Mirabel was not a Madrigal

I'm very excited to talk about Encanto with you. Oh, me too. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. Dude, I think both of us have a lot of things to say about Encanto. I could do two episodes on Encanto probably. I have so much to say. There's a lot to like about this movie. And I think a lot more than a lot of Disney movies that have come out recently. I think this is one of the best Disney movies to come out in years. Hello and welcome to The Popcorn Isn't Real. I'm Leif Eric and I'm here with my co-host Torvald. And we today are going to be talking about Disney's 2021 film, Encanto, the newly beloved modern classic. Dude, I'm going to ask you the same question about Encanto that my children asked me when we finished Encanto. Who would win in a fight? Luisa or Knuckles the Echidna? Oh, gee. That was the first thing they asked me when the credits rolled. I guess they've never seen another strong character.

Well, yeah, I was going to say, I guess maybe a better matchup would be like Mr. Incredible or Wreck-It Ralph, I guess. I don't know. Wreck-It Ralph, maybe. I don't know. Well, I mean, oh, gosh, that's tough. I love Louisa. Dude, Louisa's so cool. But, you know, I think if we were to make a list of all their feats of strength, Knuckles would win because Louisa doesn't do much in this movie. we might talk about that a little and we will talk about that oh my gosh maybe they'll have a sequel about louisa someday who knows dude i mean knuckles the echidna he exploded mammoth mogul who was sucking out his powers simply by allowing him to suck out his power doing nothing hey you want my power take my power just like try it dude i'm not gonna stop you He just threw so much, so much fun. Sonic killed him. It exploded him. So yeah. I never did that. No, Knuckles can beat anyone. We're referencing Archie Comics' version of Knuckles.

And their lead writer, Ken Penders, just loved Knuckles. And a lot of the fans hated that he loved Knuckles. Because for whatever reason, a lot of the fans of the Sonic comic were Sonic fans. Yeah, what? How weird. Dude. We weren't. We were Knuckles fans. I only bought Sonic comics for Knuckles. I think Encanto is a really interesting movie because at first, it seems like it doesn't really have a villain, but actually it does have a villain if you really look at it. A despicable, horrendous, unforgivable, unredeemable villain. I agree. So there is one person, if you pay attention, there is one person who is causing all of the problems in the movie. And of course, it is the grandma, Abuela, and she is the cause of the family crumbling. Well, that leads right into my trigger warning, which is, for this episode, trigger warning, we do talk about Bruno. Yeah, be careful, guys. But also, if you are a person who got to the end of this movie and was like, wow, Abuela

was totally redeemed, and I actually like her, then maybe this is trigger warning is for you so i absolutely love this movie the attention to detail in this movie is just insane the characters are amazing the characters are amazing the songs are some of the best we've had in a long time but i am going to critique it a lot i do that because i'm a writer and it's my job to dissect stories and some people don't seem to understand that like i was really surprised when i learned that people got mad at me because they thought i hated everything when i'm talking about things that i genuinely like but i'm critiquing them like someone i know very close thought that i hated harry potter for years and she wouldn't talk to me about harry potter but i love so many episodes on harry potter we love harry i know i absolutely love harry potter uh so i just want to throw that out there i am going to critique this movie we are going to maybe say some bad

things about some characters you might like i don't know why you would about abuela what do you think was better in kanto or frozen what are you kidding me what the stupid it's a tough one i don't know the only good thing about frozen was let it go let it go one good song no it had that song about ice it had like little rock trolls oh my god no so i love how they intricately weaved this story and at the end reveal that abuela is the cause of you know the family and the house crumbling she's the cause of the pressure the cause of the hate and the strife and the fighting and the secrets and the scorning of poor bruno when i when i finished this movie i was i was so ready as the movie neared its climax to be like holy cow like wow disney has got some balls making abuela into the bad guy and then they just pulled it all back oh we're gonna talk about that there's no redeeming abuela after what she did

to bruno her son and mirabelle her granddaughter no there isn't there isn't oh unless perhaps mirabelle is not her granddaughter here are the theories for today one is that abuela is abusive and represents the cycle of abuse. So, hey, maybe that should be part of my trigger warning too. We might talk about some family abuse, emotional abuse. The most important theories here are we want to prove that... The big theory. Casita, the house, is actually abuelo, the grandpa, Pedro. Yeah, Pedro. The other fan theory that I really like... The biggest bombshell of this episode, we definitively know why Mirabelle did not get a gift. And that is because she is not part of la familia Madrigal. What? We will go over why we believe that, but she is not genetically related to Pedro Madrigal. She is not Julieta's daughter. The casita and the candle, they can only give powers to people of the same genetic

line as Pedro. And, you know, we might as well just launch into it is that there are two people in this movie who do not have a gift, who do not have powers. Who are those people? That is Abuela, of course, and Mirabel. Right. And there are two people in the Madrigal family who are not genetically related to Pedro Madrigal. Who are those two people? Well, if you ask me, I mean, of course, there's Abuela and Mirabel, who is in fact the product of a scandalous affair that her dad had with somebody else. yeah someone yeah who we may not know no let's go over the flashback this starts with a typical disney opening a flashback within a flashback because all disney movies have to start with at least three or four flashbacks raya and the last dragon was the worst and frozen too like but in the in this flashback abuela and abuelo they're on the run i guess and grandpa dies protecting them apparently like it's kind of unclear what actually happened even though this

is set in colombia i think they specifically didn't really want to say an exact time period most people believe that this movie starts in that flashback in the early 1900s because in the early 1900s there was a war called the thousand years war or something like that in colombia so they think that's what was going on and the fact that the soldiers are carrying swords yeah which means that the rest of the movie which is 50 years later probably takes place in either the 50s or 60s I might say closer to the 60s and I'll give a reason for that later. But perhaps the reason they don't say exactly what happened to Pedro is because Abuela is talking to Mirabel and she's like a really little kid. So she doesn't say it. And then he was hacked apart. No, I know.

An evil regime. Either way, whatever happened, it appears that he died protecting them. and all of a sudden when that happened you can see his ghostly love energy entering that candle that the grandma is huddled around and then it protects her family it destroys those bad guys it rips them shreds and it creates the casita and it looks to me like it creates the entire village as well yes okay yeah so and this was not clear to me until probably my fifth viewing of the movie which is one of the things i love about this movie there's such a high attention to detail and world building that every time you watch it you find something new i did not realize incanto refers to sometimes several different things in this movie but actually refers to the magical valley in which they live which is completely closed off from the outside world and totally surrounded by cliffs on all sides and it is implied though never outright stated that no one ever leaves and no one

ever comes in and abuela runs this kingdom of her own that's true she's the power of her children that's interesting well i mean no wonder she's so desperate to convince everyone that the magic is strong yeah well either way abuelo pedro his ghostly love energy went into that candle to bless and watch over his family forever but only his family only his relatives his direct blood relatives right because abuela never gets any powers she does not get a power she has a door unlike unlike poor mirabelle but uh she doesn't have any powers well and also i think her room is a little different because it seems to have a window i think it's just a normal room that's true the other rooms don't really seem like they have windows because they're like pocket dimensions and that's also why mirabelle has no powers her dad clearly cheated on her mom and then to avoid any sort of shame for the family abuela was forced to adopt mirabelle into the family and sweep the

