Alberto's dad was Bruno from Encanto?

Well, I'm recording in my closet for the first time. What's your name, Luca?

In honor of this episode, I went back into the closet. First time? Of course it's my first time. I'm a good kid. Relax, breathe. You know, if you're down, I'd like to talk about a movie that takes place under the sea, starring everyone's favorite half-human sea creature who has to go to the surface in order to find love in three days and win a competition. Whoa, whoa, whoa. You had me up until the competition.

So in case you haven't guessed it, we're talking about everyone's favorite Pixar modern classic, Luca from 2021. written and directed by enrico casarosa man i love luca i think it is seriously one of the greatest pixar movies ever and it really surprised me because i didn't expect it to be good it just kind of showed up out of nowhere and then i was like seeing pictures of it and i was like what like little fish boys and then like my kids turned it on and they watched it and i was like this is like a really great movie this is such like a cool story of low stakes fun yeah adventure and friendship like just a couple of bros exploring and trying to win a race and learning about friendship and exploring their sexuality and hello and welcome to the popcorn isn't real i'm life eric i'm here with torvald my co-host and today as we've already said we are going to be talking about luca what is luca and his family like are they mermen or merpeople i guess would be

the correct term well so yeah that's in the movie they just call them sea monsters but these guys are like the furthest from anything i've ever seen described as a sea monster ever monsters are usually either like a big kraken tentacle yeah big tentacle monsters or big underwater dragons yeah exactly i've never seen anything even close to resembling these people like weird shape-shifting right they're kind of like kappas or grindy lows or something yeah i've never seen anything like that referred to as a sea monster so i'm just wondering like where did this idea come from like is this some italian mythology that i don't know i probably should have looked that up i tried i couldn't find anything like it's especially weird because the writer and director enrico casarosa he is like italian and i figured like this would be steeped in italian folklore but i don't know well it is steeped in homoerotic undertones so there's that dude what what are

you talking about no this is just a happy cool movie so in my opinion and i say this in the best possible way i think this is a good thing in my opinion luca is like the world's greatest ripoff of um the adventures of thomas sawyer and huckleberry right i was actually gonna say that yeah because alberto is huck finn he is he's clearly huck and luca is clearly tom tom's not such a good boy though he's kind of a bad boy in fact it's often tom who's leading huck into you know getting in trouble in my opinion tom's not a very likable character and huck kind of is but then there's some problematic stuff in those books mostly sure yeah dealing with like racial stuff right yeah definitely right so i feel like this is just that story but better in every way because there's none of the weird racial stuff and tom in this version is totally likable you know like luca's just a good kid wait you we were talking about how this movie may or may not have

some sexual undertones or something what is the theory for this movie lave well well we believe that we know who alberto's father is wow that theory oh no i wasn't going for that one but sure it is bruno from the movie and canto okay wait alberto's father from luca is bruno the guy we don't talk about from encanto from the future seeing madman who lives in the walls of la casa in the encanto valley which is completely sealed that man is this guy from italy's father yes the colombian prophet from that is the theory and we are going to go over some specific evidence and also some less specific non-evidence as we just imagine how perhaps that could have happened but anyway we but hey torval don't we have another theory for this episode that's far more solid than the bruno one i'm sure that there are other people who will have this point of view and i'd like to you know hear what other people think about this but the first time i watched

this movie this is a very popular theory for this movie well and i mean i can understand the theory The first time I watched it, I was like, hey, wow, this is like totally an analogy for, you know, not just coming of age and kind of discovering your sexuality, but also, you know, discovering possibly your homosexuality or like at least your queer nature or, you know, things like that. Right. Yeah. It's kind of a metaphor for kind of coming out of the closet of a young boy. This is a pretty interesting subject for a Disney or Pixar movie to be exploring, and I think that it did it pretty well. I think that it honestly could have just come out and done it rather than hiding it. At the beginning of the movie, he's herding his fish around and he finds a clock and he finds some other surface world stuff. And these are clearly in his mind, in his world, these are forbidden objects and he's treating them like that.

He's darting around, looking at them, hiding in the grass and approaching them slowly. These objects to him are alluring and captivating, but taboo. Really, for no reason at all are they taboo because they're completely harmless. He wants to touch them and experience them, but he fears them. And this fear is only due to societal influence. There's no reason to fear a clock. Right. And I think that is the start of the analogy showing that like, hey, you know, there may be something that the world teaches you is wrong or something that everyone around you looks down on. But really, it's just a clock, right? Really, it's just something, you know, and this is kind of the start of the analogy where maybe you're attracted to somebody who everyone else says that that's wrong and that's horrible. But really, it's just, you know, how you are and it doesn't actually matter. Just one thing that we should get out of the way just to begin with is that the director, Casarosa, has said, no, it's not a metaphor for a homosexual coming out of the closet.

That's wrong. To that, I say, let it be that, you know, we know it doesn't matter what the filmmaker says. Yeah. An alternate interpretation can be just as valid, regardless of what the director says. And also, of course, he said that he's working for Disney and he's, you know, he's probably like an older dude and he doesn't he doesn't he thinks, you know, we don't talk about Bruno, you know, he thinks that. Yeah, I mean, that's literally the attitude. Come on, dude. What else? If not that, then what is this movie saying? Come on. But like that shows just how popular this theory is, how many people watched it and got that out of it. Like, I don't even think it's a theory. I watch it and I'm like, yeah, that's definitely what it's about. Clearly, they just can't say it because it's Disney. The fact that the director has even commented on it means that it is a very popular thing that a lot of people think.

