hero's journey encanto

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: ‘Encanto’ offers storytelling lessons beyond animated features

February 18, 2022.

In the mountains of Colombia, every Madrigal family member is blessed with a unique, magical power. Luisa has the power of strength. Antonio recently acquired the ability to communicate with animals. For a handful of generations, this family living in Encanto discovers their gifts when they are young — all except Mirabel, who doesn’t seem to have any magical gifts at all. Yet when the magic surrounding their casita begins disappearing, Mirabel might be the only one who can save her family.

Encanto is a colorful and vibrant animated film filled with heart, musical numbers, and the usual Disney expectation of someone struggling with their identity only to find their way after a little adventure. This four-quadrant film was recently nominated for three Academy® Awards, including Best Animated Feature.

Encanto stars Stephanie Beatriz, María Cecilia Botero, John Leguizamo, and Jessica Darrow with music by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The film was written by Charise Castro Smith and Jared Bush, and was directed by Jared Bush, Byron Howard, and Charise Castro Smith.

Here are five screenwriting takeaways every writer can learn from Encanto .

1. Open with history

It’s pretty standard for the modern-day Disney movie to open with a history of the world the audience is about to enter. Encanto is no different. Through narration and stunning cinematic spectacle, we learn how a magical candle spawns a miracle and brings supernatural gifts to the family and what it means for them, their community, and their casita.

Writers can see how this offers an exciting and engaging way to provide exposition to the story. It also sets up expectations for the characters while foreshadowing the troubles ahead.

Other recent Disney movies that do this include Moana , which shares the story of the heart of Te Fiti leading to the title character’s interest in adventure, and Frozen II , which shares the story of how Elsa and Anna’s parents met and an enchanted forest where their kingdom and another kingdom went to war.

2. Establish what makes the lead character different

It’s not enough to simply call your main character the lead of the film. Storytellers must have a solid reason for that person to be the one the audience follows on the journey. The more they stand out for reasons of being different, it seems the more likely we’ll want to see that person’s adventure.

Mirabel is that person we want to follow. Here she stands in a family with magical gifts who was never given anything special — but that’s what makes her special, to us. She’s a complicated character who is forever optimistic and helpful yet struggles with her own identity. When the fate of the family seems to rest on her shoulders, how could she rise to the occasion when she’s never particularly been special at all?

Another example: There’s nothing special about a beat cop in New York named John McClane who travels to Los Angeles to save his marriage. But he’s a blue-collar guy in a white-collar environment, and then terrorists take over. Now Die Hard has become a classic.

Mirabel is special to the audience because she’s different than everyone else. Writers can see how contrasting the lead with the supporting characters adds to a compelling story.

3. Musical numbers

Musical numbers are a lot like action set pieces: you need a good reason to have one.

If musical numbers just start without any reason, then they detract from the story; just like how an action scene for the sake of something exciting doesn’t really work if it’s not in the context of the story.

Musical numbers are great for providing exposition, especially in a kid’s movie where elementary-age children won’t want to watch two people just talk for very long. Encanto’s musical numbers explained the story at the beginning of the film when the audience needed to understand the context of the magical gifts. It also works when we finally learn why the characters won’t talk about Bruno in the Oscar-nominated song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.”

Writers can take this lesson into other genres as well, especially the aforementioned action genre. Need to explain why the Terminator is trying to kill Sarah Connor? Have the hero provide the exposition while they try to outrun the lethal machine.

4. The call to adventure

Whether or not you’re using Joseph Campbell’s "Hero’s Journey" as a guide, the main character will need a call to adventure or an inciting incident. In Encanto , Mirabel discovers that something is impacting the magic in the house, literally breaking it apart and possibly removing the gifts her family encompasses. This sends her on a search for answers to find out what the issue is and how to save her family.

Mirabel’s call to adventure shows itself in a vision — it’s her catalyst. With each step on the journey, there’s conflict, including her own Abuela who wants her to stop butting into the house's past. Why would her grandmother not want her to get to the bottom of this...?

Every main character needs a reason to be the main character of the movie, the call to adventure propels that reason and drives the story.

5. The heart of the movie

Every movie has a heart; also called a theme or even a through-line. Encanto is driven by what family and happiness mean. Mirabel’s reasons for solving the problems stem from her loyalty to her family, but this is tested as she learns more about her history, the magical gifts, and the elusive Bruno.

Mirabel is the happiest unhappy person we see, at least at the beginning. Her unwavering optimism and willingness to help out her family combined with her sadness of not having a magical gift brings up the question of what it means to be happy. Because this is a movie, anyone can guess that there are more than a few family members burdened by their gifts, but continue on as normal for the sake of their family. Is Mirabel missing out because of her lack of a gift? Or is she the lucky one?

Writers can see how happiness and family are a consistent through-line of Encanto and how it impacts every character.

Encanto is currently streaming on Disney+.

Written by: Steven Hartman

• Screenwriting
• 5 Screenwriting Takeaways

Final Draft 13

Use what the pros use!

What’s new in Final Draft 13?

Writing goals & productivity stats.

Set goals and get valuable insights to take your work to the next level

A new typewriter-like view option improves your focus

Craft more realistic onscreen text exchanges and make your notes more emotive

And so much more, thoughtfully designed to help unleash your creativity.

Final Draft is used by 95% of film and television productions

You May Also Like

• AV Undercover

Encanto upends Disney tradition with an adventure that never leaves home

Walt disney animation studios’ 60th feature is a visual feast with a family focus.

From Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs to Raya And The Last Dragon , Walt Disney Animation Studios has spent the past eight decades perfecting its signature riff on the classic hero’s journey. So it’s a bold move that for its 60th feature, Encanto, the studio turns so many of those classic tropes on their head.

• Glen Powell's Chad Powers is here and we don't care for it one bit
• Margo Martindale ain't afraid of nothin': 10 recurring joke characters who make BoJack Horseman special
• What's on TV this week— Only Murders In The Building , Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power

Where most Disney animated protagonists are lucky if they get at least one living parent, Encanto ’s plucky leading lady, Mirabel Madrigal (Stephanie Beatriz), lives in a house bustling with extended relatives. (How fun to see a Disney heroine with cousins!) And far from being special, she’s actually the one ordinary member of a family defined by their magical abilities. That makes Mirabel a sort of reverse Elsa, if you will, and instead of setting off on an adventure to find herself, her quest leads inward into her own family history and the secrets buried inside it. Therein lies Encanto ’s biggest innovation: It’s a Disney adventure that never leaves the house.

To be fair, this is no ordinary abode. The film’s casita sits at the heart of an “encanto,” a magical town tucked away in the mountains of Colombia. The enchanted house has its own quirky personality, like the carpet from Aladdin . It can also conjure up massive, magical new rooms every time a family member comes of age and gains their power. (“It’s bigger on the inside,” one visitor gasps like they’re stepping into Doctor Who ’s TARDIS, as they enter a cavernous jungle room ready-made for action sequences.)

• Stunning Nielsen study says Stranger Things and Encanto were streamed a lot in 2022
• Stephanie Beatriz recorded Encanto 's "Waiting On A Miracle" while she was in labor

Drawing from the Latin American tradition of magical realism, Encanto weaves its vision of magic into everyday life. The casita’s floorboards jostle to help Mirabel slip into her shoes as her glamorous older sister, Isabela (Diane Guerrero), sprouts flowers wherever she walks, Meanwhile, her mother, Julieta (Angie Cepeda), cooks food that can heal any ailment. From shape-shifting and super hearing to the ability to control the weather and talk to animals, the Madrigal family use their special gifts to keep the encanto running smoothly under the watchful, demanding eye of family matriarch Abuela Alma (María Cecilia Botero).

As ever, Disney succeeds at enveloping its audience in a lushly realized world that presents inventive visuals in a comfortingly classical animation style. While directors Byron Howard and Jared Bush previously made Zootopia together, it’s Howard’s work on Tangled that feels most influential here. The multigenerational, multiracial Madrigals offer a diverse representation of the Colombian experience, with each skin tone and hair texture represented as lovingly as Rapunzel’s locks were in that 2010 princess film. Encanto also borrows Tangled ’s use of warm, glowing light as a major motif. The Madrigal family’s powers come from an enchanted candle that appeared to them in a time of strife. They refer to it as their “miracle,” and that religious reverie could also apply to the gorgeously twinkling imagery on screen too.

Storywise, the film’s family theme is also a welcome departure from the overly complicated, mythology-heavy worldbuilding of recent Disney animated films like Raya and Frozen II . Despite their #blessed attitude, all isn’t right in the Madrigal household. It’s Mirabel who first starts to see the cracks (literally) emerge in the picture-perfect façade her family puts forth as leaders in their community. And her investigation into their faltering magic leads her to discover that those closest to her are struggling far more than she realized. “I’m worthless if I can’t be of service,” Maribel’s super-strong older sister Luisa (Jessica Darrow) sings while literally carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. Encanto delivers a poignant message about not focusing so much on our own burdens that we miss the fact that others around us have them too.

Yet like Disney’s other big November release, Eternals , Encanto struggles to serve its massive ensemble effectively. With 12 or so featured players, there’s just not enough room to flesh out their relationships to Mirabel and to one another while still making time for the requisite action-adventure moments and Mirabel’s own emotional arc too. Some characters we barely get to know at all, while others have their big issue introduced and resolved in a single song. It doesn’t help that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical numbers lean towards a pop sound that’s fun and catchy but lacks the emotional punch of Disney’s usual Broadway stylings. For all its compelling individual elements, Encanto doesn’t quite manage to weave them together into something greater than the sum of its parts—which is especially frustrating given that the idea of communal support is a driving ethos of the film.

Still, that unevenness gives way to great moments. The film’s standout sequence is a flashback montage set to Miranda’s elegiac Spanish-language song, “Dos Oruguitas.” There, Encanto re-anchors itself as a movie about intergenerational trauma—the way that the necessary survival methods of one generation can become the unhealthy coping mechanisms of another. It’s weighty but gently handled material in a thematically dense film that will likely reward multiple viewings. (Good news for parents.) While Encanto doesn’t break the Disney mold, it does give it an enchanting new shape. And it offers a timeless reminder to viewers of all ages: A problem shared is a problem halved, whether you’re leaning on your loved ones or the sturdy walls of an enchanted house.

