Fandoms: Encanto (2021)
Bruno was starting to crack alongside Casita long before he went into its walls. His experiences have led to a few different tics and odd behaviors. Thankfully there are people in his life who will help him through it all.
The character appears to symbolize the stigma around mental health issues: While he is never labeled with a specific diagnosis in the film, some viewers have suggested that he has OCD or another type of neurodivergent brain function.
Bruno was featured as one of the Disney villains that was available for meet-and-greets during the event (debuting alongside Madam Mim from The Sword in the Stone, Mother Gothel from Tangled, and Ernesto de la Cruz from Coco), with a backdrop modeled after his sand temple.
Or did he? While investigating the damages to the Madrigal's home and magic, Mirabel comes across a very well-kept secret: it turns out that Bruno never went away, he simply moved into the crawlspace behind the walls. He's been living for years with just the rats to keep him company.
Bruno has a few Autistic traits. In the movie, he developed the form of ritual based off of a combination of superstition and possibly sensory stimming. He would “knock knock knock on wood” all around him which is a way of asking for protection in many cultures from certain spirits.
While Encanto doesn't have a traditional Disney villain, Dolores Madrigal seems the closest to fulfill that role, especially with how she tries to ruin things for her cousin, Isabela.
Encanto 2 has yet to be officially confirmed by Disney, but recent developments at the House of Mouse might have given fans hope that we'll all be talking about Bruno again (if we even stopped). In February 2023, Disney confirmed sequels for Toy Story, Frozen and Zootopia.
Like the other triplets, Bruno is 50 years old in Encanto. Cursed with clairvoyance, Bruno is shunned away by his family, and even his village, because of his pessimistic predictions.
Why did Mirabel's door disappear? Mirabel's door disappeared because she was already where she needed to be in order to receive her gift. Remember, Mirabel's gift was keeping the family together through her amazing ability to understand and feel the family's happiness or lack of it.
Bruno also performed several other well-known behaviors meant to prevent bad luck, including throwing salt over his shoulder, avoiding stepping on cracks, and both holding his breath and crossing his fingers while passing through doorways.
What traumatic event occurred in Encanto? An army attacked Abuela Alma and her husband Pedro's home village which forced the couple to flee with their young triplets. The armed soldiers chased both Alma and Pedro. Pedro tried to hold them off and ended up getting killed right in front of his wife.
Bruno is a bit eccentric, and one could argue that Bruno struggles with mental health concerns, exhibiting tics of “knock-knock-knock on wood” among others. Mirabel also learns that her sister Luisa is under tremendous pressure that causes her great anxiety.
Unlike his sister or older cousins, Camilo, like Mirabel, has no memory of Bruno since his uncle was very secretive in the last years he was still in the family and disappeared when Camilo was only five years old. Camilo grew up knowing nothing about Bruno and only heard some rumors from his relatives.
Empanadas. In one scene, Camilo Madrigal is seen holding a platter of food that appears to include both arepas and empanadas.
Pepa Madrigal is a supporting character in Disney's 2021 film Encanto. She is the second daughter and child of Alma Madrigal and the late Pedro Madrigal, the middle triplet sister of Julieta and Bruno Madrigal, the wife of Félix Madrigal as well as the mother of Dolores, Camilo and Antonio Madrigal.
In actuality, Encanto writer/director Jared Bush claimed that Bruno was far from seven feet tall. In fact, he clarified that the Madrigal family's heights were all gauged by Mirabel's height of 5'2''. Considering Bruno was only slightly taller than his niece, it's safe to assume he's closer to 5'4''.
everything in Encanto remains the same… except Bruno really IS 7 feet tall (2.136 meters).
Bruno is the youngest member of a set of fraternal triplets born to Alma and Pedro Madrigal, and the only male child of the three. With the exception of his 15-year-old niece, Mirabel, every member of the family receives a magical gift on their fifth birthday; Bruno's gift is the ability of precognition.
But in the film, when Mirabel finally is able to put her hand on a doorknob after her childhood attempt fails, it brings the magical casita of the Madrigals back to life. Perhaps her gift is the greatest one, the power to keep her family, their home and all their magical separate gifts, together and thriving.
Mirabel, at an undefined point in time after the events of the first movie, was told by her abuela Alma, as she was dying, that she was chosen to be the next matriarch of the family, as a thank you for saving the miracle and helping mend the family back together.
But NothingReallyAndYou reveals that, actually, Mirabel doesn't get a door or a room because the entire Casita is hers. Her gift was the magic in the very walls of the Casita. She is the next caretaker, the leader, the center of the family.
During the conflict that same day, Pedro sacrificed himself to the Soldiers who were chasing after the escaping villagers, allowing Alma and their children to escape but at the cost of his life.
The truth is, Dolores isn't exactly sure what she hears when it comes to Bruno. Bruno left to live in the house's walls when Dolores was just a child, so she's listened to her uncle in the house for years. For Dolores, his sounds are a regular part of everyday life.
When Dolores achieved self-consciousness, she became infuriated by the guests' actions and tried to wipe human out of the world in order to build a new one for her kind. She became ruthless, arrogant and vengeful. Her actions in season 2 leads to her death because Bernard can't stand her actions and shot her to death.