A headcanon about Encanto's doors...
(I not often write text or share headcanons, but when I like a movie, I LIKE A MOVIE) (I put it there as, maybe, I'll illustrate some scenes my theory implies) (and share it here) (Tumblr is an adorable fan platform right ?) (right?)
I’ll try to be short, and with all the passion I have for Encanto, it will be a harsh task…
(Quick disclaim, I’m native tongue french and may « sound weird », sorry)
There is a seriously-starting-of-a-theory that came while paying close attention to snapshots (I’m already at the stage of pausing the film frantically ^^). That’s the door system that leaves me with a lot of unanswered questions!
THE DOOR THEORY THEN! Short trailer: the plan. (I‘m not good at clickbait…)
Openly owing a close passion to these silent but so-much-talkative doors, there was data to necessarily gather, and to be honest I STRUGGLED to ensure to have a correct answer. Maybe it was already certified somewhere in the fanbase: how are arranged the casita’s occupiers ??
I mean: it seems organized… there seems to have rules; we’ll back to it later
THE PLAN, Taking Abuela’s door as middle reference we have, from left to right :
-Left wall : The secret entrance to Bruno’s hideout/Dolores/Camilio/Antonio.
-Middle wall : Pepa/ceremonies pictures/Abuela/julieta
-Further in the right corner, upper stairs: Bruno.
-Right wall : Luisa/furniture/Isabela.
-‘Behind’ wall : Kid’s room.
(So this left wall shall have space for 4 entrances locations, let’s summarize. The asymmetry is not what disturbs me. Casita seems indeed very quirky and there is nothing against this odd placement) (It is canon, thanks to Jared Bush, that the house is even able to expand if needed)
Now what does it tells us about Casita. First, I had this theory:
-THE DOOR THEORY : genealogic roots
Family tree is also respected by the doors. In fact, even fanarts made by villagers respects the pattern, Pepa’s children are settled on her left, Julieta’s daughters are on the right wall.
This simple statement implies that, even if we don’t see it clearly during the movie, the staircase shoooould build itself differently to lead to the correct door, on each ceremony? (Or maybe on request? Talk about home automation, GOOGLE HOOOME) We see stairs rise once [9’51], aiming Antonio’s door, and, in fact, I believe it would not be its forever place.
But I rewatched, to be sure, the other shown ceremony in the film: Mirabel’s one. My « family rule » would be approved if stairs leaded to the right. I carefully dissected each frame of the intro’s Mirabel’s ceremony [3’40] and the parallel with Antonio’s ceremony [18’40].
First, not conclusive. Same angle, same decor, not enough of the stairs to see a curve, same scene as Antonio’s. Did not help.
…And the final seconds to check, ARGH.
All got destroyed with two camera point of view that mad my entire blueprint COLLAPSE.
[19’04] First the stairs curved the same, the ceremony bring her to the left wall.
The Pepa’s wall, you quickly run to, drinking all my words? Don’t you feel something is MISSING here? [19’21] We clearly see the pictures next Abuela’s door, but NO PEPA’S DOOR.
Pepa’s ceremony happened of course decades before and SHOULD HAVE BEEN ALREADY THERE, but isn’t. (Artistic or poetic licence does not have the right to exist, in a theorist mind… EVERYTHING MUST BE EXPLAINED!)
So: the very same space where Mirabel failed is now claimed for Antonio’s room.
In order to let you in the same despair as me at the time, I shall let your brain cells endure this huge information, and build many sub-theories that are now poping from everywhere.
I’ll be generous and only keep you suffering some seconds until the brand new turnaround theory I kept, and it’s even more fabulous than a Hogwarts stupid moving staircase.
-THE ULTIMATE DOOR THEORY : All things considered, Family changes > doors moves.
I dump the stairs theory. (or it’s still a power Casita has but not while gift ceremony strict… ceremonial) After all, after Mirabel’s ceremony, there is a blank wall. Doors are just pieces of wood to this house. (IRL it does not work, an architect PLAN holes for doors and windows. This must be clarified, as even Sims videogames don’t care at all ^^)
So, if each ceremony always happens HERE, the door might be “distributed” anywhere its place is, afterwards!
And that is properly certified by Bruno’s room that, on the intro, was supposed to be JUST between his sisters’s ones: where is now Abuela’s one.
(No clue to know each wall this ceremony took place, even the stairs aren’t visible. Version one would be the ceremony was on this common left wall, Alma’s door still in the middle. Version 2 would be this first ceremony was private, no guests, no fuss, no idea what’s happening with these 3 doors inexplicably glowing, it could have been out of the “regular” ceremony place? already middle wall ??)
(Anyway, clearly, the triplets’s doors changed place, after that)
But don’t conclude too fast, the-one-we-don’t-talk-about have not been « removed » from family middle-wall the day he « ran away », 10 years prior to the film! I take as proof that, after the Mirabel’s targeted prediction, he already goes downstairs the same stairs Mirabel’s climbed to do her Indiana Jone’s adventure.