Just to keep moving with the metaphor that we have for him finding these forbidden items, he then sees a boat and immediately imagines kind of leaving his own world and coming out of the closet. you know he leaves the water in his mind and above the water he sees what is clearly a warped image of alberto on the boat i think that's what it looked like to me but anyway how do we like originally learn that this is bad to go to the surface his mom is like yelling at him for doing it and he's like i was just curious he starts the conversation saying mom where do boats come from which is just a weird thing to ask like this is clearly a reference to the sexual question of where do babies come from right like and then his parents freak out when luca's parents you know like try to push back your grandma says he's old enough to hear about it like this is clearly a metaphor for something sexual how could casarosa deny this no like this nobody would talk about

like this let's let's take the uh the lion king for example because in the lion king simba wants to go to somewhere forbidden right like he says hey what's over there does uh does mufasa say no simba you're not old enough to hear about that like does he say we do not discuss contemplate or talk about going anywhere near the elephant graveyard, whatever it is. No, it's just really weird, the framing of this conversation. And like you said, the mom says we do not talk, think, discuss, contemplate, or go anywhere near the surface. Got it? This is not about him going to the surface. This is about the idea of the surface. This is about even just like the surface world pervading their conversation. This is about the concept of the surface. Just like how a very, you know, hyper-conservative family might talk about homosexuality, right? Right. They'll be like, hey, we don't even talk about that.

We don't talk about Bruno. Exactly. Yes. We won't even discuss it. And also, like, you can't even think about it. Because, like, at this point in society, they're kind of thinking of it as almost like a disease. Like, you know, if it gets a hold of you, whoa. Clearly a mentality, a stigma, a taboo that they're addressing. Not just a forbidden place. this is a forbidden subject matter right then when he is swimming away she turns back to luca's dad and she says we're a little worried about him right yeah this goes way beyond him wanting to go to a dangerous place she's talking about it as if the very structure of their moral system is like being undermined well this seems like a good time to mention that this movie has very good music it's very like studio ghibli-esque music and clearly the people who created this movie love studio ghibli because they named it porto rosso the name of the town wow which is a reference

to porto rosso the studio ghibli film luca swims back to examine the human debris that he found again and alberto in a diving suit approaches luca gripping his long erect shaft so he then invites luca to touch his shaft saying hold this which luca obliges alberto then grabs luca's shaft letting out an involuntary oh of approval now i'm not lying they are both constantly handling each other's shafts during this section of the scene well let's explain what the shafts alberto's shaft being a long spear and lucas shaft being his shepherd's pole but i i definitely see the analogy here i don't i mean come on like my description of the scene was completely apt okay i mean you're making it more sexual than i would have gone with this theory i think it's more about him realizing he he has feelings for the same gender no no they were they were going at it like fish whoa like fish yeah fish don't don't do that

alberto swims to the surface and then hooks luca with his shepherd's pole and pulls him out of the water first time of course it is i'm a good kid and that that line alone i am a good kid That's why so many people have this theory. Why would he say I'm a good kid? It's so in your face. Let's take the Lion King example again. Like Simba took Nala to the elephant graveyard, a place that they both knew was forbidden. And he says to her, you've never been here before? And Nala's like, of course, I'm a good kid. Well, right. No, it's exactly like that. With these two young lions in a children's movie. Is this a weird way to treat each other when venturing to a forbidden place, unless that forbidden place is metaphorical and the place you're actually venturing is your own sexuality? Then all of this makes perfect sense. That's of course how you would talk to each other. So at this point, I need to go to our other theory about Bruno.

Just for a small note, his name, Alberto, is Alberto Scorfano. Well, why would his name be Scorfano if his father is Bruno Madrigal? Oh, that puts a hole in my theory. Oh, wait. Except why does Bruno have the name Madrigal? Because in the Madrigal family, they keep the name of the mother. And Bruno, who traveled all the way to Italy to impregnate a fish lady, he must have followed that same tradition. And so he let Alberto keep the last name of his mother, which was Scorfano, which is probably some kind of fish. So that all makes sense. You're right, because Mirabelle is Mirabelle Madrigal, not Mirabelle whatever her dad's last name is. Yeah, exactly. Okay, even though she is not her mother's daughter, she's still got her mother's maiden name. That's interesting. Yeah. I was referencing our Encanto Theory for anyone. Right. Listen to the episode. Yeah, that's a great episode. So the next day, Luca sneaks up to the surface.

Alberto takes Luca home with him because he wants Luca to see his large erect tower. Why does he live in a tower? He didn't have to live in a giant erect tower. No, that's a good question. So this feeds into the Bruno was his father theory. Why, why does Alberto live in a tower on like a secluded island? If his father was a sea monster, why would they live above the water? Yeah, it's actually a really good question because he lived here with his dad. He says so. I mean, if you're a sea monster, it seems like you would either live in the water or you would live in the town. Why would you live on a secluded island above the water? Well, I'll tell you why. Because your father is a person who is most comfortable when secluded and who grew up in a room that is literally a tower. And so he is most comfortable in towers and in seclusion because he grew up in a valley that was secluded and also completely secluded from his own family.

