I also think that Isabela represents the real length of how protected they were by the miracle. When Alma's kids got their gifts, nothing could assure her that this will keep happening for next generations. Isabela was the first born grandchild, which in itself might have been a major thing for Abuela and the actual moment she became an abuela. But also she was the confirmation that the miracle will keep on working for their grandchildren. That must have left a big emotional impression on Abuela Alma.
Don't forget she also had to raise 3 babies and start/help a new town thrive and more than likely didn't have time to grieve her loss. The black shaw she wore when she first lost Pedro, you can see she had it on basically the entire movie, showing she was still grieving.
A note about Antonio's gift... Alma didn't seem to see the use of it when at the table. She said they would try to find a use for it but seemed not pleased at all.
I've posted on other pages so I will shorten this responce- First Gift-- the Encanto and Casita (Safety and Protection) Secondary Gifts: Healing (Health) Weather (Food Growth) Knowledge of Future Events (Hope and continued safety). These gifts are most closely related to the First Gift. Third Tier: Beauty, Humor, Flexibility, Strength, the ability to hear (Listen). (Character traits-- more cognitive and enriching) Fourth Tier: Connectedness to Nature and communication with other life; Embodiment of love and spirituality. Understanding of something greater. As for the comment about using their gifts as a child would, that was probably true for all of them at 5 years old. I'm sure they all had fun at first--except maybe Bruno--making it rain or snow, making flowers pop out of the air, swinging on a playground of things to climb on, baking magic cookies-- After all Abuela had 3 preschoolers whose gifts she couldn't understand fully-- these magical doors just appeared and what? She knew they each had a destiny for her kids?
Since Antonio could talk to animals. Animals always see and hear things, important. Therefore they can tell Antonio . Then Antonio could spread the word. That’s what the use probably was for
With Luisa, that part where she lifts the man off his donkey was infuriating to me. Not necessarily that she did it, but that it was expected of her to do so. Ingrained into muscle memory for her. The dude didn't even *try* to dismount on his own, he just sat there like a stone and let her do all the work. No wonder he grew a gut.
Thinking about Antonio I think it would be more effective to tell donkeys to follow them than just to carry them like its odd and what if you harm the animals?
I sincerely so much wish for a second part when this all got fixes and something like a new challenge (usually that is making the plot) comes in... like how does Mirabel takes Abuela's places or becomes her helper * and which challenges she can go through cs of many misunderstanding her family goes apart mb some even choose to move out (no, not Bruno, he will stay in as usual, he gotta stay in) and how Mirabel will find a way to Unite those more growing into differences than similarities people... most probably her cousins & Antonio... oh Antonio could also be in the start or close to it shout at cs he does mess with his animals... and after things has been clearen she suggests him to use his talent to help the villagers w their animals problems and w the help of Julieta she could even become a kind of very understanding sweet vet after he grows up mb around Mirabel's age... :)
Theory: In the small photo of her and Abuela, she had braids like Alma did. Mariano also kinda looks like Pedro, so Abuela wanted them to marry because it would be like her wedding
I think Isabella being the first grandchild also had something to do with her becoming the favorite. Since she was the oldest she was most likely the next in line to have children… keeping the gifts coming into the family. I think Dolores would have been the next mission.
People always talk about Isabella growing flowers but Bruno predicted that her powers would grow. Grow, as in produce not only flowers and plants but grow crops. Between Isabella producing plants and Pepa watering them with rain life will always be sustained in the encanto. They will always have food and even shelter (Isabella can grow trees and Luisa can build with her strength).
Bruh I really hated that everyone was so rude to Luisa. She’s my favorite character and she’s so precious and kind and I relate to her the most and it made me so mad that she never got a thank you and an Im sorry bc she deserved one
Mirabel's gift was actually the whole Casita though no one knew that it was that and since Mirabel's door faded away they all thought that she didnt have a gift. So then Abuela Alma thought that it would be a bad influence if Mirabel did something wrong to the Madrigal family and she blamed her for everything.
