By now, you already know just how fun and exciting Disney movies are. With fun characters and interesting plot lines, Disney certainly has attracted many viewers around the world.
Over the years, Disney has been very well known for its stellar storytelling and emotional resonance. Along with it, Disney is very famous for its magical world.
From princesses to adorable characters, Disney has created a beautiful, magical world that has not only charmed children but adults also equally love it.
With the studio’s recent release, Encanto, fans are more in love with the production. As usual, the story is set in a magical world.
However, this time fans were intrigued by the fact that the main character didn’t have any magical powers.
Of course, this didn’t stop fans from enjoying the movie, but it did leave them questioning why the lead didn’t have magical powers.
Don’t worry; it wasn’t only you as we, too were scratching our heads to find out what really happened and why Disney did do that to Mirabel.
Well, that is what we are here for, as we have dug up every piece of information we could get our hands on and left no stone unturned.
So make sure you be with us till the end of this article and find out what really happened to Mirabel.
Just to jog your memory, let us know a little about the movie itself.
Encanto: The movie
Released in the year 2021, Encanto is a story about an extraordinary family of the Madrigals who live in the mountains of Colombia in a magical place called Encanto.
Taking the audience into the beautiful Colombian Culture through the Madrigal family, their powers, and their legacy, Encanto surely enchanted us.
The story unfolds with Pedro and Alma Madrigal, a young married couple who flee their home village in Colombia with their infant triplets, Julieta, Pepa, and Bruno, as they are being attacked by an armed force.
Unfortunately, the assailants kill Pedro, leaving Alma and the kids on their own. This is when Alma gets the magical candle as a gift from the forest, which protects her from the attackers, and gives her a sentient house and a magical world of Encanto, bounded by high mountains.
For a long period of time, the magic of Encanto blessed every child of the family with a unique gift, except Mirabel, but this didn’t stop her from being an integral part of the family.
One day the house begins to collapse. This is when Mirabel discovers that the magic surrounding Encanto is in danger. So, she decides to take it upon herself to restore the magic and save her family and the whole village.
The story follows her steps in saving the magic of Encanto, despite her not having any special powers like that of the rest of her family.
So, the question arises why does she not have any powers? Well, let’s dive right into it but hold on! Did you know how the family members got their gifts? Don’t you?
Worry not, as we ]do care a lot about our readers, we have included each and every relevant detail so you wouldn’t feel left out about anything. So, here’s how they got their gifts.
How did the members of the family get the gifts?
As we all know, Encanto blessed each and every child of the Madrigal family with unique gifts. From controlling the weather to seeing the future, each member of the family was bestowed with incredible gifts.
From the very youngest member of the family, Antonio, who was able to talk to animals, every member of the family got gifts such as growing flowers, healing, and even supernatural strength.
After Abuela got the candle and the magical powers that it came with, it became a tradition within the Madrigal family to hold a ceremony where the family members received special powers.
Once the children turned five years old, a special ceremony was held in the enchanted house, Casita, where the whole village was invited to witness the magical moment.
More like a celebration, the house was decorated, and the child went up to Abuela Alma, touched the enchanted candle, and then reached for the magical doorknob.
The house blessed the child with a new room in Casita, along with unique gifts. Abuela’s triplets, Julieta, Bruno, and Pepa, had powers to heal, see the future and control the weather, respectively.
Similarly, Pepa’s children Dolores, Camilo, and Antonio had the ability of exceptional hearing, shapeshift, and even talk with animals.
Julieta’s eldest daughter, Isabel, had powers to grow plants, and her middle child, Luisa, had superhuman strength, whereas her youngest daughter, Mirabel, had no powers whatsoever.
So when the house blessed everyone with magical powers, why was Mirabel left out, you ask? I suggest you continue with the article, as we are just getting right into it.
Why does Mirabel not have any powers?
As we know, Mirabel is the only child who doesn’t have any gifts. As sad as it may seem, there must have been a reason for it, right?
Disney hasn’t revealed the real reason, but do the fans remain silent? Of course not!
Before Disney could even speak anything regarding this, fans came up with theories of their own.