whole affair under the rug and i think that she had hoped mirabelle would get powers because she had no idea how it works she's just like well let's hope she gets powers like everyone else I agree. And like, I think there's ample evidence in this movie to suggest that's exactly what Abuela would do. She would not let it get out that there was some sort of affair. She would say, this is my daughter, Mirabelle. And I think there's also ample evidence in this movie to show that that is exactly what Mirabelle's father would do, both cheat on his wife and sweep it under the rug. So let's get into it. So we know that from when she was a child, mirabelle has been told by abuela make your family proud for abuela it's all about pride when mirabelle leaves her room the house helps put shoes on her feet and she says morning abuelo as she leaves her room to the picture of pedro on the wall yeah no he looks right at him and says

good morning right and then she's also pushing her out it's like get out of here you spawn of someone else I gotta say Abuela's door is front and center in the casita we see it Julieta and Peppa have doors on either side of her to her left and right yeah she obviously favors them where's Bruno's door no it's like way down the hall before any of the other kids he should have anyway it's not in the main part of the hacienda it's like off in a corner why no it's at the end of one of the halls it's insane like apparently they already hated bruno and sent him to live far far away from them and it's possible that casita can rearrange its rooms like it can obviously yeah i guess it's like no one uses this room anymore so i'll just put it over here yeah he just moved it in general i think mirabelle is a pretty nice person um and pretty you know motivated to do good things but like how dare mirabelle just bang on dolores's door to wake

her up like that would be like a megaphone right in this poor girl's ears like that's so mean of her and she's like the other door she does with her hands when she gets to dolores's door she stops and uses her entire hip and the side of her body and just slams into the door yeah i'm like geez what's she doing that dolores is the cousin who has hyper hearing ability she can hear the chorus of us talking from a mile away to to underline what you said about abuela being the queen of encanto right in the opening song mirabelle stops to tell everyone she's like but let's be clear abuela runs this show yeah like okay there's like a massive mural painted on the of them and like abuela clearly values her celebrity status in this small bubble of a community that she owns so we've got peppa that's mirabelle's aunt her mood affects the weather her power sucks by the way peppa and her daughter both got cursed because like her having lightning

all around you and getting rained on all the time is not good right and then her daughter dolores who is forced to hear everything all the time like geez she must be going insane like That's a horrible power. There are some people who say that, like, maybe Dolores can kind of control her power and ignore certain things and focus it in places. But I don't I don't know about that. Well, there's other people like MatPat from The Film Theorists. He says that Dolores is the villain of this movie. And I think that's a cool theory. Well, I disagree, but. It's interesting, but clearly Abuela is the villain of this movie. Clearly Abuela, but Dolores is her spy. Yes. Well, Dolores has to be working with her. I agree. Yeah, Dolores is the most loyal to Abuela, but they're all ridiculously loyal to Abuela. Yeah, come on. But Peppa doesn't have great control over her power. They act like she helps the community by helping to grow crops because she can make it rain.

But only like when she's sad and she's been doing this since she was a little kid. What was Abuela doing to her as a little kid to make her make it rain to grow the crops? Her mother is constantly nagging her about like, Peppa, you have a cloud. Like everything has to be perfect for Abuela. Like, oh, poor Peppa. Anyway. Oh, also, everyone in town knows we don't talk about Bruno. Everyone in town says that. Abuela has made this clear. Abuela must be telling everyone. No one talks about Bruno. We don't talk about Bruno. He is gone. And then she's got her sisters, Luisa and Isabella, one super strong and one summons flowers. So we're on to the part where Mirabel's dad is named Augustine. And she tells us that he is accident prone. Accident prone. But he means well. But he means well. And what do you call it? When you have a child that you weren't planning. An accident. Yes, he is accident prone.

He has children that he didn't mean to have. There you go. Proof. We have proved it. He is unfaithful. He has kids with other women. He adopts them into his family, sweeps them under the rugs. But he means well, you know? Yeah, he means well. I mean, he loves Mirabelle and he loves his other daughters. Right after this song, he's actually talking to Mirabelle. And specifically, he's telling her about how he felt left out with no powers, how he felt out of place and maybe sought affection from other sources. He's talking to Mirabelle. He's trying to comfort her because he's like, hey, you don't have any powers. He's like, this is the first gift ceremony since yours. And, oh, I've been there. And then he says, surrounded by the exceptional, it was easy to feel unceptional. I'm just saying, I get it, right? Like he's telling her, hey, you know, I had to seek affection outside of this family.

You feel crappy when you're in this family. You got to go find some lady who will give you what you want, basically, is what he's telling Mirabelle. As long as you're here, you're going to feel crappy, Mirabelle. Right? Like that's all he tells her. He doesn't there's no silver lining to it. Yes. Well, and he clearly has something to prove in this scene, too. Like he wants to be accepted as part of the family because when Mirabelle leaves, he glances at his wife, looks at the expression she has on her face and then copies his wife's expression. Exactly. Like I'm a member of the family and I feel exactly how the family does about everything. Yeah. I have to, just for Christine, I have to point out, Christine was so confused the first time she watched this because it's easy to miss things during that opening first song. And the first time you see her dad in a real interaction, Agustin, his nose and hand are

gigantic. I know, he looks completely different. She thought that was his power. I thought so too. I was like, oh, he can make himself grow? Well, because it's really easy to miss that he gets stung by bees. Exactly. They don't explicitly say he got stung by bees. It just happens during the song. And lots of crazy stuff happened during that song. Like, Dolores is a mile away during that song, even though she's actually there. For no reason. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Just a little bit more about Dolores. Dolores is the one whose power makes us wonder how she might help the community. Everyone else, their power might help in some way. We see some examples of that. Luisa is the one who's obviously, there's a whole song about it, exploited the most by the community and Abuela. But Dolores doesn't exactly make sense. And I would say that Dolores is the one who, aside from Luisa, gets exploited the most by Abuela.

She's in charge of rumors and secrets. She listens to everyone in the town, makes sure everything is going the way Abuela wants it to. She is Abuela's spy. As we find out later during the dinner sequence, it's her job to make sure that Abuela knows secrets that are important to the family. There can be no secrets from Abuela. Right. And it's very, very, like, instant that she obeys Abuela and gives her the information she wants. Yeah, it's crazy. I'm like, wow, that's an invasion of privacy. But for her, it's nothing. It's like, this is my job. I've done this since I was probably like three years old. No, yeah, yeah. She's been treated. Since they're five, they get their gift at five. They're five years old. You're right. I am going to say some things that maybe paint Dolores in a bad light. But my three favorite characters are Mirabelle, Luisa, and Dolores. I love all three of them. They're great.