Louisa is the best character IMO. I think a lot of women especially mothers, can see themselves in that character. Her song is brilliant. How she feel her worth is only measured by what she can do for others. I find myself singing this often.
It always irked me how often those donkeys got out and instead of rounding them up themselves, the villagers made Luisa gather the donkeys up instead. You have a WHOLE villager that could get into groups to get the donkeys 😤
Also, let's not forget the favoritism (double-edged sword that it is) involved in every other family member's gift being made as useful as possible, whereas Isabela's gift (She could grow any plant she can imagine/feel - 1-person farm producer anyone?). But instead of Abuela using Isabela's gift like she uses Luisa's, Isabela is allowed/required to have her gift be "pretty" (and only pretty).
Because Isabella was seen as the easiest to marry off and she needed to marry someone who wanted alot of kids so the family and magic would grow. Isabella was basically an insurance policy for the family. I was so hurt watching Luisa be walked all over, unappreciated, and worked to the bone
This would also explain what I noticed: Both her daughters [Pepa and Julieta] do talk to their mom in ways that suggest THEY were not raised with the same borderline abuse we see her exhibit toward her grandkids. In fact, it seems only Mirabel is willing to talk back to her grandma outside of her parents and her aunt and uncle. So this theory definitely would help explain WHY she treated them differently. Her kids? They all had powers and she saw how they helped out. Then Isabela is born [and shortly after Delores is born, since they're like 22 and 21 respectively] and suddenly she sees this girl that looks like her growing up and puts that pressure on her, and of course needs the other kids to pick up the slack too so pressures them and it just builds over time. And is subtle enough that her own kids don't necessarily realize it outside of pointing out when she's too hard on Mirabel.
Mirabel wasn't the only one annoyed by Isabella's "perfect" outward image. Check out that quick, sly smile from Dolores right after she says Mariano wants 5 babies at 1:16. 😆😆
In a different timeline that the story makers wrote, he did tell Abuela, and this is evident when Mirable asks him why he's not going with her to see Isabelle - it's be cause he doesn't want Abuela to see him. And when he goes to the pond/creek to tell Abuela that it wasn't Mirables fault as he tries to get off the horse he says, "I don't care what you think of me, but if you're to stubborn to-" and then Abuela hugs him, stopping his train of thought. He had assumed that Abuela was telling Mirable off like she had all these years to anyone who was a dissapointment.
Agreeing with all this, I believe Isabella was her favorite for being the first. But once she got her gift of perfection I believe Abuela Alma became more enamored with Isabella because with her gift of perfection it would (possibly) guarantee that her offspring would no doubt inherit a strong/almost perfect gift.
Isabela is the first grandchild and naturally she is going to have a certain attachment that she won't have with the rest of the grandchildren. It is in the art of encanto book that Pedro was a writer and poet, similar to Mariano hence her want for Isabela, who remind Alma of herself, to marry him. She is basically projecting on Isa and Isa obviously felt that she had to do what was told as the eldest. Therefore Alma most likely had the least push back from Isa
She wanted Isabela to be the next candleholder because she thought she would be perfect for the job because she was the first granddaughter. But appearance does not matter because the least person (mirabel) was actually the person castia chose mirabel to be the next candleholder.
My thought was she strived to be like Isabella but was really like Maribel. That’s why she was so critical of her. The insecure Abuela resembling a narcissist that uses her grandkids for supply and couldn’t be seen imperfect. 🤔
I think it's actually partially Brunos fault. (Not on purpose poor boy.) Isabella is the only one who seemingly recieved a good prediction. Her power would grow and thrive, something Abuela worries about constantly
Actually I think Bruno's gift is about perspective. Because I'm 99% sure if Bruno saw a vision of Isabella's new power (with the bold colors and all) Abuela would have taken it as a bad thing because she interpreted the change as Isabella being out of control. Sort of like what happened at Peppa's wedding. She didn't get the message the exact way he saw it. Same to Mirabel before meeting him and probably everyone else.