• September TV preview: The Penguin , Agatha All Along , Kaitlin Olson, and Slow Horses
• Only Murders In The Building feels a little too glamorous in season 4 premiere
• Aubrey Plaza filmed Megalopolis and Agatha All Along at the same time "because I'm insane"

GET A.V.CLUB RIGHT IN YOUR INBOX

Pop culture obsessives writing for the pop culture obsessed.

Encanto Review: A Magical And Musical Tale For Families To Watch Together

Encanto isn’t just a story about magic; it is magic..

Encanto marks the 60th animated feature film from Walt Disney Animation. Few studios have such an impressive track record over that many movies, as there are some absolute classics are in that mix, and their latest film is among its best.

Directed by Jared Bush, Byron Howard, and Charise Castro Smith, Encanto follows Mirabel (Stephane Beatriz), a young woman who lives with her extended family, the Madrigals, in a house ensconced in enchantment. It’s a magical house and it’s full of magical people. Every member of the Madrigal family has a unique gift that they use to better the lives of the town that surrounds them. Everybody in the family has these abilities... except Mirabel. When her time came, something went wrong and she was given no special power.

The specter of this hangs over the day that Mirabel’s younger cousin, Antonio (Ravi-Cabot Conyers), is to be given his gift. While Mirabel claims that she’s fine being different from the rest of family, and they don’t think less of her because of it, nobody is being quite honest. And when something starts to go wrong with all the magic, the girl who never had any takes it upon herself to save everything.

On paper, Encanto checks all the boxes of the type of animated movie Disney is known for. It has a female protagonist who goes on a journey of self-discovery. She overcomes obstacles to find that she needs and what she wants aren’t necessarily the same thing. And she sings all the while. Encanto isn’t a revolutionary film for Disney, but the places where it makes changes to the formula make it stand out from the crowd.

First and foremost, the movie takes place in Colombia, and the voice cast is entirely of people of color (save Alan Tudyk 's requisite cameo). This is much more than a simple aesthetic difference as everything from the look to the sound of Encanto is a little bit different than what we’re used to from Disney. 

Every single Lin-Manuel Miranda song in Encanto is great. 

And let’s talk about that sound. The songs all come from Lin-Manuel Miranda , and he continues to impress. Anybody familiar with Miranda’s work wouldn’t need to be told he wrote these songs, as several of them very much have his signature sound, and you could imagine him singing them as well as anybody. 

Most of the songs are energetic, up-tempo numbers that would fit in a Broadway musical written by the man,  with “Surface Pressure” sung by newcomer Jessica Darrow as Luisa (the strong one), being the soundtrack standout. However, even with the film’s “I want” song –Mirabel’s “Waiting on a Miracle,” which is the most traditional of the bunch – Miranda shows that can “do Disney” as well as anybody. 

Encanto’s animation is breathtaking. 

To go with the sounds, Encanto is an absolutely beautiful movie. It's visually stunning animation, full of bright colors at every turn. The cinematography, something that rarely gets called out in an animated movie because the camera is virtual, shows just how far computer animation has truly come. 

In the end, all the catchy songs and beautiful images are wasted if the movie is missing its heart, but Encanto certainly has that as well. Mirabel is perhaps the most relatable protagonist in all 60 animated features. She is the definition of normal. Not being special is what makes her special, as the movie points out. She's not a princess, and she has no special talent that makes her the one to take on the responsibility.

The emotional journey of Encanto will resonate with almost anybody. 

Mirabel’s hero’s journey is also more relatable than most. While she goes on an adventure, she never actually leaves her home. The metaphor is more than a little on the nose, but it works. 

But Mirabel isn’t even the only relatable character. While Encanto is ultimately her story, there’s a lot going on with her cousins and siblings too. They get to voice their own emotions (in song, of course), and Mirabel begins to see not only herself, but her entire family, differently. Each member of the audience will find their own character they relate to most, and they’ll tear up accordingly.  

While the other members of the Madrigal family do get some time to shine, Encanto is very much Mirabel’s journey and it is, by design, a somewhat lonely one for her. She does this largely all by herself. She has no animal sidekick that comes with her on her quest. As a result, it has to be said Encanto is one of the more serious adventures we’ve seen from Disney animation. There is still humor to be sure, but there is no character specifically designed to bring levity. As such, Encanto might be less engaging for the youngest viewers. 

There are a handful of other minor quibbles one can have with Encanto . The magic at the core of the story doesn’t really follow any logical structure. It does whatever it needs to do for the story to work in the moment. Some questions asked early on that you might expect answers to never really come. 

But while Encanto might be an original story, it is still, like so many of the animated Disney movies that came before it, a fairy tale. There’s a story to be told and a heartfelt message to be experienced, and in those regards, Encanto isn’t just a story about magic; it is magic.  

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.

One Movie Michael Keaton Says He Absolutely ‘Sucked’ In (But Not Everyone Can See His Point)

Rotten Tomatoes’ Brand New Popcornmeter Is Already Hard At Work, And One Surprising Movie Is Celebrating A 99% Win From The Audience

’It’s Such A Different Show Now’: How The View Has Really Changed From Barbara Walters’ Original Vision, According To One Show OG

Most Popular

• 2 Carrie Underwood Broke Down Her American Idol Judging Philosophy, And The Contestants Seem Like They’re In Good Hands
• 3 32 Creative Nicknames Sawyer Used On Lost
• 4 Demi Moore Reflects On Infamous Bikini Scene From Charlie’s Angels 2, And The Downside To All The Chatter About Her Looks
• 5 Reviews For Rings Of Power Season 2 Are In, And It's Like The Battle Of Pelennor Fields Between The Critics Right Now

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

Disney debuts stephanie beatriz as “not special special” heroine in enchanting ‘encanto’ trailer.

Stephanie Beatriz voices lead Maribel in the magical animated feature directed by Byron Howard and Jared Bush, with Bush co-writing the screenplay alongside co-director Charise Castro Smith.

By Abbey White

Abbey White

Associate Editor & News Writer

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Send an Email
• Show additional share options
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Pinterest
• Share on Reddit
• Share on Tumblr
• Share on Whats App
• Print the Article
• Post a Comment

In the first teaser trailer for Walt Disney Animation ‘s upcoming animated feature Encanto , being powerless doesn’t mean you can’t be powerful.

Released Thursday, the music-driven peek at the studio’s 60th animated feature introduces the magical Madrigal family, who live in an enchanted village in the mountains of Colombia.

Unlike other families, having special abilities and gifts is normal, with their home alight and full of vibrant sounds, colors and movement thanks to their powers. Well, normal for everyone except for the Stephanie Beatriz -voiced teen Mirabel, who tries not to be frustrated by what makes her different from the rest of her family.

“I gave you the special since you’re the only Madrigal kid with no gift,” one of Maribel’s family members says while handing over a basket of items to her. “I call it the ‘Not Special Special,’ since, uh, you have no gift!”

While Maribel might not have super strength or the ability to communicate with animals, she may be the fantastical family’s biggest hope when something threatens their magic.

“Gift or no gift, I’m just as special as the rest of my family,” Maribel says while smiling at her enchanted family and home.

The musical fantasy film is directed by  Zootopia’s Byron Howard and Jared Bush, with Bush co-writing the screenplay alongside co-director Charise Castro Smith in her feature film writing debut. Clark Spencer ( Ralph Breaks the Internet ) and Yvett Merino Flores ( Moana )are producing with music by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Encanto hits theaters on Nov. 24, 2021.

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Pablo larraín’s ‘maria,’ starring angelina jolie, sells wide, hot-button trump flick ‘the apprentice’ acquired by briarcliff for pre-election release, awards campaign (exclusive), angelina jolie opens up about ‘maria,’ her operatic life and her bold return, telluride: matt tyrnauer and his doc subjects james carville and nobu matsuhisa are fest’s “odd throuple”, ‘diciannove’ review: an uncompromising chronicle of an italian college student trying, and mostly failing, to find his way, ‘homegrown’ review: documentary embeds with trump supporters ahead of jan. 6, to absorbing effect.

Breezes from Wonderland

Maria tatar's forum for storytelling, folklore, and children's literature, encanto: an end to the disney magic (or is it just redefined).

“A Magical Story with Family at its Heart.” That’s the headline for one review of Disney’s  Encanto . It’s a surprising verdict for a film that resolutely moves in the direction of disenchantment and declares an end to magic to usher in a new age marked by the triumph of the ordinary.  Encanto  enacts a paradox, one of those powerful cultural contradictions that can never be resolved and that also inspires great storytelling.

Encanto  gives us both a fable of migrants reinventing themselves and Disney reinventing its own image of what makes a fairy-tale hero/heroine. It falls into the category of what the literary critic Stanley Fish once described as a self-consuming artifact, a work that moves readers out of their comfort zones and takes them on a disorienting journey, one that undermines once cherished values by first embracing established beliefs, then replacing them with others previously rejected. Unlike the comforting linear stroll through a self-satisfying artifact (think  Cinderella   or  Sleeping Beauty ), the self-consuming artifact, discontinuous and unstable, accomplishes its work by changing us through its transvaluation machinery. Presto! magnetic beauties sleeping in coffins, girls putting up with beasts, and children shoving witches into ovens are replaced by heroines defined by their ordinariness.

This is not the hero’s journey as Joseph Campbell defined it in 1949 and Hollywood enshrined it in entertainments ranging from  Star Wars to  The Matrix. Nor is the ordeal of fairy-tale heroines as Disney defined it for so many decades. The magic of cinematic fantasies that trafficked in beauty and aristocratic lineage as the passport taking a girl from “Someday my prince will come” to happily-ever-after has been banished. Now it is the determination, courage, and cleverness of an ordinary girl that triumphs over magic as the solution to misery. I wrote about some of those figures in The Heroine with 1,001 Faces (2021).

Still, even as Disney sends a powerful message about the value of using your ordinariness to heal the world and repair what has gone awry,  Encanto draws on special effects and mesmerizing music to put us under the spell of its artistry. And yet, by transmitting a message about how real magic is produced by hard work and communal solidarity, the film pays homage to the teams of Disney employees who provide us with the sorcery of stories. Finally the house of Disney gets some credit for its collective heroics.