(Who cries when Bruno looks back at the door? I don’t cry. I’m a growth pers-naaah!!! ç__ç)
Even before he ran away, he was apart from the family. That leads to many questions, such as, of course, WHY, but that could be another investigation. (My thought about this is that his premonitions were enough to have him withdraw into himself, he didnt get a chance to start a family, was growing old, and purposefully left is door placement to the active core of the family. Vast topic. So much more maybes…)
-At the beginning of Casita, there was only Abuela’s room. (Never shown, non-canon assertion) (As her room seems to reach the windows where the candle stands _ note she might have two floors_, maybe the very same middle one)
-During triplet’s ceremony, either the doors were in the ceremony traditional place, either Abuela’s door might have been put elsewhere, leaving the middle wall free, for years (front wall because, the triplets must have been the centre of magic for years. Personal opinion I said. Triplets were Alma’s pride and centre of attention, so Casita’s attention too)
-As the first grand-kids arrived, doors moved to keep each branch of the tree together. After all, even casita could not foresee how many kids will come next (what an accurate pregnancy test!): at each birth, more precisely at each ceremony, doors changed address, if space is needed.
-Maybe for a while, Bruno had some room reserved, in case he found a pretender not fleeing at his disastrous predictions.
-(Then: Bruno officially pouts on the attic)
-Before Mirabel failed, Antonio wasn’t born yet and it’s possible that “the biggest wall” was dedicated at Julieta’s family, that had 3 daughters, Pepa had only 2 children.
-(Or, at the contrary, Bruno was still a “possible branch”, and was at the left, on the end, after the two Pepa’s children)
-(Or still between his sister’s door)
-10 years ago, just as Mirabel didn’t get her door, maybe the doors were laid out differently, there is not enough clues. Were grandchild‘s obtained doors spread around, differently?
-If achieved, Mirabel’s door would have relocated near her sister’s door. (Whatever side had Julieta)
-Coming soon, 5 little doors will have to find a room near Dolores’s, if Mariano Guzmán (thank you wikipedia) matches ^^. That means surely new floor this time.
And what is SURELY the liveliest, about the door being transportable, is imagine little scenes like; (and those will be shortly drawn, I have them stuck in head ^^)
Kids getting each other’s angry, and asking Casita to get their door “drove apart”;
Or Pepa transporting door herself, “nobody enters, you VEXED ME BRUNO!”
Huge and catastrophic mistakes _a Camilio spying the wrong place, a Bruno frightening the wrong priest_ would mean the door would be put “on a corner”, punished on his faaaar bedroom ;
Dolores making a scene as Camilio moves her door away from her mom’s ^^;
Preparing a birth that changes the blueprint would be little events, leading to some “moving doors” festivities;
Not fully awake kiddos mistaking doors as they didn’t get accustomed to new placement ^^;
If Bruno’s displacements, that are somehow “disgraces”, were done in silence, “we don’t talk about Bruno’s once again having to move his door”;
My humble opinion is that he might be a sugar-uncle that accepted, even suggested, to offer them a better placement, so it still would be a special occasion to feast, even if villagers mumbles on his back;
Or maybe door visibility was also a way triplets and grandchildren assumed their “preferential ranks”, that broke their mental health =__=;
Highlighting Abuela’s door on the middle place, during Bruno tendency to isolate, would be a way to STILL show Madrigal strength.
___That’s all for my doors theories!
This theory makes Casita even more… ALIVE! Could you believe this magic can be puzzled around, at will? Shall the staircase change place anyway? Will Bruno ask for a more exposed door after the movie, now he feels accepted?
What do you think? Didn’t it bring you to many other intriguing questions? ^^
PS : Three dismissed theories, related to the hole in the wall :
A very far-fetched sub-theory would be that, the hole in the wall (where Bruno’s hide-out begins) is in fact able to reach kind of Mirabel’s room, or at least her function in the family: repairing Casita’s foundations. This place is unreachable to casita too, as it didn’t respond to Mirabel calls for help : a private place, such as Bruno’s sands. At least, this breach is a visual hint of the instability of Casita’s magic when her door failed. A backstage room (Disneyland style). Interesting, but hardly convincing.
The freerun scene takes place behind the magical rooms, and seems to follow the plan (smashing on Pepas wall at the right bend, for example), and depicts an upstairs collapsed floor that seems to match “attic”, where Bruno’s room just happened to also sand-collapse. (He seemed unaware that this hole _new to his knowledge _ was not a dangerous fall) This backstage area could be attached/bounded to near room’s conditions: A non-magical version of the building state of preservation.
Or the behinf the frame wall crack was an already knew secret place for the triplets, hid and unfound by the next generation, already furnished by them 3. (So much furniture could not have disappeared/being transported during 10 years without getting noticed) Bruno ran quickly here knowing it was ready to hide, as he couldn’t escape the village. (sub theory : Julieta that spends a lot of time near kitchen/dining place shall have at least hear snores, or music from the gramophone, from time to time… not unsuspecting at all of “who ‘in the know’ could hide there… haaard gueeeess. Pepa is here and I’m not hiding… ^^”)
“being brief” is no compatible with “talking about Encanto”. I’m sorry ^^