So he picked this island with a tower on it to live in because he couldn't live under the water with his son because, you know, he's a human. Well, like them having Alberto live here actually makes me think at some point in development that they had planned to have Alberto be like half human and that his dad was a human and they were going to introduce that at some point or something because there's no reason for him not to live underwater with the other sea monsters it just doesn't make sense except for just like the tom and huck thing right it was clearly like huck and his father kind of lived further away from the rest of society kind of thing yeah they could just be further away in the water yeah why would he be on land like it's like a major unexplained plot hole in the movie because it's super important that alberto unlike luca lives on land but why he's a sea monster they just never explain it so i actually like the bruno theory here because it does explain it

this tells us why alberto lives on land because his dad's a human he can't live underwater they start talking about vespas alberto says uh it's just the greatest thing that was ever made but luca here reads the phrase vespa is freedom which is written on that poster in italian so luca can read italian and also what language are they speaking because they don't know what that trompeto yeah it's really weird that that alberto said means right and they also don't know what's wrong with you stupido means but they do seem to speak the same language as everyone else who is human it's weird it's like they're in some really confusing english-speaking italian accented world where some people have accents but most don't well no it's like puerto rosso is specifically a place in italy where everyone is italian but speaks english and also the sea monsters who live nearby speak english but don't speak italian yes that's weird that's the universe pretty strange

they decide to make their own vespa and uh you know luca sighs as they both stare dreamily at each other there's a vespa between them but they're clearly staring at each other like what look at their eyes they're not staring at the vespa i'm just saying while they're building the vespa luca keeps saying that he has to leave and he just he doesn't leave he you know it's two hours later 45 minutes later you know and so luca around this point says if my parents found out about you it would be bad so goodbye forever now i think it's very telling he doesn't say yeah my parents found out i went to the surface he says my parents found out about you yeah that's a really good line but presumably he's just another sea monster who is this boy's friend the problem isn't alberto the problem in the movie is supposed to be that he went to the surface unless you read into it the metaphor right like this is very clearly you are a bad boy and i'm in love with you so

goodbye forever because i'm a good boy right this is not a line that you would say unless you're talking about like a person that you don't want to bring home to meet your parents not to derail our lion king analogy but a different analogy would be like he pulls luca out of the closet and he's a bad boy and he takes him to this strange new world above the surface now if they were male and female characters even as kids everyone would jump to romance like wendy and peter in peter pan now they're little kids and yet everyone kind of thinks there's kind of a cute little kiddie romantic relationship between those two because there is yeah and also tinkerbell is extremely jealous tinkerbell is extremely yeah i was gonna say shows the same emotions that certain people show in this movie but just because they're male female everyone's like oh that's a romantic relationship and yet here we don't think that even though it clearly also is just because

or could be right yeah yeah around this point uh we have a little more evidence for the bruno theory because he starts talking about you got a bruno in your head the idea is it's someone warning you of negative things happening in the future he says i get one too sometimes alberto you can't alberto you're gonna die alberto don't put that in your mouth these are clearly the sorts of phrases a dad would say to their young child especially don't put that in your mouth right like I think Alberto is clearly recalling phrases that his father Bruno said to him and now he kind of has his father stuck in his head telling him to you know don't don't do that I mean I get the name the name is clearly there and I think this is what you're trying to drive home is that he's dropping the name bruno why would he say the name bruno unless that was the name of his dad even if this isn't connected to encanto i feel like his father's name must be bruno because right when

luca asks why is he called bruno he very quickly deflects he says i don't care it doesn't matter you can call him whatever you want you know like the clearly the reason is that bruno is the name of his father and i completely you know constantly throughout this entire movie any questions about his father alberto deflects just like that he'll just kind of change the subject he just doesn't want to talk about his father right sound like anyone else we don't talk about who well who don't we talk about we don't talk about bruno so i'm just saying even if it's not bruno madrigal who his father his father is named bruno so why not bruno madrigal right so i think there's two important things that you're proving here one is that like you said alberto's dad is named bruno and i think there's really good uh good evidence for that based on how alberto reacts why would he drop the name bruno unless that's someone he actually knows who would tell him not to do stuff

the second piece of proof that you're you're putting forward here is what might lead us to believe that the bruno who is his dad is the bruno who is a madrigal and can see the future Wait, he can see the future? And what does he do with his knowledge of the future? Does he tell people things and make them mad? That's exactly what Bruno does. He's always telling people, hey, no, don't do this because this is going to happen. Or, oh, look out, it's going to rain. Or, oh, stop, your hair is going to fall out. Your fish is going to die. All that kind of stuff, which is exactly the kind of things that he would be telling Alberto because Alberto is always going to do something to hurt himself. Oh, yeah. And what does that make people do to Bruno back in Encanto? They hate him. They hate Bruno. It makes them not talk about Bruno or silencio Bruno. Exactly. Silencio Bruno, which is exactly what he is teaching Luca.

Don't talk about Bruno. Silencio Bruno. I think this is great evidence. There are just a couple other similarities here just with the tower. So Bruno does have an old-fashioned style gramophone in his room in Encanto inside the walls. And Alberto does have an old-fashioned gramophone. But Alberto has no idea how those work. Yes, and he has no idea how it works. And he just got it from those fishermen at the very beginning of the movie, I think. Just got it like a day ago. So that's not great evidence. But OK, if you look in the background in the Bruno scene where Mirabel finds Bruno in the walls, you can see that he has an old boot filled with soil and a plant sticking out of it. What? That's the boot from WALL-E. Whoa. But this theory has nothing to do with WALL-E. Clearly that. Oh, it's just an Easter egg. Except wait a minute. If you look in the background in Alberto's tower, he has that exact boot sitting there and it's not yet filled with soil or a

plant, but it is the same boot or at least looks the same. That's pretty cool. But except how could he have gotten that boot after the events of Luca? No, he has the other boots. There's two boots. there's two boots that makes perfect sense dude bruno had two boots and when he left to go back to encanto he only brought one he yeah he left one behind and then not being able to use these boots anymore because he only had one he just filled it with soil and planted a plant in it whoa so the rest of this scene after the silencio bruno section alberto convinces Luka to actually ride the Vespa with him and they ride down the hill and as they ride down it starts to come apart so Luka's forced to wrap himself around Alberto's lower body taking flight together into the water. This entire scene with him trying to get Luka to ride the Vespa with him I kind of took as like a playful ruse to get Luka to you know be close to him and hug him and do something