Search form

Visit AWN on Twitter Visit AWN on Facebook Visit AWN on YouTube Visit AWN on Instagram Visit AWN on LinkedIn Visit AWN on FlipBoard Subscribe to AWN

• AnimationWorld
• All Categories
• Most Recent Videos
• Top Playlists
• All Video Categories
• Animation Industry Database
• Filmporium Store
• How To Succeed in Animation

Re-VIEW: ‘Encanto’ - Seeking Beauty in Truth

Experiencing life as the underdog - an outsider - teaches us empathy and a greater understanding of ourselves, our loved ones, and the critical connections that bind us together.

In Encanto , the Disney animated musical feature directed by Byron Howard and Jared Bush, with co-director Charise Castro Smith, members of a multi-generational family embark on a spiritual journey that leads them to a greater understanding of themselves and their loved ones. Their Virgilian guide on this journey of self-discovery is Mirabel, the only member of the Madrigal family who lacks a magical gift. As Mirabel explores the depths of the Casita, the enchanted house in which they all live, she discovers hidden truths that change the Madrigals forever, and help them to re-forge bonds that have long been broken.

More than anything else, Encanto is a film about perception/sight. It invites us to look at the world through fresh eyes — through the eyes of Mirabel. She is the lens through which we watch the story unfold, a lens which also enables the other characters to see themselves, to revisit their relationships with each other and, ultimately, to reconnect.

Mirabel can take on this role because she is different from the rest of the family, the only one without a special talent — or so everyone believes. Her isolation and loneliness are clearly established at the beginning of the film when she sings about her feelings of being excluded. However, her outsider status gives her a privileged perspective, enabling her to see truths that are hidden from others. It is this uncomfortable reality — the reality of the outsider — that the filmmakers are inviting us to share. Why? Because experiencing life as the underdog teaches us empathy.

When the magic starts to fail and the Casita begins to collapse, Mirabel embarks on a quest to discover what is wrong with the magic. This journey is at the same time her own journey of self-discovery, a Socratic quest to know herself. This is the most difficult journey of all, symbolized by the physical and emotional trials she endures along the way. Only at the end of the film does she achieve her goal, when she receives the gift of a doorknob that not only admits the entire family to the newly rebuilt Casita, but shows Mirabel her own reflection. Mirabel’s gift is sight, and her doorknob is a mirror, and by looking into it, she finally sees all of herself, her true self.  

Mirabel’s very name echoes this universal quest for truth through sight — the Latin word “mirabilis” originally meant “something that has to be watched, something worth watching” - and “mira!” in Spanish has fully maintained this meaning. But “mirabilis” also came to mean “wonderful” or “beautiful” and, as John Keats observed, beauty and truth are themselves mirror images. Even Mirabel’s physical appearance picks up this theme — she wears glasses, drawing our attention to her role as an observer and her ability to see not only everyday truths in a magical world, but also wonder in everyday things. Is this not the root of magical realism, the school of literature that was such an inspiration to the filmmakers?

If, like Mirabel, we wish to truly know ourselves, we must dig deep beneath the surface of what we think we know. The process is often painful, and can be heart-breaking to watch. For example, when strong-armed Luisa sings to Mirabel about the pressure of being perfect, we feel her pain. Indeed, Luisa’s obsession with strength and perfection is shared by the whole family, and offers a timely commentary on today’s Instagram culture, where so much emphasis is placed on snapshots, soundbites, and superficial appearances.

Nowhere is this commentary more evident than in “The Family Madrigal,” the opening song of Encanto. When Mirabel introduces each member of the family, she packages them into convenient summaries of themselves, as defined by their magical gifts. They as characters — and we as the audience — spend the rest of the movie unwrapping those packages to see the truths that lie within. These exposed truths show us that reality is complex and full of imperfections. Beautiful Isabela embraces this notion when she and Mirabel sing the duet “What Else Can I Do?” “I’m so sick of pretty,” she sings, “I want something true.”

While characters like Luisa and Isabela wrestle with the challenges brought by their gifts, we as an audience engage closely with Mirabel, precisely because she is ordinary. Thanks to her emotional intelligence, she is the mind and heart of the movie — as Carl Jung might say, she is its psyche. Just as she is our guide, she ultimately becomes the guide for the whole family, literally showing them the way into their new home. She is the gateway to a new life of mutual understanding, love, and respect.

Mirabel’s odyssey also evokes Joseph Campbell’s classic hero’s journey. In order to reach her uncle Bruno’s room in the Casita’s hidden tower, she must climb a monumental staircase and throw herself across a perilous chasm, just like a Greek hero — or Indiana Jones! The concept of a magical house filled with secret passages and hidden spaces evokes countless stories for children, from the “Narnia” books of C.S. Lewis to Neil Gaiman’s “Coraline.” By framing Mirabel’s rite of passage with familiar elements from mythology and literature, the filmmakers ensure that Encanto is a timeless and universal tale that we can all relate to.

Bruno’s magical talent is the power of prophecy. But his gift is also a curse — when he presents visions of a dark future, the family turns its back on him. So, Bruno is another outsider. However, whereas Mirabel is isolated because she has no gift, Bruno has been rejected because his own gift is deemed unacceptable. Bruno also represents art, in the sense that he is a performer. By explaining that he has many characters, he opens Mirabel’s mind — and the minds of the audience — to the idea that everyone has many characters. It brings us to a deeper understanding about ourselves — isn’t subjectivity performative?

As a performer, Bruno reminds us of the way in which Mirabel presents the members of the family at the beginning of the film. “The Family Madrigal” spotlights each character just as if they were on stage, setting up a theatrical quality that permeates all aspects of Encanto , from the intricate choreography to the Casita itself, with its windows that open on cue, and which frame our views of what is happening in and around the house. Like a proscenium arch in a theater, the windows are membranes through which the audience connects with the drama — they also express the degree to which the house is connected to the world around it. The living room space is open to the sky — in a very real sense, there is no inside and out. The power of the theatrical approach is clearly important to the directors — when asked for his advice to young aspiring filmmakers, Jared Bush recommended that they “put themselves on stage.”

By definition, all actors embrace ambiguity, and the space Bruno inhabits reflects this. His secret room is many places at once; it defies definition. It could be the space of magic, adventure, creativity itself. When Dolores sings “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” she says, “I associate him with the sound of falling sand.” When we think of Bruno, we think of fluidity and lack of form, and the inevitable passage of time.

Bruno offers yet another unique perspective on the extraordinary world of Encanto . His room lies on the other side of the wall from the kitchen. By peering at this warm, family-focused space through a tiny crack in the wall, we the audience become aware of our own gaze. There are echoes here of the Nouvelle Vague tradition of filmmaking, not quite breaking the fourth wall but gently reminding the audience that this is cinema, and that at the heart of cinema lies the human gaze. Yet again, the filmmakers are inviting us to see things from a different perspective. To see the truth.

Mirabel’s grandmother, Abuela Alma, is Bruno’s exact opposite. Where Bruno embraces uncertainty, Abuela is clear about everything she does. She is a perfectionist. She was not always like this but, over the years since the creation of the Encanto, she has become so focused on the magical gifts of her family that she has forgotten what the magic really means. She has lost her path chasing the chimera of success, distracted by routine and empty discourse. She has lost her soul.

Abuela’s present-day obsession with perfection and success, rooted in her original status as a refugee, encourage us to read Encanto as a metaphor for the American dream. Fleeing from the soldiers who killed her husband, she crosses a river — but it might as well be the Atlantic Ocean. Inside the Statue of Liberty is a bronze plaque bearing a poem by Emma Lazarus: “Give me your tired, your poor,” it reads. These lines could easily refer to the young Abuela as she stands huddled on the riverbank with her three children, and the Casita that grows before her could just as easily be the wondrous promised land of the United States. Is it a coincidence that the film is set in Colombia, when the New World once went by the name “Columbia?” Surely not.

As for the other characters, they all have their parts to play, and each represents an archetype — the strong one, the pretty one, the worrier. This is where the Instagram simplicity of their initial appearance gains power, because these archetypes are universal. This universality is yet another reason the story and messages of Encanto are accessible to all. We recognize them, and are immediately drawn in.

As powerful as each individual character is, the story of Encanto also emphasizes their importance within the collective — not only the family, but also the wider community. This is evident in the way the villagers come together at the end of the film to rebuild the Casita. It also reinforces the overall themes of perception and perspective, in the form of the three children who appear regularly to comment on the action, much like a Greek chorus.

Encanto is filled with powerful symbolism. Most prominent of all is the image of the candle, the visual expression of the magic that is gifted to Abuela and her family. The film opens on a black screen, and it is the light of the candle that illuminates everything that is to come. The candle itself carries the image of a butterfly — a polysemic visual metaphor that recurs throughout the story, both literally with the butterflies that surround Mirabel, and figuratively with the butterfly-shaped bows in the young Abuela’s hair.

The butterfly can be seen as a symbol of hope, transformation, and rebirth. It is worth remembering, too, that the goddess Psyche was represented as a butterfly. Hope is also expressed by the careful use of the color green — this is the color of Mirabel’s room, her door, Bruno’s cape, and of course the magical forest that lies inside Antonio’s room.

Encanto may seem like a simple story, but it contains many layers of meaning, hidden inside its clever narrative structure. At the beginning of the movie, we are presented with everything we need to know in order to peel back those layers, in a moving flashback that sets up Abuela’s story. This flashback consciously uses imagery that is repeated at the end of the film. For example, when Abuela first greets the Casita, she waves at the house. When the new house is finally completed, it is Mirabel is standing before it. “Hola, Casita,” she says, and repeats her grandmother’s wave. The story is the same, but the perspective has changed.

Integral to the storytelling is the music. The soundtrack is big and theatrical — almost a Broadway show. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s songs create a cultural specificity that roots the movie firmly in Colombia, that melting pot of Latin-American cultures. Each character has a different song, and each song has a different musical style — reggaeton for Luisa, rock en español for Isabela, and Bambuco for Mirabel. This variety supports the underlying themes of plurality, of looking beyond easy answers and superficial truths and seeking a more complex and vibrant reality.

Music leads naturally to movement, and like all Colombians, the Madrigals are devoted to dance. Indeed, for Latin-American people everywhere, dancing is almost more important than speaking! The skill of the Disney animators, and the delicacy of the tools they now have at their disposal, allow them to express not only the sensuality of dance, but also the depths of emotion required to tell such a layered and sophisticated story. Body language and facial expressions are subtle, powerful, appropriate, true — everything that is needed for the audience to connect emotionally with the characters.

