ENCANTO

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film opens in Colombia, where Alma Madrigal (Maria Cecilia Botero) is telling her granddaughter Mirabel (Noemi Josefina Flores) the story about how their family came to be. Alma was once married to a man named Pedro, and they had three children, but they had to flee their home due to the conquistadors. Pedro was killed protecting his family, but from the tragedy, a candle that Alma was carrying forms an enchantment (the titular Encanto) that produces magic energy, creating a home (or “Casita”) for Alma and her family and bestowing her children with powers when they touch the doorknobs to their rooms on the day they come of age. The rest of the village also benefits from the magic. It is the day of Mirabel’s gift ceremony, where she will see what her special power will be. The little girl reaches for the doorknob.

Jump to the present, where Mirabel (now played by Stephanie Beatriz) is helping her family get ready because her little cousin Antonio (Ravi Cabot-Conyers) is set for his gift ceremony. Outside, a bunch of kids come by the Casita to ask Mirabel about her family. She explains her family’s story (“The Family Madrigal”) – her mother Julieta (Angie Cepeda) has the power to heal people with her food, and she is married to Agustin (Wilmer Valderrama). Mirabel has two sisters – Luisa (Jessica Darrow), who has super strength, and Isabela (Diane Guerrero), the “perfect” sister who can make flowers bloom anywhere. Tia Pepa (Carolina Gaitan) is married to Felix (Mauro Castillo), and she has the power to manipulate the weather based on her emotions. They have three kids – Dolores (Adassa), who can hear everything from any distance; Camilo (Rhenzy Feliz), who can shape-shift; and Antonio. Julieta and Pepa also have a brother, Bruno (John Leguizamo), who has the gift of seeing the future, but he is an outcast and the family doesn’t like to talk about him. However, despite Mirabel trying to dodge the kids’ questions about her gift, Dolores tells them that Mirabel never got a gift. She acts like it doesn’t bother her, but deep down, it does.

Mirabel gives Antonio a gift before the ceremony of a stuffed tiger since he is an animal lover. She doesn’t get along with Isabela due to the latter being snobby over how everyone sees her as perfect. The family later gathers as Antonio takes his steps to his door, and he touches the doorknob. The door glows, and a toucan perches itself on Antonio’s arm, meaning he has been given the gift of talking to animals. Mirabel sadly walks away by herself as she remembers the day of her gift ceremony, and how the door simply disappeared when she didn’t get a gift, and she wishes she could be as special as the rest of her family (“Waiting On a Miracle”). Suddenly, a ceiling tile falls, and the floor tiles begin to crack. The candle also appears to be fizzling out, despite Alma telling Mirabel that it never goes out. Mirabel goes to alert the family, but when they go back, everything looks undamaged, and they just think Mirabel is trying to cause a fuss for no reason.

The next day, Mirabel tries to ask Dolores if she heard anything suspicious. Dolores tries to dodge any suspicious talk, but she does tell Mirabel that she could hear Luisa’s eye twitching. The family is gathering because a neighboring suitor, Mariano Guzman (Maluma) wants to court and marry Isabela. Although Mirabel tries to get Luisa’s attention, Alma continues to believe Mirabel is just trying to get attention.

Mirabel then follows Luisa as she goes about her town duties, fixing anything that her strength can help with. Luisa acts like everything is fine since she is super strong (“Surface Pressure”), but then makes it clear that she feels a constant need to prove she is the strongest. She gives Mirabel a back-breaking hug and admits she felt physically weak after Mirabel mentioned the cracks in the Casita. Luisa tells her to go to Bruno’s tower back home to find more answers.

Mirabel sneaks into Bruno’s abandoned room where the magic of the Casita cannot help her. After climbing a tall staircase and swinging to another ledge, she comes across a cave of sorts where she finds broken shards of one of Bruno’s visions. Mirabel puts the pieces together and sees an image of herself. The cave begins to collapse and come down, so Mirabel grabs all the shards and runs out of the room before she becomes trapped in there.

While in her room, Mirabel finds Pepa getting the last of Antonio’s belongings, but the stress of the current situation makes a rain cloud form over her head. Mirabel tries asking about Bruno, but both Pepa and Felix, as well as the rest of the family and even townspeople, refuse to discuss the man (“We Don’t Talk About Bruno”). Every time he had a vision, it would come true and bring negative consequences to everyone. In particular, he told Pepa on her wedding day that “it looked like rain”, which led to her causing a powerful storm.

Mirabel puts the pieces of the vision together and sees herself standing in front of the Casita looking severely damaged. Agustin enters her room and sees the vision before warning Mirabel not to let anybody know what she saw. Unfortunately for them, Dolores was close by and heard the whole thing.

The Madrigals gather as Mariano and his parents visit in preparation for the engagement. While Mirabel tries to keep it together, Dolores spills the beans to her family, and they continue passing it along. Alma once again blames Mirabel for misbehaving, leading to the Casita cracking some more, and the family’s powers going haywire. Camilo can’t control his shapeshifting, Pepa causes a storm in the house, Luisa can’t even drag a piano into the room, and Isabela accidentally creates a flower vine that punches Mariano in the face. Isabela tells Mirabel she hates her.

