Ethos Education

Encanto: What makes the perfect family?

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Assembly Objective:

What makes the perfect family? This assembly explores the theme of ‘family’, reflecting upon the biblical idea of the church as one body.

Film:

Encanto (Disney, 2022) certificate PG, click here to buy the DVD online.

Bible:

1 Corinthians 12: 26 (Good News Translation)

Supporting Values Education:

Mutual Respect and Tolerance: British society aspires to be inclusive of those with different faiths and beliefs. Likewise, we should also celebrate those with different gifts and abilities.

OPENING ACTIVITY

Odd One Out Quiz

  • Children must identify the ‘odd one out’ from a group of items.

FILM CLIP 1

  • From Encanto (Disney, 2022) certificate PG.
    • Start time: 00:33:54 (Luisa picks up and sets down Mirabel.)
    • End time: 00:37:39 (Mirabel hugs Luisa.)
    • Clip length: 3 minutes, 45 seconds.

If you cannot play this clip from the DVD, instead say, ‘Mirabel notices that something seems to be wrong with her super strong older sister, Luisa. She wants to talk to her about this, but Luisa says that she is fine. However, she then sings a song about how, beneath her tough exterior, she feels under a lot of pressure from everyone in her family and the town. Very sadly, she sings, ‘I’m pretty sure I’m worthless if I can’t be of service’. Luisa dreams of being able to relax, free of everyone’s demands and expectations of her as the super strong sister. At the end of her song, Mirabel gives her a hug.’

FILM CLIP 2

  • From Encanto (Disney, 2022) certificate PG.
    • Start time: 01:24:58 (Mirabel turns towards the family’s ruined house.)
    • End time: 01:30:10 (Mirabel says, ‘Hola, Casita’.)
    • Clip length: 5 minutes, 12 seconds.

If you cannot play this clip from the DVD, instead say, ‘The family are all gathered at the ruins of their magical house. They start to clear up. Mirabel sings a song telling her relatives that they are more than just their gift. Abuela apologises to everyone for being more concerned with keeping the magic alive than with them as people. Bruno returns and is reunited with his sisters. The family are joined by all the people from the town. Together, they rebuild the house. Mirabel and Abuela admire the finished house. They acknowledge that, like the family itself, the house is not perfect. The finishing touch to the house is a golden doorknob for the front door. The family gives Mirabel the honour of inserting it. When she does so, the magic returns to the house.’

TALK

Scripted Talk

Download the Encanto: What makes the perfect family? PowerPoint for use with this talk.