Totally agree. Okay, so it's also in this beginning segment that we are introduced to Isabella and Mariano. We have to ask the question, how is Isabella useful to this community? She makes flowers. Well, sure, but we find out later she could be growing crops. Abuela doesn't seem to know that because she didn't bother to learn the extent of Isabella's powers. She just knows Isabella makes flowers and that makes her super pretty and perfect. And Abuela projects herself onto Isabella. She just wants to treat Isabella like a queen and a princess, which is how she wanted to be treated as well. So rather than explore what Isabella could do with her power to help the community, she just puts Isabella on a pedestal and then sets up this marriage with Mariano, who I have to say, Isabella looks exactly like grandmother, Abuela, when she was young, and Mariano looks exactly like Pedro, grandfather, when he was young.

He's a little buffer than Pedro. He's a little buffer, but they have, like, the same face. No, I agree. They do look the same. He's just more built. I think this is intentional. I think it's so cool on their part. Like, Abuela is projecting her own feelings onto Isabella. And as Abuela admits at the end, she didn't get the life that she always wanted. And she's trying to get Isabella to live that life. Yeah, and Isabella doesn't want that life. Isabella just, I mean, she's just trying to live up to her grandma's insane expectations. Right, and her grandma just wants Isabella to be her. Like, it's crazy how much ownership a boy that takes specifically over Isabella and no other person in the family. I like Isabella's disdain towards Mirabelle. And I like that we first are, you know, given the impression, oh, Mrs. Perfect just hates Mirabelle because Mirabelle's not perfect. Don't mess this up for me, imperfect Mirabelle.

But then later on in the movie, we find out actually why she hates Mirabelle. And it's because no one has any expectations for Mirabelle. She doesn't have any powers. She can do whatever she wants. Right. The reason she's mad that Mirabelle tries so hard is because she wishes she didn't have to try so hard. Exactly. Okay. So during the party sequence, when they're getting ready for the party, Abuela asks Dolores, Dolores, can you hear if anyone is going to be late? Referring to the entire village. Like Abuela micromanages this whole town to the point that she wants to know if even one person in this community is going to be late to her special party. And I just think that's crazy that she's having Dolores spy on the whole town to see if someone's like, oh, man, I'm just going to make it late. I'm really busy, you know, I don't know, doing my hair. I don't know what you do. They don't seem to be particularly busy in this village.

No, they pretty much let Luisa do all their work for them. we find out that mirabelle didn't get a gift and because of that she is forced to live in the nursery like a baby for the rest of her life with the other babies she never gets to come of age i understand if the house didn't generate a room for her but that didn't stop you from building a room for her or a house especially bad for mirabelle because in this household you come of age at five like that's really early so like antonio who is five years old is now a higher ranking so to speak in this family than she is. She's preparing for the party and she's putting labeled candles in front of every single room that she knitted herself. And then she's like, I made this as a surprise for you. And Abuela's like, how about you just don't help and get out of here? Like, wow. She knows she wants to help, but tonight must go perfect. Like what a mean

thing to say. You want to help Mirabelle, but you are just trouble. And this is because Abuela knows mirabelle she's biased against her because mirabelle's not a madrigal it's not a madrigal she's like you're one of those she's like stay out of my special out of the way you just taint everything you touch exactly you're a poison on this family uh she's such a control for your father's sins she takes every opportunity she can to passively insult mirabelle but while she's doing we can hear abuela randomly barking orders in the background saying clean your rooms i don't care how big they are and i'm like why do you care abuela first of all they're huge but no one goes into anyone's rooms they're only going into antonio and he doesn't have a room yet like it doesn't matter if they clean their rooms it just makes me so bad like gosh just leave them alone abuela but here okay we have to talk about this because this is where

we get one of the biggest bloopers in the movie and i can't come up with an in-universe explanation for it. I usually like to maybe make bloopers make sense, but I can't. So Abuela takes a photo of herself in front of every single door with the child getting their gift while she is holding the miracle candle. They have photos of when Peppa and Bruno and Julieta got their gifts as children. Now, every single one of them are children in these photos, the little kids, right? We see them his children, but they are standing in front of a door that is engraved with the current image of them as adults. And they are totally adults. Like Bruno's picture is him as an adult. Well, of course. I mean, we know that the house, whatever magic it has can predict the future, right? Because it gives Bruno the ability to predict the future. Right. So the problem here is that when Antonio gets his door, it does not show him as an adult

because most people are like, the house predicts the future. It shows what Antonio has no future. as an adult and Antonio shows him as a kid this just means that the poor kid's gonna die soon he's not gonna live to be an adult so there's no adult image of him okay he's not gonna grow up the only explanation is that Antonio is going to die soon and Casita doesn't care or the miracle or the encounter or whatever no I mean the house does care it can't communicate with them except through uh Bruno and they've ostracized him I'm sure if Bruno tried to tell uh Antonio's future He would see what's going to happen to that poor kid, but they didn't want to see the future. Yeah. And when Mirabel is talking to Antonio under his bed, just a small note, she gives him a present and says, this present will self-destruct in three, two. Now, the whole this message will self-destruct trope wasn't particularly popular until the 60s when like

those spy shows like Mission Impossible came around. So yeah, that maybe puts this in the 1960s. Well, I mean, it's from Mission Impossible, I think, most famously. So yeah, it's in the 1960s. That makes sense to me. But the problem with that is, even if it is in the 1960s, this is a secluded valley. Do they have TV? Yes, they do. Because Bruno knows what a TV is. Right, but Bruno is omniscient. He can see the future. Fair enough. Yeah, so I don't know. It's weird. But he does also mention the TV shows as though Mirabelle would know what a telenovela is. So, I don't know. Yeah. But I mean, I do kind of like the idea that Bruno just chills in there, just using his power to see future TV, just watch TV in the future constantly. Mirabel brings Antonio to his family and Dolores says, Abuela says it's time when Abuela is not in the room with her, which means that Abuela can communicate with Dolores at any

time, from anywhere. She's always listening to Abuela. Mirabel, like the first time I watched it, Mirabel has a very close relationship with antonio and i thought the first time i watched this is going to be a story about mirabelle and antonio and their friendship turns out the antonio thing is just for exposition and antonio is essentially never in this movie ever again after this pretty much no it's i loved it because as as soon as he gets his power he is beyond her he never has to talk to her again he's done with her she's she's the dirt under his feet the only reason he was being so cozy with her was because maybe he wouldn't get a power too and then he'd need a friend oh but some good attention to detail when the fireworks go off in this scene dolores plugs her ears poor dolores like i mean i feel like they should warn her about stuff like that they're so insensitive to what is essentially a

handicap that she has i sure hope that her room is like soundproof that's all i can say no it's not we know it isn't because she could hear every like all the parents in this house having sex you know wow why do you know that you said we know it isn't as if you're about to provide proof but then you just said well no because she hears louisa's eye twitching in the right yes that's the proof that her room is not soundproof so yeah i mean presumably she knows that mirabelle is the product of an affair because she would have heard it happening yeah yeah and um at this point abuela rubs it in mirabelle's face she says i knew you could do it i know just as special as you but antonio clearly didn't do anything she's just rubbing it in mirabelle's face saying it's like you are genetically a person who gets a gift is great person who doesn't something's wrong with them they're weird like right in front of mirabelle mirabelle walked up with antonio it's right in