Bruno’s predictions were positive if you actually consider what he was telling them. Lady, spend the last full day with your fish! Dude, work out and stop that gut from coming true! And did you see how beautiful that priest’s head was? Bruno helped them, or tried to. Like the video said, the townspeople took their cue from Abuela and read into it with shitty perspective.
I thought she chose Isabella to be the “perfect child” is Bc Isabella might not have a useful gift but she grows beautiful flowers which is common for flowers to be one of a woman’s favorite items especially that Isabella grows purple and pink flowers which would be the most common colors for a girl to like which makes her think that’s what it takes to be perfect
Why did they say that Bruno only sees the worst? Didn’t Isabella say that Bruno saw a good future for her?? I think he said something like “your powers will grow fast” or something, by the word “grow” he probably means the new plants growing from Isabella.
Yeah, Isabella says "He told me that the life of my dreams would be promised and someday be mine, he told me that my power would grow like the grapes that thrive on the vine"
I love how Luisa would actually prefer Isabela's sedentary 'pretty in pink' lifestyle, while Isabela is really more of an impetuous nature 'goddess' like her aunt Pepa.
Isabella's magic is elegant magic and Isabella is an equally elegant and beautiful girl. She is also the eldest child in the family. I think these are the reasons.
I feel that Isabela has sort of an opposite problem to Luisa in terms of her gift. Where Luisa is overworked and exploited by everyone for her strength and general abilities, Isabela is trapped in this role of using her power to only grow perfect, very specific flowers instead of expanding her potential to the fullest. She didn't even know she was capable of growing anything other than roses or anything symmetrical, not even trees or other types of flowers. While she still isn't able to voice out her own desires just like the rest of her family, it seems that her power itself isn't taken seriously enough by everyone else and is under utilized other than to look pretty, and that they only see her and her power as this superficially beautiful object that isn't capable of doing much else, when there is so much potential with plants, as they all have their own aesthetics, uses, and roles in nature. It's not like she minds her powers, but I'd imagine doing the exact same thing over and over again for years will get tiresome. Even Luisa has some sort of variety in what she gets to do (not saying it's good what they do to her either). Not to mention that being in public must be exhausting for her as every movement she makes, and attitude she puts up, is a precise, orchestrated performance that is not allowed any slip ups.
Okay, sorry I have to disagree with ine thing. Younger Abuela's whole damn face is on luisa . They might not have looked the same physically but luisa's face card is Alma💁🏿♂️
Abuela may not be evil, but she doesn't seem to have any redeeming qualities as a grandmother. Sounds like one of my grandmothers, none of us were particularly upset when she left life, because she was horrible to our parents and only took time for us if it was to be critical or harsh.
Yeah…sounds like you projecting your experiences onto abuela. Abuela literally recognized her faults in the end and apologized. Not only that, she changed her behavior in the end. She literally redeems herself.
Or because she was the "pretty" one. It could gone either way between her or Dorlores. But her being the main characters' older sister, it just worked better for the story. Let's not sugarcoat this, lol
@@jbrandonf or could have been just what I actually said instead of the “points that where made”. It’s a kids movie don’t get too wrapped up. It has been proven that she was supposed to represent “the Disney princess” aesthetics with the whole perfect thing. She was the first born of the first child and was gifted with having flowers pop out of the woodworks. The only thing that would drive that home more is was if she could talk to animals as well lol. Like a Hispanic Snow White. But like I said it’s a kids movie. A good one at that.
I think that Isabela was seen as the best by abuela because she was a perfectionist and could handle the family and keep it organized when abuela is gone.
