame that never died, and Alma placed it in a high room in Casita for everyone to see. The candle symbolized the miracle that was given to the Madrigals.

Alma then raised her triplets by herself. When her children reached age 5, three magical doors appeared in Casita. When the children touched their respective door knob, they each gained a special "gift" or power, and a room was created just for them. Alma told her children to use their powers to serve the village and make the family proud.

Later on, Julieta and Pepa got married and had children, but Bruno disappeared because he was often shunned for predicting bad news (his power is foreseeing the future), which often ended up happening. Later, Alma's grandchildren also each received a door and a special power from Casita at age five.

Every child except one: Mirabel, who is Julieta's youngest daughter. For some reason, when Mirabel touched the magical door handle during her gift awarding ceremony, the door disappeared.

Ten years later, Pepa's youngest child (Mirabel's cousin) Antonio reaches age 5, and he has his gift awarding ceremony. He was very nervous that he might not get a gift either like Mirabel. Not only him, but also Alma, Mirabel, and the whole family. In the end, he received the power to talk to animals, and the whole family was relieved. Mirabel, however, had mixed feelings of relief for Antonio but also agony for herself as still the only person without a gift.

While everyone was celebrating and dancing in Antonio's new room, which is a huge jungle, Mirabel returns to the main hall to cry. Suddenly, she starts seeing cracks forming everywhere in Casita. She runs back into Antonio's room to tell her family, but when they return to the main hall, the cracks are gone. Alma asserts to the villagers that everything is fine, and they continue the party.

Later that night, Mirabel overhears Alma worrying about the cracks happening again, so she knows it's a real and serious problem. Wanting to make her family proud and to prove her worth, she resolves to save Casita.

She consults some family members and eventually learns that her uncle Bruno had a vision about her in the past before disappearing from the family. However, nobody is allowed to talk about Bruno, so she then ventures into Bruno's room to learn more. In the room, there's a huge flight of stairs leading to a cave, where she finds broken crystal pieces. She collects the pieces and assembles them together, revealing an image of her and a broken Casita.

Later that night, Mirabel's eldest sister Isabella was supposed to receive a proposal from her fiancé Mariano. However, other family members found out about the vision, and everyone started freaking out. Casita then started cracking before Mariano proposed, and everyone in the family started losing control of their powers. As a result, Isabella felt that Mirabel ruined her proposal.

Some rats stole pieces of the vision and ran through a secret passage behind a portrait next to Bruno's room. Mirabel followed the rats and found Bruno, who told her that when he saw the vision of Mirabel and the broken Casita, he didn't want the family to know about it and shun her as a result, so he broke the vision into pieces and hid away within the walls of Casita. He didn't leave Casita because he still wanted to be close to his family.

Bruno also explained that the vision alternated between Mirabel destroying and saving Casita, so she might be the key to the family's future. After much persuasion from Mirabel, Bruno agrees to conjure the vision again so that they could look for clues about how to save Casita. During the vision, Mirabel sees herself hugging someone who seems to be Isabella (though it might actually be the younger version of Alma), leading her to believe that reconciling with Isabella would save Casita.

Mirabel has a strained relationship with Isabella because she feels Isabella is cocky, while Isabella feels Mirabel tries too hard and creates trouble for her in the process, not to mention Mirabel just ruined her marriage proposal.

When Mirabel goes into Isabella's room and tries to apologize, Isabella reveals that she's really pressured by the expectation to be Ms. Perfect all the time, that she wishes she could just be herself, that she actually doesn't want to marry Mariano, and that she was only doing it for the family.

While venting her emotions, Isabella accidentally makes a cactus appear instead of the usual roses and pretty flowers. She is shocked and pleased, and starts creating all sorts of strange and exotic plants all over the house and even the village (kind of like Elsa making the snow castle when she let it go...but I digress). Mirabel encourages her to be herself and let go of the pressure to be perfect and to please others. Isabella has a catharsis, and the two of them hug, and the cracks on Casita repair themselves.

