Since writing my blog on Camillo, I've remained thinking about the Madrigal family and Encanto in general. While everyone adores Mirabel, Bruno, and Luisa, gush over how cute Antonio is, and laughs at Camillo's shapeshifting antics, two members of the family tend to be left out of the popularity pool. There's Abuela, who's a conflicting character for sure with her treatment of the family while she's also battling serious PTSD and survivor's guilt, and there's Isabela, a "Senorita Perfecta" who has a turn-around at the end, but still left some viewers with a bad taste in their mouths.
Isabela is the family's Golden Child. This essentially boils down to her being eldest Madrigal grandchild, a perfect flower-maker who'd fit in well with the perfect, feminine princesses of classic Disney. She's the one everyone else is expected to look up to- the model Madrigal, Abuela's favorite, and the town's beloved. Even Pepa, who's constantly shown to get a storm cloud when around Mirabel, seems to have a great relationship with her. This perfection is only dampened by her treatment of her little, giftless sister, which ranges from general ignorance to open bullying over the course of the film. It's this bad attitude that turns viewers off from her initially, as she's just seen as a spoiled example of everything Mirabel isn't - powerful, beloved, and not very nice.
Of course, this is subverted later on. After spending the movie preparing to be engaged to her perfect male counterpart Mariano, the proposal goes horribly wrong, and she's found simmering in her bedroom. She yells at Mirabel at first, demanding an apology and then forcibly removing her when she can't go through with it. It's only after this point that we learn the truth- Isabela never wanted to marry Mariano. She was doing it to keep the family happy, to keep up her perfect appearance, and to hide her inner struggles. We learn that she's actually not perfect, doesn't even want to be, and just wants to explore her powers beyond flower arrangements. During the song "What Else Can I Do?", she has an Elsa-esque transformation, breaking out with Mirabel's help and even changing her appearance. This carries over at the end, where she and Mirabel are on much better terms, and she's still experimenting with her abilities.
For some, that ending transformation is enough to cement Isabela as a sympathetic, deep character. For others, it didn't quite go far enough. They can see what Disney was going for, but they can't find it in them to feel bad for her after she hadn't done a lot to earn it. While I can see where the detractors are coming from, I'm part of the first camp. I think Isabela is a well written character, whose struggles were foreshadowed well in advance.
Starting from the very first song "Family Madrigal", we're introduced to the entire family, including Isabela and Luisa. For a moment, we get an idea of the dynamic. While Mirabel poses and gets a cheerful wink from Luisa, foreshadowing their closer relationship, Isabela is in the background with Abuela. Mirabel describes her as the "Golden Child", but despite being in a relationship with Mariano, she doesn't even look at him at the end of the song. Then, when we find out that he wants five children, an understandably horrified Isabela sprouts flowers in her hair- one of which is a different color from the rest, something that Abuela immediately notices and removes. These are early clues that something just isn't right "under the surface". The movie doesn't focus on it very much, because Mirabel doesn't focus on it very much, so they're brushed off as jokes, until the big reveal brings them into a new context.
Preparing for the dinner, it doesn't get much better. Not only is Abuela constantly reminding her how good her marriage and future with Mariano will be, but she's clearly stressed. She orders Mirabel to not speak, which seems strange because immediately before this, she was singing about how great her powers and prophecy were. She ends the song with a distraught expression and the repeated line "I'm fine", a lyric that fades into the background until you notice it for the first time, in which case you'll never be able to unhear it. If she was really all set for a perfect life, why would she need to tell herself and her family that she's okay? Then, at the dinner itself, it's clear that her smile is forced, a bit too cheesy and wide, while her eyes betray her unhappiness. She punches Mariano in the nose with a flower, and then is seen storming away, yelling at Mirabel for ruining her night.
Taken in isolation, "What Else Can I Do" may not seem like a big deal. If you aren't already aware of how Isabela is feeling throughout the movie, it comes across like she's just suddenly showing vulnerability and getting redeemed without working for it. While some people embrace this side of her and are willing to accept what the movie was going for, not everyone is. It's when you really go back through, break her scenes down, and analyze her role in the family, when you're able to truly appreciate her character.
Isabela isn't a perfect Disney Princess. She's not the token mean member of the Madrigal family. She's not even much of an antagonist. She's an insecure, botany-loving girl who wants to be able to break free, have fun, get dirty, and not care what Abuela and the townspeople think. A girl who looks at Mirabel with jealousy for having no expectations, while she's perfect from dawn to dusk each day. Someone whose perfect poses and flower-making abilities are so practiced and precise that she seems angelic, but who later reveals the true effort and energy spent in maintaining that perfection. She grows flowers all day, but gets excited to see a cactus. She's much happier being chaotic and colorful, rather than prim and proper and pink, and she's a flawed human like the rest of her family.
She's not perfect. That's the whole point. For some people, her attitude and her mask overshadowed her true self, and that's alright, but I think we really need to give Encanto some credit for laying the breadcrumbs throughout the whole movie. This is one relationship and character that probably could've benefited had the movie had an extra half hour to fill, and we'll hopefully see her get expanded upon in future spin-offs or sequels, but for now, I think I can safely say that I like Isabela, and I think everyone of us out there can learn to be who we want to be, even if that person we want to be isn't perfect.
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