I love Encanto as much as anyone out there. From the songs to the characters to the portrayal of Hispanic culture.

But I’m not going to be focusing on Encanto as a whole instead I will be zooming in on the character ‘Isabella’. 

 She’s the character I most resonate with and here are a few things I found odd about her character. 

For more context, I’m listening to What Else Can I DO?, Isabella’s coming out song. Even the lyrics behind the song are crucial to this post. 

Now If you haven’t seen Ecanto, you should. It’s honestly such a great animation. There might be some spoilers in here so do watch it, first.

 From Day 1, Mirabel was never a fan of her older sister, Isabella. She felt Isabella was stuck up.

And at the beginning maybe she was.

But what I found most strange was how the others hardly if ever referred to her powers as the ability to grow flowers. Her powers were said to be Perfection.

 I doubt anyone can possess such powers but that’s what Isabella’s powers were said to be. As far back as the Family Madrigal Song in the beginning where Mirabel gave us an intro to The life of the Madrigals, this image of perfection was portrayed.  

A verse of the song says;

🎶’One’s strong, One’s graceful, 

perfect in every way. 

She grows the flowers, 

the town goes wild. 

She’s the perfect Golden child’🎶 

The strong sister being Luisa. 

See how more emphasis is laid on how perfect she is and not her powers.

You don’t need to imagine too much to guess the amount of pressure that puts on an individual. The only time we see a genuine smile on Isabella’s face is when she sings What Else can I do? and at the last few scenes towards the end of the animation. 

Every other time, she forces a smile and sits perfectly still to please her Abuela. She didn’t even want to marry Mariano but she also didn’t want to let her Abuela down.

I dare say she was the most misunderstood character in the animation. [Tio Bruno aside]

What is even more intriguing is that she only grows roses, 

Although that isn’t the only flower she can grow. But it’s the only one her grandmother wants to see, 

Roses,

pretty and perfect just like my granddaughter she must have thought.

 Isabella became so immersed in this idea of perfection that she didn’t know how else to act or behave but in conformity with what her Abeula wanted. 

What Else Can I Do? can be likened to her coming out song. 

It was a song where we got the first glimpse of who Isabella could truly be. Someone who was tired of being perfect, someone who yearned for the shiver of something new. 

The lines, ‘I am so sick of pretty, I want something true’ really stood  out to me. 

We can find something truly beautiful in this world in the ugliest of places. It is easy to find a pretty thing, a pretty person, a pretty location but how true were those things, people, or locations ? 

How many of us are squirming under the pressure of being the perfect daughter, perfect student, perfect sister, perfect friend? 

You want to measure up to all those standards that others have for you that you’ve lost your sense of self. 

Afterall who isn’t flawless? 

My favourite lines from Isabella’s Song would undoubtedly be

 🎶’What can you do when you are deeply, madly, truly in the moment?’ 🎶

🎶’What can you do if you know who you want to be is imperfect?’ 🎶

We are all obsessed with this image of perfection that we’ve forgotten how to be ourselves and say what’s really on our mind. 

Instead we put on a pretty smile and suck it up. In other words we become fake.

Can anyone really blame us? 

Tio Bruno was honest and looked where that got him. He wasn’t exactly liked by society. Stick with me while we explore Bruno in the next post. 

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