Alma, seeing the mess of exotic plants around Casita, arrives and starts scolding Mirabel. Mirabel said she is saving Casita, but Alma said the cracks started with Mirabel, and that Mirabel needs to stop hurting Casita out of jealousy for not receiving a power. Mirabel then refutes that it is Alma's unreasonably high expectations that is creating too much pressure on everyone, causing Casita to crack. As their argument reaches its peak, Casita starts to fall apart completely, and the Madrigals all lose their power.

Afterwards, Mirabel feels terrible and runs away. The family then searches for Mirabel for a long time. Eventually, Alma finds Mirabel crying by the river where Pedro died. She then tells Mirabel of her past, of how she met Pedro (the grandfather), how Pedro sacrificed himself for the family, and how Casita came to be.

Alma then realizes and admits that she became obsessed with preserving Casita and the powers that Casita gave the family to the point where she became blind to the feelings of her family members. Alma apologizes to Mirabel, saying "You never hurt our family Mirabel. We are broken because of me."

Mirabel then expresses her understanding towards Alma for all the hardship and loneliness she suffered and then thanks her, saying, "We are a family because of you. We were saved because of you. And nothing could ever be broken that we can't fix together." They then hug.

Afterwards, they return to the broken Casita, and everyone rebuilds the house together. The villagers also come to help, showing their support for the family despite them not having their powers anymore. Once the house was rebuilt, Mirabel puts on the doorknob. Afterwards, the magic returned, and Casita became alive again. At the end of the film, the family takes a family photo, this time with Alma, Mirabel, and Bruno at the center.

---

My Learnings and Reflections

1: Home is where love is.

Casita is the magical home that the Madrigals live in. It symbolizes home. How was Casita formed? It was formed when Pedro sacrificed himself to save his wife and children. The love that Pedro had for them created magic that built Casita and repelled the soldiers. (This reminds me of Harry Potter, but I digress).

When did Casita crack? It would crack when anyone in the family felt like the family wasn't a source of love but rather a source of pain for them, or when conflict broke out. In the movie, when Mirabel felt agony for being the only one without a gift, Casita started cracking. Perhaps if the family had given Mirabel more love and acceptance, she wouldn't have felt agony, and Casita wouldn't have cracked.

(Side note: I personally think the most admirable character is Bruno. He sacrificed himself and went into hiding because he didn't want the family to shun Mirabel. He also chose to stay near the family despite going into hiding, which reflects that he holds no resentment towards his family despite being wrongfully accused of bringing misfortune. Later when Casita crumbled, he rushed to take the blame in place of Mirabel. He is a truly noble character!)

That night, Mirabel overheard Alma worrying about how Casita is cracking again, which means that Casita has cracked in the past too, before Mirabel was born. When was this? My guess is when the family shunned Bruno for predicting misfortune.

Bruno never tried to predict misfortune. His power allowed him to see the future, and the future just happened to be of misfortune. If the family had changed their perspective to be thankful to Bruno for warning him about coming misfortune so that they could prepare for it in advance, then Bruno wouldn't have felt hurt or wrongfully treated, and Casita might not have cracked.

Another time was the night when the family members found out about the vision of Mirabel and the broken Casita. Everyone became very anxious and scared. On the surface, it seems very reasonable to be worried about losing their home and powers. But my personal feeling is that their anxiety is not just about the house and their powers. It's about their sense of self-worth and fear of letting down their helicopter grandmother.

The matriarch of the house is Alma, and Alma always pressured them to make the family proud by using their powers to serve the village. What started out as a good intention became excessive. It got to the point where the children felt like their worth is in their powers, and that if they didn't have their powers, or if they didn't make the villagers happy, they would be a failure. I think this is the deeper source of anxiety and pain that the children felt, and that's why Casita cracked. If the family members felt that Alma and the family would always love each other regardless of their powers or what they did, then perhaps Casita wouldn't have cracked.

On that same night, Isabella was supposed to get engaged to Mariano. However, Isabella didn't want to get married to him. She was only doing it for the family. In her heart, she felt family was a source of pressure for her rather than a source of love, understanding, and acceptance.

