Bruno Madrigal

Bruno Madrigal is one of the two tritagonists (alongside Isabela) of Disney's 60th animated feature film .
He is the only son of Pedro and Alma Madrigal, the youngest triplet brother of Julieta and Pepa Madrigal, and the maternal uncle of Isabela, Dolores, Luisa, Camilo, Mirabel and Antonio Madrigal. An estranged member of the Madrigal Family, he has the ability to witness visions of future events. Due to his predictions' unpredictable nature and negative outcomes, he is generally shunned by the rest of his family, except his older sister Julieta, and the Encanto townsfolk.
He is voiced by , who also voiced Sid in the Ice Age franchise, and portrayed Luigi in the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie.
==Appearance==
Bruno is a dark-skinned middle-aged man with unkempt, overgrown black hair, a light goatee, and maroon eyes. He wears a hooded green ruana with hourglass patterns on it over a reddish-brown undershirt, trousers, and patterned sandals. When he uses his precognitive powers, his irises glow bright green.
==Biography==
Bruno is the youngest of the Madrigal triplets, after his older sisters Julieta and Pepa, born to Pedro and Alma Madrigal. The Madrigals and other villagers were forced to leave their home due to civil war and, after Pedro sacrificed his life to protect them from a group of oncoming conquerors, were granted a miracle of the "Encanto" magic, which also provided them a magical Casita to live in.
As Bruno and his sisters turned five, they were granted "gifts" in the form of magical powers, with Bruno receiving the ability of predicting the future via rituals. However, this gift would prove to be problematic for him, as his visions were perceived to cause bad luck, most notably with Pepa's wedding, where he jokingly told her that it "looked like rain" (due to her nervous sweating), causing to her overthink his statement and accidentally create a hurricane which ravaged the town.
Bruno's sisters would go on to marry and have children (who would also be gifted with magic), where by then he started keeping to himself, though had some presence in their firstborns' early childhood, seeing that Isabela would have the life of her dreams and her gift of chlorokinesis would enhance while Dolores' love interest would be betrothed to another. When Mirabel, Julieta's youngest, was denied a magical gift, Alma, fearing this to be a bad omen for the magic's presence, requested Bruno to predict the future, and he received a vision of an older Mirabel seemingly being the cause of the Encanto's downfall.
Knowing how everyone would react since they always assume the worst in him, Bruno feared the same for Mirabel if he showed the vision. To protect his niece from further problems, he shatters the vision in his tower and hid away within the Casita's walls, where he would befriend the rats living there and set up residence behind Julieta's kitchen.
===Years Later===
Ten years later, Alma and a now 15-year-old Mirabel separately discover cracks in the Casita, which Bruno would covertly fix from behind the walls. Striving to prove herself by saving the Encanto, Mirabel ventures into Bruno's tower for answers, where she discovers Bruno's shattered vision of her causing the Casita's destruction. Following a mishap in which the entire family finds out about the vision and shuns her for its implications (despite saying that she isn't doing anything), its pieces were recovered by Bruno's rats (presumably sent by Bruno to prevent any more damage). Mirabel follows them into the walls, where she finally meets her uncle for the first time.
As Mirabel learns about Bruno's background and current life, she hatches the idea for another vision to find out how to save the Encanto. They proceed with the ritual in Antonio's room, and the resulting vision apparently depicts Mirabel saving the Encanto by reconciling with her sister Isabela (whose proposal with her betrothed, Mariano, was accidentally ruined in the aforementioned mishap and relationship with Mirabel being very negative). A skeptical Mirabel comes to an angered Isabela to apologize, only to indirectly allow her to break into her true personality, as the two seemingly fix the Casita in their reconciliation. 
However, Alma angrily bursts in and scolds Mirabel for how she has been "hurting" the family with her quest all because she wasn't given a gift. This leads to Mirabel realizing, from Bruno and her sisters' problems, that the magic was actually declining because no one will ever be good enough in Alma's eyes. Her ensuing beratement of Alma results in the Encanto being undone, and thereby the Casita crumbling to the ground. Bruno manages to escape from the destruction after rescuing his rats, but he and the rest of the family lose their magic gifts.
