Being a fan of the movie Encanto might leave you pondering why you didn’t Mirabel get a gift.
Produced by Walt Disney Animation Studio, Encanto is a Disney animated film that hit the theatres in 2021. For those who haven’t yet watched Encanto and are yet to get acquainted with Mirabel, this article might help you get an overview of the film.
Also, the article will come to the help of all those Encanto fans who have been long wondering why didn’t Mirabel get a gift.
Table of Contents
The plot of the movie Encanto
Encanto is a narration of the life of Madrigals, a clan whose leader is the matriarch Alma Madrigal or Abuela. Intertwined in Columbian history, this tale starts when Alma and Pedro had to flee their village with their three children due to ensuing armed conflict.
Pedro loses his life while fleeing, but the candle of Alma magically repels all the attackers, and a house is built in a magical land called Encanto, surrounded by high mountains.
After fifty years, under the aegis of the candle and its light, a whole village emerged, and all the descendants of Madrigal started getting a gift at the age of five, which they used to serve the other villagers. Most of the fans question why didn’t Mirabel get a gift emanating from this juncture.
Alma’s three children were Bruno, Pepa, and Juliet. Bruno disappeared ten years earlier. Mirabel is Juliet’s fifteen-year-old daughter and this Madrigal descendant who didn’t receive a gift or any magical power. There have been many theories and speculations about this absence of gift to which we will return later.
The day Antonio gained his powers to communicate with animals, Mirabel noticed the damage in their house. However, it seemed fine to others; hence, no one cared to probe into it. Upon consulting with his sister Louisa, she went to a cave to find a mirror where she could see a picture that depicted their cracked house.
On the day when Isabela was set to be engaged with their neighbor Mariano Guzman, chaos unfurled. Dolores, who had superhuman hearing powers, revealed all that Mirabel had discovered. This further led to cracks in the house. Amidst all these bustles, Mirabel discovered Bruno. The latter confided he had never left the house.
Later, Alma even rebuked Mirabel by saying that Mirabel was trying to form family chaos as she didn’t have powers. However, she apologized later, and everybody joined to save Casita from cracking. The film ended happily when Bruno and Mirabel joined the family for a wholesome family photograph.
However, the question remains, why didn’t Mirabel get a gift?
Why didn’t Mirabel get a gift?
Played by Stephanie Beatriz, Mirabel is the only child among the flock of Alma’s grandchildren who didn’t get a gift in Encanto. However, this absence of gifts or powers motivated her to save her family in the end. Even if she didn’t get any powers, her family was adorned with several types of gifts.
Jessica Darrow played the role of Mirabel’s sister Louisa who possesses super strength. Camilo, Mirabel’s cousin, has the power of shapeshifting.
Bruno, the uncle of Mirabel, has the power of a soothsayer; he can predict the future. Pepa, Bruno’s brother, can control the weather.
So, all these powers always lead to the question of why didn’t Mirabel get a gift. Fans have several theories regarding this conjecture. Let’s visit them one by one.
Mirabel accidentally wiped her hands.
One of the fan theories suggests Mirabel herself sabotaged her gift. Have you ever wondered how a child gets a gift in Encanto? After touching the magic candle, they need to open a doorknob that leads them to their power.
However, while Mirabel was participating in her ceremony, she wiped her hands after touching the candle and opening the doorknob. Thus, the door disappears, leaving the little Mirabel powerless.
Even if this is a very minute detail and may appear insignificant, there is a telling difference between Antonio’s and Mirabel’s hand-wiping in their ceremonies. Antonio doesn’t wipe his hands after touching the candle, so his door also appears, and he gains the power to talk to animals.
Thus, as this is not the case with Mirabel, if you are trying to find the answer to why Mirabel didn’t get a gift, any such difference might have deep, subtle meanings.
Abuela’s connection
While hand-wiping is one of the dominant fan theories answering the question of why Mirabel didn’t get a gift, another theory also exists.
This theory points the finger at Abuela and her mistakes leading to Mirabel’s absence of gifts. However, at this point, one should know Abuela herself didn’t possess any power.
Maybe, Mirabel is all set to follow her trails and save the family. Like Abuela, Mirabel doesn’t care for herself and puts family and the town before her.
Without the magical powers, Alma serves as an intermediary between the townspeople and her magical family. Mirabel has been put in her shoes to carry the legacy and lead her family out of the darkness.
Another theory suggests a darker alternative to Abuela’s connections with Mirabel’s absent powers. So, if you have been wondering Encanto why didn’t Mirabel get a gift might have something to do with this theory. Finally, you might get some clue regarding why didn’t Mirabel get a gift. However, the answer might break your heart.
The truth on why didn’t Mirabel get a gift
Alma is a very favorite character among all the characters in Encanto. So, if the answer to why she didn’t Mirabel get a gift leads to some darker features of her character, that might break a fan’s heart.
The theory suggests that due to Abuela’s insistence on having a third child, Augustin and Juliet gave birth to Mirabel. They were both happy with Luisa and Isabela. However, Juliet’s mother’s insistence led her to give birth to Mirabel.
