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A new piece of information about Mirabel Madrigal has been confirmed, creating another perfect Encanto Easter egg. After Encanto’s release, the director Jared Bush has been revealing trivia about the gifted characters, such as their ages and even glimpses of the different love stories in the family. Most recently, Bush has tweeted a “big news that Dolores has known all along” — when Mirabel’s birthday is. Interestingly, this tidbit confirms that Mirabel, the only Madrigal without powers, shares a birthday with the celebrated Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez.
The 60th feature in the Disney Animated Canon, Encanto follows Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz) as she saves her family and home from losing the miracle. Although the film was a box-office disappointment during its theatrical run, the film received universal critical acclaim, even gaining numerous accolades and award nominations. Later on, it gained wider commercial success when it was released on Disney+, and the song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” even broke 30-year-old records. Aside from its original soundtrack written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Encanto’s animation, cultural representation, and themes of intergenerational trauma and magical realism were also highly praised.
With its real-life Colombian influences, Encanto leaves a number of Easter eggs for its audiences, Mirabel’s birthday included. As Bush relates, Encanto‘s Mirabel was born on March 6th, a day she shares with Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez. Aside from their birthdays, the two also have the same Colombian lineage. García Márquez, who started his career as a journalist, eventually became renowned for writing non-fiction works, short stories, and novels such as One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. He was also known for popularizing magical realism, a literary style incorporating magical elements into realistic settings — a concept cleverly adapted by Encanto itself, as seen in the way the film has embraced the miracle and the characters’ powers as natural and simply a part of reality.
Encanto’s setting and plot have a resemblance to García Márquez’s best-selling work One Hundred Years of Solitude. The novel depicts Colombia in the early 20th century, and while Encanto’s exact time period is purposely left vague, there are technological and historical clues that pinpoint the film’s similar setting. Both stories show the life and struggles of multigenerational families led by their matriarchs. The stories also occur inside or near the houses, with the sentient Casita providing the Madrigals with their needs and the Buendía’s home being the setting of the novel’s latter half. Lastly, and perhaps the most noticeable reference to García Márquez’s magnum opus, is the prominence of yellow butterflies in Encanto. In One Hundred Years of Solitude, yellow butterflies constantly follow Mauricio, and this motif is later on adapted by Encanto as a signifier of magic, change, and hope. In fact, it is seen in several aspects of the film. Mirabel’s outfit in Encanto has a butterfly pattern detail, the miraculous candle is also adorned by a butterfly design, Abuela Alma and her family’s reconciliation is marked by a yellow butterfly, and the Academy Award-nominated song from the film, “Dos Oruguitas,” narrates a romance between two caterpillars waiting to become butterflies.
Perhaps the most compelling part of Encanto is its creators’ attention to detail. This is manifested not only by the film’s faithfulness to the Colombian culture and familial life representation but also by honoring Gabriel García Márquez — the “greatest Colombian who ever lived” — through inspired references and subtle Easter eggs. It is no wonder then that with its overwhelming success, the film has already carved out its legacy, including the possibility of Disney’s Encanto having sequels and spinoffs.
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