fun like i said at the beginning he's like look luca we've got to ride together if you don't sit on the back and hold on to the front it will fall apart there's no reason that it would they've made hundreds of vespas why will this one fall apart counterpoint it does though i know it does but i'm thinking he made it specifically to do that i think that this this was his own little ruse just to get your point to my counterpoint clearly that plan doesn't work so clearly the only reason was to get Luca to hug him. But okay, another piece of evidence here. When they get on the bike to go down the ramp, Alberto adjusts his side mirror and it has a photo of a mustached man and he kind of makes a kissing noise at it before they go down the mountain. Yeah, it's like an old Italian actor. Yeah, this actor is Marcelo Mastroianni and I don't know too much about him, but he seems to be regarded as one of the greatest Italian actors of all time.

He's actually famous for being in a lot of Federico Fellini movies like La Dolce Vita and Eight and a Half, Federico Fellini, of course, being a very famous Italian director who the director of this movie really loved, which is why they also have posters for La Strada in the town, which is another Federico Fellini movie. So this kind of supports both of our theories. Clearly, Alberto is attracted to this famous actor because he's got a picture of him and he makes a pissing noise at it. But like, why is Alberto have this random picture of this random actor how did alberto know about this actor well we know that bruno likes watching tv bruno from encanto because when mirabel comes in he starts talking about all these soap operas and stuff he clearly knows about tv and he makes his own soap operas with his rats yeah exactly and so when he was living here on this random island with alberto they must have gone into somewhere

the town or somewhere at some point to watch movies. It's true. You're right. Why would Alberto know of any Italian actors? Why would Alberto know about Marcello Mastroianni? But the thing is, during this time period, if you went to see like any movie in Italy, this guy was one of the most famous actors. So there's a good chance you would see him and kind of fall in love with him because he was considered like a really, you know, hotsy, handsome man. So I think that this is evidence that someone must have taken Alberto into town to see movies. And him saying he's never been to the town before must be a lie. I'm not completely sure that we're proving that Bruno is specifically his dad, but I think we're coming up with really solid proof that Alberto is half human, that his dad is human, and that his dad was named Bruno. So, I mean, if you put two and two together there... Might not be Bruno from Encanto, but yeah, his dad must have been human

and was definitely named Bruno. So why not Bruno from Encanto? There are actually a few good reasons why not, but we'll get into this later. All right. He also says, my dad told me all about it regarding the human town. So I'm pretty much an expert. But this proves that his dad must have been a human. Like, that's further proof. Why would his dad know all about the human town unless he was human? Right. So after they finally get their fun ride together, they lay together at night. Luca falls asleep with his boyfriend in a totally innocent way, but they do sleep together and he stays out late and he gets in trouble. I really think that Luca's parents absolutely suck because basically after putting him to work every day, now they're going to like send him away to like conversion camp at the bottom of the ocean. Luca says, but mom, we're always careful. And then he gasps and covers his mouth right if you get in trouble for spending the night at your boyfriend's

house and your response is we're always careful and then you cover your mouth that's kind of admitting that like right yeah like we use protection oh wait i shouldn't have said that we did because now they know that we did it no that makes sense i gotcha i don't know you now you're catching on that's like a point that i would make the whole point of this scene to me it feels like his family is literally trying to send him away to be reformed because he's different right and he's not saying stuff like i don't know i don't want to go to the bottom of the sea i want to live here he's not saying that he says why are you doing this and his mom doesn't say to keep you away from the surface she says i know you and this is what is best for you right like the whole conversation really just seems like she's not saying don't go up to the surface she's saying i know you aren't this person don't be this person right yeah side

note about uncle ugo who is the really gross uncle who was gonna take we want to eat whale carcass there's so much right well he clearly lives very very deep in the ocean he's like one of those like fish that has the little glowy thing on his head he lives in complete darkness and uh this has nothing to do with any theory but you might wonder where is he from if they're in the mediterranean which is like like a i guess i do wonder where he's from where might that be well he's clearly from the calypso deep which i just it's just surprising to me that's the only reason i'm mentioning is that the second deepest trench in the world other than the marianas trench is the calypso deep which is in the mediterranean sea yes it's crazy that's crazy what the heck that's really weird it's just weird because it's like it's not a big ocean you'd think it would be like the atlantic ocean or something right but no it's right you think that the

mediterranean would be like almost just like a shallow lake between two continents yeah not like the deepest ocean in the world you learn something every day so makes perfect sense that their uncle would live there anyway. So Alberto and Luca run away. As they run away, they have some more like relationship defining moments where basically Alberto is reaffirming Luca's choices, the opposite of what his family did. You know, whether or not we're talking about homosexuality here, we are clearly talking about being different and how people react to it. That's what the director said when he was like, no, it's not about sexuality. He's like, It's just more vaguely about just like being different and, you know, finally accepting. Sexually, yes.

