Encanto

[PatchofBlue]

I have on occasion tried to mull over what a proper sequel would look like for this film, and the thought I keep coming back to is--new family members, new powers. Maybe like the next generation of Madrigals finding their place?

But I struggle to figure out how that would work within the framework of the environment. Dolores and Mariano are a pair by the end, but Dolores also has that throwaway line about not wanting to rush into marriage, and all that. Plus the kids are, what?, six or seven by the time Casita grants them their gift? So we're not looking at less than a ten-year time jump if that's the avenue we want to make.

Maybe a random kid wanders into the village one day and discovers that he has a gift just like the Madrigals and is supposed to join with them in a protracted adoption allegory?

I think the situation is ripe for franchising, but I also don't think just any story would work.

[Disney's Divinity]

Well, I always thought the plot of the barrier that the grandfather's death created coming down and them having to confront the evil outside would be perfect for a climactic third film. Perhaps Alma passing away could cause the barrier to disappear? Her going out with a Paciencia y Fe type of song would be incredible, and it wouldn't be the first time they re-created a powerful Broadway moment (Let It Go for Defying Gravity, for example).

But as for a middle film, that's harder. Hmm, just brainstorming here. Perhaps Mirabel takes over being the face and leader of the family in a second film from Alma after everythingthat happened in the first. Conflict between them because the community starts wanting the "new" (Mirabel) over the "old" (Alma), Alma feeling she is not wanyrd or irrelevant the way she had made Mirabel feel in the first film as a circle back moment, Mirabel trying to bridge a sort of middle ground at the end with Alma and Mirabel coming even closer by the end. That would segue perfectly with the idea I described above for a third film. Having Alma pass in the first third or midpoint of the third film, the magic barrier going away with Alma, and Mirabel having to deal with fixing the situation anew in the place of the grandparents would be good. Now the resolution could go one of two ways from there--they could have them learning to live and coexist with the outside world, or have Mirabel somehow create a new barrier (perhaps by sacrificing herself in a dramatic scene the way the grandfather did?). But then have there be some trick to explain how she would come back and survive the "death" (think Anna reviving from becoming frozen or Crysta "dying" to stop Hexxus in FernGully causing the community to have a hope inspired by the sacrifice that in the case of this story would allow a new barrier to be created). FernGully would actually be a good reference since it's one of the only animated films where you have a story like that really. A maternal leader giving over to a new leader type of plot as well as the emotional sacrifice scenes at the end, a community in danger because of a broken seal (there--the tree being cut down releasing a destructive force, here a magical barrier coming down that had kept chaos and destruction out).

As far as the trick of Mirabel reviving after a death could be something done by Bruno. Since he can see the future, perhaps he knows to some degree that it's coming and does something or other, who knows.