Encanto

"There's a little magic in all of us... almost all of us."

- Tagline

Encanto is a 2021 American computer-animated musical comedy film. The 60th feature film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, it was directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard from a screenplay by co-director Charise Castro Smith and Bush and a story by Bush, Howard, Castro Smith, Jason Hand, Nancy Kruse, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, and produced by Yvett Merino and Clark Spencer. It stars the voices of Stephanie Beatriz, María Cecilia Botero, John Leguizamo, Mauro Castillo, Jessica Darrow, Angie Cepeda, Carolina Gaitán, Diane Guerrero, and Wilmer Valderrama.

The film follows the Madrigals, a multigenerational Colombian family led by Alma Madrigal, in which each member of the family, sans Mirabel, receive magical gifts from the casita. When the family loses her magic, Mirabel tries to save the family and the house.

The film premiered at the El Capitan Theatre on November 3, 2021, and was released theatrically in the United States on November 24, 2021. It was also later released for streaming on Disney+ on December 24, 2021.

Plot
While escaping her home from armed conflict, a young woman named Alma Madrigal loses her husband, Pedro, but saves her three infant triplet children, Julieta, Pepa, and Bruno. Through a miracle, a candle Alma held onto was imbued with magic and creates a sentient "Casita" for the Madrigals to live in, and provide a safe haven for the refugees, who proceed to build a town called Encanto.

Encanto grows under the Casita's protection, and the magic imbues the Madrigal family — for which Alma becomes better known as "Abuela" — with a family of superhuman abilities dubbed "gifts". It is around the nature of the magic's involvement with gifts, however, that Bruno, along with Julieta's youngest daughter, Mirabel, become excluded. Bruno and his gift of precognition are vilified due to the unpredictable nature of his visions, which led Bruno to one day disappear. Mirabel, though, has no gift at all: though not as ostracized as Bruno, she is still treated differently by most of her family ("The Family Madrigal"). On the day Antonio, Pepa's youngest son, is to receive a gift, Mirabel gives Antonio the courage to go through with the ceremony ("Colombia, Mi Encanto"). Antonio gains the ability to speak with animals and the whole town celebrates while Mirabel, though happy for him, remains saddened for the lack of her own gift ("Waiting on a Miracle").

That night, Mirabel suddenly sees cracks forming around the house and the candle flickering, but when she tries to show everyone, everything is back to normal, leading the family to further doubt her ("En Barranquilla Me Quedo"). She later learns that Alma does indeed believe her and decides to save the magic. After asking her cousin, Dolores, who can hear everything, she confronts her older sister, Luisa, who has super strength. Mirabel gets her to confess that she feels overburdened by the family ("Surface Pressure") and reveals that when Mirabel saw the cracks, she felt weaker. Luisa suggests that Mirabel should go to Bruno's old room, recalling that he once had a vision about the family's magic. Mirabel enters to see that it is a giant sand-filled cave and discovers a vision that supposedly shows Mirabel being the cause of the house cracking apart. Upon leaving, Luisa reveals that her strength is fading and Alma tells Mirabel not to talk to anyone, especially her perfect oldest sister, Isabela, who can make flowers appear, as she is to be engaged that evening to Mariano, a local man.

The family overhears Mirabel asking about Bruno and explains to her how his predictions often caused trouble ("We Don't Talk About Bruno"), such as how his vision about rain led to Pepa, whose mood controls the weather, being married in a hurricane. Dolores then overhears Mirabel talking with her father about Bruno's prediction. The dinner and the proposal are soon ruined as Dolores is unable to keep Bruno's vision a secret, with the house once again beginning to crack and everyone's powers beginning to falter. The family (mostly Alma, Pepa, and Isabela) blames Mirabel, despite her pleading that she had nothing to do with the incident. That night with the Guzmáns, Mirabel notices some rats taking the pieces of Bruno's vision and discovers a hidden passage in the walls behind a painting, finding a cloaked figure that she chases. When she falls through the floor, the figure saves her (though it is then revealed the hole is not very deep), revealing himself as Bruno. He never actually left and instead hid within the walls as he still cares about his family. Mirabel eventually convinces him to have another prediction. Antonio then shows up and offers his room for them to use, as the rats informed him of everything. Mirabel and Bruno's vision starts the same as before, but Mirabel notices a butterfly. They follow it and it eventually leads to them finding a solution that involves Mirabel having to hug it out with Isabela. Mirabel is not pleased with the situation, but Bruno tells her that she, not Isabela, will ultimately decide the Casita's fate before going back into hiding. Mirabel decides to apologize to Isabela for ruining the engagement dinner. After a brief argument, Isabela confess that she felt burdened by being perfect all the time and that she never wanted to marry Mariano and was only doing so for the family. This causes Isabela to embrace her true self by making more wild, exotic, and carnivorous plants and both sisters share a genuine hug (fulfilling Bruno's vision), seemingly healing the house and magic ("What Else Can I Do?").

Alma furiously discovers what has been happening and blames Mirabel of hurting their family and the miracle all because she was rejected a gift. Finally fed up with her mistreatment, Mirabel angrily snaps at her for always seeing her as a disappointment and for deeming no one good enough for her, going as far as to say that Bruno left because she only saw the worst in him and that she (Alma) is the reason the miracle is dying, which utterly horrifies Alma. At that moment, the house begins to break apart; as it tries to get everyone out to safety, Isabela, Camilo, and the rest of the family lose their gifts as the magic quickly fades. Mirabel stays behind to try and retrieve the candle, but it disappears before she can reach it. The Casita uses its remaining magic to shield her from its collapse, and the Madrigals are all left homeless and powerless by the disaster.

Heartbroken and guilt-ridden, Mirabel runs away to the river and releases stress, where a remorseful Alma soon finds her. Alma mentions that the river is where Pedro perished and admits that everything was indeed her fault. She sees that she forgot that what made everyone special was that they were a family ("Dos Oruguitas"), and Mirabel recognizes the burdens Alma carried and never fully healed from it. Now understanding Alma better, Alma and Mirabel reconcile and share a hug after 10 years before Bruno appears, attempting to take the blame for what happened to the house. Bruno reconciles with Alma and the rest of the family (admitting to Pepa that him mentioning rain on her wedding day was not actually a prediction, just him joking about how much she was sweating), and they all decide to fix the house together. The entire village soon arrives to help as thanks for all the family has done for them ("All of You"). After completing the house, Mirabel adds the doorknob her family made just for her to the front door, which causes the house to spring back to life, and the magic returns. The citizens of the town come to see Casita alive again, Dolores and Mariano start a relationship (since it was revealed that she always had a crush on him) and the Madrigals get their gifts back, but instead of using the gifts to be perfect, they are finally able to use them the way they want. Bruno is welcomed back to the family and they all get together for a family picture, this time with all the members, including Mirabel and Bruno ("Colombia, Mi Encanto Reprise").

Future
Both Jared Bush and Charise Castro Smith expressed that they and Lin-Manuel Miranda were open to create more content of the Encanto cast, be it " a sequel, stage show or spinoff series." In concern of a possible spin-off animated series, Bush encouraged fans to write to the Disney Studio and expressed their support. Disney CEO Bob Chapek described Encanto as the company's latest franchise during a February 2022 earnings call.