Mirabel starts to take the vision shards back to her room, but drops one. A rat picks up the shard and brings it back to Bruno, who is hiding behind the walls of the Casita. Mirabel follows him and finds his little hideout, as the family believed he went into exile, but he has just been living behind the kitchen so the rats can bring him food. Mirabel asks for his help, but he doesn’t want to because he knows his visions always make people unhappy. He tells her that Alma had been worried about the magic on the day of Mirabel’s gift ceremony, and he worries that this is why she didn’t get a gift. They are found by Antonio, since the rats told him what’s going on, and with his encouragement, Bruno agrees to share a new vision with Mirabel. They still see her standing in front of the cracked Casita, but something new happens when Mirabel spots a butterfly before she is standing in front of the candle and embracing someone, who turns out to be Isabela. Mirabel initially refuses to hug Isabela, but figures she must if it means saving the Casita.

Mirabel goes to Isabela’s room to try and hug it out, but Isabela is still angry at Mirabel. She tries to drag Mirabel out with vines, but gets more upset when Mirabel refers to Isabela as “selfish”. Isabela says that she has always had to maintain a perfect image for the family and that she didn’t even want to get engaged to Mariano but would have for the family’s sake. She manifests a cactus, which she acknowledges isn’t conventionally beautiful like her flowers, but she still finds the beauty in it and is amazed that she can create more (“What Else Can I Do?”). This helps Isabela get over her anger with Mirabel, and they end up hugging in front of the candle as the vision predicted.

Alma comes into the Casita and sees Isabela covered in different colors before berating Mirabel and saying she is the reason that the Casita is breaking down and why everyone’s powers are out of control. She thinks Mirabel is lashing out for her lack of a gift, but Mirabel hits back that Alma’s own high expectations of her family is what is bringing them down, and that it is actually her own fault that everything is going wrong. The floor then starts to crack more heavily, and the whole Casita starts to crumble and fall. Mirabel tries to rush to save the candle, which is quickly melting. The Casita uses the last of its power to protect Mirabel and it completely collapses. The Madrigals are devastated at the loss of their home, and the Encanto fades from the rest of the village as well.

Mirabel runs away by the river where she cries to herself. Alma walks over and finds her, saying this is where Pedro was killed. She was heartbroken until the Encanto came to life, and she admits that she spent so long trying to protect the magic and maintain what made the family special, but she lost sight of what really made her family who they are. A flashback shows Pedro and Alma as they fell in love, got married, and raised their kids before being forced to flee their home. The Encanto blew the murderous soldiers away and created everything. Mirabel then sees the butterfly from Bruno’s vision, and after reconciling with Alma, they embrace. They are found by Bruno, who comes riding in on a horse, and his mother embraces him for the first time in years.

The three return home, and with help from the villagers, they begin to rebuild the Casita. Bruno reunites with the family, and Julieta and Pepa are elated to see him again. Mariano also ends up falling in love with Dolores, since she tells him what she has heard from him. The Madrigals come together to honor each other (“All of You”) but also praise Mirabel for being the one to bring them all back together. They give her a doorknob they made just for her, and once she replaces it into the front door, the Casita and all the magic is restored. The villagers celebrate, and the Madrigals gather for a full family photo.

In Colombia, there is a village protected by a magical charm, or "Encanto". The Madrigal family lives there, each of them possessing a unique superhuman ability (mom Julieta can heal people with food, her sister Pepa controls the weather, Pepa's daughter Dolores has powerful hearing, while her son Camilo can shapeshift, and Julieta's daughters Luisa and Isabela respectively possess super strength and floral powers), except for Mirabel, who never got a gift on the day she came of age. While she tries to keep her chin up, her lack of a gift bothers her. Soon, the Madrigal house ("Casita") begins to crack, and the family's powers go out of control. Mirabel takes it upon herself to fix things.

Mirabel seeks out her uncle Bruno, who went into exile because he had the power of seeing visions of the future, and they always made people unhappy. He had a vision that Mirabel was standing in front of the Casita as it began to break down, leading them to believe that Mirabel is the cause of the Encanto failing. After Mirabel tries to fix things with her family, including Isabela since they always had an intense rivalry, Abuela Alma blames Mirabel for the family being unable to control their powers and for the house coming down, but Mirabel says that it is Alma's own fault for putting pressure on the family to be perfect. This is what causes the Casita to completely collapse and come down. Mirabel runs away, thinking it really was her fault.

Alma finds Mirabel at the spot where she lost her husband and where the magic of the Encanto came to life. She admits that she lost sight of what really made her family special in trying to maintain their perfect image. After they reconcile, Bruno also returns to the family. With help from the villagers, the Madrigals rebuild the Casita, and when Mirabel places the new doorknob as the final piece, the magic returns.