They literally jump into the ocean holding hands as they swim together towards the village. Yeah. This is probably a good moment for a very quick side theory I have, which is that these sea monsters exude a high amount of oil that makes water come off of them very quickly. They must, yes. that it permeates whatever clothes they are wearing. So they just like gush out this oil, but it's like very fine and invisible, so you can't really see it. And that is the only explanation I can come up with for how they constantly dry off so fast. One piece of evidence that supports this is when they go into town, ice cream does not stick to them. Like they're clearly coated in some sort of oil because they get ice cream on them and it immediately comes off. Like that would be a pretty big mess for a human, but not for a sea monster. Anyway. Well, and this is another theory that I wanted to get into,

actually. You might ask, why was the movie named Luca? It's better than Coco. At least Luca's in the movie. Whoa, you're right. No, so Luca, in scientific terms, Luca is an acronym, basically, for Last Universal Common Ancestor, the most recent population of organisms from which all organisms now living on Earth share common descent. You're trying to say that he's that evolutionary creature that crawled out of the ocean one day and all mammals evolved from. Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. That's clearly what Luca does. He is both, you know, a sea animal and a land animal. He is the last universal common ancestor. So whatever animal he is has evolved to live in both worlds just fine. Anyway, I just thought that was interesting when i looked up the word luca oh a small note for the bruno theory when they get into town there is a poster for la strada a movie by federico fellini that movie came out in 1956 that means we know

that this movie is taking place sometime after 1956 and we know that encanto is taking place probably sometime in the 60s because of this present will self-destruct in three two one so just trying to get the time that would have given bruno plenty of time to go knock up a lady in italy have a kid and come back the idea is that bruno probably left right after he had that vision about mirabelle when she was like whatever it is five years old and he probably left right away and that would give time for his son to grow up to be about 12 years old by this point 12 yeah now bruno in the movie in canto says he he's like i thought about leaving but you know the walls around in canto are really high but that doesn't necessarily mean he didn't leave he knows they're really high how would he know that unless he tried to climb them maybe he did climb them and got away and just traveled the world for a while.

And then eventually he came back home. He's in a pretty embarrassing situation as is right then. I don't think he would want to admit more than he has to. Why would he admit to her that he left? I think it's better for him to just be like, yeah, I never really left. I'm so loyal. You know, I was just going to stay here and be with you guys because I love you. Right. And why would he be like, yeah, I left and knocked up some Italian lady. Dude, how many times can I say that in this episode? But I got to say, like, doesn't that make more sense than he was living in the walls for? Yeah, I agree. Honestly, that's what I thought when I watched the movie. I was like, oh, so he must have left and then came back because he knew the prophecy and he wanted to save them. And then they're like, no, no, he's just been in the walls. And I was like, what? That's weird. What was he doing in the walls? Yeah.

But slight wrench in that theory about the timeline is that in Encanto, toward the end, Dolores says to Camilo, yo, I knew he never left. I heard him every day. Yeah. But she's probably speaking, you know, just rhetorically, not I literally heard him every day. She probably means I heard him every day recently because he came back recently. Well, and plus, I mean, when he left, she would have been like a little kid. Yeah, she's pretty young. So she probably wasn't like listening out for him that much. She hadn't been trained by her grandma yet. Yeah, yeah, exactly. The main thing that happens when they enter the town is that Señor Vespa shows up. Right. He's actually a mean bully by the name of Ercole. And he says that Luca smells like behind the peceria. So he's saying Luca smells fishy, which he would. So he's not lying. He's just actually telling him. But Alberto jumps to his defense and says, hey, my friend smells amazing.

He loves how Luca smells. If they're not romantically connected, then this movie is like one of those buddy comedies. And in any buddy comedy I've ever seen, if one buddy said about the other, My friend smells amazing. They play that off as a joke where they kind of glance at each other like, oh, I mean, you know, you know, but even in a romantic movie, usually they would. But yeah, they just it's just how it is. He's like, yes, I do smell amazing. And I know, you know that, Alberto. Moving right along, they introduce Julia. I think her introduction is great. I think she's a silly character. She's fun. I do appreciate some of her moments, like, for example, when she's talking to Ercole and he's like, you had to quit the race because you couldn't stop. throwing up and she's like i didn't quit they made me stop and he's like i think that is worse that is definitely worse it's a great line it's really good soon after this she introduces the

idea of the triathlon they're going to compete in i think it's really weird that they have to eat as part of the triathlon like is that ever a thing in real life i get that this one is sponsored by a pasta company but i've never heard of that do they really want kids throwing up their pasta right that's what would happen every time like they would throw up sponsored pasta okay around this point luca's parents come up to the surface to look for him it's interesting that his mom like really is a vicious sea monster um and these people are absolutely right to be afraid of her and of them because her first instinct is to just like mercilessly attack any human she sees as she leaps on her own husband and beats the absolute crap out of him just because he looks like a human and then spends the rest of the movie terrorizing everyone in the whole village. Like she is a sea monster and they should rid the village of her.

She's horrible. It supports our theory because if this is just a metaphor for being different, then it should just be them being sea monsters and being disliked by the humans. But their parents also hate them even though they are sea monsters for going up to the surface, right? Exactly. So like, it's clearly some sort of metaphor for something else that two groups of people dislike you, your family and society, you know, and it's not just that your family was weird and it's not just that society is different. It's that you're different from both your family and society. You don't fit in anywhere. You are LGBTQ or something. No, they're so horrible. Like they're just, their plan is to drench every kid with water to find Luca. and i have to say this plan is inherently flawed and idiotic because they would be revealing him as a sea monster in a crowded town of people that hate sea monsters which is exactly one they want

to avoid because they don't want him to get massacred right that's why they're here is to stop this from happening and they're like hey what's a good idea let's just do it let's just show everyone that he's a sea monster it's the one thing that his mother is supposed to be afraid of right so clearly that's not the problem right like clearly it is about his sexuality they get into another scuffle with ercole and i have to ask how does alberto like know how to fist box yeah he knows fisticuffs yep well but his stance like you said is his stance is like old-timey irish boxing yeah one hand at your chest the other extended at nose level about a foot in front of your face both gripped in an underhanded fist like it's it's the classic irish boxing style and it's just really weird that he does this do you think he learned this from his dad who was maybe his father was a person who traveled the whole world because his family

