- “♫ I'm the strong one...
I'm not nervous...
I'm as tough as the crust of the earth is... ♫” - ―Luisa while singing Surface Pressure.
Luisa Madrigal is a major character in Disney's 2021 animated feature film Encanto. She is the middle child of Julieta and Agustín Madrigal, the younger sister of Isabela, and the older sister of Mirabel. A strapping bodybuilder who is described as the "rock" of the family, Luisa was gifted with super strength.
Background[]
Born into the Madrigal family, Luisa is the middle daughter of Julieta and Agustín, younger sister of Isabela and older sister of Mirabel. In addition to being the niece of Félix, Pepa, and Bruno, Luisa is also the cousin of Dolores, Camilo, and Antonio. In the early years of her life, Luisa lived in the nursery with her sister Isabela and cousin Dolores who were two years older than her. When Isabela and Dolores received their gifts and moved into their own rooms, Luisa was left in the nursery by herself until the births of Camilo and Mirabel who were four years younger. On the night of Luisa's fifth birthday, Isabela made her a flower crown as a birthday present and at her gift ceremony she received the gift of superhuman strength. After Luisa received her gift, she spent the rest of the night doing tricks with it for the townspeople and subsequently moved out of the nursery and into her own room.
Luisa is good-natured and tough, but deep down feels vulnerable since she has a lot of pressure from her Abuela Alma. Luisa takes care of all the family's chores and her community's chores with her super-strength and is relied upon a lot, but not a lot of people ask for how she feels about doing all the chores. She is outwardly tough and headstrong and appears to not care about the expectations set on her, and only shows her positive sides, such as her kind, brave, and obvious strong sides. However, Luisa also has anxiety about what will happen when she messes up and can no longer be relied on, which she hides from people around her.
Official Description[]
- Luisa is considered the rock of the family. She is physically the strongest and carrying the heaviest weights, including the emotional ones. Luisa is also sensitive and secretly bursting with oversized emotions that conflict with her tough persona.[2]
- Luisa is one of Mirabel's older sisters. She is an astonishing athlete with the gift of super strength. She helps the town in any way that she can, even picking up and parking donkeys. At times when Luisa works to be responsible, her emotions are as mighty as her muscle.[3]
Development[]
Like the rest of the Madrigal family, Luisa was designed to reflect "family archetypes that are immediately relatable".[4] As in the final production, the studio created Luisa from the start as the brawny and dependable of her family with a soft feminine side to her, playing with the balance of a strong figure. She was originated from the beginning as the person that others turn to for all the heavy lifting and the one her entire family trusts, as she carries all the family burdens without complaining.[5] For her appearance, Luisa's skirt design was influenced by many Colombian dance outfits in which dancers can move and perform complicated dance moves without complications. During the creation process, the studio also took inspiration from a lot of female Olympic athletes (mostly hammer and shot-put throwers) to create Luisa's look, expressions, and movements.[6]
Jessica Darrow, her voice actor, describes her character: "I love Luisa so much, too, because of how much we are alike. We are both tough crybabies, you know? We got the tough exterior, but soft, mushy, gushy center. And, you know, we're very much the rock of both of our families, I think. We definitely keep it all together… she's the emotional superhero of the film." [7]
Personality[]
Luisa happily riding a unicorn in her fantasy.
True to how Mirabel described her, Luisa is the strongest and most reliable member of the family. Hardworking and determined, having been gifted with super strength, both her family and the people of the town rely on her power. In turn, Luisa greatly appreciates that she can be of significant contribution to her community. She is one of the noblest members of the family as she happily enjoys helping others whenever she gets the chance, showing her generosity. Luisa is shown to be very tolerant doing anything anyone asks of her with no complaint despite people rarely ever showing her appreciation. In contrast to her imposing appearance, Luisa is relatively quiet and doesn't much enjoy being the center of attention. She has a taste for things that can be considered cute or childish, such as rainbows, unicorns, and pink clouds. In addition to that she collects stuffed animals in her room, which shows that she has a weakness for cute things.[8] Kind and helpful, Luisa gets along not only with much of her family but also with many of the townspeople, displaying a friendly attitude when they ask her for help or want her to do a job.
Luisa hugging Mirabel after telling her about her insecurities and pressures.