Getting married is one of the biggest matters in a person's life, so forcing yourself to get married to someone you don't want to marry must have been quite agonizing for Isabella. Moreover, Isabella's cousin Dolores actually has a crush on Mariano, so seeing him getting arranged to marry Isabella would hurt Dolores' heart too. No wonder Casita cracked that night.

Later on, when Mirabel and Isabella reconciled, and Isabella felt more free to be herself, the cracks in Casita healed. But when Alma came and started blaming Mirabel, and then Mirabel started blaming Alma back, Casita finally broke down completely.

After Alma and Mirabel reconciled, Alma also apologized to the whole family, and Bruno and Mirabel were once again loved by the family. The family rebuilt their house, and in the process, everyone was allowed to just be themselves, and they felt loved for who they were. Finally, the magic returned, signifying that real family love has returned.

For us, we can reflect on our own homes and families. What's our home atmosphere like? If it's not ideal, we shouldn't blame others or demand them to change. That would be copying Alma, which only creates more conflict. We should lead by example and show more love and understanding towards our family members, just like what Mirabel did. A positive cycle starts with ourselves.

2: What is real love?

Given that home is where love is, this begs the question, what is real "love"?

Firstly, real love is pure love, without any negative energy mixed in. Before, Alma cared too much about the family's reputation in the eyes of the villagers, which is why she unconsciously gave the children a lot of pressure to be of service and make the family proud. This wasn't coming from a heart of pure love. There was energy of ego and fear mixed in, which is why the children felt pressured.

Second, real love is unconditional love, loving others for all that they are, imperfections included, mistakes allowed. When Mirabel felt down after Antonio's gift-awarding ceremony, her mother told her, "I wish you could see yourself the way I do. You're perfect just like this. You're just as special as anyone else in the family." 

This is unconditional love, and I think it's thanks to Mirabel's mother that Mirabel has a healthy personality instead of being depressed with low self-esteem.

When Alma realized her fault and apologized to the family, she said,

"The miracle is not some magic that you've got. The miracle is you. All of you."

This reflects the unconditional love that arose in Alma's heart.

Third, real love is also about making the other person feel comfortable and happy. If we make others unhappy or pressured in the name of "love", then it's not real love. It's called "loving you without your input", which is just another way of saying "being a control freak".

Alma realized she had this problem when she said to Mirabel, "I was given a miracle. A second chance. And I was so afraid to lose it that I lost sight of who our miracle was for. And I am so sorry."

Fourth, real love is giving others our understanding. After Alma apologized, Mirabel said,

"You lost your home. Lost everything. You suffered so much all alone so it would never happen again. We were saved because of you. We were given a miracle because of you. We are a family because of you. And nothing could ever be broken that we can't fix together."

Although Alma gave everyone a lot of pressure, she probably didn't realize it. She had too much pressure and worry in her own heart, so she didn't even notice it leaking out onto her family members. When Mirabel saw the burden that Alma carried, she stopped blaming her grandma and instead thanked her. Alma then felt understood and was able to let go of that burden.

We can all reflect on ourselves. If we are parents, do our children feel comfortable and happy around us, willing to share anything that's on their mind with us? Or do they seem to put up walls when near us? If so, then we might be overly concerned with their results (e.g.,  grades,  salary, marriage) rather than their feelings.

If we are children with overly anxious parents, do we understand where their pressure comes from? Do we feel grateful for all that they've done for us, for the burden they've carried for us? Do we let our parents feel heard and understood? If so, they might be able to let go of that inner burden, and we could reconcile with them just like Mirabel and Alma.

If we are leaders of a team, we can also reflect. A team or organization is like a family. Many businesses put the customer first, but actually, there's someone more important than the customer. The employee. Without employees, who would serve the customer? If we want the customer to be happy, then the employee needs to be happy first.

No matter who we are, we can reflect on whether we make others feel happy or unhappy. Everyone is in need of more love and care these days (perhaps ourselves included). The more we give to others, the more others will give to give around, and the more loving and caring the world will become. As Gandhi said,

"Be the change you wish to see in the world."