rejected him and went from colombia it's true who knows europe traveled all over and also really loves soap operas and soccer you know maybe he knows traditional fisticuff style boxing and he taught it to his son because certainly a normal sea monster wouldn't know how to box like that like dancing around with your feet they don't use their feet in the water no and throwing a punch would be like a completely ineffective attack underwater as is demonstrated in the movie top secret which i highly recommend everybody watch i think we probably reference that movie more than any other in our episodes the underwater fight scene in that movie is so legitimately impressive that it's actually oddly enough gets posted on reddit like every month and makes it to the front page every time even though nobody knows what the movie is like everyone's all the comments are just like what is this movie it's a great scene so bruno crossed the ocean yeah he sure did

like he just hopped on a steamboat yeah people did that in the 60s you are sorry no it wouldn't have been 60s like the 40s 50s whatever but you know there's a thing that happened people could do that people immigrated around the time when julia opens luca's eyes to the wider world of education i just gotta mention that she happens to own the world's greatest telescope that has ever been created because dude she can clearly see saturn and its rings which you can't you cannot do with like a uh terrestrial telescope at least not one of that size and her school's telescope is insane because it's even bigger and she's going to be able to see beyond the universe wow dude it's true you know i thought she was exaggerating but you're right we should take everything she says at face value it's literal i mean if her tiny telescope is that powerful you're right they're clearly in a world where telescope technology has progressed so far beyond

our own telescope technology that we can't comprehend the advances they've made they're going to look beyond the universe yeah i will look beyond the universe next year it's something we do during this scene alberto just clearly like undeniably gets like incredibly jealous and uncomfortable that Luca was left alone with Julia. And afterwards, he like yells at Luca. He's like, Luca, come with me. You know, like he wants to get Luca away from Julia. Yeah. As we said, Alberto goes full on Tinkerbell here. Like he is, he is romantically jealous of the attention that Luca gets from Julia. Okay. So Luca asks Julia if they can go to school with her. And then Alberto gets really jealous and says, um, Julia, I was just wondering, does your school take all kinds of people? And this is really in your face to saying the problem here, the problem of this movie is about what Luca is. He could be asking about any sort of race or religion or gender preference, sexuality.

The fact is that he is bringing to light an aspect of Luca that Luca finds embarrassing and that society finds unacceptable, right? And it doesn't matter what aspect that is, but it could clearly be mapped to his sexuality and the message would be the same. Well, and then what happens? He jumps in the water. He's about to announce that we are monsters in your eyes. And that's another important part of this movie is that they are monsters in the eyes of the people but they're not actually monsters they're just totally normal nice creatures that live under the sea right and i think that's the point of the movie that's the message it's trying to say is that just because you think someone's a monster because of some aspect of their being whether it's their sexuality or otherwise maybe they're not a monster maybe they're just a guy right maybe they're just people then luca points at him and says monster he denies his true self right like he doesn't want

to admit it he's still in the closet of it alberto comes out of the closet luca doesn't luca doesn't we've seen this in like kind of different forms of media before but like in in like say like the 80s or 90s someone might be accused to be gay and then someone who's who is gay is like oh yeah he is you know like you know and it acts might turn on them right right or like that scene from will and grace where it's like you know i think two guys together is hot and then his boyfriend is like oh i just uh yeah i just don't like that his boyfriend who is gay goes you know doubles down in the other direction essentially to seem more oh i'm not gay you know because i don't want everyone to turn against me and so it will's boyfriend and will and grace is like oh i just it just disgusts me i can't believe you're like that will when his boyfriend is gay in case anybody hasn't seen will and grace the scene that leif is describing is basically two homosexual characters who are dating

there with some of their friends and the the boyfriend doesn't want to admit to everyone that he's gay but will the main character does want to admit to everyone that he's gay and uh hilarity ensues anyway if you go to wikipedia and read the plot of luca on wikipedia as good of a source as that is um the plot is described as then at this point alberto goes home heartbroken and trashes his own house and you know ruins all of his stuff they specifically say that he is heartbroken at this point and i don't see any other way to see it he is absolutely heartbroken that's the emotion that disney is and pixar are trying to convey alberto is heartbroken because his best friend and possible lover has betrayed him i mean it's just like tinkerbell does when she's rejected by peter pan and she goes home and trashes her home with a bomb whoa it's true she totally trashed that place yeah well actually i mean peter pan had the bomb she just came and got it from him but

she took it and she was like i can use this to trash though yeah that's what she was trying to do well julia may not be the most like deep character i do like her reaction here because like she is like terrified of alberto but then just a few minutes later when luca reveals himself to be a monster she is not terrified or surprised which i think is realistic he's not crashing around in the water saying i'm a monster he's not trying to scare her but also like of course he's a sea monster if alberto is then clearly luca is come on like i'm certain that she already knew luca was sea monster like even if you just learned about sea monsters for the first time in your entire life you would definitely be able to put two or two together and see if he is a one then he is definitely one too her reaction is very level-headed but also intolerant yeah because she's like you have to get out of here this is stupid you shouldn't be risking your life for a vespa

so she's basically saying i don't care what you are but i don't want you to get hurt so stop flaunting it and go away you know which is sad you know it's a really sad thing for his friend to tell him that and uh it's a good portrayal of it i think it's an interesting conflict for a character to have in a disney movie and uh you know you can you can really feel for luca here because he just betrayed you know his best friend by not coming out and then when he did come out he gets the reaction that he didn't want which is go away get out of here so yeah it's a good moment so Luca goes to Alberto and we learn a little bit more about Alberto's father and I'm just going to say that there are tally marks on the wall and Alberto says that he was counting for a while how long his father had been gone but he stopped if you count all of the tallies I believe it's about 364 so he was counting for almost a year but he's stopped for a while so