She becomes quite affectionate with her family and adores them more than anything else. Luisa's sisters both had better relationships with her than initially with each other. Unlike some of the family members who shun Mirabel for not having a gift, Luisa seems to get along just fine with her, with neither sister showing animosity to the other. She also has a good relationship with Isabela, unlike Mirabel or Camilo, who have a bad opinion of Isabela as the golden child of the family. Luisa does not have any resentment towards Isabela as the favorite grandchild and even has some admiration for her older sister. During Antonio's gift ceremony, Luisa can be seen lovingly holding her hand on her mother Julieta's shoulder. Despite the harsh treatment Alma had recently given her and her sisters, as the house collapsed Luisa's first concern was her grandmother's well-being, catching her when the family was pushed out by the house. In addition, Luisa does not have any negative opinions of her uncle Bruno either, instead seeing him as a good man like Isabela and her cousin Dolores do, happily accepting him back.
Luisa in panic after losing her gift and not being able to do the family's chores.
Despite being powerful and reliable, Luisa secretly feels burdened by the pressure of fulfilling everyone's demands, and would feel insignificant if she cannot contribute the way Abuela, her family, and the community expect her to. Luisa can become very dependent on her gift and without it she believes she is nothing. She also feels like she always needs to be tough and be ready for what she needs to carry or burden. She is willing to hide her feelings in order to follow the wishes of others, believing that it is her duty to do what others tell her, although she also expresses a desire to be able to relax and not have to bear the "crushing weight" of everyone's expectations. Although heavily stressed, Luisa keeps all of her struggles to herself, only telling Mirabel after the latter persistently questions her once she learned from Dolores that her eye twitched on the night that their family's miracle faltered. As Luisa begins losing her gift, she becomes easily distressed and pressured as she can't use her power the way she used to and fulfill her role in the family, berating herself and calling herself horrible things.
Luisa learning to relax and overcoming her insecurities.
Not feeling useful without her super strength, she began to cry during this time around, sobbing uncontrollably after her power begins to fade, showing a more sensitive and pessimistic side to her. Luisa's depression was so great that at dinner with the Guzmáns, she could hardly speak or walk without beginning to sob and she ran away in anguish when her father chased her to help her. When Alma blames Mirabel for the family's problems, all Luisa and Isabela can do was shamefully look down, showing that Alma doesn't view them any different from the way she views Mirabel. As Mirabel defends Luisa and Isabela by pointing out that they will never be good enough for Alma, Luisa (along with Isabela) avoids looking at Alma, but looks incredibly hurt, indicating she knows that Mirabel is right that she can never be strong enough as Alma wishes. Once Alma apologizes to the family for pressuring them to be perfect and Bruno returns to the family, Luisa comes to understand that she is worth more than her gift and learns not to bottle her emotions, but rather express them healthily while taking time to enjoy herself and share happiness with her family.
Physical appearance[]
Luisa is a 19-year-old[9] young Colombian woman with a muscular build, who is significantly taller than everyone else in her family. She has tan skin, hazel eyes, and brown hair tied up in a bun by a red ribbon. Of all her sisters, Luisa is the one who most physically resembles her father, Agustín, since she inherits his skin color, physical features, and facial expressions. She wears a white, short and puffy sleeved top, and the bottom and neckline is hemmed by a red string with a red bow at the neckline, and a long indigo skirt with dark purple and pink stripes at the bottom over a pair of white pantalettes with lilac ribbons. Luisa also has felt bracelets: on the left, red and denim and on the right, red denim and yellow. She wears dark blue espadrilles with two dark blue ankle straps. To symbolize her super strength, Luisa's skirt has many free weights at the bottom, along with weights on her bracelets. Compared to the earrings of other women in the family, Luisa's are smaller to the point that they are hardly visible and are the same color as those of her mother.
Powers and abilities[]
Luisa lifting two large and heavy pianos with little effort.
Luisa has the power of superhuman strength; allowing her to lift large and heavy things. Her strength is so great she is capable of moving sizable animals, such as donkeys, people, large objects, such as barrels, or even heavy things, such as buildings and bridges with ease. She can also lift an entire church, as well as kick a tilting house back into place. Though significantly weaker, Luisa's natural strength is still stronger than an average human. Unlike other members of her family who struggle in some degree to contain and control their power, there is no indication that Luisa cannot control her strength. She can easily give Mirabel a hug without hurting her or carry objects smaller than her without destroying them, showing she has good control of her super strength.