Some people might ask, "What if they have problems? Do I just accept them and let them be? Is that real love?"

Accepting them the way they are now is not in conflict with wanting them to become better. Both are real love. Letting them be because we don't want to go through the trouble of advising them and dealing with their bad emotions is not real love. That's selfishness because we only care about our own convenience. Blaming and scolding them because we are upset at them is also not real love. That's just anger.

Everyone has faults. No one is perfect. If we have a fault, wouldn't we wish others would advise us respectfully and patiently? If we do that for others, then that's true love. We aren't blaming them. We're doing it because we want them to avoid suffering and to have a better future.

If they respond badly, then we reflect on ourselves. Maybe we didn't set the stage well. Or it wasn't a good time. Or they were just in a bad mood, and we should try again when they're in a better mood. Besides, it's not like we change after people tell us our problem one time. We probably need to be patient and advise over a long-period of time. Being willing to patiently advise is true love.

3: With great power comes great responsibility. But does great responsibility come with great stress?

In the movie, Luisa, the girl with super strength, confessed that although she seems super strong on the surface, she feels a crushing weight inside. This includes the weight of the family's expectations for her, as well as the feeling that she would be worthless if she wasn't of service. As a result, she is always helping others with her super strength all day, and she really wishes she could just relax sometimes.

Isabella, the girl who can grow flowers at will, also confesses that she feels overly pressured by the need to be Ms. Perfect all the time. She says, "So much hides behind my smile. What could I do if I could 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 makes me think, with great power comes great responsibility, but does great stress have to come with great responsibility?

I think it's normal to feel some stress with responsibility. It's a sign that we care. But we shouldn't let that stress get excessive. We have the power to manage that stress.

First, I would evaluate myself on my effort, not results. If I had superpowers that could help others, I wouldn't judge myself based on how many people I helped today or how many good deeds I did today. These are not in my control. Instead, I would just ask myself, did I do my best to help people today? Or did I ignore others in need when I could've helped? As long as I have a clear conscience, I'm happy.

Second, I would set reasonable expectations and boundaries. Humans are not machines that can work 24/7. We need downtime, and we need to communicate with others and manage their expectations. If I were in Luisa and Isabella's shoes, I might communicate that there are certain times of day where I need to rest too. This is to ensure that I can continue serving everyone with full energy long-term. This isn't selfishness, it's carefulness. It's also setting a good example for others.

Third, I would hone my intentions. Helping others is a joyful thing. I should be doing it because I am happy when others are happy. I shouldn't be doing it because I feel forced to do it or because I want others to like me. If I feel that helping others has become a burden, then I need to meditate on my intentions and adjust them accordingly.

4: Why didn't Mirabel get a gift?

One question that the movie doesn't seem to give a clear answer to is why Mirabel didn't get a gift or power from Casita. I guess it's up to us viewers to ponder.

My thought is that Mirabel was a test for the family to bring out true love for each other. It's precisely because she doesn't have powers that if Alma and the family can love her just like any other member of the family, then the family has true love. This is the test that Alma and the family needed to pass in order for the family to thrive long-term.

Relating back to ourselves, is there someone or something that feels like a thorn in the side for us? Perhaps that person or thing was given to us by life to help us overcome blame and judgment, and instead grow our love and wisdom.

Another perspective is that people's abilities (or powers) aren't most important. What's most important is your character and virtues. Mirabel isn't the hero because she has the strongest super power. In fact, she has no power at all. Mirabel is the hero because she took initiative to identify a problem, solve it, persevere, and unite everyone together. These are things any of us can do in our own lives to be our own heroes. In fact, they are things we all need to do to have a happy life.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed Encanto for its innovative story showcasing very relatable family dynamics with lots of food for thought. These are just my learnings and reflections, and I'm sure there are many others. If you have any other life lessons you took away from the film, I'd love to hear about them.

---

Weekly Wisdom #389