I truly believe that Encanto is a timeless masterpiece. What is more, it has reached our screens at exactly the right time. We have all been locked up in our own small worlds throughout the global pandemic. Now we are slowly learning to reconnect, to see ourselves with fresh eyes, and to reassess our relationships with others. At the same time, we have been battling against authoritarian political movements — including a surge in right-wing anti-immigration propaganda — and the literal building of walls and closing of borders. In a very real way, we have all become outsiders.

Yet, like Mirabel, we now have an opportunity to use the outsider’s perspective to see things differently. When the dream is broken, the best way to rebuild it is through “perspective and understanding,” to use the words of Byron Howard — something we achieve not through magical gifts but by being ourselves. When we neglect ourselves and each other, when we lose our spirituality, that is when the cracks form in our houses. But we can repair them if we see each other, and care for each other. We all have something important to give to the community, talent or not. Beauty lies not in perfection, but in truth. This is what the Madrigals learned, and we can learn it too. The true miracle is us.

Dr. Maria Elena Gutierrez is the CEO and executive director of VIEW Conference, Italy’s premiere annual digital media conference. She holds a Ph.D from Stanford University and a BA from the University of California Santa Cruz. VIEW Conference is committed to bringing a diversity of voices to the forefront in animation, visual effects, and games.   For more information about the VIEW 2021 program of events, visit the official website:  http://viewconference.it

Dr. Maria Elena Gutierrez is the CEO and executive director of VIEW Conference, Italy’s premiere annual digital media conference:  http://viewconference.it .

View the discussion thread.

Elsewhere on AWN

‘Encanto’ Review: A black sheep’s guide to family harmony

Disney’s latest animated musical, 'encanto,' juggles a visual extravaganza with a tale of why we rely on loved ones..

What to Watch Verdict

'Encanto' is an extremely charming film, deeply insightful into the paradoxes of familial entanglement while remaining relatable to an all-ages audience.

Extremely dense storytelling that doesn't get bogged down by its details

Very funny, but that doesn't detract from its deep insights into family dynamics

The animators are going all in, and it shows

Oddly, Lin-Manuel Miranda's music is the weak link

Not to put too fine a point on it, but as a white, non-Hispanic critic, there will inevitably be limits to my perspective on Encanto , Disney’s latest animated musical feature that trades specifically on Columbian heritage and culture. I have no insight into the accuracy or the intricacy of the film’s aesthetics beyond saying that the film looks quite good with a seeming attention to detail that has been the trademark of the Walt Disney Company’s most recent forays into multiculturalism.

However, what I can speak to is the sense that Encanto is one of the most thematically bold entries in modern Disney canon, actively challenging the audience to examine their own family dynamics under the guise of a typical family musical. To call it subversive is probably a step too far, but the underlying messages about the purpose of familial bonds serve as a valuable lesson for those who value the appearance of cohesion over the well-being of their loved ones.

Despite how the film’s marketing might portray Encanto , it's not terribly interested in the standard action-adventure hero’s journey, instead focusing on a remote village in which the magical Madrigal family acts as the patrons of a community founded by refugees. Blessed by a miracle embodied in an everlasting candle flame and their personified living house, Casita, the Madrigals have each been magically endowed with a superpowered gift, which they use to provide for their community and raise their family to higher esteem within it.

The exception is Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz), who was rejected by the magic at her coming-of-age ceremony and reconciled to permanent black sheep status. However, just as her younger cousin Antonio (Ravi-Cabot Conyers) is granted his own special ability, Mirabel is the only one to see that Casita is developing horrific cracks, a herald for the family’s waning magic.

Mirabel’s quest to discover the secret of her family’s magic is largely a domestic one, an expedition into the hearts of her sisters (Diane Guerrero and Jessica Darrow), aunt (Carolina Gaitán), uncle (John Leguizamo) and grandmother (María Cecilia Botero) to dig deeper than their unique abilities and to understand the binds that tie them together, as well as the conflicts that threaten to divide them. The pressure on Mirabel’s sister Luisa to constantly push herself to use more of her super strength, for example, is preventing her from having the vulnerability for moments of relaxed weakness.

Hers is by no means a unique situation within the Madrigal family, and the perspective afforded by the non-magical Mirabel is more often met with derision than understanding, paired with a self-serving affirmation that Mirabel is just as special as any of them without the actual conviction to see that she is just as much a contributor to the family as anyone.

This lays the groundwork for a charmingly funny, but no less touching examination of what it means to be an outcast within a family structure, wherein love is supposed to be unconditional but is often dominated by individual ego and one’s own history and traumas. Encanto manages a very careful balance between humanizing its sprawling cast of Madrigal relatives and telling a meaningful story from their interconnected lore, which makes for a remarkably dense film at roughly 100 minutes but never feels rushed or overwhelming in the frantic telling.

The only double-edged sword to the experience is, oddly enough, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical contributions. To their credit, the songs are extremely effective at communicating extensive expository information to the audience in a comprehensible and energetic manner. These are also the segments that allowed the film’s trailers to provide the illusion of an action-adventure narrative, as the animators often rely on abstraction and metaphor to literalize a song’s lyrics in ways that allow them to be more creative than the rustic setting might otherwise allow.

However, this does create a strange disconnect between the music and the narrative, to the point where the songs are almost intrusive despite their efficient narrative utility, and it certainly doesn’t help that there isn’t really a banger in the bunch. Miranda’s trademark spoken word rhyme schemes might be good at getting vital plot information across, but the music is either under- or over-arranged to the point where it just becomes pleasant noise after a while, rather than something to be listened to in its own right.

Even so, Encanto is an extremely charming film, deeply insightful into the paradoxes of familial entanglement while remaining relatable to an all-ages audience. Your enjoyment is likely only limited by your own taste for Disney’s particular brand of family-friendliness, but even then you might be surprised by how willing the film is to deconstruct the apparent harmony of the family unit. It may perhaps even prompt some introspection from loved ones this holiday season, and that might just be enough to push past any cynicism.

Encanto is now playing in movie theaters.

Leigh Monson has been a professional film critic and writer for six years, with bylines at Birth.Movies.Death., SlashFilm and Polygon. Attorney by day, cinephile by night and delicious snack by mid-afternoon, Leigh loves queer cinema and deconstructing genre tropes. If you like insights into recent films and love stupid puns, you can follow them on Twitter.

What’s new on Paramount Plus in September 2024

Behind the Scene No. 7: can you guess the movie from the image?

Hilarious 2024 Ryan Gosling movie debuts on Peacock with never-before-seen footage

Most Popular

• 2 What’s new on Paramount Plus in September 2024
• 3 How to watch Dead and Buried online or on TV
• 4 Behind the Scene No. 7: can you guess the movie from the image?
• 5 A cult 80s movie is blowing up on Netflix a week ahead of its sequel's release

‘Encanto’ Offers a Twist on the Typical Disney Heroine Journey

So where does becoming a Disney heroine fall on a list of acting accomplishments? When I spoke to Stephanie Beatriz about Encanto , she put it like this:

“Eric, it’s number one! I mean, legitimately it is number one! I’m a huge, huge Disney fan. And I know everybody says that, but I really am. Those VHS tapes basically raised me. I had my bachelorette party at Disneyland. I’m a deeply, deeply invested Disney adult. When I found out that Disney was making a film that was going to be set in Colombia and that Lin-Manuel Miranda was writing the music for it, I lost my mind. And I immediately started shooting off emails to my agents and managers saying, ‘How can I audition for this!?’ So the fact that I got an audition alone was a dream come true. And then when I actually booked it, I felt like… Well, I still sometimes feel like I’m dreaming, like I have manifested and created all of this. And I know that I’m not and I know this really real, because I can feel this chair underneath my butt [as we talk], but it still feels wild.”

The 60th film from Walt Disney Animation Studios, Encanto stars Beatriz ( Brooklyn Nine-Nine , In the Heights ) as  Mirabel . Her family, the Madrigals, have been given an incredible gift, where everyone has their own special power like super strength, healing abilities, or shapeshifting – everyone that is, except Mirabel, who was mysteriously given nothing when the time came for her to claim her gift at a ceremony each child goes through.

Beatriz and Encanto Director Byron Howard ( Tangled , Zootopia ), Director/Co-Writer Jared Bush ( Zootopia , Moana ), and Co-Director/Co-Writer  Charise Castro Smith ( The Haunting of Hill House ) spoke about why Mirabel is different from the norm for Disney heroines, working with Miranda — who wrote eight original songs for the film — and more.

THE ROAD TO COLOMBIA

Byron Howard noted Encanto began with conversations with Lin-Manuel Miranda about a potential new film. “Five years ago, almost to the day, we started talking to Lin about what this project could be. Jared had just finished working with him on Moana , which obviously turned out great and they did an amazing job on that. Jared and I love working together, we’re both musicians, and so we were very interested in doing a musical. Lin wanted to do another [Disney] musical. Hurray, that sounded perfect! Lin was very interested in setting this in Latin America and the big question for the three of us at that point was where exactly to set this. And that’s when Colombia started to come into the conversation. It’s this amazing crossroads of everything in Latin America. It blends culture, tradition and dance and food and music in such a great way. We got very interested in exploring Colombia from that point on.”

Stephanie Beatriz, who previously had been in a Miranda musical via the movie version of In the Heights , said, of combining Miranda’s talents with her Disney heroine debut, “Traditionally, in Disney animation, the music is such a huge part of the storytelling. There’s so many big storytelling elements that come through the songs in these movies. Disney has this incredible history of creating, particularly for heroines, but all the Disney heroes, that through the songs, you get to sort of peek inside this character’s brain in this really magical way that you don’t really get in any other kind of art form. Maybe you get it in musical theater, but in musical theater, you don’t get the advantage of animation telling this incredible, visual story at the same time. So on top of all that, then you have a songwriter like Lin-Manuel, and the depth and complexity of what he’s done in the songs. I feel like he could probably write a book about it…. And I’d be excited for that book to come out. And Lin, I’ll write the foreword!”

