While catchy songs from “Encanto” are topping the charts, Disney’s latest animated film is drawing praise for another reason: the way the movie portrays trauma and healing.
She knew characters from a multiracial Afro-Latino family would be an important addition to her office in Kennesaw, Georgia, where she holds play therapy sessions and makes a point of finding toys that reflect the diversity of her young patients’ lives. When she finally watched the movie on Disney+, Adelakun realized the figurines were an even better fit than she’d imagined. The plot of “Encanto,” she says, perfectly captures issues many families are going through. “There are so many layers, so many dynamics,” Adelakun says. While catchy songs from “Encanto” are topping the charts, Disney’s latest animated film is drawing praise from therapists like Adelakun for another reason: the way the movie portrays trauma and healing. Therapists who spoke with CNN say they’re talking about the movie with their clients — many of whom are first-generation children of immigrants who see themselves reflected in the story, hear their experiences in the soundtrack, and are using “Encanto” to speak out about things that otherwise might go unsaid. “I think it’s going to have a great impact on society…. People are seeing this movie and they’re realizing they’re seeing themselves in it,” Adelakun says. Here’s a look at several key “Encanto” characters and the conversations they’re sparking: The healer trying to keep her family whole The character: Mirabel The song that stands out: “Waiting On a Miracle” What therapists are hearing: At the beginning of “Encanto,” Mirabel introduces us to the Madrigal family, gleefully describing each person’s “gift,” or magical power. We later learn that the magic and the family’s enchanted house have a darker side, originating in a traumatic moment after the family was forced to flee their home, trudge through the wilderness and cross a river seeking safety. Mirabel is the only member of the Madrigal family who doesn’t get a gift. But in the end, her power is in seeing her family members for who they are and doing all she can to keep them together. “Mirabel was really the glue to the family, but no one was really seeing it,” Adelakun says. And it’s no coincidence that her character is someone many can identify with, says Mara Sammartino, a therapist in Fairfield, California. “Our parents come here fleeing war, poverty, violence. They come here, they establish a life, and then we’re born into this duality, and we’re not seen in one, and we’re not seen in the other. I think that’s why Mirabel’s character resonates,” says Sammartino, whose parents came to the United States from Nicaragua. “She is part of that duality. She’s the only one that’s in touch with the community…. She’s the only one that’s (leaving the house) and going out, talking to people. Then she comes back home and she’s kind of put in her place and told, ‘you actually don’t have anything to contribute.'” Jenny Lemus, a psychotherapist in Chicago, says she heard feelings many of her clients have expressed for years in Mirabel’s song, “Waiting on a Miracle.” “She’s trying to communicate with her grandmother — ‘Look, this is what I’m experiencing. I want to be seen.’ A lot of times, the younger generations, what I’ve seen over the years, they want to be seen (by their families), they want the acknowledgment at least, and they’re not getting it,” Lemus says.