The interesting thing is these theories make a lot of sense and are actually very believable. So, let’s get right into these theories, as we are sure some of these will certainly blow your minds.
1. Punishment for Abuela’s mistake
So, first and foremost, many fans believed that Mirabel not getting the gift was actually a punishment for Abuela.
Casita loved each and every member of the family the same. However, according to this theory, some believed that Abuela was the reason behind Mirabel not getting the gift.
You ask why?
By now, we all know that the candle granted Abuela the gift of safety, so her family was blessed with unique powers, and since she was the matriarch of the Madrigal family, she was the one responsible for the whole household.
However, over time she forgot the real reason why the candle was given to her, and all she really cared about was the powers.
Many fans believed that even though not portrayed as the real villain, Abuela was the main antagonist of the movie.
As this theory suggested, Abuela pushed Julieta and Agustin to have a third child so that more power could be added to the family name.
Even though they were happy with two children, Abuela’s obsession with the family’s legacy and protecting the town put pressure on them.
Casita knew about this and how Abuela only saw her family, not as individuals or family members but rather as powerful gifts that added to the Madrigal’s legacy.
So, to punish Abuela for her selfish wishes, Casita didn’t give a gift to Mirabel as if it would have done so, that would have rewarded Abuela for her manipulation, as she just wanted Miarbel so that she could add more powers to the family.
Nevertheless, Casita’s love for the family never went astray as it did give Mirabel some power that other family members didn’t have. It gave her its power, which enabled her to communicate with Casita.
2. Mirabel was destined to be the Leader of Casita.
According to this theory, the reason why Mirabel didn’t receive any gift was that she was destined to be the next leader or the Matriarch of Casita.
Now, remember how although Abuela was the main of the household, she didn’t have any other gifts.
Many fans believed that Mirabel was always fated to replace Abuela. Throughout the movie, there were lots of clues and moments that hinted Mirabel would eventually replace Abuela someday.
The first and the most prominent one was their ability to communicate with Casita. It was understandable that Abuela could do that as she was the first one to receive the candle, but what about Mirabel?
She was just another kid of the household but yet she possessed that ability too. Unless she was the chosen one!
I mean, think about it, among all those members, no one, and literally, no one except Abuela and Mirabel could address Casita. Only these two possessed the power to command the house. That makes sense, right?
Moving on, by now, you must also know that Abuela being the main of the household, was supposed to bring all the members together, but her obsession with power led her to neglect the real meaning of the family.
She was so focused on powers and keeping the name of the Madrigals she went as far as to banish her own son, Bruno, when she began to fear that her own son’s prophecies would take away her control over the family.
However, Mirabel was not like her grandmother. Despite being treated badly, she always kept her family as the top priority. She was never jealous of her family members but rather was very supportive and happy for them.
She even went to look for her uncle Bruno when the rest of the family members told her not to do so. This showed how much she really cared for her family.
And when the whole family couldn’t talk about Bruno, Mirabel made the whole family sing about him. Talk about Mirabel’s love for her family.
This made fans believe that Casita chose Mirabel as it knew Abeula was no longer keeping the house together, and Mirabel was the key to bringing all of them together.
So, at the end of the movie, we could see when the Casita was finally restored after it crashed down, Mirabel was given her own doorknob that the family members made themselves for her as they knew she was the one.
Mirabel replaced the doorknob on the front door and the Casita, and all the magic was restored, which made us realize that all that house was getting cracked, and Bruno’s prophecies about Mirabel were there because she was the chosen one who bore the key to unity.
3. Mirabel sabotaged her own gift
This theory stated that it was no one else but Mirabel’s own fault that she didn’t get her gift. Believe me when I say this, but fans can really get way too much creative, and this proves just that.
I mean, there must have been literally so many other details and stuffs that we might have missed, but fans really like to think outside the box! And do we like it? Absolutely Love it!
So, according to this theory, Mirabel sabotaged her own gift accidentally. Now, as we know, every child, when turned five, participates in a ceremony that gives them their powers.
In the ceremony, the child was supposed to walk up to the door, touch the magical candle and hold the doorknob to get the gift.