CREATING MIRABEL

Charise Castro Smith explained that from early on, Encanto had locked in the core concept of a girl who was the only one in her family without a magical gift, noting, “As we started developing the characters and started working on her, we just realized what a vulnerable position to be, what a complicated and awkward and just utterly human and relatable thing that is to feel like you’re kind of the unspecial one amongst everyone else who’s special and perfect and has it all figured out. So in a way, she’s all of us.”

Mirabel stands out from the Disney heroine norm in a few days… including having bad eyesight. As Beatriz recalled, “I saw an initial drawing of all of the members of the family, and I saw Mirabel and her curly hair, and her nose like mine and her glasses. I wear glasses and all of it was really satisfying, on a deep level. I’m not sure that I knew that I was missing that [before]. But when I saw it, something inside me responded to it in a way like I had been thirsty for that. It was really, really incredible to see the character design. And then to see it animated as we went along and to see things start to get flushed out was really wild, because some of her facial expressions are mine! The faces that she pulls, sometimes I’m like, ‘Oh, no, I’m so awkward!’”

Smith had high praise for Encanto ‘s leading lady, saying, ‘Mirabel’s an incredibly specific and wonderful character largely thanks to Stephanie Beatriz, who did an amazing job with the vocal performance. She’s funny, she’s vulnerable. She ad-libbed a ton of lines; a lot of her comedic chops are all over the film. And also, she’s an amazing singer. We got really lucky with that casting.”

NOT YOUR AVERAGE DISNEY JOURNEY

From Ariel to Belle to Moana , Disney heroines often are looking outward, seeking new journeys and destinations away from the life they grew up with. Encanto though is notably different in that Mirabel isn’t looking to leave her home at all — and in fact the film rarely ventures away from her town — but rather simply wants to feel like she truly fits in with them in a way that has always felt missing.

When I mentioned this to Howard, he replied, “We’ve talked a lot about this over the last five years. Mirabel wants, more than anything, to be an integral part of her family. She wants to contribute as much as the rest of these amazing people around her, so she is very differently-minded than a lot of our heroes and heroines are. Rather than kind of striking out in the world, everything she wants is within a couple square square meters of that house. And that was unique.”

Howard added, “Even her ‘I want’ song [‘ Waiting on a Miracle ‘] is not typical of what we do. It’s very angsty, in a great way. It’s this yearning and this moment where she admits to herself how much this has been difficult for her for the last 10 years. Stephanie is very much like this, too. She’s very much an old soul. And we wanted Mirabel to feel the same way, like she feels like someone who’s been through a lot but has a great sense of humor about it, and has a great emotional maturity.”

Beatriz admired how Mirabel’s goals could both feel both similar to beloved Disney tales, “And yet, deeply different than a lot of Disney journeys. But, in a way, it’s kind of going back… If you think about something like Cinderella , most of that story does take place inside a family. That family, unfortunately, feels deeply broken and in a way it’s never going to heal unless she’s able to leave. In this story, the family is starting to break and by staying inside that unit and trying to explore it in that way, it’s like a mirror image of one of Disney’s first films. I also personally really love that the journey for her isn’t about leaving and getting married, leaving and falling in love; the journey for her is something very different and it’s an adventure in a completely different way.”

THE SONG YOU WON’T ESCAPE

Disney movies are known for having incredibly memorable songs – songs so catchy, kids especially can’t stop playing them on repeat, to the point that even if a parent logically know it’s still a great song, they might need a break from it for a bit.

When I jokingly asked which of Encanto ’s songs might become that, Beatriz chose a great number about Mirabel’s uncle, the black sheep of the family, Bruno (voiced by  John Leguizamo ), who vanished years before. “In my house, we’ve been singing ‘ We Don’t Talk About Bruno ’ a lot… Over and over and over and over and over. In fact, I sang it to myself so much when I was pregnant, that I sang it to my daughter maybe a week after she was born, and she looked at me… And this is a newborn, right? But she recognized it because I sang it so friggin much! So I feel like it’s gonna be that one. I could be wrong, but that’s the one that my kid’s probably gonna sing over and over.”

For his part though, Jared Bush felt, “The trick with this movie is that there’s a lot of different types of songs. I think the songs are more varied than most of our movies and [Lin] did an amazing job really showing you the gamut of the type of music in Colombia. So all of them are very different. My guess will be that a lot of kids will try to learn the speed of ‘ The Family Madrigal ,’ the opening [song], which is the fastest song in Disney history. I think kids will listen to that on repeat just to try to figure out what that patter is. I think ‘ Surface Pressure ’ will be one that a lot of people will sing too. And ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ I think is gonna be a really big one. The real gift of Lin’s is that he writes songs that you actually want to go back to and listen to more, so I think we will actually avoid the ‘Not this  one again,’ but more of a, ‘Oh my God, the first time I heard that, I didn’t realize this and this was happening.’ It’s definitely one of those intentionally repeat-listen type of movies.”

As Bush mentioned, “The Family Madrigal” is a notably fast-paced song, performed by Beatriz, as Mirabel explains all the amazing abilities her family has to local children. The song gets faster and faster as it continues and Maribel packs more information into it, culminating in a truly impressive — and dizzying — display of speed singing by Beatriz. Recalling recording that song, Beatriz said, “It was definitely hard! I have an incredible vocal coach named Eric Vetro, and one of the things he’s really talented at doing is helping you figure out how to tell story while you’re singing. A coach helps you figure out how you’re going to be able to shine the best and Eric really did that for me in that song. Sometimes it was like ‘You have to breathe on this quarter note, otherwise you will pass out by the time the song is over.’”

Encanto opens November 24.

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy . We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

How Lin-Manuel Miranda Channeled Disney Legend Howard Ashman for the ‘Encanto’ Animated Musical

Bill desowitz.

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Share on LinkedIn
• Show more sharing options
• Submit to Reddit
• Post to Tumblr
• Print This Page
• Share on WhatsApp

With Disney ‘s “ Encanto ” (November 24, in theaters), Lin-Manuel Miranda finally got to work on his first animated musical from the ground up after getting a taste with Disney’s “Moana” (featuring his Oscar-nominated song “How Far I’ll Go”) and Sony/Netflix’s “Vivo.” In fact, it’s the latest milestone in what has been an incredible year for the very hot Miranda, following the release of “Vivo,” as well as the adaptation of his Broadway musical, “In the Heights,” and his directorial debut about “Rent” creator Jonathan Larson, “Tick Tick Boom.”

“I remember saying to Tom Macdougall [president of Disney Music], I want to be in on the ground floor for the next one, and if you guys are ever making a Latino-themed animated musical, I’m your guy,” Miranda said. “And so to work with the dream team — [directors] Byron Howard and Jared Bush and [co-director] Charise Castro Smith — and really start to work together with an original story around the theme of a Latino family was special.”

Related Stories ‘Terminator Zero’ Review: Netflix’s Franchise Reboot Is Still Recycling the Same Faulty Parts ‘Terminator Zero’ Anime Channels James Cameron’s Embrace of Family as Humanity’s Last Hope

Indeed, “Encanto” represents a departure as Disney’s 60th animated feature, not only because of its embrace of Latino culture and magical realism, but also because it departs from the traditional hero’s journey. “Encanto” concerns the magical Madrigal family, who live in an enchanted house in the mountains of Colombia. They all possess special powers for strength, healing, controlling nature, and shape-shifting. That is, except Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz from “In the Heights”), whose quirky ordinariness makes her seem like an outsider, but whose tenacity helps rescue the family from a dark secret that threatens its magic.

“So often, when you’re making a movie, it’s about the individual character and the quest, and the other characters fall by the wayside as you work on the quest… and the stakes,” Miranda continued. “And we wondered if we could actually get an inter-generational Latino family up on that screen, have 12 major characters, and make the relationships between [them] be the stuff we make the movie about. So to get to write [eight original] songs about how my family sees me versus how I see myself was [unique]. Or how I’m frozen in this role within the family that’s both a blessing and a curse, or to write a gossip number and how that spreads through a family. What we talk about in private versus what we talk about at the dinner table. That all felt like needy stuff that we hadn’t seen in a Disney movie before, and so I was very proud of being a part of it.”

Crucially, the “Encanto” research trip to Colombia was more extensive than usual, with Miranda and his father joining the Disney filmmakers. “We went from town to town and each had a vibrancy and a difference among the people with their fun sense of play and conflicts,” said Howard. “That sparring is something that we really wanted to pay attention to, and what a perfect place for this diverse family to be set. And the advantage of song and dance and working with Lin was using the inner monologues to help drive the character arcs.”

In this regard, Miranda was greatly influenced by legendary Disney lyricist and shadow director Howard Ashman (“The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin”), who redefined the Disney animated musical with Broadway theater mechanics and empowering themes about identity and liberation. “Howard Ashman looms large, not only for his incredible storytelling gifts and his lyrical gifts, but because I really believe he’s responsible more than anyone else for the second golden age of Disney animation,” Miranda said.

“He came from New York and said, ‘Listen guys, here’s what musicals can do in an animated space.’ And he saw an opportunity that he wasn’t experiencing back in his stage work with [composer] Alan Menken. While working on ‘Moana,’ I watched this incredible hour-long conversation he had with the animators where he’s breaking down musical theater structure and why every song in ‘Little Mermaid’ exists.”

With the first song, “Family Madrigal,” in which Mirabel acquaints us with her relatives, Miranda reveals what he learned from Ashman’s opener, “Belle,” from “Beauty and the Beast.” “I wrote this before the movie had a second or a third act,” he added. “I said, ‘I know this song is gonna change and the characters’ names and the powers will change over the course of development, but we have to let the audience know who everyone is and how they’re related to each other and what their gifts are.’

“And it also demonstrates Mirabel’s incredible pride in being a part of this family. She goes: ‘This is my Abuela, look what she did. These are her kids, these are who they married. These are their kids, these are my incredible cousins.’ And then we have the delicious turn, which again, I compare to the reprise of ‘Belle,’ with the kids going, ‘Yeah, OK, but what about you? What’s your gift?’ And she goes, ‘I don’t want to talk about that.’ And the music gets twice as fast, and we do a double beat. She actually recaps everyone’s powers again, but at three times the tempo. I really look to ‘Belle’ from ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ That’s a masterclass in introducing everyone in your world and then setting the story into motion.”