front of her oh she's just so mean she's so mean well and then the whole family decides to just screw mirabelle and decide to take a new family magical portrait without her like everyone else gets up there and no one's like hey mirabelle get over here what's crazy about this the implication here is that mirabelle is not surprised that she's excluded she does not expect to be in this portrait and also apparently you are not as far as abuela is concerned you are not part of the family until you get a gift like we only take photos after someone gets a gift it's crazy as she is wandering around in a trance she happens to notice the house start breaking apart as the house is breaking essentially the house is dying and the power doors are flickered and all this stuff mirabelle turns and stares at a portrait of grandpa pedro the whole time like as if like oh no poor abuelo pedro like as if he's dying i thought that was really interesting i

thought that was really good proof that the house is pedro the house is abuelo yeah now i have a big problem with this scene because dolores would totally have heard the house crumbling and bucking at its foundation and Mirabelle getting hurt and saying, oh, because she hears everything else. So I find it implausible that when Mirabelle comes back in and says, the house is breaking, the candle's in danger, then Dolores doesn't immediately back her up. It seems like she would be like, yes, grandma, go take a look. Right. Some people seem to believe, and they are wrong, that Dolores is some sort of a gossip who can't keep a secret. That's completely wrong. Dolores is not a gossip and she can keep a secret. She specifically feeds information to Abuela. Just Abuela. She gets information to Abuela however she can. Abuela, I believe is implied later on in this movie, knows that there have been issues with the house,

possibly other things breaking, since Mirabelle didn't get her gift. So I think that Dolores may be on the lookout to listen for these things, but she has been instructed not to talk about it to anyone except Abuela. the only conclusion i could come to was that dolores knows already this is only news for mirabelle dolores and abuela already know that the house is breaking and grant abuela is just putting on a show by being like okay i will check it out yes everything's fine okay you know like she knows the situation yeah so i mean i could agree with the person who thinks that dolores is a villain of this movie not necessarily the villain but no grandma's clearly a villain well and then right after this abuela turns around and she's like there's nothing wrong with casita the magic is strong to the whole village yeah she needs to reinforce the idea like the dirtiest look like and she throws mirabelle under the bus just completely throws her under the bus to save face

we find out that she knows mirabelle is right she knows the house is breaking yeah uh mirabelle's mother and father in the scene where she's eating the arepa they never actually do anything to help her. There's this scene where her mother is sort of comforting her by telling her she's special and complimenting her glasses. But this scene changes a lot if you know that the producer has said Julieta could heal Mirabelle's eyesight if she wanted to, but she chooses not to. Okay. So she's like, you got those bad genes from some other mom. I'm not going to deal with those. Well, from her dad. The only two people with disabilities in this family are Mirabelle and Agustin they both wear glasses that's true you're right so I that's I feel like that says something like I think Julieta is a nice person I think she does her best to treat Mirabel as her daughter but clearly she treats her a little bit differently

or she would just heal her eyesight now the the producer said like oh she doesn't see Mirabel's eyesight as something bad she thinks it's like a cute quirky part of her or something like that but I think that there's something else here She could heal her eyesight, but does not. Pretty interesting. I didn't know that. And also in this scene, she tells Mirabel she doesn't want Mirabel to end up like her brother Bruno. She says Bruno lost his way, which is kind of an odd way of putting it, when he left just because everyone hated him. Yeah. Unless you might want to look into what their problem with Bruno might be on a metaphorical level. You could say that the metaphor here is that Bruno and Mirabel are both different because they are LGBTQ. That Bruno might have been gay or something like that that made Abuela not accept him. So he left because he was different. He hid himself because he was different. And Mirabel is kind of the same way. Abuela's afraid she'll ruin the family.

And the best evidence for that, and this is 100% intentional, whether it was the higher up, you know, writer, director, producer doing it or not, it was probably just an artist. But Mirabelle wears the bisexual rainbow on her shirt. It's pink, purple, blue. It's the bisexual rainbow. She has embroidered it on her shirt. And so that's just a clear hint from someone that Mirabelle might be bisexual and perhaps she's kind of hiding her difference because she's afraid it will embarrass the family. She's not hiding it very well. You might say she even wears it on her sleeve. But in the 1950s, 60s, this is more of a symbolic thing because there was... Well, I don't think that rainbow existed back then. Exactly, right? That's what I'm saying is that this is like a symbolic hint to us as the audience because the bisexual rainbow didn't exist. But like, it's so weird for her to say Bruno lost his way.

That's just a weird way to say it because he didn't lose his way. He just gave prophecies and they ran him out of town. In the 60s, if your brother turned out to be like gay, you might be like, oh, he lost his way. Like, oh, you know, because they see it as like a sin, a bad thing, you know? Right. Well, and I can totally see the analogy, the metaphor here. Like, I understand that reading of the plot because clearly Bruno especially has, there's something inherent about him that offends everyone in town to the point where they will not talk about it. Right. And I think that is a clear mirror image of someone being gay. Right. Because that's how it has been for most of like Western media culture. It has been socially unacceptable to publicly announce your homosexuality. Right. It's something where you hide it. You don't talk about it if someone else knows it you don't talk about it in the army you know it was is pretty much

don't ask don't tell kind of culture where it's like if you don't tell us we don't care you know just don't talk about bruno and then there's the fact that he is essentially living in the closet it's not really a closet but living in the walls of the house hiding his true self right like he will not allow the world to see what he really is and i can see how somebody who you know someone who is homosexual or you know has some other sexuality and feels like they need to hide it might feel like they're you know stuck living in the walls of their house they can't be themselves right so i i totally understand the metaphor here unfortunately i don't think it goes much further than that i mean they make it pretty clear in the movie that this is not about his sexuality it's about his ability to tell the future well i mean and later on after the song what else can i do she's lying on the ground next to her sister her sister looks at her and smiles

and says you're a bad influence but that doesn't necessarily mean anything to do with sexuality it could just be her saying you're a bad influence because you made me grow cactuses well that's so stupid what's wrong with growing cactuses like i feel like nothing something about isabella's song to me feels like a sexual awakening or something yeah i mean it does seem like she's saying there's something inherent about you maribel something about you that has rubbed off on me that i want to be more like you, kind of. I thought, what else can I do? Is Isabella sort of realizing that she's maybe a lesbian? She's a lesbian. Yeah, I know. Because she's rejecting Mariano. She doesn't want to marry that guy. And then she looks at her bisexual sister and says, you're a bad influence. You helped me realize what I really am. I can see what you're saying. And then, like, Abuela is pissed when she comes in.

Yeah, no, this is the most mad that Abuela is. I mean, you know, it's there. So at night, Abuela comes over to her window, sticks her head out, and starts talking to Pedro, her dead husband. I assume she's just talking to the house because she knows it's him. Abuela has its whole conversation about the problem and the magic leaving and the cracks in the house. And then the very next day, Mirabel asks Dolores, have you heard anything about the magic leaving? And she says, the only one worried about the magic leaving is you and the rats talking in the walls. She specifically does not tell her that Abuela is definitely worried about the magic leaving. So, I thought either Dolores is hard of hearing or maybe she's lying. Yeah, no, I agree with you. I think Dolores is lying because it's not her job to report on other people about Abuela. Her job is to get the way around. Yeah, but she also did tell Mirabelle about the eye twitch.

