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#mirabel feeling like she doesn't belong because shes not perfect
winterstorm032802 · 2 months
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"Odile?"
[You turn to look at them as the Head Housemaiden repeats her normal speech.]
[Isabeau is the first, stretching his hand out to you.] "M'dam!"
[Will he ever guess what you're researching?]
[Mirabelle notices next as she picks her skirt to get close.] "What's going on?"
[Will she recognize her own strength?]
[Boniface looks so scared.] "Dile?"
[Will they meet their sister again?]
[Siffrin looks startled.] "What is this?"
[Will he know how much you appreciate his company?]
[There they are.]
[Your family.]
[They care for you.]
[They love you.]
[They're here for you.]
[You don't have to feel lost in between different places.]
[Ka Bue, Dormant.]
[Your mother.]
[That doesn't seem to matter.]
[How could you miss it? They were here all along.]
[Your family is right here! This is your family! You don't need to figure out where you exactly belong because this is where you belong! Right here with them!]
[They won't leave you. Not like her. They're here.]
"You'll be going back!"
[This is your Familytale!]
[You can reread this book for as long as you'd like!]
"I hope you can-"
[The ending is bittersweet, yet you love it!]
[It's perfect!]
"-learn to-"
[They love you, they love you!]
[The final chapter!]
[You feel a smile grace your lips.]
"-forgive-"
[Your own family, right here.]
[You feel a tug on your stomach...]
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YOU'VE REACHED THE FINAL CHAPTER OF THE BOOK
.
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All of that is done! Felt a burst of inspiration while looking at @tealgoat art. Thank you for forever scaring me with such an amazing AU of Odile looping instead of Siffrin.
I like to think that instead of a play, Odile might see it as a book.
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allthingsencanto · 2 years
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Remember the post you made about the family picture and Mirabel feeling like an outcast? So I read it and and the tags of someone who reblog it, and I want to add something for it
One point that everybody gets about the film is that Mirabel feels like an outsider because of her being the one who doesn't get a gift, but a thing that the majority of fans don't get is HOW being the "giftless" makes her feel like an outsider:
She doesn't feel like an outsider because her family treats her as such or excluded her or something, but she feels it because all the madrigal born, after Alma, shared something that makes them different of other families, and that is having a gift.
All of them share something powerful, something amazing, something unique, something that she doesn't have and probably never will, and because people always viewed and associated the madrigals with their gifts, she was left being the one that feel that don't fit (or maybe feeling that doesn't deserve to be) in the family picture.
There is nothing wrong with her or with her not having a gift, but the focus on the Miracle, the gifts and the encanto, probably made her feel like she did something wrong (or worse that something is wrong with HER)
Adding more, because her family hides their struggles, she also had her insecurities reinforcement: not having a gift in a family who is valued (by others) for those gifts, thinking that she is the one who is unhappy, the insensitive comments of the villagers and some family members... All it probably made her want to focus on making others talk about her family rather than let others talk about her. Instead of pity, empty reassurance, bad talking about her, she lets herself be forgotten in the background.