The next morning, after Mirabel and Alma reconcile at the river where Pedro died, Bruno rides in on horseback to tell the latter that Mirabel wasn't the cause of the Casita's ruination and attempting to take the blame and confront his mother, only for her to joyously embrace him, much to his confusion. 
The two bring him back to the Casita's wreckage, where they allow him to reunite with Julieta and Pepa, and he and the rest of the family go on to manually rebuild the Casita with the townspeople's, which results in the Encanto being restored and them regaining their powers.
==Trivia==
*In the film's early stages, Bruno was originally named Oscar Madrigal, but was renamed by its composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, to fit the "Bruno-no-no-no-no" part of his song "We Don't Talk About Bruno".
*Because of his mysterious absence, the foreboding nature of his gift and room, Julieta briefly mentioning his similarities to Mirabel, and having a vision of her, it was easy to assume he was the film's main antagonist, had a hand in Mirabel not getting a gift, and was the cause of the magic dying. With the reveal of his kind nature and the reason why he left, this presumption is rendered moot and gives more insight on the real cause of the Madrigals' problems. 
*There are hints he never actually left like everyone thought and that Dolores was always aware of his whereabouts:
**Dolores mentions the rats, after Mirabel and before Luisa, were one of those who were aware of the cracks. Since Bruno spent his time patching them, the rats were understanding of the cracks' danger.
**Dolores' segment in "We Don't Talk About Bruno" subtly shows a hooded figure with glowing green eyes moving along the balcony and bopping to the beat. Jared Bush confirmed that it was Bruno.
**Dolores speaks of him in present tense instead of past tense. She says, "I can always hear him sort of muttering and mumbling," meaning he was nearby. Her growing fear of him "stuttering and stumbling" could mean concern for his mental well-being rather than apprehension.
**While Isabela talks with Mirabel during the song, Dolores says, in the background, she can hear him, alluding that he was in the walls.
**Dolores knowing, he was in the walls is foreshadowed by the painting hiding the secret passage being next to her door, implying she discovered it before Mirabel and Antonio.
*Bruno's nieces and nephews have no negative opinion of him unlike most of the adults in the family and the townsfolk. Dolores empathizes with him and doesn't reveal him hiding in the walls, Mirabel and Luisa still call him their uncle years after he left, Camilo, due to his love of theatrics, seems to find his feared reputation amusing, Isabela sings something positive about him in "We Don't Talk About Bruno", and Antonio, who was born after their uncle left the family, sees him as a friend after the rats tell him about Bruno.
**Dolores and Isabela's residual care for Bruno can be contributed by them being eleven years old when their uncle left, whereas Mirabel and Camilo were only five and Antonio was not born yet, and thus had a better memory of him even though he was reclusive. While Luisa did not have as much memory of him, she knew about him enough to know he was a good person.
*Bruno is similar to his nieces and nephews:
**He is the black sheep of the family while Isabela is the golden child. Both feel incredible pressure from Alma to put the family first, which she fulfills by being perfect, suppressing her dreams and true self, and he does so by removing himself from the family for being unable to be good enough. Isabela resembles Alma in her younger years while Bruno looks like Pedro; these resemblances likely influencing their relationships with Alma. Alma has given them an affectionate kiss on the cheek that symbolized her character; Isabela's shows Alma's expectations and favoritism while Bruno's symbolizes her realizing her mistakes in those traits. They both show athletic prowess, Isabela as a gymnast and Bruno a freerunner. They wear unique colors; she wears a muted mauve and he a muted green. Isabela is one of the few people who received a positive prediction from Bruno, and she is one of the few people who does not speak negatively of him. It's telling that during her makeover, she gains a green streak in her hair, his signature color.