You might now be wondering why Alma was so persistent about having Mirabel. The reason was that she was obsessed with her family’s magical powers and wanted to expand their territory to expand Madrigal’s legacy. In that way, the town’s future could also be made secure, and the name of the Madrigals would be engraved as the native saviors of the town.
A historian of colonialism might read this desire as the desire of a native to save their kin, serving as a blow to the savior complex of colonial expansionists. So, you cannot blame Alma, who was ousted from her place by an attacking group and lost her husband to the attackers, for having this desire.
Thus, Abuela stopped seeing her family as a group of individuals and insisted on seeing them as a cluster of power. Hence, Casita, the magical house borne out of the lamp, didn’t give Mirabel a gift. As the fans think, this was in retaliation to Alma’s manipulation behind Mirabel’s birth and her unquenchable desire for more powers.
However, Casita also had a love for the family. Hence, Mirabel was not entirely powerless. Her power was to communicate with the Casita. So, only she could see the damage to the house.
Her power of communicating with Casitas
This brings us to a positive aspect of the question of why didn’t get Mirabel a gift. Throughout the entire film, the two people could continuously communicate with Casitas. However, Casita follows Alma’s orders more closely and even directs Mirabel to follow her orders.
Casita even helps the Madrigals survive the collapse of the entire building. Thus, it appears to share a special bond with Mirabel and Alma.
In the end, Mirabel is the person who reinstates the doorknob in the rebuilt building. Why didn’t Mirabel get a gift and finally stumble upon a fact which is a little more illuminatory?
Is Mirabel herself the miracle?
Even though all the members of the Madrigal family fail to understand the reasons for the origin of the magic, this also includes Alma.
So, the question of why they didn’t Mirabel get a gift even alludes to Alma. The only thing that she knows is that gifts started appearing after her husband Pedro’s death.
Thus, she doesn’t even understand the reason behind Mirabel’s lack of magic and starts to think that her family will lose the magic.
However, can Mirabel herself not be the miracle? Pedro had sent Mirabel to Alma, after all. Also, Mirabel’s efforts made Casita stand on its feet again. If she didn’t reinstate the doorknob, Casita would be nothing but a regular doorknob.
If you look at the film closely, you might again get a hint of Mirabel being the miracle herself. One of the connections of the magical powers with the Madrigals is their outfits.
For instance, Isabela can create plants and wears a flowery dress. Dolores has super hearing abilities, so her dress is adorned with soundwaves.
Mirabel has butterflies in her dress. Can you remember where you have spotted butterflies in Encanto?
The candle has butterflies that resemble those in Mirabel’s dress. Thus, it is not a coincidence that the costume designers of Encanto will slip this detail.
Hence, if you have been striving to know why you didn’t get Mirabel a gift, this might be your most relevant answer. app store
The music track of Encanto
Along with this, why didn’t Mirabel get a gift might have another telling answer which suggests she is gifted. The answer lies in the songs of Encanto.
The film is replete with the genius Lin-Manuel Miranda’s beautiful soundtrack, which also designed the sound of Hamilton, the classic musical; the song We don’t talk about Bruno has reached immense success, and Disney World even arranged a light and sound show for it. So, the opening song of Encanto might have a clue to the answer that you want to find.
The opening song introduces the spectators to the magical family of the Madrigals. So, the song is titled “The Family Madrigals.” However, one specific song lyrics is bound to catch your attention if you follow it closely.
In this song, in one particular stanza, Mirabel is seen describing her sisters by saying, “The beauty and the brawn do no wrong.” The fan theories suggest that the word brain is missing in this line.
This is the gift Mirabel possesses.
She has the brain that her sisters and cousins don’t have. Hence she didn’t receive any gifts, just the fact that she didn’t need them. Thus, her intelligence and strength make her suitable as the family leader after Alma. So, why Mirabel didn’t get a gift might lead you to the simple answer that she might not have needed it.
Thus, even though Encanto never reveals why Mirabel didn’t get a gift, there are many clues that the fans have scratched to find an answer to this.
However, the absence of power never really dissuaded Mirabel from saving her family. Instead, her determination and intelligence save the family even though she didn’t receive any powers in the ceremony.
Other theories
Many other theories, even darker ones, suggest alternate aspects of Mirabel’s character. One theory seems to suggest that she could manipulate reality, and she did that by placing the doorknob on the door of the rebuilt house apk.
This theory suggests a darker reality of Mirabel’s character and that the entire Madrigal family is trapped in her machinations.
It also suggests that Casita cracked due to Mirabel’s wrath as she witnessed her cousin Antonio gain his powers. However, if you are a fan of Mirabel, it will be hard to digest these facts.
Final Thoughts
Why didn’t Mirabel get a gift to have several theories as its answer? Which one you choose to accept is on you. But, the fact that there are some telling signs that she was a miracle can not be neglected. Rest is upon the audience to interpret.
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