Exactly. You said nothing but facts. Mirabel felt outcasted because they all had gifts, all had occupations and she didn’t. The movie clearly shows that the Madrigal family are known to be practically the goddesses of the village, everyone looks up to them, and everyone relies on them. People view them as this perfect amazing family who can do no wrong, thanks to Alma who has presented them that way over the years. Due to the unhealthy matriarch as well as just the fact alone, Mirabel feels outcasted because she can’t contribute anything to the table. This family is known for their gifts and nothing else, and since she doesn’t HAVE a gift, she can’t help her family the way all of the other members are, and she can’t shine the way they do. They all have things to do, even the husbands, but Mirabel is just there, left with nothing to do. Alma had eventually led everyone to believe that they needed to be thankful for their miracle and serve the community, constantly help out and “play their part” so to speak, so when there’s a member who doesn’t have any of that, it’s easy to feel like you don’t belong, and it certainly didn’t help that at the time, Mirabel was unaware of how toxic and controlling her family’s lifestyles were. Nonetheless, she felt like she didn’t belong, not just because of her situation, but because she was under the impression that she was the ONLY member who was imperfect, a person who made mistakes and couldn’t find their way, the person going through a really hard time. Of course her whole character arc is to learn that her family isn’t one sided, they’re not these flawless perfect people she knew when she was growing up, they’re human beings just like her, who had their own struggles and insecurities, they just had to hide it like she did, so the fact that people look at ALL of this and go “she felt this way because she was constantly treated like shit”- piss me off because that’s clearly not true, at least in my book. She felt outcasted because…..well…everything we just said. It has nothing to do with her family outcasting her themselves (which I’m sorry, I don’t think that’s true either), like….I think so many people just saw this with one sided lenses and didn’t see the actual deeper meaning at all. Mirabel literally describes her own family as amazing, she clearly was shown to be happy living with them and loves them deeply, so why would she act like that if her family (according to some of the fandom) purposely outcast her and push her to the side all the time? We clearly see family members interact with her, and the only members that were antagonistic towards her were Isabela and Alma. Everyone else treats her fine, and everyone else clearly never had any ill intentions or some bias against her for not having a gift. Even ISABELA didn’t have a bias against her for not having a gift, she was mean for a different reason. Of course I’ll say that Alma pushed her to the side and it was wrong, but just for this topic we’re talking about, to say it was the WHOLE family who did it is a stretch and a take I don’t like. I’m sorry, I just really hate it when people twist this into some Cinderella story where all the family members are evil, and Mirabel is this poor helpless saint, when literally the point of the movie is that ALL these characters are human, they’re flawed and make mistakes, but they LOVE one another. But I’m ranting and trailing lol, anyway, I definitely agree with you anon!
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themountainsays · 2 years
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here's an idea for ur role swap au : what if Isa and Mira leave the Encanto together? Mira learns to let go of her need for the family's approval and they run away together to live their happily ever after far from everyone who knows they're sisters and who would judge them
Oh i thought about that option actually! But for some reason the idea of then leaving hurts so much 😭😭😭 i don't know if I should kill this one darling but I lowkey want them to stay. Like narratively it just doesn't feel right to let them leave? Because, when characters leave their current place of residence to seek out freedom, they're usually going somewhere else that they, at the very least, have some knowledge of. And I'm sure the characters learned about their region in school and whatnot but since we only ever see the E.ncanto and its surrounding forest in the story itself idk something feels lacking to me. Like it would be much more fulfilling if they had gotten a taste of the world out there at some point, came back home and Yearned and Longed for freedom for a long time and then finally the story satisfied this tension by allowing them to leave, right? And i cOuld do that, but I don't really like adding much worldbuilding outside of the E.ncanto in my E.ncanto fics. It strikes me as the worldbuilding equivalent of an OC. I don't really like OCs :/ it feels like a far too big diversion from canon, like I'm making stuff up, and I prefer to delve deeper into the existing canon and extrapolate depth from what we already have, rather than building anything entirely new. Does that make sense?
Soooo that leaves us with a few options.
Isabela leaves alone. The story ends in tragedy. We focus on Mirabel's pov as she lets her sister go and has to accept her departure. Most realistic ending, possibly.
They both stay. The family accepts to listen and tries to change for the better. Happy ending. My problem with this one is that it's too similar to canon, AND it almost seems too good to be true. It's a bit too idealistic. A little too perfect for the fucked up situation.
Isabela leaves, Mirabel has to accept her departure, but she comes back a few years later. Now this one is less of an ending and more of a complete re-structuring of the plot, in which the first half of the story is composed of everything we've discussed so far, and the second half is... something else. Maybe Isabela doesn't want to leave again. Maybe she regrets going out there. My biggest fear with this one is the eventual inevitability of facing the historical context, and it seems like a gross insult and lack of respect to comment on those topics in a fucking disney sister inc3st fanfic. Or any fanfic for that matter. The truth is that leaving is the worst thing Isabela can do atm considering the time and place, so realistically it's understandable that she'd come back seeking sanctuary, but dude I'm not touching the topic with a ten foot stick. These conversations belong to, idk history congresses and construcción de la ciudadanía clases. They have to be treated with respect. You won't catch me dead writing about it in fanfic. However this is also the alternative that tempts me the most, even if I find it intimidating to consider, since that means turning this into a quite different story with a different kind of conflict in the second act, which would requiere a different ending, one that doesn't raise the question of "will Isabela stay?", but rather "can Isabela, Mirabel and the rest of the family make it work this time around?" It seems like a perfect marriage of optiond 1 and 2 with a bittersweet melancholy that seems to fit the story much better. The key things I need to figure out is a) the intertextual relationship between acts 1 and 2, and b) how to circumvent the elephant in the room that is the historical context. I ssssssshhhould be able to come up with something, if I do some thinking. Much thinking. Quite a lot of thinking. Until then I'll be drawing angsty fanart uwu. Though I admit I'm not sure if i feel comfortable letting the first conflict (isabela leaving) share space with a new conflict (isabela coming back). Wouldn't that be too big a change?
