Encanto is still reigning as one of the most popular Disney films to date, with the songs
topping the charts and fans still discussing the characters and theme of the movie.
The cast of this movie features a wide array of characters ranging from charming to stern
and everything in between.
But does a character being comedic mean that they have nothing else to offer?
Today we’re asking: Which of these characters comes out as the most brilliant and who is
the dumbest?
I’m Kyle with WickedBinge and this is Encanto : Dumb to Brilliant.
First up here, we have characters who are…
Not The Brightest.
Winning the gold medal for being the dimmest member of the movie we have Mariano.
Mariano didn’t receive a lot of screentime, but when he was present, he was far more concerned
with being romantic rather than taking in what was actually happening around him.
Mirabel’s behavior had confused him, but Mariano was willing to simply roll with it
until Dolores blurted out what was happening.
At the end of the film, Mariano was in his own little world, not sure what to do with
all the love he had that he wanted to give to someone.
It was as if Mariano completely forgot that other women besides Isabela existed and that
love was possible elsewhere.
Taking the silver medal and being labeled the most brainless of the family is Camilo.
Camilo wasn’t a huge force in the film and was much of the comedic relief.
However, we rank him as second to lowest on our list due to a few reasons.
First, when Camilo was able to disguise himself as Dolores, it showed that he was used to
masquerading as others in order to get things his way.
Second, when Casita was beginning to collapse, we see he was able to use different forms
to perform different physical feats, dodging the obstacles created by making quick decisions
on who to become.
We also have to give Camilo points for being able to help console his mother through her
panic attack.
Going home with the bronze medal, we have Camilo’s mother Pepa.
To Pepa’s credit, she had a very strong gift that would have been difficult for anyone
to control.
We can’t fault her for being stuck with rain clouds whenever she became stressed.
What we do fault Pepa for is how temperamental she tended to be and how that temper blinded
her.
Pepa had been the one to create the hurricane, yet she fully blamed Bruno for the event and
held a grudge because of it.
Her inability to recognize Mirabel’s struggle led to Pepa simply going right to anger, refusing
to speak about Bruno and straight up glaring at the poor girl when she found out about
the vision.
Following her sister is Julieta.
While her husband Agustín was treated more as the comic relief of their relationship,
we had to place Julieta lower on this list for her inability to support her daughter
the same way he had.
During her conversations with Mirabel, Julieta attempted to console her daughter, but had
ultimately failed to really help.
Julieta’s advice had been to be complacent and accept her place in the family, mentioning
how when Bruno “lost his way” he was no longer a part of them.
We will concede that Julieta did recognize how difficult a time Mirabel was having, but
Julieta had also taken far too long to actually stand up to Abuela Alma about her behavior
towards Mirabel.
While she was labeled as the most perfect member of the Madrigal’s, we had to give
Isabela a low ranking on our list.
Isabela gets some points for how she was able to harness her ability in such a short amount
of time, considering she had no idea she was even able to create plants that weren’t
flowers.
We also had to give her credit for being able to convincingly play the part of the perfect
granddaughter.
Isabela managed to fool her entire family into thinking she was content with her role
in the family that Abuela Alma had given her.
However, because Isabela was so concerned with being the granddaughter she was expected
to be, she failed to be there for some of the family.
Specifically, Isabela was clueless about Mirabel’s struggle and the fact that Dolores was experiencing
heartbreak.
Next up our list is the Average Folk.
These guys are, as the name implies, pretty average in terms of intelligence.
Not too smart, but not too dumb.
Normies.
Next is the strongest member of the Madrigal’s, Luisa.
Traditionally in animation, there’s the question of if a character is more brain or
brawn.
In Luisa’s case, she has a fair amount of both.
Luisa, being the first to be impacted by the power fading, wasn’t at all surprised when
Mirabel began asking questions about the cracks.
While Luisa didn’t see the cracks herself, her own song Surface Pressure expressed that
she clearly sensed something was horribly off with Casita.
Though Luisa had initially been reluctant, she was able to steer Mirabel in the right
direction concerning Bruno and the vision.
Next is the matriarch of the entire family, Abuela Alma.
For years, Alma was not only the person solely responsible for raising her children and keeping
her family safe, but she assisted in helping to lead families to safety.
After the families settled in the encanto, Alma was given the role as head of the village.
Everyone respected her and came to her for advice, relying on the Madrigals for assistance
using their gifts.
While Abuela Alma made a lot of mistakes when it came to her family, there’s no denying
that she still overcame a lot and accomplished a great deal during her life.
It wouldn’t be easy for anyone to run a village and raise a family all on their own.
The only reason we have to drop Alma down on this list to this section is because Alma’s
reliance on the miracle made her unable to see Mirabel’s value and led Bruno to hiding
away.
Alma was also clueless to Isabela’s panic when it came to starting a life with Mariano,
despite having a very obvious reaction to hearing Mariano’s desire for five children.
Alma was so concerned with maintaining the miracle and starting the next generation she
had been absolutely blind to the damage she had been causing.
It took the miracle dying and Casita collapsing for her to realize her mistakes.
Now we’re really getting into the College Bound.
These are the characters who are just a stone throw away from the top, proving they have
the ability to be the best, but just fall short.
Taking the next spot is Dolores.
Like Luisa, Dolores had helped to get Mirabel on the right track.
It was because of Dolores that Mirabel was able to confront Luisa concerning the cracks
and what could be done about it.
Dolores also made the comments that she was able to hear the rats in the walls acting
unusual and had been aware of Bruno still residing in Casita.
There are some that give Dolores grief for spilling the news of the vision to Camilo
and starting the domino effect of the major confrontation between Mirabel and Abuela,
but we argue that it was intentional for the small side-effect.