By contrast, Miranda was more innovative with “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” about the black sheep of the family whose gift for prophecy has forced him into hiding. “I was really excited about ‘Bruno,’ which we hadn’t seen in a Disney musical before,” he said. “It’s a complicated family number and it introduces themes from characters that we don’t have time to go into with their own song. I looked to ‘A Weekend in the Country’ from ‘A Little Night Music,’ and ‘It’s Beginning to Snow’ from ‘Rent.’ We’ve got lots of different characters going in different directions.”

But with “Dos Oruguitas,” which delves into the tragic story of Mirabel’s grandparents fleeing their home, Miranda got to write his first song totally in Spanish. “I wanted to write a song that felt like it always existed…a moment where a character is going to sing to us what happened in real time,” he said. “The family history that is revealed in that animated sequence is so painful that I thought it will go down better with a folk song.

“Again, this is a result of the give and take of being there early [in Colombia]. And I was inspired by the butterfly motif over the course of the movie. The way the candle flame turns into a butterfly. And so the song is called ‘Dos Oruguitas’ because it’s about two caterpillars who are in love and scared to let each other go. But, of course, they have to let each other go to become their next selves, and that was such a beautiful nature metaphor for what the family is going through. They love each other, but they’re hanging on too tight, and they’re not seeing each other more fully because they’re too scared of going into that next moment. And so the contrast between that lyrical content and what we’re seeing is really exciting and new. And I was really far out of my comfort zone writing that much in Spanish.”

Most Popular

You may also like.

• Entertainment
• Awards Shows
• Climate Change
• Nightlife & Dining
• Gift Guides
• Business of Art
• About Observer
• Advertise With Us

‘Encanto’ Is Best When It Forgets to Be a Disney Movie

Encanto feels like two steps forward, one step back for disney..

The worst thing to be said about Encanto , the milestone 60th film from Walt Disney Animation Studios, is that it feels like a Disney movie. From its predictably gorgeous yet unimaginative visuals, to its familiar songs and predictable story, the film does feel rather safe despite being superficially groundbreaking for the studio. And yet, when the film dives into the specificity of its portrayal of Colombia or its themes which share similarities with the seminal novel One Hundred Years of Solitude , it becomes an exciting, nuanced, complex magical realist adventure that pushes the nearly 100-year-old studio forward to a new era.

Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter

Thank you for signing up!

By clicking submit, you agree to our <a href="http://observermedia.com/terms">terms of service</a> and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime.

The film is set in the remote jungles of Colombia in a small Macondo-like town, where the Madrigal family has founded a sanctuary after escaping violence 50 years earlier. Now, each member of the family is born with a gift that helps protect the family and help the community, whether it’s super strength, the ability to control the weather, magical healing, and more. These gifts also have the added benefit of making the Madrigal family the elite of the town, as their magic seems to be keeping the whole community afloat—though certainly not on equal grounds, what with the huge estate at the top of a hill overlooking the town like the Madrigals were royalty.

At the center of the film is Mirabel ( Stephanie Beatriz ), the only Madrigal without any powers, who seems to be at the center of a threat to the family’s magic. Hellbent on being accepted by the super-family that is constantly leaving her aside, Mirabel sets out to save the family from their doom, though she may find that the cracks in the foundation started long before they became visible.

At its best, Encanto condenses some of the themes and aesthetics from Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude and presents them in a way that’s accessible to children (without all the incest). From the magical realism in the film—the relatively casual way the family’s powers are portrayed—to subtle visual cues like the yellow butterflies from the novel being a plot point in the film, to the themes of burying the uglier parts of the past while clinging onto traditions and refusing to change.

Indeed, even if the film’s narrative of an outsider just yearning to be accepted is ground already covered time and time again in Moana or Ratatouille , the old versus new struggle is given new life by grounding it in Latin American culture. It’s not just that Maribel is an outsider in her family for not having powers, it’s that even those who do are under crushing expectations set by their abuela, who founded the town and justifies the talent and gift of each family member as a responsibility to uplift the entire community. It’s not enough to be super strong, you have to be ever stronger, or else you’re letting down your family, your town, your people. Maribel, then, is more than just the girl who can show the family a new way, but one that challenges the idea of the perfect Latin American family, the one that won’t just hide the dirty dishes and never speak of them again and accept things because that’s “the way things were” back in the day. Some of the movie’s best elements involve Mirabel and her Uncle Bruno ( John Leguizamo ), who was shunned from the family because his gift wasn’t deemed useful for the family, which makes it a shame he only shows up halfway through the runtime.

Likewise, the film’s portrayal of Colombia is best when it focuses not on the broad strokes like the architecture or the landscapes (though there are references to real places), but when it looks to real-life to give texture to the film. From the food (the mighty arepa literally saves people in the film), to the sombrero vueltiao, to subtle expressions like the way background characters snap their fingers in celebrations or how Mirabel’s dad uses the word Miércoles (Wednesday) as a minced oath, the film feels like a love letter to Colombia and nowhere is this as evident as in the film’s representation of the racial diversity of the country.

Even in the Madrigal family there are people of all skin tones, some are darker-skinned, some have straight hair, and this is never a big deal or something that’s pointed out to the audience. To reflect this diversity, the carefully selected voice cast is comprised of actors either native to Colombia or with heritage from the country. This brings a degree of authenticity to the film that couldn’t be replicated otherwise, from Beatriz’s curious yet vulnerable Maribel, to Leguizamo’s funny yet remorseful Bruno, and even Maluma playing into his superstardom in his small role.

Still, this is a Disney movie meant to play all around the world to audiences unfamiliar with Colombia, and when Encanto remembers that, it becomes a rather safe and predictable animated flick. The thematic nuance is there, but the plot feels like it’s ticking off boxes rather than follow its natural progression. Though the film’s soundtrack features melodies inspired by Colombia’s musical diversity, with vallenato, guaracha, cumbia, salsa and merengue being noticeable throughout the film, the lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda sound overly familiar.

Miranda is a known Disney fan, so it’s to be expected that he’d pay homage to classic Disney song structure, but it ends up making the songs feel like a commitment rather than a treat. The most memorable songs are the ones mostly in Spanish, “Dos Orugitas” by Sebastián Yatra, and “Colombia Mi Encanto” by renowned vallenato artist Carlos Vives, though even then they sound like just another song by those artists, rather than something new or exciting, and one has to wonder if it would have been a better idea to give Miranda a co-writer more familiar with the particulars of the country’s music.

Encanto feels like two steps forward, one step back for Disney. Its departure from the classic hero’s journey, the focus on a larger ensemble, and its portrayal of a country seldom seen in animated movies like this are commendable, especially in its attention to detail. And yet the film ends up hiding most of its cultural representation under the guise of a rural magical town that perpetuates the othering of cultures usually portrayed as more underdeveloped than America, while turning the story and music into just another classic Disney adventure.

Observer Reviews are regular assessments of new and noteworthy cinema.

• SEE ALSO : Will Keen On Playing Vladimir Putin On Broadway in ‘Patriots’

We noticed you're using an ad blocker.

We get it: you like to have control of your own internet experience. But advertising revenue helps support our journalism. To read our full stories, please turn off your ad blocker. We'd really appreciate it.

How Do I Whitelist Observer?

Below are steps you can take in order to whitelist Observer.com on your browser:

For Adblock:

Click the AdBlock button on your browser and select Don't run on pages on this domain .

For Adblock Plus on Google Chrome:

Click the AdBlock Plus button on your browser and select Enabled on this site.

For Adblock Plus on Firefox:

Click the AdBlock Plus button on your browser and select Disable on Observer.com.

• Forgot your password?

The Movie Blog The Home Of The Correct Opinion

The magic faraway tree movie: rebecca ferguson joins classic, zee5 global’s telugu entertainment takes the world by storm, the running man remake: glen powell and edgar wright team up, jatt and juliet 3: diljit dosanjh and neeru bajwa return, chris hemsworth takes on drums with ed sheeran: a limitless journey, despicable me 4 – home entertainment giveaway, twisters home entertainment giveaway, alien: romulus free fandango giveaway, borderlands free movie ticket giveaway, alien: romulus – chicago – advance screening, the future of african cinema: director kaizer mokgobu, kritika kamra interview: gyaarah gyaarah’s groundbreaking story, interview: raghav juyal on ‘gyaraah gyaraah’, sunny singh talks “luv ki arrange marriage” and future roles, inside the minds behind of one must wash eyes, the rings of power season 2 episode 3 review: new twists, old shadows, the rings of power season 2 episode 2: sauron’s shadow looms large, the rings of power season 2 episode 1: sauron’s origins unveiled, terminator zero review: a familiar and intriguing spin, harold and the purple crayon review: seriously lacking imagination, new trailer and poster released for halle berry’s never let go, sonic 3 trailer unleashes shadow the hedgehog, the lord of the rings: the war of the rohirrim trailer debuts today, unraveling the intensity: murshid on zee5 global, kaantaye kaantaye: a bengal thriller that’ll keep you guessing.

Disney’s Encanto is an INSTANT classic

Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “ Encanto ” tells the tale of an extraordinary family, the Madrigals, who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia, in a magical house, in a vibrant town, in a wondrous, charmed place called an Encanto. The magic of the Encanto has blessed every child in the family with a unique gift from super strength to the power to heal—every child except one, Mirabel (voice of Stephanie Beatriz). But when she discovers that the magic surrounding the Encanto is in danger, Mirabel decides that she, the only ordinary Madrigal, might just be her exceptional family’s last hope.

I don’t know where to begin with Encanto so I’ll just start with the first thing that caught my eye, the beauty. Encanto is a gorgeous animation with a distinct and beautiful art style. The world and characters are overflowing with these beautiful pastel colors and floral patterns. There’s a stunning level of detail to each of the characters’ designs. These details are very easy to miss but you’ll love when you notice each one. I like how Maribel’s name is stitched on her dress and how the colors in her dress represent members of her family.

After I caught my breath from the breathtaking introduction I began to notice the story of the Madrigal family. Almost the entire movie takes place within the home of our famous family in La Casa Madrigal. Encanto doesn’t waste time on explaining origins or backstory. Instead, Encanto focuses on character introduction, development and plot of our wonderous but relatable family. The ‘big sister vs little sister’ sibling rivalry is in full effect and so are the overworked parents with lots of responsibility. What really makes this family relatable are the dynamics that make them all rely on each other. It takes the entire family to support the village and they all have a role to play in maintaining the day to day.