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layla-carstairs · 2 years
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I haven't seen anyone else mention this but I don't think Isabela and Luisa's situations in encanto can entirely be contributed to Abuela's high expectations. it's definitely apart of, but nobody else in the family is held to the same standard they are, not even Dolores or Camilo. Only they are described as "One strong, one graceful/Perfect in every way" in The Family Madrigal.
I think the reason for this unique pedestal that only they exist on, is that they created it.
why did they do this, you ask? because when they were 11 and 9 respectively, they watched their baby sister receive no gift and no one knew why. they heard what people in the town said, about her and what it meant. They saw how it was effecting their family, how their Tìo left and how worried everyone was. how helpless everyone was.
and what do you do when you baby sister is caught in a spotlight for all the wrong reasons? you redirect the spotlight.
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What I thought Encanto was going to be
Mirabel has no gift and although her family is completely indifferent to the fact that she doesn't have that gift, some even saying that she might just be a late bloomer, she feels ashamed over that fact. And starts to self isolate herself. But she always keeps has a positive attitude, saying that she's fine. However as more time passes, she isolates herself more from her family, unable to keep herself from wanting to be alone a lot of the time and being jealous and even a little bit mean towards her family without meaning it. Oh and her grandmother has a gift too, the gift of the candle, where she can keep the candle (a symbol for family love) alight. For the longest time, showing how dedicated she is to her family. However, she doesn't want her family to grow attached to the villagers. Because although the family helps the village all the time, they are not meant to cross the line and invite them to be a part of their daily life. This is because the family is different and the fact that the grandmother lost her husband a long time ago because of people who were outside the family, so she has some trust issues.
During the candle ceremony, Mirabel isolates herself because again, she's the only one in her family who doesn't have a gift, and someone mentions that the family isn't really whole because Bruno isn't there. It's the first time that Mirabel hears about Bruno, starts to wonder about him and hears that he left the family a long time ago because he was "different", and she wonders that maybe he was the same as her. She looks at a plate that has her family one it (one of those decorative plates) but sees that Bruno isn't there and she for the first time thinks that her family isn't whole and isn't perfect after all, and accidentally breaks the plate. Getting that cut on her hand when she tries to pick up the pieces.
The house has been getting more and more cracks over the years, all due because the house is a symbol for the family and the love they share, just like the candle, but with Bruno gone and now Mirabel, who gets the house basically in a good mood everyday, now thinking that maybe she belongs with her uncle rather than with her family because she's different too, the house is breaking down. There's a huge disaster but then it stops. The grandmother saves the candle and keeps it lit. Everyone goes to sleep after the grandmother assures them all that everything is fine. But Mirabel can't sleep. Her mom heals her hand with food and tries to tell her about her brother who left the family a long time ago, and hasn't been heard from since, then tells her not to worry and that no matter how dark it might be, you can always find the light. Mirabel asks what would happen if the house gets destroyed and her mom tells her that the magic would probably disappear, but that won't happen.
Mirabel then decides to leave to save the house, the magic and the family in it by reuniting Bruno with the family. Because she doesn't know that the loneliness, shame and sadness that she has felt, along with her isolating herself even going as far as having her room as far away from the rest of the family as possible, is effecting the house and the family, so she thinks that Bruno coming back will fix everything.
So she gets from Delores, the cousin with super hearing, that Bruno left a clue in his room where he was going. Mirabel finds the clue and figures out that he has gone to this other place that's very far away and outside this other town. She goes to this other village, which is isolated from her family, and hears about like horror stories about her family. The monster boy who can shape-shift and become anyone, the woman who's super strong, the beautiful girl who can use plant vines on you if you get too close and the woman who can hear everything secret and even hear thoughts, and the grandmother who keeps outsiders away by using the flame from a candle and has the scariest glare you can imagine. And the normal girl who is held captive by the family (which is her, Mirabel) that nobody can get too because she's protected in that house.
