Bruno Madrigal

“	You're gonna say, "Bruno makes bad things happen... Oh, he's creepy and his vision killed my goldfish".	”
—Bruno trying to talk Mirabel out of him having the vision.

Bruno Madrigal is one of the main characters of Disney's feature film Encanto. He is the only son and youngest child of Alma and Pedro, the youngest triplet brother of Julieta and Pepa, the brother-in-law of Félix and Agustín, and the uncle of Dolores, Camilo, Antonio, Isabela, Luisa, and Mirabel. His magical gift is precognition.

Encanto

Description

John Leguizamo, Bruno's voice actor, describes his character: "Well, Bruno is that relative that always says the wrong thing at every party, who wrecks every holiday, because they're always talking too much. And so, that's who I am. I'm Bruno. I'm that uncle that they try to get rid of. And they do get rid of him in this movie. And I relate to him because I had that bit of a issue. I was always talking too much, saying everything nobody wanted to – was afraid to say… I was the black sheep of the family, so I relate to Bruno."

Physical appearance

Bruno is relatively short compared to his sisters, Julieta and Pepa. He has a noticeably pale complexion, hazel green eyes, and messy, curly, greying black hair. He has prominent eyebags under his eyes. The irises of his eyes glow green when he uses his gift. He usually wears a reddish brown shirt cuffed at the elbows and darker pants. Overtop he wears a hooded green ruana (poncho) with darker green patterns and hourglass prints that symbolize his gift. His clothes are visibly worn with his poncho being rough at the edges and his shirt collar being unbuttoned and loose, adding to his ragged, unkempt look. Bruno is frequently seen in the company of numerous rats as well, who sometimes hide on his shoulders or inside his poncho.

Personality

Bruno is a reclusive, anxious person who tries to manage his anxiety by doing superstitious rituals, such as knocking on wood and throwing salt over his shoulder. He is also a goofy person who enjoys acting and telenovelas and encourages his family members to express themselves instead of bottling up their emotions. He loves his family and is willing to sacrifice his place in the family to protect his youngest niece, Mirabel. He sometimes confronts things that he is fearful of by taking on invented personas such as "Hernando," who is scared of nothing, and "Jorge", who makes the spackle.

Bruno has been absent from his family for 10 years, within the walls of La Casa Madrigal. He believes his ability to see the future causes people to assume the worst of his visions, which is why he left (and which also caused him to become more eccentric). Not much is known about him due to his disappearance before the set timeline of the movie, but it is known that whenever he had a prophecy, he inadvertently hurt or angered the people around him, causing him to retreat from society and eventually from his family to avoid hurting anyone. His gift made him paranoid and fearful of his surroundings, and he developed a sand-based ritual to help focus and control his power.

Although Bruno has been hidden from his family for a decade, he still shows love and protection towards them, such as by saving Mirabel from a fall after attempting to run from her. He quickly grows a strong bond with her and, after persuasion from Mirabel and encouragement from Antonio, helps Mirabel with her problem by looking into the future for her. He also attempts to defend Mirabel from his mother's judgment after the house falls.

Relationships

• Alma Madrigal: Bruno's relationship with his mother as he was growing up remains unknown, however, as Bruno got older he became more of an outcast in his family because of his precognition and his relationship with them became strained. Despite this, Alma still turned to Bruno and asked him to see what was happening to the magic after Mirabel didn't get her gift. However when he did look into the future, he decided to hide from the family in Casita's own walls to avoid telling Alma and the rest of the family about the cryptic vision he saw. When he came out of hiding briefly to help Mirabel, he decided to go back into the wall out of fear that Alma would see him. When he confronts Alma at the end of the movie in an attempt to defend Mirabel, Bruno proclaimed that he doesn't care about Alma's opinion of him but is genuinely surprised when Alma greeted him with a hug and kisses him on the cheek.

• Julieta and Pepa Madrigal: Bruno's relationship with his sisters growing up is unknown. But it is clear that his relationship with Pepa became strained when he joked that it looked like it was going to rain on their wedding day. This comment upset Pepa, and because her emotions control the weather, her emotions started swirling out of control and created a hurricane which led to her and Félix's wedding day being not as much as a happy day as Pepa wanted. Despite this, when Bruno sees his sisters for the first time in 10 years, they immediately give him a hug. Bruno apologizes to Pepa and Félix for their wedding, and assures Pepa that he never meant for his joke to get out of hand. Julieta, meanwhile, never really held ill will towards Bruno for anything, and is much more enthusiastic about seeing him again than Pepa, although Pepa does later forgive Bruno.