After all, Dolores had lived her whole life thinking there was absolutely nothing she
could do to end up with Mariano.
Dolores took the chance to have the proposal ruined and then was able to sweep in at the
end to get Mariano’s attention.
That’s a 4-D chess move and we have to give props for it.
Our next ranking is a tied spot going to the dads of the family: Félix and Agustín.
These two showed a lot more awareness than normally expected of comic relief.
Agustín was initially played off as nothing more than a guy who was accident prone.
Félix began simply as the clueless but suave husband.
As the movie progressed, however, these two were developed nicely, especially considering
how little screen time they had.
Félix was often seen helping his wife through her more chaotic weather patterns.
He even came to her defense when Abuela Alma complained about the rain Pepa was creating,
and can be heard making the comment “let her feel,” which was what Bruno had attempted
to do before their wedding.
Agustín was able to reach out and relate to his daughter Mirabel when no one else did.
Yes, the family knew that it was an awkward time for Mirabel to be preparing for Antonio’s
ceremony, but Agustín was the only one to express how he understood her problem.
He tells her about how intimidating it was for both him and Félix to marry into a family
full of remarkable people.
Later on in the movie, when Agustín found out that Mirabel found the vision, Agustín
came to his daughter’s aid.
When hiding it didn’t work and the cracks grew, Agustín still defended his daughter’s
choice.
Both of these men showed that they refused to be intimidated by Abuela Alma by standing
up to her to protect their loved ones.
It was also heavily implied that the two of them were well aware of what the vision likely
held, as Félix made the statement that it revolved around Mirabel, encouraging her to
find out.
And when Agustín spotted the emerald in Mirabel’s room later, he was quick to catch on as to
what she had, and had been unsurprised to see the vision involved Mirabel when he got
a look at it.
The next ranking goes to the main protagonist of the film, Mirabel.
The family had been determined to keep their secrets hidden, so Mirabel had been fighting
an uphill battle throughout the entire movie.
Even with everything working against her, she was able to achieve what she set out to
do.
However, she falls just short of the genius ranking.
In her rush to be the hero and save Casita, Mirabel tended to make a mess.
No, it wasn’t her fault that no one was able to see the cracks and wrote her off as
crazy, but she hadn’t really helped her case by grilling Luisa during breakfast the
next day to the point that Abuela Alma had grown annoyed.
Not only was Mirabel able to find the vision and find out what could heal Casita, but she
was able to see the problems her family had that they kept swept under the rug.
It also says a lot that Mirabel was able to look logically at why Abuela Alma acted the
way she had for all those years.
Mirabel had also been the only one to know right away where Antonio had hid himself away
when the whole family had been looking for him to prepare for the ceremony.
That not only speaks volumes about how close the two were, but shows how when Mirabel isn’t
too distracted by Casita collapsing, she can be far more perceptive than other people in
her family.
Finally, we have The Geniuses.
The smartest characters in the film!
The bronze medal of smartest person in the movie goes to Pedro.
Pedro didn’t have any speaking role in the film, but we placed him high on this list
for what we see him accomplish.
For one, Pedro had been one of the people to lead the families away, helping to find
a better place for them to reside where they wouldn’t be constantly attacked.
This showed that, like with Alma, people respected him and naturally sought out his guidance.
Pedro had been a respected member of their community.
There’s no doubt that after his death, his influence and sacrifice had been one of the
reasons the Madrigals would go on to be such an important family among the people.
Though Pedro hadn’t been able to grow old with his family, he had ensured their future.
We also can’t help but rank him high for whatever he managed to pull off to take out
the enemy that had hunted them down.
Pedro hadn’t survived the encounter, but whatever he managed to do was effective and
resulted in the miracle coming into existence.
That’s an impressive feat of magic ability that is nothing to brush under the rug.
Taking the silver medal of brainpower is Bruno.
Like others in his family, Bruno’s abilities are nothing short of impressive and managed
to aid in many ways.
Because of Bruno, Abuela Alma was able to secure plans for future generations and help
maintain the family and the village before he had hidden away.
But we couldn’t place Bruno higher than our second place ranking for how he used those
powers.
It wasn’t Bruno’s fault that he tended to be awkward and decided to inform the village
of bad news rather than good.
After all, it makes sense that he prioritized telling people what they needed to prepare
for instead of spoiling good news before it reached them.
What Bruno failed to take into account was that people aren’t known to be logical in
the face of misfortune, and so he hadn’t really been sure how to handle people lashing
out at him for things he couldn’t help in the first place.
By the end of the film, Bruno was able to explain that he just hadn’t been able to
be clear when talking to Pepa, finally able to make amends for how his joke was taken
the wrong way and resulted in Pepa creating a hurricane.
We also had to drop Bruno into second place because though he was able to show Mirabel
the vision, his initial fear had led to a lot of misunderstandings about his absence.
Still, his living in the walls did mean that he was able to spend much of his time patching
up the cracks and helping to preserve Casita, which he felt was the only thing he was able
to do for his family.
Finally our gold medal of brilliance goes to the youngest member of the Madrigal family:
Antonio.
In a very short amount of time, Antonio went from being nervous about the possibility of
not receiving a gift to becoming an absolute master of it.
We see when Mirabel was attempting to hide the pieces of Bruno’s vision that it was
the animals Antonio had around that gathered all the pieces.
Because of Antonio being able to understand the rats, he was able to figure out that Bruno
was still living in Casita and caught on to Mirabel’s plan.
There was something satisfying about seeing Antonio surprise Mirabel and Bruno, offering
his own room as a space to do the vision.
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking.
And tell us what we should cover next.
Remember to hit that notification bell and binge our Dumb to Brilliant playlist.
Where we figure out which characters have the most wits.
But most importantly, stay wicked.