She hears all these stories about herself and her family and realizes that because her family keeps to themselves and all these people are just afraid, and that fear has distorted reality, that's why these stories exist. In a way, she's also distorted reality with her own fear, thinking that her family shuts her out because she doesn't have a gift when in fact, she's the one who chooses to isolate herself.
So she gets to this place outside the town, and finds Bruno. She tells him about what happened and finds out that he's this scared and anxious guy because of his own gift, and like Mirabel, made the choice to leave the family and self-isolate himself. She feels for him but uses her positive attitude to make up this plan that involves bringing him home and reuniting the family which will fix the house and save the magic.
But he reasons with her that the reasons that he left are still there, he still feels like an outsider and that he's sure the family would be better off without him. She brought the plate of the family that has them all there, that she fixed, and tells him that the family has to be whole which means they all have to be a part of it. However she starts talking about how she feels the same way he does and start to think that maybe it would be better if she stayed there with him. The plate drops and breaks again, but then she thinks about her family and for the first time in a long time, she's happy thinking about them and realizes that she misses them as she tells her uncle about them. She sees that the plate shines and goes to see that it's glowing. And realizes that she has a gift after all. She has a glow to her. Just like her grandmother. She thinks back of all the times with her family that she was truly happy and realizes that there was a glow there, that came from her. The reason that it took so long for her to see her own gift was because she had either been too caught up in feeling sad and ashamed for being different, or being fake happy so that nobody would worry about her. And it's not a very useful gift, but it's her.
So she shows Bruno and convinces her uncle to give the family another chance, they arrive at the home although Bruno is panicking and see that there's nobody is there. He then confesses that long before he left, he had thought about leaving because of how his gift (seeing the future) wasn't always making people happy, in fact most of his premonitions were bad and because of that nobody really wanted to hear what he had to say. And so he thought about leaving, but he felt that he couldn't because he worried about whether or not his family would be okay without him. Until he saw the premonition about Mirabel, that one day she would save the family and he then knew that it was okay for him to leave because the family had her and knew then that they would be fine. She then tells her that they were fine but their family wasn't whole and they did miss him, even if they didn't admit it.
The family comes back and Mirabel hears them outside, she goes to see that her family had been out looking for her rather than fixing the house. Because they were worried about her, and she hears them talking about how they all knew that she was struggling with being different and they each say that they wished that they had told her that it was okay to be different and that she did belong with the family. Mirabel then has a reunion with her family and apologizes for pulling away and running away without saying anything. She didn't want to worry anyone, but she should've trusted them, trusted them with the truth that she was feeling sad and ashamed for not being like the rest of them. And that she knows that it's better to let people in than to pretend that everything is fine. She even shows her gift, the same as her grandmother, she can keep the candle glowing and even though it's not a very useful gift, it's her gift and she's still important.
Bruno hears this and steps outside, and the family has a reunion. The house is now happy because Mirabel is happy, and they start fixing the house. People come over from the village and offer to help and the grandmother wants to say no but accepts the help on her families behalf because she wants to trust people, the house is fixed up and when it's all back together again, Mirabel asks if they can send invitations to their festivities not just to their community but also to the people in the other community. What's followed is this big celebration to show that they are a family and that they are now more focused on being really happy than to pretend and trusting that they will be fine when they feel they won't be.
That's the movie I thought I was getting. But after watching the movie Encanto, I think I like it the way it is.
But Moana basically had the same theme as Encanto. Which was basically you have to be yourself. Don't let anyone or anything change you. No matter what.
And it's a good message, but I just feel like they could've gone another way.
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Since you got into Encanto, what would you say would be an interesting crossover beetween Encanto and She-Ra?
OOOH okay so this gives me so many ideas, let's see
- i feel like catra and mirabel would get along. mirabel would teach her how to sew and embroider and at first catra would be pretty closed off but like mirabel's personality is so welcoming, you know? they've get to talking about how mirabel was messed up because of her lack of a gift, how catra felt abandoned and left behind too many times to count, and they'd feel a sense of understanding. 'this one gets it' they both think.