• Mirabel Madrigal: When Mirabel was younger, Bruno had started keeping to himself and had a little to no contact with her. Despite this, it’s clear that Bruno cares for Mirabel. Examples of this would be after Mirabel didn’t get her gift, Bruno looked into the future and he saw that the house was cracking, the magic was fading and that Mirabel was at the center of it all. At this point Bruno had become accustomed to people assuming the worst, and fearing that Mirabel would be blamed for destroying the magic and be shunned like he was, Bruno kept his vision to himself and decided to disappear to avoid having to tell anyone about what he saw. Another example would be saving Mirabel from falling into a hole in the floor behind the walls of the house after initially attempting to run away from her. He also agreed to help her save the magic by having another vision despite initially not wanting to, and confronting his mother to defend Mirabel despite the fact that Alma and Mirabel had already made amends.

• Antonio Madrigal: Since Bruno had disappeared five years before Antonio was born, Bruno never had any interactions with Antonio before the events of the movie. However, when they first meet they get along fine (Bruno's pet rats even establish friendships with Antonio's animals). Bruno had taken up Antonio’s offer to use his room for the big open space so he would be allowed to have his vision, and Bruno was clearly touched when Antonio offered him a stuffed animal to hang onto to calm his nerves.

History

Past

Bruno, along with his two sisters Pepa, and Julieta, was born to his mother Alma and father Pedro 50 years before the setting of the film. When he was just born, their home was attacked and his family was forced to flee. While trying to cross a river, his father was killed by the pursuers. His heartbroken mother prayed for a miracle, which was immediately granted in the form of a magical candle that blessed the family with an enchanted house (the Casita) and protection from the raiders.

Five years later, Bruno and his two siblings opened their magical doors in the house, revealing their powers. Bruno received the ability to see the future. However, he usually only ever saw bad things, and since his visions always came to pass, this led to him being ostracized and shunned by the community. At some point, he allegedly had visions that a lady's goldfish would die, a man would grow a gut, and the town's priest would lose his hair. He also was in attendance at his sister Pepa's wedding to her husband Félix, and he tried to lighten the mood by joking that it "looked like rain." Pepa, however, believed he was sharing a vision, and her weather-related powers and anxiety caused her to unleash a hurricane on the previously-sunny wedding day.

Abuela, asking Bruno to look into the future.

Although Bruno remained distant from his family due to his bad reputation, he had some impact in Isabela and Dolores' youth, where he had visions where the former would gain a prosperous life and her powers would grow stronger while the latter's true love would be betrothed to another, which unintentionally it would cause various traumas for both of them as they grew up (increasing pressure from Isabela to meet Abuela's expectations of perfection and Dolores would grow up believing she could never be with the man she loved).

Some years later, after his niece Mirabel was unable to open her door to receive a gift, Abuela Alma asked Bruno to look into the future to try and figure out what was happening, as no Madrigal child had ever been denied a door before. When Bruno had his vision, he saw Mirabel standing in front of a shattered Casita, but the vision also showed her standing in front of it whole and unharmed. Bruno thought that might mean she would either save the Casita or destroy it. However, since he knew the reputation his visions had, he was sure the whole family would believe she was destined to ruin the Casita. To prevent Mirabel from being shunned in the same way he was, Bruno left the family. However, he loved them too much to truly go away, so he stayed hidden in the walls of the house for 10 years, unbeknownst to anyone (except Dolores, who could hear him the whole time and knew he never left). He spent much of his time within the walls patching up cracks as they manifested.

Encanto

Eventually, Bruno was discovered in the walls by Mirabel, who pursued him through the house. He initially outran her, but went back when he heard her calling for help, catching her before she fell down a hole. He fell into the hole himself, only to discover that it wasn't very deep. Mirabel begged Bruno to explain his vision to her, following him back to the space he'd been occupying adjacent to the kitchen and dining room. Over the time that he'd been hiding there, he had amassed a collection of odds and ends, as well as several pet rats, which he used to entertain himself by training them to act out telenovelas. Mirabel convinced Bruno to explain his vision, but Bruno initially refused to help Mirabel further when she asked him for another vision. She got him to agree when Antonio, with the aid of the rats to whom he could speak, also discovered them and offered up his room for Bruno to use for his vision.

Bruno lining up sand in preparation for the ritual.

Bruno accompanied Mirabel into Antonio's room, where he laid out a sand circle as part of his ritual. The house continued to shudder around them, prompting Mirabel to urge Bruno to hurry, but Bruno insisted they couldn't rush the future. Once the ritual circle was set up, Bruno warned Mirabel that she might not like what she would see, and expressed fear that she would blame him for causing the future. She reassured him that she didn't think he caused the future. Antonio offered Bruno his stuffed jaguar toy "for the nerves," and Bruno relaxed and began his vision. The vision initially went the same way it had before, and Bruno wanted to quit, but Mirabel insisted on pressing on. She saw a golden butterfly and pointed it out. She and Bruno followed it, leading to a vision of the candle glowing brighter and Mirabel hugging an obscured figure. The image cleared to reveal Isabela, and the vision ended, leaving a glass tablet with the vision etched into it. Bruno was pleased to see a positive image of Mirabel and Isabela hugging, but when he saw that Mirabel was not happy with it, he threw the glass tablet aside in frustration.