However, when it was Mirabel’s turn, fans noticed that after touching the magical candle, she wiped her hands on her clothes. This made fans assume that this was the reason why she didn’t get the powers.
This theory was later debunked by one of the Encanto directors. As amused he was with such a theory, he was quick enough to discredit the thought of Mirabel accidentally vandalizing her own gift.
Another thing to debunk this theory was that, during Mirabel’s first encounter with her uncle Bruno, he saved her from falling into apparently an abyss by grabbing her hand at the very last second.
While holding her hand, Bruno remarked how sweaty Mirabel’s hands were, which indicated that her hands were mostly sweaty.
This could have been the reason why Mirabel wiped her hands during the ceremony, as she could have gotten sweaty before the big moment and wiped her hands.
4. Abuela’s gift
With so many wild theories about even the smallest details, many of these theories were certainly wrong.
As most of the theories revolved around the Madrigals, especially Abuela, this theory also revolved around her.
This theory argued that Abuela’s gift was to redistribute the magic to others. The interesting thing was every time the children received the gifts, Abuela had a say in them.
Most of the fans believed that it was Abuela who gave them the gift according to their defining traits, and since Mirabel didn’t really have any defining traits, she wasn’t bestowed with any gifts.
This theory also stated that the actual source of Madrigal’s power was not really the candle but Abuela’s connection to the family members.
Abuela’s influence and leadership role might have been stronger and deeper than we must have thought, and the reason why Mirabel didn’t have her gift, the reason could be more complex than we thought.
But for now, all we know is the fact that this theory fits the themes of generational trauma and finding that individuality, just like a glove.
Was Mirabel treated differently?
As we all know, having powers was such a big deal in the Madrigal family that if you don’t have them, you are probably not even a Madrigal. It is what Abuela Alma said.
Just because Mirabel didn’t have any powers, she was treated badly throughout her entire life or the whole movie.
Since her uncle Bruno had a vision of the house crumbling down with Mirabel at the center of it, this gave Abuela more reason to treat Mirabel harshly.
Abuela not only accused her of hurting the family, but she also wrongly blamed Mirabel for things and looked down on her for not having a gift. She would go as far as not receiving help from her either.
The rest of the family members did love Mirabel but couldn’t really show much because of Abuela. As she was the head of the household, they all were under her, so there was only so much they could do about Mirabel being treated badly.
Due to constant accusations from her grandmother about not being good enough, Mirabel always felt left out, but she tried to overcome it by being there for her family members in times of need as she loved them dearly.
The real reason for Abuela’s harsh treatment of Mirabel was because Abuela herself was under so much pressure. As she had no control over her husband’s death, she put excessive pressure on herself to keep the family together.
Even though she didn’t have special powers like the rest of the family members, she took on the role of a strong figurehead and tried to keep the family under control.
However, this didn’t give her the right to treat her own granddaughter so harshly!
Does she actually not have any powers?
Unlike the rest of the family, she didn’t have the “special gift.” However, she had something more meaningful and unique gift; the power to communicate with the Casita, their enchanted house.
She was able to command and communicate with the house as if it were a real person, and even Casita responded to her commands and helped with her daily chores.
So, No! she actually did have some unique powers which were nothing like the powers that were given to her family.
Even her grandmother, Abuela Alma, had the same power as her: to communicate with Casita and bring the family together.
I mean, what powers would be greater than the power to bring your loved ones together, right?
So, there you have all the theories and ideas on why Mirabel didn’t have any gift. While some theories, and by some, we mean almost all of them, did give a darker turn to the story, some were able to even amuse the Directors themselves.
From depicting the Casita as a vengeful God to speculating that the magic that powered the house was actually Abuelo Pedro’s soul, fans’ creativity and imagination knew no boundaries.
Whatever the theories, the story about the spirited teenager, Mirabel’s growth as a person, and her beliefs in herself certainly lit up the magical candle in viewers’ Casitas.
Let us know what you think about these theories, and we would also love to hear from you guys. So what are you waiting for? Time to put those thinking caps on.