- adora and luisa would. hit. it. off. no question. they both are known for taking on wAY too much and being unable to relax and they'd be the BEST of workout buddies. i can see luisa complaining to adora about how hard it is to relax when her definition of relaxing is lifting weights and adora going like 'oh my god, same. i only relax when i'm fighting something!!!'. they would probably exchange work out techniques and discuss how things can get to heavy sometimes, and adora and luisa always walk away from each other feeling a little lighter because hey, there's someone who gets how i feel. bow and mirabel would probably conspire to get them some rest.
- bow and mirabel would also be besties!! they both have that warm, vibey feeling and bow would listen to mirabel speak, no matter what, and gives her a sense of belonging. i feel like bow and bruno would get along as well because bow's really affectionate and bruno is starved of any human contact, right? so bow takes one look at bruno and goes 'okay i'm adopting this sad man as my uncle' and they have WILD times. bruno would also make sure bow doesn't take on too much [because he can forget to take care of himself while he's taking care of everyone else] and bow would be besties with bruno's rats.
- glimmer!!! and!!! isabella!!! both are 'queens', under enormous pressure to be perfect all the time. glimmer would help isabella unwind and go crazy, and isabella would help glimmer think straight and smart. it's a good pairing and they've both got wicked sharp minds and if camilo influenced them, well... the pranks would be AWESOME. we've got glimmer's scheming mind and isabella's powers to thank for that.
- perfuma and isabella as well!! they'd have 'friendly' competitions to see who could grow the best flowers and they stumble through the troubles of growing a plant from scratch together. perfuma helps isabella understand not everything she can grow has to be perfect and isabella keeps perfuma from cracking under pressure. perfuma's there when isabella is having her crisis about liking women and isabella's the one to arrange flowers everywhere when perfuma proposes to scorpia. power couple. together with glimmer, the three of them are unstoppable.
- dolores and seamista!?!?!?!? i'm obsessed with that because dolores is constantly hearing every little thing and it probably gets overwhelming a lot and seamista is just there with an arm on her shoulder and a quiet 'let's get you some hot chocolate'. her whispered sarcastic remarks will always make dolores laugh, and sometimes they're in different room so dolores ends up laughing in the middle of a serious discussion while abuela's just like 'wtf. it becomes a game to see how loud seamista can get dolores to laugh while she's in an inappropriate environment. also: they exchange a Look while mariano and sea hawk are burning things and generally being chaotic himbos and go 'okay we're bonding now'
- pepa and entrapa!!! pepa and entrapta!!! entrapta would see pepa's clouds or rainbow and immediately flood her with questions and pepa would be so shocked that someone is genuinely interested in her powers that the cloud just goes... poof. entrapta would just interrogate pepa about her powers and pepa's just like. holy shit. meanwhile she's VERY invested in entrapta's inventions and they have fun times, seeing what they can make go 'boom' the loudest. pepa can be found poking around entrapa's robots, asking entrapta how they work. entrapta would also design some place where pepa can feel every thing without the encanto facing a hurricane or a drought and she'd just gift it to pepa without understanding what an awesome gift it is and pepa just tears up and hugs entrapa who's like 'what? oh. oh this is nice.'
- also félix + agustin + bruno + micah + george + lance. chaotic dads who have low self control and WILL aggressively embarrass and support their children. they would also gang up against hordak and take him out for picnics and swims saying 'you're too pale!!! you need sunshine!!!!' ignoring the fact that he's a. robot.
- julieta, looking at catra: that poor girl needs rest and a warm hug.
catra, looking at julieta: she... she looks like a mom
basically julieta straight up adopts catra and they have bonding sessions and julieta teaches catra to cook!! and adora is like 'hey whend you learn to cook so good' and catra's like 'i've been meaning to talk to you about that... *pulls in julieta* this is my new mom julieta'. catra also helps julieta understand she's more than what she can give to other people.
- camilo!!! and double trouble!!! both shapeshifters, sarcastic, troublemakers. camilo's been having gender crisises left and right and double trouble pops in like 'hey i can help you out' and camilo's like 'i'm not sure if i want to be a girl or a boy or neither i keep changing my mind' and double trouble sits down and explains gender and tells camilo that he can be whatever gender he wants, it's his choice and they help camilo come out to their family and lends him some dresses. and camilo goes 'you're pretty neat want to help me play pranks on my family' and double trouble's like 'you're my type of kid.'