And Luisa, I heard her eye twitching. Yeah, so the fact that she has the ability to hear somebody's eye twitching through multiple walls. it's just makes me feel horrible for her multiple dimensions they live in like a weird pocket dimension yeah no but it makes me feel horrible for her because wow like geez she must hear everything all the time and how does she sleep right and it just that must mean that her power is not entirely optional like if she's hearing luis's eye twitching all night long unless now it's possible maybe she does have control over it it is optional she can scan areas like she doesn't have to listen to everything all the time then what that means if she does have more control is that abuela has told her to spy on everyone at night and she is supposed to relay that back to abuela especially maybe especially right after the house was having issues you know it's quite

possible uh there is some small debate about camilo and why he's trying to get seconds by posing as Dolores at the beginning of the scene when they have plenty of food and no one has sat down to eat yet. So he can't be getting seconds. And then his plate is piled comically high with food and he just takes that plate. What was he going to do? Like get a plate as Dolores, then without eating it, go back as Camilo. You're still going to be sitting there with two plates. Yeah. I don't know what he was doing. I think he's not very smart. He was just like, I want more food. I guess I'll be someone else, but he hadn't even gotten food yet. I don't know. But Abuela does seem to be a little disappointed by Antonio's power. She doesn't seem to like the animals around, and she does her sort of passive-aggressive thing when she's like, I'm sure today we will find out a way to put your power to good use. Which, as we'll find out,

she does. Oh. So after this, we're going to get into surface pressure. Right. Luisa's voice actor is named Jessica Darrow, and I think she's just got the coolest voice. Yeah, she's great. The town is clearly taking Louisa for granted. Like there's no reason that she should have to be out there catching donkeys all day, every day. No other town in the world does that. No other town has a donkey catcher. Like they just don't care enough to make fences because they know she'll take care of it. They're like, why would I waste my time when I've got super Louisa here to catch my donkeys? So instead of building fences, they say, hey, louisa donkeys got out again and it's really an inefficient use of her power i know it's the worst it's just wasting her time louisa is so freaking cool uh surface pressure is the most amazing song to come out of disney in decades possibly ever yeah oh it's such a good song it's my personal

favorite and then i love the small details of like her saving mirabelle you know in the fantasy sequence that's happening she carries mirabelle through the you know the geysers of danger saves her puts her down and then stops to fix her glasses before also saving everyone else from the next danger it's so good so nice of her i've never seen a disney song like that i've seen disney songs about feeling like you're not enough i've seen disney songs about feeling like i need to rise to the occasion. I've never seen a Disney song, which is like, I have risen to the occasion. I am rising to the occasion and it sucks. I don't like it. Right. Like it's such an interesting message to the song. Obviously the people related to with the song, cause it was the second most popular song from this movie. I love this movie, but I hate how the rest of this movie just completely destroys Louise's awesome character. First of all, they don't do anything with her

After building her up so big and making her so interesting, they don't do anything with her at all. Disney has never, ever done such a good job of quickly setting up such an amazing emotional conflict. And it's just so frustrating that, like, the reason that this emotional conflict is so great is because Louisa wants to cry and break, but she can't. She can't. Because she's the strong one. But for the rest of this movie, not only is she essentially not in it, but all she does is just cry instantly. Like, that's not what made her song so powerful. What made it was that she was trying to hold it together. But she doesn't try to hold it together for the rest of the movie. It's just so frustrating. My biggest issue with this movie is two things. There is here an amazing setup that has no payoff. And then later with Isabella, there's an amazing payoff that had no setup. Yeah, I completely agree.

In screenwriting terms, a setup and a payoff, like if you want to make a good movie, All you're really doing is setting stuff up early on and then paying it off later. Some people might call that an arc of some kind. And it can happen in just two scenes. You know, it doesn't need to be a lot. But they set up that Luisa's having this issue, then essentially never address it again. They do address it by having her break down and cry all the time. Right. Well, they use it as a joke. What they really should have had to do, which would have fixed one of the other big problems in this movie that has no climax was the entire Encanto Valley is made of magic and we see the mountain splitting. It should have been like a huge issue where like the mountain is falling to crush the town and Luisa is like trying to hold it up, but her powers are waning. I don't know exactly what would have been a great payoff, but maybe all the villagers come and help her hold it

up. And that's why she can do it, which is what happens at the end of this movie. All the villagers show up but it's after the climax it doesn't matter at that point if they had just done it during an exciting moment had all the villagers show up to help her and finally it's like luisa you don't have to do everything yourself we're all going to help you now i think that would have been an amazing climax but they just didn't do anything with it but she's a wonderful character i hope they have many sequels about her anyway so luisa says i heard the grown-ups once say bruno had a terrible vision about the house the first time watching this i was so confused about what ages people were like luisa calls them grown-ups which is a very kiddie way of saying adults i loved mirabelle's character design i think she has an amazing character design one of the best character designs they've come up with ever but looking at her i always thought she's

like 25 21 maybe you know turns out she's 15 what is crazy i thought she was older than isabella and that luisa was also older than isabella and i also thought she was older than camilo it turns out Camilo is older than Mirabelle because Mirabelle was the last person to have a gift ceremony. They're only like a couple months apart, I think, Camilo and Mirabelle. And they're both 15. But just like the ages were so confusing to me. But like, I mean, I get it. When you're a teenager, like people mature at different rates, especially boys and girls. Sometime after this, we are introduced to Bruno's room. As Mirabelle is going to Bruno's room, she walks past Abuela and Isabella. Isabella is just fawning over Abuela. And Abuela is saying, such a perfect match. And Isabella says, so perfect. And then Abuela says, and so good for the encanto. Yeah. I just don't even get this conversation. I think they're just saying, if you marry this man, it's good for the town.

We find out later is that Abuela is, as we know, extremely self-centered. She literally believes that all of the problems that are happening with their house is because it's not good for the Encanto. And in her mind, what's good for the Encanto is what's good for me. And because she sees Isabella as herself, she's like, this must be so good for the Encanto because you're getting married to this guy who looks a lot like Pedro. And that's what I wanted. All right. So we're introduced to Bruno's room. I got to talk about Bruno's room. So Bruno's room is awful like i can see why he moved out and into the walls because he even says that he says that he moved out for that reason yeah well his room is just stones and stairs and crumbling cliffs and sand and doors that trap you as sand tries to suffocate you like his room is a death trap like the party in bruno's room after he got his powers must have sucked it must have been the

worst party ever so why is there such a differential treatment of bruno at this point I think that this is great evidence for Casita being the grandfather, because I think as sort of a grandfather, there's kind of this trope that the father will dote on his daughters, like give them the best things like, oh, you're so great. My daughters, you're my little princesses. And then with your son, you're like, you need to toughen up, climb those stairs every day to go to bed. I see no other reason why the house would have given him this terrible room. Okay. We don't talk about Bruno. So we can talk about Bruno now. Good. Some people argued that no one actually shunned or ostracized Bruno, and it's he's the one who isolated himself. They clearly do. Even if he's the one who left, like, he left because of them, you know? Dolores knows he is still around. She says so at the end, but she also implies this to Mirabelle.