Bruno encouraged Mirabel to seek Isabela out and make amends with her, telling Mirabel that she was exactly what their family needed. He then went back into the walls for fear that his mother might find him. Before doing so, however, he invited Mirabel to come visit, and Mirabel in turn promised that after she saved the miracle, she would bring him home.

Bruno escaping the crumbling Casita

Later on that day, Casita began crumbling after Mirabel and Abuela Alma had a fight. As the house was coming down, Bruno ran through the walls grabbing his pet rats. He then put a bucket on his head and rammed through a nearby wall, falling out onto the lawn behind the house.

After Casita fell, Bruno found a horse and rode out of the valley to find Mirabel, who runs away in guilt and sadness. He discovered her with Alma at the river, and rode up on them, yelling that none of what had happened was Mirabel's fault. He argued that he was the one who gave Mirabel the vision, and that she was only trying to help. He insisted that he didn't care what his mother thought of him, only to be suddenly embraced by Alma, who called him "Brunito" and kissed his cheeks, leaving him confused.

Bruno being kissed on the cheek by Abuela

When Bruno, Mirabel and Alma returned to the rubble of the house, Alma directed Bruno to reunite with his sisters, who immediately swept him up in a hug. He then began a string of apologies, including apologizing for Pepa's wedding and encouraging her to show her emotions freely. His sisters, and Agustín, stopped him and expressed their joy that he was home. Bruno later helped with rebuilding Casita and encouraged Mirabel to place the final piece, a doorknob, onto the front door. Upon doing so, the magic returned to Casita, and Bruno, along with everyone else present, was pulled inside to the courtyard for a celebration. Bruno joined his family for a photo, shouting their cheer with them: "La Familia Madrigal."

Powers and Abilities

Bruno having a vision.

Bruno was gifted the power of precognition and is therefore able to see the future. Bruno states that he needs a large open space to properly see his visions, initiating these spaces by pouring a circle of sand and burning leaves. Once initiated his irises glow emerald-green and the circle of sand creates a dome of sand. Glowing visions are visible within the dome of moving sand, and are mostly green in color. Focusing on a specific part of a vision seems to make the image clearer. Should anyone else be within the circle, they would also be capable of seeing the visions, and may help Bruno focus on certain parts of it. When visions end, Bruno creates a thick slab of emerald green glass that contains the final result of the vision. If the vision has two possible outcomes, the slab of glass created can show both by tilting it at different angles.

Trivia

• Bruno was named Oscar early in production (as seen with some concept art for him), but the crew had to seek other options for his name due to how common people named Oscar Madrigal are in real-life. So, Lin-Manuel Miranda was given potential names and settled on "Bruno" as it could rhyme with the lyric "Bruno, no, no, no" in "We Don't Talk About Bruno".
• Bruno's birthday is on October 17^th.
  • This means that his star sign is Libra.
  • This date is significant in Colombia for multiple reasons. It's the anniversary of the start of the Thousand Days War (1899) and is one of two dates used for Columbus Day and Día de la Raza, a day to celebrate the ethnic and racial diversity of Colombia.
• Notably, while Julieta's side of the family wears cool colors (such as blue, purple and white) and Pepa's side wears warm colors (such as red and yellow), Bruno's outfit consists of earth tones (such as green and brown).
• According to the screenplay of the film, Bruno has obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
• Due to him hiding in the walls for a decade and likely his reputation amougnst the villagers (until the end of the film), Bruno is the only first generation Madrigal to not be married.
• During Dolores' segment of "We Don't Talk About Bruno", if you look closely, you could see Bruno in the background bopping his head to the music.
• He is the second Madrigal to reveal to have a door with his eyes open (due to his sensory powers), the first being Dolores.
• The reason the creators chose green for Bruno's future-telling color is because in Colombia, emeralds can predict the future, and that emeralds are common in the country, with Muzo being its largest mine and that the country produces 90% of the world's supply.^{[citation needed]}
• According to the books Disney Encanto: The Deluxe Junior Novelization and Disney Encanto: A Tale of Three Sisters:
  • Bruno’s room has a picture/sculpture of him with the eyes scratched out.
  • Bruno carries a gilded case of matches in his ruana.
  • Bruno’s ruana is three sizes too big.
  • Bruno doesn’t wash his underwear.
• Bruno's favorite food is ajiaco.

Gallery

• Posters
• Stock Art
• Concept Art
• Screenshots

Poster

Second Poster

Pepa's representation of Bruno at her wedding in "We Don't Talk About Bruno".

Bruno sees Mirabel in his vision

Bruno annoyed

Bruno reassembles his vision

Bruno feeds a rat