They thought because since Isabella was the first born when alma time comes when she's gone she was going to take over after her but actually it was Mirabel the whole time
Abuela has a sister if you see in the family madrigal song when the kids keep on asking about the family, at the end Mirabel says "adios" a person who's playing the drums looks like young alma
Also in the picture mirabel wasn`t in it ( she had no gift ) and isabela had pink flowers, Abuela pink flowers on her wedding day and that could support the point that she wanted her to marry him because he looked similar to pedro and he cared so much about his family . Knowing that Deloris could hear people from far away she also could have known how everyone was feeling as well as bruno but kept quiet
Considering each character in the family got around 5 min of screentime, apart from Mirabel, I think it's a strech to say she only interact with them based on what she can get from them. We really see very little interaction between them. Mirabel and Camilo don't talk during the movie (he sings at her though) Dolores and Mirabel interact like what, twice ? Luisa almost never exchange with characters other than Mirabel, apart from the last song etc etc. The movie is short, so straight forward. Every interaction has a purpose story wise. I think that might be a reason we only see Alma talk to the other grand-children for a specific, gift oriented purpose.
I would agree if her treatment for Mirabel wasn't that way. Like it was almost as if she hates Mirabel and it's because of not having a gift. So it's not unreasonable to imagine she only sees the gift in others. Oh and at the end, her part of the song "The miracle is not some magic that you've got..." It's as if she is correcting herself for having the wrong views. She saw the magic instead of the people before and is admitting it at the end
I think isabela was adored by abuela alma because she was like a role model for the family to be a perfect example of what her family could be . And also because abuela alma and her perfect granddaughter isabela and Mariano and Pedro have similarities with each other so lets take isabela and abuela first what are the similarities they have? Well they have both have brown eyes straight black hair like so many similarities. Now let's see Pedro and Mariano both of them write poems. They also look the same. They both have wavy black hair and and have a white shirt and brown eyes. They also have same hairstyles. I think abuela alma adored isabela also because she was her first grandaughter perfection was needed for isabela go back to the scene when Dolores says Mariano wants five kids five flowers spring out of isabela's hair most of them being pink there is one single white flower. Instead of letting it stay on her hair abuela just pulled the flower out of her hair and shoved it towards the side she needs to be perfect. Actually my favorite encanto character is isabela because I have the exact same life as her. I am the first daughter and I am a role model for my younger siblings and I have the same looks as my grandmother just like Isabela
I think because the abuela didn’t heal from her trauma she barried it and it manifested into narcissistic tendencies expecting only perfect from her children because when something would go wrong it would probably trigger her unhealed version of herself and isabela honored that false reality of perfection by being well.. perfect.
It was Isabela that Mirabel was hugging. They were by the candle, and it was burning brighter just like in Bruno's vision. She had to make amends with Abuela too, but the vision was out of order.
ok wait a minute.... where did it say that Isabella was the first born? when they were being introduced in the movie, it seemed like Luisa is the first born and Isabella was 2nd born. and in real life the representation makes sense: the Eldest are almost always laden with all the responsibilities while the younger siblings gets to chill and be "sitting pretty"
Isabela was the oldest, she was set to be married first, because she was the oldest in the family. Even in the family picture, Isabella is first in the line.
One of the screen writers tweeted out their ages. Isabella the oldest at 21, then Dolores also 21 but slightly younger, then Luisa at 19, then Camilo at 15, then Mirabelle also at 15 but again slightly younger, and then Antonio at 5. The triplets (Peppa, Julieta, and Bruno) are 50 in the film.
A screenwriter confirmed the ages of everyone in the family. Isabella and Dolores are 21, though Dolores is younger. Luisa is 19, Camilo and Mirabel are 15 though Mirabel is younger. Antonio’s 5, and the triplets are all 50. The triplets being Julieta, Pepa and Bruno. I’m also sure Julieta’s the oldest of the 3
The worst part is that Mirabelle didn’t get a gift because of Abula. The house didn’t get a gift because of how obsessed she was with power, there’s speculation that she pressured her daughter and her husband to have another child despite the fact that they were happy with having Isabella and Luisa
Mirabel kinda looks more like Tio Bruno....this sadly does matter because it creates a subconcious dislike, if you resemble a person that someone else wants to forget about... it creates a dislike that isnt even intentional sometimes. Abuela viewed Bruno as a "lost child" meaning hes the kid that didnt fit her standard and was a black sheep of the family, out of his two siblings he was the most different...Mirabel also shared that quality of being different and not fitting the image. She wasnt prim and proper like Isa, wasnt mentally and physically strong like Luisa, she was the "Bruno" of her siblings. Which also explains why Mirabel and Bruno get along so well and have an understanding between eachother that the other family members dont quite have with him. Isabella looks more like young Alma, and fits the image of perfection she wants the family to have. She subconsciously sees Isabella as an extension of herself instead of an individual, and as a response she holds her to the same standard she holds herself to.