She says, I can hear him, not I have heard him, right? Yeah. So since she knows, Abuela knows and does nothing. No, no one's looking for Bruno. When Dolores sings her verse, first of all, good character that she's like whispering, hey. Oh, I love her verse is the best part. Like, I love that she ends her verse with, do you understand? Like, there's something that Mirabel's supposed to understand about this. I think that Dolores implies at that part, the sort of the twist. So the twist is you're kind of led to believe that maybe Bruno will be the bad guy, but it turns out he's not. Yes. And I think Dolores is implying that right here when she knows Bruno's not evil. She may live in fear of him stuttering or stumbling, but she's not afraid of him like Camilo suggests later that he's like this monster. She's afraid of the things he might say, stuttering and stumbling, because what he said caused problems.

She's trying to say, do you understand? Bruno's not really the bad guy here. He didn't cause anything. Abuela was the bad guy. Right. She's implying the twist of the movie. Abuela's the bad guy. Bruno, it was just people misunderstanding his prophecies. Do you understand? absolutely so i really like that if you actually in it because she's hard to hear song so if you listen to it again you're like oh dolores is revealing a lot but you don't get it the first time you watch all right so this song is is epic i love it the choreography especially the time for dinner part of this song has just the most epic choreography with everyone singing the animation then putting the plates on the table in time with the music this could be such boring exposition but they took the exposition. And not only is it giving us exposition about Bruno that we need to know, but it's also moving along the current event of the plot, which is why I think this

moment is so amazing. They are moving along multiple plots at the same time, all these lines converging together to show how the whole family has all this stuff going on. They're all moving around, yet it all is just like converging on Mirabelle at once as she solves the puzzle with all the lines and cracks in the house converging on her at the same time, showing that this family has so much crazy stuff going on and they're falling apart at the seams and it's all centered around Mirabelle. The first time that I watched this movie and it started with that flashback within a flashback, I stopped watching. But then I saw We Don't Talk About Bruno just posted online, just the song itself. And it was this part with them putting the plates on the table that convinced me I need to watch this movie because the choreography here is just amazing and the editing is amazing and the storytelling is amazing

and the song is amazing. I'm going to talk about the Oscars now. So at the Oscars, and this is one of the reasons why I think the Oscars are just absolutely stupid. Yeah, Will Smith slapped that guy, right? Well, yeah, that too. You have to submit the thing you want nominated for an Oscar in November before the end of the year. And Encanto was released in December, so they didn't know what would be popular about this. When I think if you just watch this movie and you just watch We Don't Talk About Bruno and how high energy and amazing it is, you should know that's the song that needs to be nominated for an Oscar. But instead, because they had to nominate it before the movie even came out, which is so stupid, they nominated Dos Orugitas for the Oscar. And of course, it lost to some absolutely terrible Billie Eilish song that was just horrendously bad. And then at the Oscars, they knew that they had screwed up.

So the Oscars added in an extra song and dance number for We Don't Talk About Bruno, even though it wasn't nominated, just because they knew it was the most popular song right then. And the Oscars version of it was so terrible. They changed all the lyrics. So it's like, we don't talk about the Oscars. It wasn't that, but it was like they changed it to be about the Oscars. And it was like the worst version. And we were just listening to it like, oh, we love this song. But like they just butchered it. And it was just it was so bad. And then Encanto did win the Oscar for Best Animated Film. So that's great. That's like the hype of narcissism to be like, let's take the song everyone loves and make it all about us. Yeah. Mirabel solves the puzzle. When Agustin comes in, Casita tries to help Mirabel hide the prophecy. Well, and what is her dad's first and only reaction to this bad news? Horror.

We say nothing. He says we should deny everything. Just act normal. Nobody needs to know about this. That is his attitude. No, it's because that's what he does. When he had a baby all those years ago, he said nothing. He denied everything. He acted normal. He brought that baby into the family and no one needed to know. Well, and in the picture, she is literally depicted as a home wrecker. Which, you know, would be like when the husband in the family has like another woman and has a baby, you know? Generally, you'd call the other woman the homewrecker, not the baby. Right, yeah, not the baby, but whatever, we're wrecking a home. So he tells Mirabelle, just act normal. No one has to know. And then the door opens and Dolores is standing right there. And interestingly enough, she is standing directly framed in front of Abuela's door, right in front of the carved silhouette of Abuela with the word Abuela right over her head.

I just think this is amazing cinematography here telling us that she is Abuela's ears and Abuela will know. We get to dinner. Abuela is randomly saying, the Guzmans and the Madrigals together will be so good for the Encanto. she says this a lot what does it even mean will be good the first time i watched this movie i really got the impression that the goose men's were like some amazing powerful family from far away or something which is completely not true they're not from far away they're from the village they're not powerful abuela has all the power so i'm like why does she want to marry her into this family so much there's only one reason it's because the son of this family is identical to her deceased husband and she wants him to marry her granddaughter that's all that's the only It was also identical to her. Yes. I think it's very, very sad that we know, upon second viewing of this movie, that they're

all eating there and Bruno is also sitting there eating on his crayon-drawn plate, just a wall behind Abuela. And at the very least, Dolores and Abuela know. Possibly more of them know that. Yeah, they know. They know he's sitting there eating, probably, like, table scraps and crumbs and rotten stuff. Like, I feel so bad for Bruno. He has a freshly baked arepa when Mirabel goes in there later. I think he has like rats go and steal stuff, right? Rats might go and steal. Or maybe Julieta's just given it to him, but she can't like bring him out because Julieta, as nice as she is, she can't go against the wishes of Abuela. What a horrible family. I know. What an unbelievably awful family. I don't think we're even reading anything into it here. Like, that is actually what's happening. Like, it's a family that's got, like, they look nice on the surface, but under the surface. Whoa, I feel berserk as a circus.

They're breaking apart at the seams, you know, just doing whatever makes Abuela supposedly happy, but doesn't make them happy in any way. We find out how Abuela figured out how to make Antonio's power useful. The raccoons steal the vision from Agustin. This has to be something that Antonio is doing intentionally, because raccoons don't do this. You're right. It makes more sense that they're just like gathering information for Abuela. What the raccoons do is they reassemble it and send it to Abuela. Yeah, directly to Abuela. Like this is, Antonio must be the one doing this. He's five years old. He probably doesn't really understand exactly what he's doing, but he's controlling the raccoons to do what Abuela said, which is spy on people just like Dolores. Like Abuela is like, how do I use this kid? Oh, I know. I'll use him just like I use his older sister and spy on people. She probably uses Camilo to spy on people too.

