Encanto: One Quote From Each Main Character That Goes Against Their Personality
Disney's Encanto is chock full of many different kinds of characters. The movie follows the magical Madrigals, which is the governing family of a small village in Colombia. The family's matriarch, Abuela, puts undue pressure on her children and grandchildren to be perfect due to her own fears that they will lose their magic if they aren't.
Each character is affected by this pressure in a different way and it slowly begins to shape and form their personality. They suppress who they truly are in order to please Abuela, but as their home starts to fall apart, qualities within themselves that seem to contradict their personality start to break through. These quotes that contradict the personality of each family member perfectly exemplify how the characters change throughout the film.
Mirabel is bubbly and silly. Despite feeling like an outcast, she always manages to present a joyful front and go-get-'em attitude. She has great pride in her family and is confident that one day she will be able to make them proud of her.
This makes it all the more jarring when she confronts Abuela. Finally no longer able to keep positive, she snaps and tells Abuela exactly what she thinks of the way that she treats their family. The result is an emotional scene that really drives home just how Mirabel had been feeling under the surface.
Isabela is the perfect, and somewhat catty, older sister to Mirabel. Abuela has regarded her as the most useful person in the family. The gift of covering everything with beautiful flowers would greatly appeal to Abuela, who likes things to appear just right. Also, Isabela's good looks make her the perfect candidate for bringing in a husband and having children with new useful gifts.
Through the beginning of the film, Isabela is downright mean. She clearly holds a lot of resentment for Mirabel, saying some not-so-nice words to her whenever she tries to be helpful. So when Isabela finally loses control and treats Mirabel with kindness, it is a huge contrast to what audiences have seen of her so far.
Luisa is the strong one of the family, and therefore carries a lot of the weight of responsibility. She is afraid of stopping even for a minute, determined not to let anyone in her family or the village down. This escalates to a point where she no longer feels comfortable communicating her own vulnerabilities.
When her gift is threatened, Luisa's emotions come spilling out, much to Abuela's frustration. Luisa is forced to find a new way to define herself. During the final musical number of the film when she no longer has any power, she admits that she cries sometimes. This vulnerability is a big moment for her.
Like the other family members, Dolores never felt as if she could share her feelings. Since her gift is the ability to hear virtually everything, this goes a step further for her. Dolores is used to communicate the secret wants and needs of the village to Abuela, but no one ever stops to consider that she may have wants and needs herself.
In one of Encanto's catchiest songs, "We Don't Talk About Bruno," Dolores uncharacteristically confesses that she is in love with Mariano, the man whom she has had to listen to in order to help Abuela set him up with Isabela. She does this softly and quietly, but it's the first time that audiences see her share her own feeling instead of everyone else's.
Antonio is the youngest member of the Madrigals, but is also one of the bravest. Due to his age, he has suffered the least under the pressure placed on everyone by Abuela. He is cheerful, compassionate, and excitable. He rides around on his Jaguar without fear and provides genuine care and support for anyone he can.
Antonio's uncharacteristic quote is one of the first that audiences hear from him. He expresses his doubt and worry to Mirabel, but audiences later see that he is not an anxious child by nature. Instead, this moment of worry and fear is a peek into the first kind of pressure that Antonio has faced: the pressure to successfully receive a gift, unlike Mirabel.
From what audiences can tell, Julieta is a great mother. She is very affectionate towards Mirabel and the telltale look of anxiety that is almost permanently on her face shows just how much she wants her children to be safe and happy.
Because of this, it is not her worry about Mirabel's feelings during Antonio's ceremony that is surprising to her character, but the way she is talking to her mother. Julieta's gift also has a lot of value to Abuela, so she has undoubtedly been raised with a lot of pressure herself. Just like everyone in the family, standing up to her mother is not easy for her. It does not seem as if she is very often capable of protecting her children from her mother, but this is a moment where she gives it her best shot.
When audiences first meet Agustín they are able to see that is a well-meaning but somewhat clueless father. With three teenage daughters in a magical home, he seems to be a little bit out of his depth. He looks repeatedly to his wife to see how he should be talking, and even what facial expressions to be making.
He, therefore, surprises audiences when he takes control of Mirabel's situation with Bruno's vision, snatching up the broken pieces and telling her exactly how they are going to proceed. This was so contradictory to his previous scenes that viewers were surprised to see that he could step up in that way.
Pepa is the hotheaded family member and the only one who seems comfortable standing up to Abuela Madrigal, which really sums up her personality. She suffers from a lot of anxiety, always fearing that the worries will result in a storm. Her worrying about worrying often leads her down a spiral of hopelessness.
At the end of the film when she sees Bruno again and accepts his apology about her wedding, Julieta and Pepa sing about how everything was going to be okay. This time of positivity for Pepa was very different from what viewers had seen from her up until this moment. Losing her powers may have actually caused her great relief, allowing her to take a more positive perspective for once.
Bruno's gift of foresight made him the constant bearer of bad news. Abuela, who prefers to pretend that everything is okay, didn't see much value in his gift and Bruno internalized that as him lacking value. This causes him to have low self-confidence and to always be fearful of his mother.
So when he rides to Mirabel's defense, announcing to his mother that he doesn't care what she thinks and calling her stubborn, it was completely uncharacteristic for him. It revealed that while he was afraid of his mother's opinion, he cared about Mirabel more.
Abuela is strong and stubborn and is one of Encanto's most unpopular characters. She has worked hard to keep her family protected, even if it unintentionally causes them years of emotional damage. When she is confronted about her treatment of Mirabel before Antonio's ceremony, she disregards it completely.
When Casita falls to pieces in the wake of Abuela and Mirabel's fight, Abuela's entire demeanor changes. She quickly realizes the damage that she had caused. Once she finds Mirabel, she offers her an apology, something that many viewers were not expecting to see from her.