Maribel is our narrative guide into this world and it’s easy to relate with her as a character. It’s not just that Maribel doesn’t have powers and looks at her family with envy, it’s also that Maribel IS all of us. Maribel is us when we are annoyed by our older sister, overly criticized by our grandmother, or when we form a bond with our younger family members. I could FEEL her anxiety when she needed to hug her sister, and I could feel her pain about feeling excluded. Maribel is both our hero and our avatar into this story and the filmmakers executed this approach beautifully.

Somehow I made it this far without talking about the music of Encanto which is a testament to the quality of film. Encanto has some of the most memorable Disney songs in recent memory. This is one of the few Disney soundtracks with a Latin influence and I can’t say enough good things. We don’t talk about Bruno has become an instant classic in the Disney library is easily one of with Disney’s best songs. My personal favorite is Luisa’s Surface Pressure but so many other songs are equally as good and constantly challenge you to pick a favorite. For convenience sake you can buy the Encanto soundtrack here .

I would have loved to see a bit more of life outside of La Casa Maribel. There were so many things teased and hinted in the world of Encanto but not everything is explored. We know very little about the villagers that surround La Casa Maribel and I would have loved to explore more.

MEET MIRABEL – Welcome to the family Madrigal where every child is blessed with a magic gift unique to them. Everyone, that is, except Mirabel. Voiced by Stephanie Beatriz, Mirabel is determined to prove she belongs within this extraordinary family. Opening in the U.S. on Nov. 24, 2021, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Encanto” features songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda. © 2021 Disney. All Rights Reserved.

Encanto is an instant classic and easy to recommend. A stray observation is that Encanto is one of the few Disney movies that break the traditional hero vs villain story. Encanto doesn’t have a traditional villain and instead focuses on family relationships. This change allows the story to really succeed with the writing focusing on the characters rather than on the narrative. 

• Acting - 9/10 9/10
• Cinematography/Visual Effects - 10/10 10/10
• Plot/Screenplay - 9/10 9/10
• Setting/Theme - 10/10 10/10
• Watchability - 10/10 10/10
• Rewatchability - 9/10 9/10

User Review

About anthony whyte.

• Related Articles
• More By Anthony Whyte
• More In Movie Reviews

Anime NYC 2024: Floor Walking, Chill Vibes, and Terminator Zero

Wishes of the Blue Girl: A Commendable Atmospheric Indie Effort

Greedy People Review: A Mixed Bag of Comedy and Mystery

Ouija Castle Review: A Gothic Horror that Fails to Haunt

The Crow Review: A Visually Striking but Emotionally Hollow Reboot

Oddity Review: A Haunting Tale of Grief and the Supernatural

Anime NYC 2024, held at the iconic Jacob ...

Related Posts

• Betsquare.com
• CasinoSenpai.com
• FilmSchoolRejects
• First Showing
• MTV Movies Blog
• OnlineCasinosSpelen
• Weekly Wilson

• FM+ Members Chat
• FM+ Archives

‘Encanto’ Enchants and Entertains

Share This Post

Encanto  is not the movie I thought it would be, and in this day and age of marketing oversaturation, that is a compliment. So far from being some mythic quest or hero’s journey, it is about a young girl trying to find her place in her family. The twist, however, is that so are her sisters.

Byron Howard and Jared Bush and their animators give us a vibrantly animated tale that uses magic as a tool to explore the refugee and immigrant experience. The screenplay by Bush and Charise Castro-Smith deftly traverses intergenerational trauma all under the guise of family drama. Full of warmth and imagination,  Encanto  found its way to stealing my heart.

The Madrigal family lives in a small secluded village in a magical sentient house, Casita, which imbues every family member with extraordinary gifts. Well, everyone except Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz). But her older sister Isabela (Dianne Guerrero) can make flowers bloom anywhere and is viewed by most as the embodiment of perfection. Luisa (Jessica Darrow), Mirabel’s other older sister, has immense strength and can easily lift houses. 

With her cooking, Mirabel’s mother, Julieta (Angie Cepeda), can heal people, and her aunt Pepa (Carolina Gaitan) can affect the weather with her moods. But aside from her abuela, Alma (Maria Cecilla Botero), Mirabel is the only Madrigal without a gift. Others in the family don’t have gifts, but they are people who have married into the family.

The gifts are just there to get to the heart of  Encanto , which is the stress of expectations. Mirabel is too busy stressing out because she had the Casita began to crack, and the magic started to fade. She doesn’t even notice that Isabela is beginning to crack under pressure to be perfect, and Luisa is straining under the pressure of the weight literally being put on her shoulders.

But there’s also Mirabel’s curiosity about the fate of her uncle Bruno (John Leguizamo), who could see the future. But just like Luisa and Isabel, Bruno couldn’t handle the pressure of his gift, as too many people mistook his words of comfort for dire warnings. If there’s a weakness to  Encanto  is that Mirabel’s mother seems to be okay with her gift, though we do see Pepa growing weary with having to be in a good mood, or else she could cause a monsoon.

The point, of course, isn’t magic or special gifts. But the weight of living up to expectations which  Encanto  handles effortlessly. But underneath it, all is something much darker and more complex. Alma, her husband Pedro, and others fled their country because of conquerors. As they escaped, the conquerors caught up to them, Pedro sacrificed himself, so Alma and their three children could live safely. 

Encanto  feels epic without ever leaving Casita or the village. Part of the magic of Casita is that rooms, as one villager expresses, “It’s bigger on the inside!?” A little nugget for all the Doctor Who fans in the audience. Bush and Smith utilize this to have Mirabel go on several adventures without ever leaving the house. Ingenious since the core conflict of the movie is less a hero’s journey and more coming to grips with the past and its hold over us.

The trend in modern Disney animated films leans towards more complex storytelling, which means fewer and fewer villains. There are no bad people-well the soldiers who raided Almas village and killed Pedro are most definitely evil. But the story the filmmakers are interested in is not that.

I’d argue that there is value in having a villain in a children’s story, but I also think forcing children to reckon with the notion that much of life lacks the moral clarity that our fiction dictates is important. Namely, the Madrigal family is in trouble because Alma refuses to show weakness in herself and won’t abide weakness in her children. But that’s from a hard life filled with pain and suffering.

One of the clever ways  Encanto  weaves this all together is in the cultural specificity. The Madrigals are Colombian. Bush and Smith use imagery rooted in Colombian culture, such as the recurring yellow butterfly, which can stand for uncertainty. A feeling that since Maribel’s ceremony heralded, no gift has been spreading through the family. 

At times I found myself thinking of another movie dealing with the immigration and refugee experience,  In the Heights . Not surprising since Lin Manuel Miranda helped write the musical numbers for  Encanto  as well. Some songs like “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” all but scream Miranda’s style. But it’s still catchy as hell. 

Modern Disney animation films have grown so cinematic when it comes to musical numbers. Songs like “Surface Pressure” aren’t afraid to break into surreal imagery. It also helps that  Encanto  isn’t scared of color. Critics often talk about how muddy and drab modern movies look nowadays, and it becomes all the more clearer when you see just how colorful animated films are willing to be.

Of course, mysteries will turn out to be misunderstandings, and heartfelt apologies will soften harsh words. But such is the nature of Disney animated films.  Encanto , however, has resonance because of its specificity and refusal to adhere to the hero’s journey. There is no quest, no object that must be obtained.

Instead, the journey is discovering oneself and realizing that family members are more complex and than we often give them credit for. After all, we may be done with the past, but the past rarely seems done with us.  Encanto  dances and signs with all these complex issues so gracefully that it never feels as if it’s messy or leaves a thread hanging.

Howard and Bush also aren’t afraid to allow the arguments to become hurtful, as arguments in a family can be. The love of family is so strong that it often can only be satiated with strong emotions. In these moments, I found myself holding my breath, wondering if this Disney kids movie would allow its characters to go there.

Encanto  is a radiant and passionate musical tale about family and a girl stumbling upon the realization that she is enough, magic or no.

Images courtesy of Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures

Have strong thoughts about this piece you need to share? Or maybe there’s something else on your mind you’re wanting to talk about with fellow Fandomentals?  Head on over to our Community  server to join in the conversation!

Jeremiah lives in Los Angeles and divides his time between living in a movie theatre and writing mysteries. There might also be some ghostbusting being performed in his spare time.

Latest Posts

House of fire & blood episode 44 “but what about our queen said a surprising number of smallfolk actually”, star trek adventures second edition emphasizes traits, teamwork, still in the midst of it: traveling moonward with third person, new world book ‘a faeseeker’s guide to avallen’ will expand celtic fantasy setting of ‘legends of avallen’, race and cause opponents to crash in ‘dungeon kart’, new forgotten realms books and dragon anthology announced at d&d direct, stay in touch.

To be updated with all the latest news, offers and special announcements.

• Write for Us!
• Review Policy & Submissions
• Advertising Policy
• Privacy Policy

• Story Writing Guides

12 Hero’s Journey Stages Explained (+ Free Templates)

From zero to hero, the hero’s journey is a popular character development arc used in many stories. In today’s post, we will explain the 12 hero’s journey stages, along with the simple example of Cinderella.

The Hero’s Journey was originally formulated by American writer Joseph Campbell to describe the typical character arc of many classic stories, particularly in the context of mythology and folklore. The original hero’s journey contained 17 steps. Although the hero’s journey has been adapted since then for use in modern fiction, the concept is not limited to literature. It can be applied to any story, video game, film or even music that features an archetypal hero who undergoes a transformation. Common examples of the hero’s journey in popular works include Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

• What is the hero's journey?

Stage 1: The Ordinary World

Stage 2: call of adventure, stage 3: refusal of the call, stage 4: meeting the mentor, stage 5: crossing the threshold, stage 6: tests, allies, enemies, stage 7: the approach, stage 8: the ordeal, stage 9: reward, stage 10: the road back, stage 11: resurrection, stage 12: return with the elixir, cinderella example, campbell’s 17-step journey, leeming’s 8-step journey, cousineau’s 8-step journey.

• Free Hero's Journey Templates

What is the hero’s journey?