Like that side of the family is for spying. And making weather. So this is another evidence people sometimes cite to say that Dolores is a gossip because she's telling everyone about this the first chance she gets. But no, that's not what she's doing. What she's trying to do is get the information to Abuela without messing up this engagement ceremony proposal thing. But she's not sitting next to Abuela, so she has to pass it down the line in order to get it to Abuela. And unfortunately, Felix is just an idiot and tells Peppa, and Peppa then causes a storm. Abuela's mad that the proposal is kind of ruined, but at the same time, Dolores was right to tell her during the proposal because Abuela is mad at Agustin for not telling her sooner. And Agustin said his plan was to tell her after the proposal. So Abuela really did want this information right away, even if it ruins the proposal. You should have told me the second you saw the vision.

think of the family and then the dad says i was thinking of my daughter which implies very very heavily my daughter is not part of your family my daughter i love that part she's like think of the family he's like my daughter is what i'm thinking about not your stinking family this is also the part where abuela shouts at the villagers outside the magic is strong we are the madrigals and then Slams the door shut. Like, this is all about remaining in power over these little people. So the scene inside the walls is pretty cool, thematically speaking. The house is disgusting inside the walls. It's wrecked and broken down. I think that's symbolic of their family problems, right? Well, yeah, exactly. Because we see Casita can fix itself on the outside, just the image. But on the inside, it's still broken. Casita does things the way Abuela wants. Because Abuela is all about image and she doesn't care what's broken on the inside.

She gets to Bruno's little hidey hole. When he talks about the telenovelas that the rats are putting on, he creates this really weird situation where this boy is in love with this woman and she's his aunt. But he doesn't know that she's his aunt. Their love could never be. It's actually sort of a forbidden kind of, and then Mirabel cuts him off. But this is a really weird thing for a strange old uncle who lives in the walls to be saying to his niece. yeah that there's a romance between a uh you know an aunt and her her nephew and her nephew yes that's very weird and especially after he just showed us that he puts on hats and takes on different personalities which allow him to do things he normally would not do which kind of scared me when he did that and also i'm like interesting i mean we can read this you know whatever we want into this, maybe it's nothing. But also I will say that with every movie,

of course, there are fandoms and the fandoms create ships, relationships. And the most popular ship from Encanto is always Mirabelle and Bruno. If you say so. But there's like no one not in her family. Right. I was going to say, there's no one else for you to put. There's the, the fiance. You could put it together with him, I guess, but he doesn't really have much character. I know. Bruno's future-telling ability requires a really weird occult ceremony. During the ritual, I thought it was interesting that she has to follow a butterfly. Why does she have to follow a butterfly? It just seemed like maybe there was some more symbolic there, like maybe something that has to do with mind control or something. I don't know. What do you got? Like, is it a monarch butterfly? Is there some kind of Romanov curse? I mean, if this had anything to do with like smoke in the air and drugs and like a dissociative dream fantasy, then I would say there's definitely some symbolic value to the butterflies.

But yeah, obviously there is this symbolic butterfly image that keeps showing up everywhere throughout the house. And there's the Dos Orugitas song, which the creators themselves thought was the most important song in this movie, apparently. And I can't tell you exactly what the butterfly means. I mean, in most cases, it signifies change. The Dos Orugitas song, which is a song about butterflies and caterpillars, that song is specifically about Abuelo and Abuela. It has nothing to do with the actual plot of this movie. And she doesn't change. Yeah, no, she doesn't. And he doesn't change aside from dying. Like, that's his change. I guess he changed into a house. Maybe that's, yeah, that's good evidence for a theory, I guess. The butterfly is the house. What else could Dos Orugitas be in that? He went through a metamorphosis. She changed into an abusive monarch, monarch butterfly. A monarch, yeah, you're right.

That's pretty good, okay. And he changed into a house. She became the monarch and he became a house. He realized his true power. You know what? We did it. That's pretty interesting. That's what the butterfly and the caterpillars represent. Bruno does say his given reason for leaving, quote unquote, is that he thought his vision would hurt Mirabel and he didn't want her to get hurt. So rather than tell Abuela a lie, He decided he would just leave forever. And then they all decided then we won't ever talk about him or even look for him. I don't know. Something about that story seems... It seems off. I don't think that's what happened. When he confronts Abuela later, I think he implies that that's not what happened. And she's not like, Bruno, you're back. No, exactly. Exactly. We'll get to that at the end of the episode, though. That's the climax, quote, unquote. Isabella's song, What Else Can I Do?

It was a great resolution to an arc that they never started. There was never a scene that set this up. Like, we learn that Isabella has this problem, and then in the same scene, that problem is resolved. Yeah, it's pretty weird. Why not set this up a little earlier and have a nice payoff? Instead, it's like, here's the problem. It's resolved. But they, at the very least, they did set up a rivalry between Mirabelle and Isabella. They did that very well. And here is a payoff where it is resolved. It paid off really well by showing that actually she doesn't just hate Mirabelle because she sucks. She hates Mirabelle because she wishes she was her. So that aspect of Mirabelle and Isabella's arc, I think, is well done. Either way, after this, Mirabelle has corrupted Isabella to an extent that Abuela has to crack down. Right. She gives her the because of you speech. Everything bad that's happened to her family is because of you.

i know like good gosh this is the worst come on abuela oh my gosh she's 15 and then abuela says the most horrible thing that she could say which is bruno didn't care about this family and like lady he's your son and why would you say that he cares so much and then mirabelle tells abuela the truth and it's like he loves this family i love this family we all love this family you're the one that doesn't care you're the one breaking our home and it's such a good climax because she's so right about everything she said and this is where i was like wow disney's got balls i can't believe they put this into a story like she's actually telling her abusive grandmother off and then abuela she gets aggressive and says don't you ever and then mirabelle says the miracle is dying because of you and then abuela is shocked and then nothing happens and then the house breaks and i am certain i am certain that abuela was supposed to smack the

crap out of mirabelle right then right and that's what breaks the house i was like oh wow this fight is about to you know come to blows and abuela is about to show that she is abusive and the abuse will break the house the physical abuse will finally bring the walls down and it would have been so good but then they didn't do it they just did not have abuela slap her and oh man it just it's great anyway but that would have really carried through the metaphor and right also it would have really made abuela irredeemable which would have been great because then the resolution of the movie could have been them moving on from their abusive grandmother but instead they act like she's somehow redeemed and she's not and this is the worst part of the movie points against our theory though is where she says i do not know why you didn't get a gift but it's not an excuse for you to hurt this family well she can't admit that she's a you know according to our theory she does

know why she knows get a gift i mean she can't say it out loud there's people listening but i also gotta say uh why did abuela keep that extremely important candle perched on her windowsill when she knows they're experiencing no no no she's she's threatening pedro she's like i could end you anytime i have one nudge and you're out the window dead she probably had a bucket of water on the other side of that window. She should get together with Dimitri. Yeah, I know. She's heartless. Oh, oh, sorry. When the house is breaking, Pedro's picture falls down. That's an obvious clue of the house. That's his spirit dying. I forgot to mention that too. You're right. After the house falls down, everyone has lost their powers at this point. Julieta goes to get a box of tiny bottles, presumably to help people who might be injured. But why does she have these bottles? If her cooking can heal people, she would have no need

for medicine or ointment or anything. Well, these bottles are probably like healing water that she has prepared. Wouldn't that make sense if she has like a stash of healing water? I guess if she has a store, but would it even work anymore? I don't know, but she's got to try. I would try. I was thinking maybe she just thinks everyone needs a drink and these are her bottles of alcohol that she has because she lives with a husband who cheated on her and has to raise his daughter. She's secretly an alcoholic. She's an alcoholic. She's been hiding alcohol in the walls. And she goes to get it, to hide it. Oh man, you're right. So we're about to get to the world's greatest climax. Yeah, let's talk about this ending scene. Abuela finds Mirabelle. She's crying and she says to Abuela, I didn't want to hurt us. I just wanted to be something I'm not. And then Abuela stares at her with an unreadable expression

that to me does not look sympathetic. And what does Abuela do? Does she sit down next to her to comfort her? No, she says, let me talk about myself. She's like, let me defend myself, and I'm going to be the point of everything. Abuela diverts this conversation, this moment of Mirabelle's, to make it all about her, all about Abuela, which is what she has been doing this entire movie. She hasn't learned a lesson. I hate it so much. It's the worst climax. She's like, it's all about me. She gives this big, long flashback that we already saw at the beginning for the most part. She does this because she knows she's been cut down by Mirabelle. Her house is destroyed. She's lost everything. But she knows if she cries, and she's the sad one. Right, she's like, be sympathetic for me. Yeah, everyone will pity her, and everyone will come back to her. Everyone will say, oh no, Abuela, it's not your fault.