Luisa's gift also grants her increased durability, as she is shown to throw a rock into the air and does not even flinch when it falls on her. However, she can still be injured, though it's unknown to what extent.[10] Having a power related to muscles and movements, she is also good at physical activities. Upon getting up in the morning, Luisa was shown running on a treadmill that the Casita made while carrying heavy weights in her hands. She was able to do this while keeping a consistent speed and not slowing down. While not directly mentioned, it is seen in "Surface Pressure" that she has a good knowledge of history and Greek mythology.
Appearances[]
Encanto[]
Luisa lifting a bridge while working in the village.
Luisa's first appearance is in a flashback where Abuela Alma explains to a five-year-old Mirabel about how their family was blessed with magic and how the Miracle Candle will give each family member a magical gift on their fifth birthday. In the present, Luisa is seen exercising outside her magic door with Casita's help before preparing to start the day and heading to the village with the rest of her family to help around. During "The Family Madrigal", Luisa dancing along with the rest of her relatives and helping the townspeople in building houses. She also greets Mirabel and the Town Kids kindly as she works. Luisa does different jobs in the town, such as carrying around construction equipment and moving a bridge with her super strength, running to help other people when called. Since the day was also her youngest cousin's, Antonio, fifth birthday and gift ceremony, Luisa soon returned home to help prepare for the celebration. She begins to carry and reposition some heavy things on Alma's orders for Antonio's party.
Luisa holding up a plate of snacks while some children are happily on her back.
By nightfall and before Antonio's ceremony was about to begin, Luisa along with her cousin Camilo were given the task of greeting the guests to the Casita, using her gift to regroup the guests' animals. Later, Luisa can be seen putting out snacks in preparation for Antonio's party while small children hang off of her back and arms, much to her confusion. She is joined by her parents and cousins as they all listen intently to Alma's speech before Antonio walks to her door. Luisa hugs Camilo and her mother Julieta when Mirabel walks Antonio to her door and after her cousin received his gift, she happily cheers along with her relatives as Antonio rides his jaguar into his new room. As the party moved into Antonio's magical bedroom, Luisa was in awe at the sight and Abuela gathered the family for a photo to celebrate Antonio's gift, which everyone unknowingly excluded Mirabel from. After Mirabel interrupted Antonio's party to warn everyone of the house being in danger, Mirabel led everyone out of the room to show them the cracks but there weren't any. While trying to brighten the mood, Luisa held the piano for her father Agustín as he played a song, and although she was smiling, she had a nervous look on her face.
Luisa's eye twitching from stress during breakfast.
The next morning before breakfast, Dolores reveals that Luisa has been worried about magic because her eye was twitching all night, making Mirabel want to question her. After setting the table for breakfast, Luisa sits next to her mother Julieta and Mirabel tries to ask Luisa what she knows about the issues with the magic, causing Luisa's eye starts twitching. Mirabel pounds the table in excitement and starts yelling, which prompts Alma to have the house move Mirabel's seat from Luisa's side to her side. When the family announcements were over, Luisa left the table in a hurry to go into town. She moved the town's church, and was requested to reroute the river as well as put the donkeys back in the barn. While Luisa was picking up the donkeys, Mirabel follows her and starts asking her what she was hiding about the magic. Luisa says that she isn't hiding anything, and she just has a lot of chores to do so Mirabel should just go home. While Mirabel continues to insist on the subject, Luisa is visibly irritated but continues to insist that there is nothing to say. When her sister points out that Luisa is clearly worried about something, Luisa yells that it's okay, much to her surprise and the former of whom apologizes to Mirabel for her outburst.
Luisa expressing her pressures and insecurities in her role in the family.
Luisa continues to insist that there isn't anything wrong and she isn't nervous, although she says this with a forced smile and with her eye twitching. To the confusion of Mirabel and the donkeys present, she begins throwing and destroying rocks at random before expressing her true feelings in "Surface Pressure". Luisa expresses her fears about not being able to handle her responsibilities through different disastrous scenarios which she has to save and protect Mirabel. She also talks about her daily anxiety about the exorbitant amount of pressure she's always under, and her desire to be able to not have to deal with the weight of everyone's expectations. When she was done, Mirabel gave her a hug and told her she thinks she carries too much, and Luisa hugs Mirabel back, squeezing her so hard that she cracks her joints. Luisa states that she thinks she overdoes it sometimes, and confides in Mirabel that when she saw the cracks the previous night, she felt her powers becoming weaker. When Luisa is reminded of the donkeys, she puts Mirabel down and starts to recollect the donkeys.