The hero’s journey, also known as the monomyth, is a character arc used in many stories. The idea behind it is that heroes undergo a journey that leads them to find their true selves. This is often represented in a series of stages. There are typically 12 stages to the hero’s journey. Each stage represents a change in the hero’s mindset or attitude, which is triggered by an external or internal event. These events cause the hero to overcome a challenge, reach a threshold, and then return to a normal life.

The hero’s journey is a powerful tool for understanding your characters. It can help you decide who they are, what they want, where they came from, and how they will change over time. It can be used to

• Understand the challenges your characters will face
• Understand how your characters react to those challenges
• Help develop your characters’ traits and relationships

In this post, we will explain each stage of the hero’s journey, using the example of Cinderella.

You might also be interested in our post on the story mountain or this guide on how to outline a book .

12 Hero’s Journey Stages

The archetypal hero’s journey contains 12 stages and was created by Christopher Vogler. These steps take your main character through an epic struggle that leads to their ultimate triumph or demise. While these steps may seem formulaic at first glance, they actually form a very flexible structure. The hero’s journey is about transformation, not perfection.

Your hero starts out in the ordinary world. He or she is just like every other person in their environment, doing things that are normal for them and experiencing the same struggles and challenges as everyone else. In the ordinary world, the hero feels stuck and confused, so he or she goes on a quest to find a way out of this predicament.

Example: Cinderella’s father passes away and she is now stuck doing chores and taking abuse from her stepsisters and stepmother.

The hero gets his or her first taste of adventure when the call comes. This could be in the form of an encounter with a stranger or someone they know who encourages them to take a leap of faith. This encounter is typically an accident, a series of coincidences that put the hero in the right place at the right time.

Example: An invite arrives inviting the family to a royal ball where the Prince will choose a wife.

Some people will refuse to leave their safe surroundings and live by their own rules. The hero has to overcome the negative influences in order to hear the call again. They also have to deal with any personal doubts that arise from thinking too much about the potential dangers involved in the quest. It is common for the hero to deny their own abilities in this stage and to lack confidence in themselves.

Example: Cinderella accepts the call by making her own dress for the ball. However, her stepmother refuses the call for her by not letting her go to the ball. And her step-sisters ruin her dress, so she can not go.

After hearing the call, the hero begins a relationship with a mentor who helps them learn about themselves and the world. In some cases, the mentor may be someone the hero already knows. The mentor is usually someone who is well-versed in the knowledge that the hero needs to acquire, but who does not judge the hero for their lack of experience.

Example: Cinderella meets her fairy godmother who equips her with everything she needs for the ball, including a dress and a carriage.

The hero leaves their old life behind and enters the unfamiliar new world. The crossing of the threshold symbolises leaving their old self behind and becoming a new person. Sometimes this can include learning a new skill or changing their physical appearance. It can also include a time of wandering, which is an essential part of the hero’s journey.

Example: Cinderella hops into the carriage and heads off to the ball. She has transformed from a servant into an elegant young lady. 

As the hero goes on this journey, they will meet both allies (people who help the hero) and enemies (people who try to stop the hero). There will also be tests, where the hero is tempted to quit, turn back, or become discouraged. The hero must be persistent and resilient to overcome challenges.

Example: At the ball, Cinderella meets the prince, and even see’s her stepmother and stepsister. She dances with Prince all night long making her step-sisters extremely jealous.

The hero now reaches the destination of their journey, in some cases, this is a literal location, such as a cave or castle. It could also be metaphorical, such as the hero having an internal conflict or having to make a difficult decision. In either case, the hero has to confront their deepest fears in this stage with bravery. In some ways, this stage can mark the end of the hero’s journey because the hero must now face their darkest fears and bring them under control. If they do not do this, the hero could be defeated in the final battle and will fail the story.

Example: Cinderella is having a great time at the ball and nearly forgets about the midnight rule. As she runs away in a hurry, her glass slipper falls off outside the palace.

The hero has made it to the final challenge of their journey and now must face all odds and defeat their greatest adversary. Consider this the climax of the story. This could be in the form of a physical battle, a moral dilemma or even an emotional challenge. The hero will look to their allies or mentor for further support and guidance in this ordeal. Whatever happens in this stage could change the rest of the story, either for good or bad. 

Example: Prince Charming looks all over the kingdom for the mysterious girl he met at the ball. He finally visits Cinderella’s house and tries the slippers on the step-sisters. The prince is about to leave and then he sees Cinderella in the corner cleaning.

When the hero has defeated the most powerful and dangerous of adversaries, they will receive their reward. This reward could be an object, a new relationship or even a new piece of knowledge. The reward, which typically comes as a result of the hero’s perseverance and hard work, signifies the end of their journey. Given that the hero has accomplished their goal and served their purpose, it is a time of great success and accomplishment.

Example: The prince tries the glass slipper on Cinderella. The glass slipper fits Cinderella perfectly, and they fall in love.

The journey is now complete, and the hero is now heading back home. As the hero considers their journey and reflects on the lessons they learned along the way, the road back is sometimes marked by a sense of nostalgia or even regret. As they must find their way back to the normal world and reintegrate into their former life, the hero may encounter additional difficulties or tests along the way. It is common for the hero to run into previous adversaries or challenges they believed they had overcome.

Example: Cinderella and Prince Charming head back to the Prince’s castle to get married.

The hero has one final battle to face. At this stage, the hero might have to fight to the death against a much more powerful foe. The hero might even be confronted with their own mortality or their greatest fear. This is usually when the hero’s true personality emerges. This stage is normally symbolised by the hero rising from the dark place and fighting back. This dark place could again be a physical location, such as the underground or a dark cave. It might even be a dark, mental state, such as depression. As the hero rises again, they might change physically or even experience an emotional transformation. 

Example: Cinderella is reborn as a princess. She once again feels the love and happiness that she felt when she was a little girl living with her father.

At the end of the story, the hero returns to the ordinary world and shares the knowledge gained in their journey with their fellow man. This can be done by imparting some form of wisdom, an object of great value or by bringing about a social revolution. In all cases, the hero returns changed and often wiser.

Example: Cinderella and Prince Charming live happily ever after. She uses her new role to punish her stepmother and stepsisters and to revitalise the kingdom.

We have used the example of Cinderella in Vogler’s hero’s journey model below:

Below we have briefly explained the other variations of the hero’s journey arc.

The very first hero’s journey arc was created by Joseph Campbell in 1949. It contained the following 17 steps:

• The Call to Adventure: The hero receives a call or a reason to go on a journey.
• Refusal of the Call: The hero does not accept the quest. They worry about their own abilities or fear the journey itself.
• Supernatural Aid: Someone (the mentor) comes to help the hero and they have supernatural powers, which are usually magical.
• The Crossing of the First Threshold: A symbolic boundary is crossed by the hero, often after a test. 
• Belly of the Whale: The point where the hero has the most difficulty making it through.
• The Road of Trials: In this step, the hero will be tempted and tested by the outside world, with a number of negative experiences.
• The Meeting with the Goddess: The hero meets someone who can give them the knowledge, power or even items for the journey ahead.
• Woman as the Temptress: The hero is tempted to go back home or return to their old ways.
• Atonement with the Father: The hero has to make amends for any wrongdoings they may have done in the past. They need to confront whatever holds them back.
• Apotheosis: The hero gains some powerful knowledge or grows to a higher level. 
• The Ultimate Boon: The ultimate boon is the reward for completing all the trials of the quest. The hero achieves their ultimate goal and feels powerful.
• Refusal of the Return: After collecting their reward, the hero refuses to return to normal life. They want to continue living like gods. 
• The Magic Flight: The hero escapes with the reward in hand.
• Rescue from Without: The hero has been hurt and needs help from their allies or guides.
• The Crossing of the Return Threshold: The hero must come back and learn to integrate with the ordinary world once again.
• Master of the Two Worlds: The hero shares their wisdom or gifts with the ordinary world. Learning to live in both worlds.
• Freedom to Live: The hero accepts the new version of themselves and lives happily without fear.

David Adams Leeming later adapted the hero’s journey based on his research of legendary heroes found in mythology. He noted the following steps as a pattern that all heroes in stories follow:

• Miraculous conception and birth: This is the first trauma that the hero has to deal with. The Hero is often an orphan or abandoned child and therefore faces many hardships early on in life. 
• Initiation of the hero-child: The child faces their first major challenge. At this point, the challenge is normally won with assistance from someone else.
• Withdrawal from family or community: The hero runs away and is tempted by negative forces.
• Trial and quest: A quest finds the hero giving them an opportunity to prove themselves.
• Death: The hero fails and is left near death or actually does die.
• Descent into the underworld: The hero rises again from death or their near-death experience.
• Resurrection and rebirth: The hero learns from the errors of their way and is reborn into a better, wiser being.
• Ascension, apotheosis, and atonement: The hero gains some powerful knowledge or grows to a higher level (sometimes a god-like level). 

In 1990, Phil Cousineau further adapted the hero’s journey by simplifying the steps from Campbell’s model and rearranging them slightly to suit his own findings of heroes in literature. Again Cousineau’s hero’s journey included 8 steps:

• The call to adventure: The hero must have a reason to go on an adventure.
• The road of trials: The hero undergoes a number of tests that help them to transform.
• The vision quest: Through the quest, the hero learns the errors of their ways and has a realisation of something.
• The meeting with the goddess: To help the hero someone helps them by giving them some knowledge, power or even items for the journey ahead.
• The boon: This is the reward for completing the journey.
• The magic flight: The hero must escape, as the reward is attached to something terrible.
• The return threshold: The hero must learn to live back in the ordinary world.
• The master of two worlds: The hero shares their knowledge with the ordinary world and learns to live in both worlds.

As you can see, every version of the hero’s journey is about the main character showing great levels of transformation. Their journey may start and end at the same location, but they have personally evolved as a character in your story. Once a weakling, they now possess the knowledge and skill set to protect their world if needed.

Free Hero’s Journey Templates

Use the free Hero’s journey templates below to practice the skills you learned in this guide! You can either draw or write notes in each of the scene boxes. Once the template is complete, you will have a better idea of how your main character or the hero of your story develops over time:

The storyboard template below is a great way to develop your main character and organise your story:

Did you find this guide on the hero’s journey stages useful? Let us know in the comments below.

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

Related Posts

Comments loading...