So we know that Bruno has been gone for a while. Was he counting days? Or was he counting like minutes or months or years? We don't know what he was counting. Well, I'm thinking if there's about 364 tallies, probably days. Probably years. He's like 300 year old. He's really old, man. So, I mean, this just feeds back into the timeline thing, but it makes sense that Bruno could have gone there, lived with his son for a while, and then decided it was time for him to go home because mirabelle what's wrong with him no he had to go protect mirabelle because he knew that prophecy was 12 you can't leave him all alone you monster oh my gosh no and it's true no i will i will not defend bruno he did abandon his son but i mean bruno kind of abandons his family sometimes he kind of runs away from his family when the going gets tough so it's kind of in character for him yeah you're not wrong so i believe that he did travel the world as we know he's a he's a chameleon he he can be different

people so he can fit in anywhere he rats along his back you'd never recognize him right well he's not camilo but he can put a bucket on his head he can be jorge oh my gosh i just realized that Camilo is named Camilo to sound like the word chameleon how did I never notice that oh my god Bruno I believe he traveled the world for a while he had trouble integrating with society because he's kind of weird himself people don't like him people don't talk about him I think he ended up falling in with a group of sea monsters he ended up with a sea monster woman and they had a child having a family who is full of weird super powered individuals he would be the one human in the world who is not scared away by a sea monster and it's just like yeah that's cool i mean like yeah everyone in my family has weird powers so you guys are sea monsters but then the question here is that why doesn't alberto have a door in casita if he truly is bruno's son he should have gotten a door

Casita when he turned five years old oh no and then everyone would have been like oh I guess Bruno had a kid while he was gone but I would posit that you do not get a door unless you go and do the ceremony and Alberto wasn't there he didn't do the ceremony so he didn't get a door if he ever came to Colombia to meet his father again he might get a door and that's also why he doesn't have a special power other than being a sea monster that makes sense I don't disagree with that yeah but i just have to say that before the ceremony occurred there was a glowing spot on the wall where the door was appearing right and the door was there before the ceremony happened because he had to go i mean the person doing the ceremony has to go and touch the doorknob and then they get magical dust on their hands and then mirabelle wiped the dust off and that's why she didn't get any powers she wipes the dust off that's why it didn't work she does she wipes the dust off on

her shirt antonio doesn't wipe the dust off he touches the the doorknob after he gets the dust and then it works that could be interesting they get magical dust and she wipes it off and we don't see anyone else wipe it off and it doesn't work for her so she wiped off the magic she should have done that and it's cool because abuela totally wouldn't have even known about that like she would have had no idea there was magic dust that you don't need to wipe off that you need to not wipe off and she would never know why it didn't work because she wasn't recording it you have to touch the knob with the dust still on your hands interesting well that would also explain why alberto has no power they they get the magic dust from holding the candle specifically so first they touch the candle that gives them the dust and then they touch the doorknob and that like solidifies their connection with casita and gives them a power it's really cool like you gotta watch

it i actually believe that that's supposed to be what was happening yeah and i actually believe that she wiped the dust out yeah i know no like seriously i i think that they had it in mind because like why else would they have her wipe it off yeah and there is a lot of attention to detail in that movie yeah yeah no that could be it but we do know casita can like rearrange itself so maybe it had a door ready for alberto and then it just rearranged it just haven't shown it yet like it did with bruno's door but that brings me to one last bruno thing i was going to say which is that we know that bruno's father casita was a tough love father who was like climb that tower every day son so i think maybe that's why bruno kind of grew up this way and he treats his son the same way where he's like you take care of yourself see ya for our listeners who haven't listened to our encanto episode leif is referring to the fact that bruno's father is casita

and casita built the world's worst room for bruno therefore bruno's father is a tough love father who is making him climb the stairs every day. Which explains why Bruno himself might be a tough love father to his son and just abandon him in a tower, which is what Bruno's father did to him. Yeah, like Bruno would be a very messed up person and is, as having watched Encanto. Yeah, extremely. You see, he's her aunt, but he doesn't know. So it's kind of like this forbidden love sort of. Dude, that's what he had with that sea monster, forbidden love. Yeah, he loves forbidden love. We know that. He does. Alberto says that his father left him, and then he says to Luca, you're the good kid. I'm just a kid who ruins everything. I think this is just another reference of like, you were the good kid, and I'm the one who kind of, by society's definition, led you astray and made you accept your homosexuality.

I don't know. Either way, it's a callback to Luca saying, I'm a good kid. well and alberto's father maybe left him because he was homosexual and that's what oh no bruno bruno's father that's what bruno's family did to him when they found out that he was true it literally is yeah they ostracized him for it so yikes yeah and again reference to our incanto episode we do believe that bruno may have been gay or at least it was an analogy for that And also that Isabella definitely found out she was a lesbian and that Mirabelle was bisexual. She helped Isabella realize what she was, which is why Isabella says, you're a bad influence to Mirabelle. And then that's what breaks the house. Anyway, we already talked about this. Is there any evidence specific to the movie Encanto? Like anything anybody says or Bruno says that might connect him back to like this fishy world of Italy? You know, I heard that there was one woman, Senora Pez Muerto, who was told by Bruno that

her fish would die, and the next day it was dead. Oh, what does that have to do with this? Nothing. Nothing at all. Nothing at all. Well, that's just what created his interest in fish people.