Luisa, in distress, proclaiming that she has lost her gift.
When Mirabel asks Luisa to expand on what she's talking about, and again asks her what she thinks is hurting the magic, Luisa says she doesn't know. However, she did tell Mirabel that at some point she heard the elders in their family talking about Bruno, and he had a "horrible vision" about the magic before he left. Luisa then tells Mirabel that if she wants to know what's going on with the magic, she needs to go into their uncle's tower and find his vision. Luisa urges her sister to be careful, telling her that Bruno's room is off-limits for a reason. Shortly after this, after Mirabel had run into Alma after having collected Bruno's vision from his room, Luisa came running into the house and hysterically explained to Alma that she was losing her gift. She states that her and Mirabel had a talk about how Luisa shouldn't carry so much, and so she tried not to but then she realized she was going to let everyone down, and when she picked up the donkeys and threw them back into the barn the donkeys were actually heavy. Luisa then started crying and ran into her room. As the Madrigal family prepares for dinner with the Guzmáns during "We Don't Talk About Bruno", Luisa is seen struggling to lift a plant pot and is seen sobbing from not being able to do it properly.
Luisa crying at Mariano and Isabela's proposal dinner.
During dinner, Señora Guzmán says that Mariano wanted to sing a song and requests that Luisa bring over the piano. Luisa agrees but she gets up from the table crying. When she comes back into the dining room, Luisa struggles to drag the piano across the floor and she cries about her inability to be able to lift the piano. As dinner starts spiraling out of control with the spread of Bruno's vision about the magic fading, Luisa runs out of the dining room, crying while calling herself a loser as Agustin tries to console her. Later that day, after Alma enters the house angry at the chaos caused by Isabela's power in the town, Luisa stands next to her older sister while Alma blames Mirabel for all the family's troubles because she wasn't given a gift. Luisa with Isabela, who were equally hurt by how little Alma thinks of them, shamefully looks down. As their parents stand by their side, Isabela and Luisa avoids looking at Alma when Mirabel defends them by saying that they will never be good enough for Alma, even with their gifts and points out that Luisa won't be strong enough for her. Luisa and the rest of the family see how Alma and Mirabel's argument escalate to yelling and accusations that the other was the one hurting the magic and the family.
Luisa is moved when Mirabel tells her that she is worth more than her magical gift.
By the time the heated argument dies down, the ground beneath them starts cracking and the house starts falling apart as the candle starts fading fast. While all this is happening, Luisa stands still in shock unable to move due to fear and loss of her gift. She watched helplessly as Mirabel, Camilo, and Isabela all tried to reach the candle despite the danger it represented. As the magic starts fading, and the house starts collapsing, Mirabel tries to save the candle while the Casita forces everyone back and Luisa catches Alma as they are all thrown out of the house except Mirabel. After Casita collapsed completely and the candle dies along with the magic, Julieta noticed Mirabel went missing so the Madrigals and the other townspeople spread out to search for her. By the next day, Luisa and the family saw that Mirabel and Alma (who reconcile with each other) returned to Casita's ruins to reunited with their family. During "All of You", as Alma apologizes to her family for holding on too tight, fearing she would lose them too after losing Pedro, and refines the miracle as simply themselves rather than the magic, Abuela also beckons Bruno hiding behind the rubble to rejoin the family. Although Luisa is briefly confused by the sudden return of her uncle, she along with the rest of the family have accepted him back into the family.
Luisa happy to regain her Super Strength by moving a plant pot.