I have sorta of a theory I saw on tik tok but I think Mirabel gift is the whole house and when abuela Alma dies she’s also going to be the candle holder and then I think the house is abuelo Pedro is the house because the house basically only the house technically only helps Mirabel
I figured that among all the special abilities she saw, Abuela Alma could understand “pretty.” In a family of freaks, at least Isabella was the pretty freak.
The reason why is because Isabela looks like Abuela when she was young the most and is living through her. The biggest hint is that while the rest of her side of the family is wearing blue to represent the mother, she is wearing purple close to pink to represent Alma. It's sick and tragic and I'm glad Isabela got out of it when she did. It never goes out well when one does. Any thoughts?
Another theory by me: I think Abuela Alma sus because it’s like she loved all kids at first then as soon as Isabella was born, boom she love no one except Isabella. 🌸
Luisa was actually the First Born of Julieta's girls. As many times as I've watched this with my nieces and nephews and occasionally my own kids because they're preteens, when Mirabel is introducing everyone, she actually does say Luisa was the oldest.
I feel so bad for luisa like RLLY bad y did they have to do this to her she was one of my favs she was so kind and no one gave her manners FOR ALL SHE DID IM RAGIN RN IM SRRY
Isa looked a great deal like Alma as a young woman. That and being the first grandchild made her very important to Alma. And Alma wanted Isa to have the perfect life Alma didn’t get.
That makes me question: who gives out the gifts? I think it’s Pedro and Abuela was shocked to see the candle flicker when Mirabel’s door disappeared. I believe it symbolizes many things. 1: out with the old, in with the new. Mirabel was the transformation of the Casita and Abuela didn’t like it. Bruno had a hunch and knowing his mother, kept it from her (or told her and she shunned him). 2: Control and perfection vs freedom and fun. (This might be expanded on in Encanto 2) 3: the way we are as parents…sometimes we live through our children and sometimes we fight the children that are our opposites. Abuela allowed her son to be away from her for TEN YEARS. That’s a long time for a parent to push away from their child. I personally know what that’s like (I was “Bruno” so to speak) so she must have been trying to hold on to her control of her family pretty tight…
did you know in we don't talk about bruno evryone said that bruno did bad thing to them like when a lady said he told my fish woud die the next day dead but...... isabella said bruno actually did good things to her it was when she said he told me that the life of my dreams would be promesd and someday be mine he told me that my power would grow like the grapes that thrive on the vine.
I think it's because her flowers are so beautiful it's just that they smell good they look good she wants her daughters to be perfect well her granddaughters she doesn't like anybody else but herself and her granddaughter Isabella she hates Mirabella because she doesn't have a gift she doesn't like anybody but Isabella
In the movie Bruno doesn't show Alma the vision he leaves to protect mirabel from almas wrath as she's just a child barely not a toddler anymore and Bruno knew she would be treated badly after the vision if Alma saw it
I was just wondering; did you notice that this story about *generational trauma,* could also reference the case of *Madrigal* v. Quilligan. Madrigal v. Quilligan was a federal class action lawsuit from Los Angeles County, California involving sterilization of Latina women that occurred either without informed consent, or through coercion, in 1978. American eugenics, thought I should let content diggers like yours know. I haven't heard anyone about this angle yet. Also considering the fact that: one study estimates that approximately 77% of triplet and higher order births come from fertility treatments, including IVF. Triplet pregnancies can come in a few combinations of shared embryonic sacs, shared placentas, identical, fraternal etc. The types of triplets you are carrying can affect the likelihood of experiencing complications during your pregnancy. Triplet pregnancies in themselves are pretty rare.