- FROSTA AND ANTONIO. frosta got the throne when she was eleven, yall. it's a lot of pressure to put on someone that young and frosta's forgotten how to be kid. she can't afford to be a kid anymore. antonio swoops in and reminds her of her childhood and in no time at all, he's giving her rides on his cheetah and asking elephants to carry her in their trunks. it's the most fun she's had in a while and she helps him with the sudden responsibility dumped on him.
- last but not least, angella and abuela. [angella is alive in this, yall.] they both look at each other and see someone so tired, tired of having to be strong all the time, tired of carrying so much grief from losing their loved ones and not having enough time to mourn them properly because they've got a kingdom/town to take care of. they're kinda careful with each other in the beginning, with abuela silently handing angella cups of tea when she sees angella withdrawing, and angella telling abuela stories about glimmer when she sees abuela returning to her shell when everything is too much, and they remind each other that it's okay to grieve. it's okay to rest when things get too much and it's okay to let your children go wild even though you want to keep them close and make sure nothing can hurt them ever again. it's okay to not be okay. even after they part, they remain the best of friends and they're still the only ones who can make the other truly laugh, a belly shaking, eyes crinkling type laugh.
okay haha this got really long hsjfhsdsj thank you for asking me this <3 it made me really happy to be able to ramble about two of my interests together!!! :DD
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zalrb · 2 years
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I enjoyed Encanto a lot but I always see that there’s a common criticism about how it felt anticlimactic towards the end. Which I kind of understand. I think some people also thought it should have established and explored the family dynamics further, and the rules of the magic (like the fact that there’s no candle at the end anymore lol???), and that while the premise is interesting the execution could have been better. For me I loved it because I relate to it sooo much culturally and due to that it felt extra special to me for a Disney movie, but my only gripe was that it was too short. There should have been more in my opinion.
However I’m curious to see what your criticisms are!! :)
OK so disclaimer: it’s like 4 am, I’m on my way to bed so if certain things don’t make sense or it gets repetitive or I didn’t finish a thought it’s because I’m tired and I’ll get back to it when I wake up.
But it's funny, I've been seeing this gripe a lot "It was too short" or "It should be longer", I saw that for episodes of this season of Euphoria and I saw that consistently with Insecure and I don't think the problem is length, the problem is what's being done in the time allotted (which isn't much or it's too much that it's actually not much). Encanto is 17 minutes shy of being 2 hours, that's not a short movie. It's standard. I think the reason why you want more is because we didn't get much with what we had in that hour and 42 minutes.
Because the issue is that we didn't get to know the family members and their dynamics enough. So for me it stays at, well this was an interesting idea and not, holy shit what an amazing movie. Because, when Luisa sings her song about how she does the heavy lifting, she does everything she's told and she doesn't complain but inside she's a mess and she's worried that if she isn't constantly functional she's useless, I was like, but when do we see this?
There's that episode in SPN where we see things from Bobby's perspective and all he wants to do is sit down and eat a piece of pie but he can never do it because the phone keeps ringing and he has to keep answering because he has to do his job. I needed a scene like that with Luisa. I needed her to sit down and rest and then right when it looks like she can rest, she gets up and does more work because she feels guilty. Like
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this was 30 minutes into the movie. When did we see this?
Same issue with Isa and her song and the stress of having to be perfect all the time and uniform all the time, we never see that until we get her song:
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this was an hour and nine minutes into the movie and there was no inkling of this beforehand so this song is not going to mean anything to me.
Like even if it's from Mirabel's perspective, we could've had a scene where Isa creates a bouquet or whatever and she's scrutinizing it and everyone is telling how pretty it is and how perfect it is and she's like "oh no, I can do better" which Mirabel takes as humble bragging only for the song to reveal the pressure she's under to always be one way.
Like, with Hercules, we have the opening where the songs explain the plot and we see Hades' scheme and how Hercules gets to Earth and is raised by humans but then we also see him as a teenager destroying everything around him then he gets his song about not belonging and wanting something more.
The songs annoyed me because they're like the Euphoria voiceover where instead of spending time on building family dynamics, they just gave the different sisters songs. The songs should be propelling plot forward and giving insight.