You're the reason for everything, Abuela. It's all about you. We love you. Well, that's literally all she could be doing here. Like, this is classic cycle of abuse behavior. When an abuser is called out, they make themselves into the victim. Yes, she needs to be the victim. And we literally see that happening here. Mirabelle is absolutely the victim. She's been the victim of her grandmother for years. She finally called her grandmother out. And now her grandmother is like, oh, let me talk about that time when, oh, Pedro died. He was killed by people. I'm just this poor, sad person. My life didn't go the way I wanted. And don't get me wrong. It sucks that her husband got murdered. Like that does suck. That's awful. But lady, this was like 60 years ago. Well, even if it was one year ago, it doesn't excuse abusive behavior. But also, in the 50 years since then, you've been an actual queen of your entire kingdom.

But this is exactly how it happens in the cycle of abuse. The abuser makes themselves into the victim and they get everyone to feel sorry for them. Everyone comes back to them and then they slowly start the abusive behavior up again. Nothing she says here does anything to undo what Mirabel told her, which was that this is all your fault. You're the one who doesn't care. You're the one breaking our home. That's all still true. And Abuela's just like, but, but, but my husband died six decades ago. Gosh, and then Mirabelle, we were given a miracle because of you. We were safe because of you. It's all about you, Abuela. Everything's about you. Just like you always wanted. Just like you always wanted. Sorry for Abuela. Everything's good for you. She does admit that she lost sight of who the miracle was for, admitting that it's not just for her. She does even say, I am so sorry. So, I mean. Her apology is so cringy and so fake.

But no, I mean, I am so sorry. Even if it's sincere, that doesn't remove 50 years of emotional abuse. Exactly. This Dos Orugitas part where she flashes back again, that is always the part. Every time I've watched this where everyone loses interest, the adults just start talking to each other. The kids start playing like people just zone out during this part and then they come back like right before the credits. But this time I was really paying attention. And when I really paid attention, I will admit it did get to me on an emotional level, like when her husband's dying and it is really sad and she has her three kids. So, okay. So now Bruno shows up and I'm, oh, he comes out there just to take the blame that he's trying to protect Mirabelle. Like he's, he's a really legit dude. I think he's a total hero. Does, uh, does Abuela like listen to him and let him talk? No. She interrupts him. She hugs and kisses him to shut him up.

but again like we said she's not like bruno you're here no exactly and i think this scene shows what really happened when he left because he doesn't show up and say i'm back or surprise i've been here all along you know it's nothing like that and she doesn't act surprised like they both know what happened which is not what he told mirabelle because the first thing he says when he shows up he says i don't care what you think of me but you're too stubborn too and then she cuts him off okay so they're singing the final song abuela comes in she says i'm sorry i held on too tight i was just afraid of losing you notice she's not apologizing she's only apologizing for loving them too much yeah she's like i'm sorry for being so nice it's so cringe i hate that and then what happens with bruno does does anyone apologize for how they conspired together like not even as a family but as an entire community to collectively forget about bruno no they make

him apologize it's him saying oh god i'm so sorry for all those things i did i wasn't trying to make you i wasn't trying to make you sad and make the weather change i was just trying to cheer you up i'm sorry then bruno says got a lot of apologies that i got to say and goes up to julieta what does he need to apologize about to julieta i have no we don't get to hear what he's got to say because she quickly interrupts him and says hey we're just a happy family and we're happy that you're here okay maybe he prophesied that her husband would leave her for someone else yeah maybe there was some sort of embarrassing prophecy like i don't know her husband had an affair uh and also this is when augustine butts into the shot just to say all the triplets unite and then hugs all them he's not one of the triplets what is he doing there he's just like i'm part of the family no please don't reject me i know i'm on thin ice here dolores says yo i knew he never left i heard

him every day anyway she knew he was there speaking of dolores she's about to end up with the hunky boyfriend i thought for sure i was certain that they were going to have the hunky boyfriend end up with bruno at the end instead of dolores because that would fulfill his prophecy to her that he would end up betrothed to another. He never got betrothed to Isabel. So his prophecy hasn't come true yet. Right? Oh, well. While they're rebuilding the house, Julieta is watching Mirabelle work and she says, would you watch our little girl go? And Augustine is a rose. And then he rubs it in. He says, she takes after you. She takes after you. And I'm like, Jeez, Augustine. Don't rub it in, man. You're as thin ice here as it is. No, it's a joke. She's not even related to Juliana. He's just ironically being like, she takes after you. He's making a lighthearted comment. Like, maybe she's not your daughter, but she still takes

after you because you're just that great of a mom, you know? Like, I don't know. He thinks he's doing good, but probably not. Why do people not say what they mean when we're doing theories on them? It's so frustrating. No, seriously, what's wrong with them? Good thing we're here to unpack it all. Yeah. It's a good story about how everyone is doing something they don't like or is unhealthy for them, always for the good of the family. The irony being that it is bad for the family because every member of the family is unhappy and it is only good for Abuela because she has set herself up as the family. So while they act like a group, it's actually all for her, just this one individual. it's a wonderful emotional story with the world's greatest, most realistic villain. So what do we think? Have we solved the mystery of why Mirabelle did not get her power? Well, yeah. I mean, and I think it's something that was begging to be solved, right? Like

when a movie presents a mystery like that as like its central tenant, like this is the very first thing you learn is that she didn't get her power when she was supposed to. It's begging you to find out why and uh i think that we've found the most plausible reason why which is that it's a very simple explanation i mean well we had to bend over backward for some parts but just the core explanation of it is simple you have to be genetically related he's not a magical give you a power and i think um it makes the house honestly an even better character if you know that it's their loving grandfather who is still here watching over them after all these years well that was a fun theory tune in because soon we are also going to do a luca episode that includes incanto yeah thank you so much for listening music for this episode is provided by christine if you like our podcast don't forget to like rate review subscribe hit us up on twitter

at popcorn isn't real tell us what you do or don't like about our podcast if you have any theories let us know we'd love to talk about them or you know maybe cover them on the podcast it'd be fun if it's a good theory. And until next time, remember, the popcorn isn't real.