**His and Dolores' gifts are sensory (his being eyes and her ears) and can overwhelm them. Their gifts can cause civic disturbances if not properly worded and they have no control over what they learn from their gifts. Their doors are the only ones with their eyes open and not smiling. Inversely, Bruno has two older sisters who are the same age as him and is shorter than them while Dolores has two younger brothers at different ages and is taller than them. Additionally, Bruno never married unlike his sisters wherein currently Dolores is in a relationship while her brothers are not.
**He and Luisa struggle with self-worth, but for opposing reasons. Luisa is incredibly proud of her super strength, but is burdened by the responsibility. When she feels herself grow weak, she fears that without her power she will be worthless. In contrast, Bruno feels worthless precisely because of his gift and his inability to ever make his family proud with it. Luisa seems stoic and resilient much like how Bruno is seen as creepy and foreboding, but they are actually gentle, kind individuals with anxiety. Physically, Luisa is the most robust Madrigal and towers over her sisters, but Bruno is the frailest and shorter than both his sisters.
**He wishes his power was acting, while Camilo is a master actor when shapeshifting into other people. They both have a love of theatre but while Camilo prefers to have the spotlight on himself Bruno prefers to watch his rat friends perform. The two have a gift with enormous potential for social chaos. Bruno was never able to make his power fit in with society and instead comes off as creepy and difficult to understand. In contrast, Camilo uses his gift to entertain others and is in charge of welcoming people into the household. This is reflected in their dynamic with Pepa. Bruno tried to soothe Pepa with a joke but accidentally provoked her at her own wedding, whereas Camilo never plays pranks on Pepa and is exceedingly tender with her. As a clue to their connection, they are the only two Madrigals to wear traditional Colombian ruanas and sandals. They also have the most resemblance to Pedro out of their respective generation.
**He and Mirabel are both the youngest of their siblings, having two older sisters (one of whom they have strained relationships). They are both ostracized as family outcasts and had a rocky relationship with Alma, whose expectations they could never live up to. Despite being somewhat broken off and even unfairly persecuted by some members, they truly love their family and wish to make proud, this loyalty making them able to forgive and reconcile. Because of others disbelieving them, they try to ensure the Encanto's magic themselves. Bruno chooses to isolate himself to prevent his vision from coming true, which prevents discord but only allows problems fester while Mirabel continues trying to help, her efforts initially causing confusion but ultimately changing things for the better.
**He and Antonio are the youngest of their siblings and are shy and anxious. They have a similar fondness and gentleness with animals whom they prefer over people. While Bruno was withdrawn from the family before he left, Antonio was close to them. Their oldest sibling is more soft-spoken while their other one is more outspoken. They are also willing to help Mirabel in saving the magic. While they have different relationships with their mothers, they have affectionate nicknames, "Brunito" and "Tonito". They also inherit much of their fathers' features. Bruno's color is green, but his room is warm-colored by the sand while Antonio's is yellow with his room's cool-colored with its lush vegetation.
*Bruno is the only Madrigal who doesn't have a wife and children of his own due to hiding in the walls of Casa Madrigal for 10 years and his infamous reputation prior to his self-exile.
==External Links==
*
*
*
==Navigation==
Category:Cartoon Heroes
Category:Movie Heroes
Category:Fantasy Heroes
Category:Theatrical Heroes
Category:Male
Category:Harbingers
Category:Tragic
Category:Siblings
Category:Mysterious
Category:Magic
Category:Twins/Clones
Category:Comic Relief
Category:Reluctant Heroes
Category:Protectors
Category:Scapegoat
Category:False Antagonist
Category:Selfless
Category:Insecure
Category:Honest
Category:Animal Kindness
Category:Weaklings
Category:Dreaded
Category:Determinators
Category:Protectors of Innocence
Category:Neutral Good
Category:Unwanted
Category:Optimists
Category:Misguided
Category:Nurturers
Category:Loyal
Category:Heroes from the Past
Category:Master Orator
Category:Provokers
Category:Sympathetic
Category:Paranoid
Category:Tricksters
Category:Mentally Ill
Category:Bond Protectors
Category:Nature-Lovers
Category:Strong-Willed
Category:Merciful
Category:Disciplinarians
Category:Honorable