Hakuna Mata matters because it's a song about forgetting responsibilities and all of your problems
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and it's in the right part of the movie because we have already seen exactly why that philosophy would appeal to Simba who witnessed his father get murdered and who, because of his uncle, thinks it's his fault
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and then there’s the transition to adulthood which indicates this is how Simba had been living his life
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which then sets up his arc and when he runs into Nala and when he sees Mufasa in the clouds.
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It's functional and it's emotional and it's placed properly. It's way too late for me to get Isa's song when I don't know anything about her, I feel like I'm just getting introduced to her rather than understanding her better.
And when Abuela yells about how Mirabela is ruining everything and then Mirabela yells back that none of them are ever good enough, I was like, besides Mirabela, sort of, we don't see this AT ALL. Like yeah Abuela says we give back to the miracle with our gifts, we serve the community, it's what we're proud to do but we don't see her interact with her family members for this pivotal blow up to be as emotional as it should be.
Her talking about the miracle all the time is supposed to be this pressure, it’s supposed to be her drilling into their heads that their worth is associated with what they can provide but again, that's not something I actually saw, this is something I extrapolated.
I hate to use this example because it’s Junot Diaz but The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is about intergenerational trauma in its many, many forms and this kind of sentiment is what I was supposed to be seeing
“You don’t know the hold our mothers have on us, even the ones that are never around—especially the ones that are never around. What it's like to be the perfect Dominican daughter, which is just a nice way of saying a perfect Dominican slave.”
“ And that's when it hit with the force of a hurricane. The feeling. I stood straight up, the way my mother always wanted me to stand up. My abuela was sitting there, forlorn, trying to cobble together the right words and I could not move or breathe. I felt like I always did at the last seconds of a race, when I was sure that I was going to explode. She was about to say something and I was waiting for whatever she was going to tell me. I was waiting to begin.”
but we never did.
The best portrayal is actually with Bruno
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and this
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Like, I feel like there's a difference between resonating with something you see onscreen and relating to an idea. Instead of watching different relationships play out or seeing different behaviours, namely Abuela’s, and going, YES, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT IT’S LIKE, YES SHE’S ACTING JUST LIKE MY GRANDMOTHER, it’s listening to explanations that you (the universal ‘you’) relate to without doing the work of actually portraying the themes, like just because it’s in song and just because it’s a Disney movie doesn’t mean that it’s not just an exposition dump with very pretty visuals and no narrative action.
I've mentioned a few times, the scene in Tangled where Rapunzel goes through the various emotions of leaving home against Mother Gothel's explicit rules where she goes from ecstatic to guilty and back again hit me in the chest HARD because it actually portrayed something I could relate to, it portrayed the relationship between her and Mother Gothel
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so that when we get here, to the scene that got me
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It makes absolute sense, it’s earned through what we saw. I resonated with it because I saw it play out and was like, holy shit that’s loud.
Encanto was a movie of what we should’ve seen.
At the end is when we see dynamics we should’ve seen at the beginning like Luisa and Isa standing by their doors and standing up straight when Abuela walked past.
And then when Mirabel is supposed to understand her grandmother’s trauma and therefore understand her grandmother more and see the entire situation from a different perspective and see what she had to go through and why she’s so tough on everyone --- which is absolutely a theme I could resonate with --- because we haven’t seen Abuela do this and be this way (the most we see is being distant with Mirabel and telling her to stay out of the way during Antonio’s ceremony) it wasn’t as cathartic as it should’ve been. It was more like an intellectual exercise.
And then the magic and the rules...
OK so the candle disappeared because it became magic and created Encanto due to Abuela’s pain over Pedro’s sacrifice so basically at the heart of the house and therefore of the family was Abuela’s pain, the new life was created due to her suffering and that created something beautiful but it was also supposed to be affecting everyone in the family i.e. intergenerational trauma but because everything happens at the end and very quickly and the rules of the magic in general were nonexistent --- the house was falling apart but still managed to help them?? --- Dolores can hear everything including rats so she can understand animals that’s not just Antonio? Only Mirabela’s mother who heals people through food (obvious metaphor, lmao) and Luisa seem to have gifts that help the people of Encanto, like how does shapeshifting help anyone? ---the significance of the candle was muddled and bungled.
All in all I thought it was a pretty movie visually and that’s it. I wanted to like it, I saw a lot of potential for what it could be but I was just underwhelmed and I mean initumseries warned me.
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