With the family all together, Mirabel rallied them to fix the house. When Luisa tries to lift some rubble from the house, Mirabel tells her that she's more than just her gift which makes Luisa emotional. Moment after the entire town also pitched in as thanks for all the Madrigals had done for them. When Isabela says it's a dream when they work together, and compliments Luisa's strength, Luisa admits that she cries sometimes, and Isabela and Mirabel give her a comforting hug while saying they cry too. Luisa acknowledges that she isn't as strong as she used to be, but she's getting smarter, and she helps her sisters plant new cacti. After completing the house, Mirabel added a doorknob the family made just for her to the front door, which caused Casita to spring back to life, and the magic returned to the entire Encanto. Luisa moves a plant pot that she struggled to move earlier, and is happy that her strength is back. The donkeys then lift her up and throw her into a hammock and give her a drink which she enjoys even with the hailstorm coming from her aunt Pepa. The Madrigals then celebrated the return of their home and gifts with a family picture while Casita squished the whole family closer together unexpectedly.
Once Upon a Studio[]
Luisa makes an appearance in the 100th anniversary short, carrying Rutt, Tuke, Maggie, Grace, Mrs. Calloway, Cyril Proudbottom, and Small One when all the characters are posing for the group photo.
Video games[]
Disney Dreamlight Valley[]
While absent from the game, Mirabel mentions Luisa when she says that the player taking on all of Dreamlight Valley's responsibilities reminds her of Luisa. Mirabel will also talk about Luisa and Isabela when the player asks her if she has any sisters and if they get along.
Other games[]
Luisa was initially slated to appear in Disney Sorcerer's Arena, being referenced as a playable character within Bruno's special abilities, but was left unreleased when the game was shut down.
Alongside costumes of Mirabel, Bruno, and the Miracle Candle, a purchasable costume of Luisa was added to Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout in December 2022.
Relationships[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Luisa's birthday is on November 14, coinciding with the Day of the Colombian Woman; set on the date of the execution of Colombian spy and war heroine Policarpa Salavarrieta.[11][12]
- Early in production, the character was to be named Lydia.[13]
- The name "Luisa" means "famous warrior".
- English-speaking fans frequently misspell Luisa's name as "Louisa", due to "Louis" being the English equivalent to the name "Luis".
- The animators struggled to animate Luisa's model with the correct muscle mass throughout the animation process.
- Despite being the middle of her sisters, Jessica Darrow (Luisa's voice actress) is actually the youngest of the actresses voicing the Madrigal Sisters, being nine years younger than Diane Guerrero (Isabela's actress) and fourteen years younger than Stephanie Beatriz (Mirabel's actress).
- The first animation dialogue test with Jessica Darrow contains a line that didn't appear in the film. She says to a donkey, "You shouldn't have seen that, I'm sorry. I'm fine. I'm strong. I just...god, there's just so much pressure, you know?"[14]
- According to the novel Disney Encanto: A Tale of Three Sisters, Luisa's room is a maze of weights and pulleys. There are ropes to climb, bars to swing across, and a shower to clean herself up.
- Concept art reveals that her room would have resembled a beach side villa with exercise equipment. Another had it be a rocky canyon and one had it resemble a boring room with a secret entrance to a theme park.
- Luisa is ambidextrous.[15]
- Even when the magic fades, Luisa keeps her muscular physique. Antonio's ceremony shows that gaining a magical gift doesn't actually cause a visible change, and he physically looks exactly the same after receiving his. Luisa's super strength was bestowed by magic, but she gradually bulked up over time due to years of constant heavy lifting, so her larger, stronger frame is completely natural.
- One of the lyrics to "Surface Pressure", the song centered on Luisa's hidden anxiety, is "I'm as tough as the crust of the earth is." The crust is the earth's weakest layer.
- Another analogy in her song is "Was Hercules ever like, 'Yo, I don't wanna fight Cerberus?'". Except in mythology, Heracles didn't have to fight Cerberus; he was simply tasked to capture Cerberus and bring it back to Eurystheus. In some versions of the myth he did choose to subdue Cerberus by force, typically Hades further permits him to take Cerberus if Heracles can subdue the beast without weapons, but in other versions he is simply given Cerberus in chains by Persephone. This reflects that Luisa needs to learn to ask for help, instead of trying to shoulder it for the sake of obligation.
- Many donkeys also showing up during Luisa's scenes, referencing that she's become a beast of burden, always doing the grunt work for everyone else.
- She shares her name with Luisa Rivera from the Pixar film Coco, which came out four years earlier. Both are also immediate relatives to the main protagonist, the former being Mirabel's older sister and the latter Miguel's mother.
References[]
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External links[]
Luisa Madrigal on Encanto Wiki
- Luisa on the Heroes Wiki
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