so it's interesting to me that basically Luca like announces that he's going crazy and he's going to fix this he's like I'm going to fix this I'm going to go win the race I'm out of here take me gravity jumps off the tower you know survives but is hurt and runs away but Alberto's like genuinely worried about him like he's jealous and mad but he's like holy crap Luca's gone crazy all right so he like comes after him he's like Luca wait Luca Luca and presumably is about to follow luca but then we cut to the next scene and i guess alberto just fell asleep after luca left the tower because he didn't chase luca he didn't follow him he didn't do anything he had to search through the mess he made in his tower for a really long time to find an umbrella yeah as soon as he found it he was gonna rain all right i'm bringing it to you man i knew there was gonna be rain a long time ago because i can see the future because my dad was bruno dude he saw the future

knew it was gonna rain that's great evidence because why would he have known to bring an umbrella it just started raining and literally just started raining to get from his island to the to the mainland and also with an umbrella and he's like minutes later running up the hill with an umbrella can you prove that that umbrella came from his island because if you can then he saw the future if that umbrella came from the sidelines and he was just watching luca compete then he can't see the future but if that umbrella came from his island then he can certainly see i don't think i can prove the umbrella we might need an addendum we gotta watch every scene i'd have to look at it again in his house we'll see because then he can see the future which he somehow inherited inherited from his dad even though he didn't even though that's not how the powers from totally don't inherit your parents power oh no i maybe it was just like a prophecy that his that

that uh bruno told him because we know prophecies can just be random stuff he might have just said like hey i see you running with an umbrella to your friend and then he's like what is this your boyfriend yeah ew i'm leaving oh no he saw his future and saw that he was gay and then left oh dude no wait i've got it so bruno was gay he went on this big journey after his family found out because he was like they don't want me and then he was like no i've got to try it out i've got to have sex with a woman but he's just not attracted to them so he finally found someone he was mildly attracted to a fish woman he tried it out i can bear it if she's a fish yeah all right are you laying eggs am i fertilizing them i don't know yeah it's probably easier that way no we don't know how fish people have sex that they did the deed on land where she would be human but i guess i was wrong no they did it in the water she laid her eggs first he fertilized them and then he was like

no i just can't i you know what i i waited 12 years and i'm not straight i'm out i finally tried it with a real woman she was a fish woman and then he stuck around for 12 years well because he's ever you know he was a responsible dad for a while no he's not 12 years is not long enough. Stick around longer, you deadbeat.

Oh, my gosh. This Bruno theory just keeps coming back. We think we're done with it. It's the gift that keeps on giving. So I do love the climax of this movie. In general, I just like climaxes that occur in the rain. Even though the climax is literally just like a five-second moment as they ride toward each other and grab each other's hand. But it's really good. It's good. It's really good. What follows is, you know, the moment where basically the town comes together and is like, wait a minute, there's no reason for us to hate these two. Ercole says, everyone is horrified and disgusted by you because you are monsters. This line doesn't make any sense with the word disgusted. People are horrified of sea monsters, not disgusted by them. You only throw disgusted in there if it's a metaphor for like how people felt about homosexuality back then where they're like, ew, that's gross, you know?

Yes. In general, I think if you were talking to a sentient being that you think is going to kill you, so you feel like you need to kill it, you wouldn't tell it how disgusted you are of it. You'd probably be like, get away, you freak, or die, monster. Yeah. No, it's just such an obvious metaphor. I mean, and then here's one of the biggest evidences is that we find out that many people living in plain sight in the village are sea monsters. They're all sea monsters. this showing like hey lgbtq people are just living among you and they're just normal people okay and now they can come out and show who they are they just weren't like talking about it before it's clear as day that's the metaphor it's so it couldn't be anything else then luca's grandma says some people will never accept him but some will and he seems to know how to find the good ones and once again this is not like a he's a sea monster how can we hide it so heavy-handed like

how yeah how can the director say that's not what it's about no this is like he has a specific aspect of his person that is reprehensible to some people but is not actually reprehensible and there's what they're saying is just like forget about the other ones too just find the good ones and yeah exactly forget about those other people who don't accept you they don't matter they're clearly just saying that he is gay and some people won't accept it but others will and that's that you you know what we are saying here i think it's pretty clear and i think that the movie supports it maybe maybe it's not overtly about homosexuality but it's definitely about you know a little boy who's doing something new that is forbidden by everyone else and he likes it and he has to deal with the consequences of being different yeah no obviously i believe in this theory i avoided doing a luke episode for a long time because i just thought the theory was too

easy because it's not a theory that's just the movie right and the other reason i avoided doing the luke episode was because of the bruno theory which i thought was too hard because there's no evidence whatsoever dude we proved it so good but what do you think about the bruno theory i think that the bruno theory is a tough one it's really really hard to prove there's no evidence no there is enough there there is actual evidence that makes me want to believe it and i will say that we have pretty definitively given good reasons to believe that alberto's father was human and that his name was bruno yes and we have definitively connected the bruno from in canto with his father bruno in the form of two shoes those two boots he has one and alberto has the other and if alberto's father is named bruno then that makes them the same person right so that alone i think is enough to make you wonder right right it's fun to think about i'll leave it at

that what do you think you you the listener you whoever's listening to this what do you think i mean do you think that bruno is uh is alberto's father from luca let us know um you can write to us on twitter at popcorn isn't real and if you like the episode make sure you uh you know give it a rating uh give it a review tell your friends about it leave a comment tell us what you think like subscribe music for this episode was provided by christine and remember the popcorn isn't real

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