  • [PowerPoint slide 1]
    • Welcome everyone to our assembly this morning. It is based on the film, Encanto. The film takes its name from a fictional village in Colombia, founded by the Madrigal family.
  • [PowerPoint slide 2]
    • The Madrigal family lives in a magical house and all direct descendants of the head of the Madrigal family, Abuela, have magical powers. For example, her daughter, Julieta, can heal people with her cooking. Her other daughter, Carolina, can control the weather and one of her sons, Antonio, can talk to animals. But there is one member of the Madrigal family who appears not to have a magical gift and her name is Mirabel.
  • [PowerPoint slide 3]
    • All of the other magical Madrigals received their ‘gifts’ when they were five. But, on her fifth birthday, Mirabel received nothing. For the last ten years, she has been waiting for a miracle, feeling like the odd one out.
  • [PowerPoint slides 4 – 16]
    • Before we find out more about the story of Encanto, let’s play a game of Odd One Out. I am going to show you a number of slides with four things on them and you’ve got to tell me which is the odd one out and why?
  • [PowerPoint slide 17]
    • Now let’s return to thinking about the movie Encanto and its lead character, Mirabel. She feels like ‘the odd one out’ in her family as she is the only descendent of her grandmother without a magical power.
  • [PowerPoint slide 18]
    • Her sister Isabela seems perfect. She is beautiful and elegant and can make flowers magically appear out of nowhere.
  • [PowerPoint slide 19]
    • Mirabel’s other sister, Luisa, is super strong. It seems like there is nothing in the world that could harm her.
  • [PowerPoint slide 20]
    • In comparison to her sisters, Mirabel feels very ordinary and useless. (Invite the children to reflect upon how they measure up in their own minds to their siblings. Do they feel like ‘the odd one out’ or ‘not special’ in their own family?)
  • [PowerPoint slide 21]
    • However, not everything is as it seems in the perfect Madrigal family. There is talk (or none actually) of a missing uncle Bruno. Mirabel sees cracks in the walls of the family’s magical house that no-one else can see and her sister, Luisa, seems nervous. Mirabel decides to speak with her.
    • Play film clip 1 from Encanto (Disney, 2022) certificate PG.
      • Start time: 00:33:54 (Luisa picks up and sets down Mirabel.)
      • End time: 00:37:39 (Mirabel hugs Luisa.)
      • Clip length: 3 minutes, 45 seconds.
    • If you cannot play this clip from the DVD, instead say, ‘Mirabel notices that something seems to be wrong with her super strong older sister, Luisa. She wants to talk to her about this but Luisa says that she is fine. However, she then sings a song about how, beneath her tough exterior, she feels under a lot of pressure from everyone in her family and the town. Very sadly, she sings, ‘I’m pretty sure I’m worthless if I can’t be of service’. Luisa dreams of being able to relax, free of everyone’s demands and expectations of her as the super strong sister. At the end of her song, Mirabel gives her a hug.’
  • [PowerPoint slide 22]
    • (Allow children and the teachers to discuss the clip). Have they or anyone in their family ever felt the way that Luisa does in the clip? What advice would they give to Luisa if they were Mirabel? How might they help other people who may be feeling under a lot of pressure like Luisa?
  • [PowerPoint slide 23]
    • Isabela, like Luisa, is also feeling under pressure. But the pressure on her is to be beautiful and elegant. She is due to be married off to a boy in the town because Abuela believes it would be ‘best for the family’. (Have the children or anyone they know felt under pressure to be beautiful and elegant like Isabela? Discuss).
  • [PowerPoint slide 24]
    • Isabela cannot take the pressure on her anymore and rebels with the support of Mirabel. She no longer cares so much about her appearance and, instead of flowers, she produces more interesting plants and cacti.
  • [PowerPoint slide 25]
    • But there is one person who doesn’t approve of what Mirabel is doing – Abuela. She wants to control her family and blames Mirabel for the cracks appearing on the walls of their house that everyone can now see. She also blames her for the loss of the family’s magical powers. The pair have an argument, and the house falls down. Mirabel runs away.
  • [PowerPoint slide 26]
    • Mirabel finds long-lost Uncle Bruno (whom no one talks about) and, with his guidance, makes things up with Abuela. The entire family (minus Bruno) makes its way to the ruins of their former magical home. Everything seems lost but Mirabel is hopeful.
    • Play film clip 2 from Encanto (Disney, 2022) certificate PG.
      • Start time: 01:24:58 (Mirabel turns towards the family’s ruined house.)
      • End time: 01:30:10 (Mirabel says, ‘Hola, Casita’.)
      • Clip length: 5 minutes, 12 seconds.
    • If you cannot play this clip from the DVD, instead say, ‘The family are all gathered at the ruins of their magical house. They start to clear up. Mirabel sings a song telling her relatives that they are more than just their gift. Abuela apologises to everyone for being more concerned with keeping the magic alive than with them as people. Bruno returns and is reunited with his sisters. The family are joined by all the people from the town. Together, they rebuild the house. Mirabel and Abuela admire the finished house. They acknowledge that, like the family itself, the house is not perfect. The finishing touch to the house is a golden doorknob for the front door. The family gives Mirabel the honour of inserting it. When she does so, the magic returns to the house.’
  • [PowerPoint slide 27]
    • (Allow children time to reflect upon the clip. How does it make them feel? What do they think Abuela means when she tells people, ‘The miracle is you’? Why do the people in the town help to rebuild the house? What do they mean when they sing, ‘We have no gifts but we are many’? Though less ‘perfect’ than at the start of the film, why is the Madrigal family better by the end?)
    • Like all families in the real world, the Madrigals are not perfect. In fact, the film’s message is that trying to keep up the image of being a perfect family can be very harmful.
    • In the Bible, there is a letter from Saint Paul to a group of Christians who lived in a city in Greece almost two thousand years ago. This group had been arguing about which of them was more special. He wrote that they needed to think of themselves as a single human body. No part of the human body is more special than another, they just carry out different jobs and all work in unison. So, there should be no fighting and arguing between them.
  • [PowerPoint slide 28]
    • He told them to remember the following. (Share the verse with the children. What do they think it means?) This is excellent advice not only for groups of Christians but for all not-so-perfect families everywhere. (Ask children to give examples from Encanto or from their own lives that illustrate the verse).

Headings and Bullets

  • [PowerPoint slide 1]
    • Welcome.
  • [PowerPoint slide 2]
    • The Madrigal Family.
  • PowerPoint slide 3]
    • Mirabel: The Odd One Out.
  • [PowerPoint slide 4]
    • Odd One Out Quiz.
  • [PowerPoint slides 5 – 16]
    • Odd One Out Quiz: Questions and Answers.
  • [PowerPoint slide 17]
    • Mirabel: The Odd One Out.
  • [PowerPoint slide 18]
    • Isabela.
  • [PowerPoint slide 19]
    • Luisa.
  • [PowerPoint slide 20]
    • Mirabel: The Odd One Out.
  • [PowerPoint slide 21]
    • The Perfect (?) Madrigal Family.
  • [PowerPoint slide 22]
    • Luisa.
    • Play film clip 1.
  • [PowerPoint slide 23]
    • Isabela.
  • [PowerPoint slide 24]
    • Isabela rebels.
  • [PowerPoint slide 25]
    • Abuela disapproves.
  • [PowerPoint slide 26]
    • Mirabel finds Bruno.
  • [PowerPoint slide 27]
    • The Madrigal Family.
  • [PowerPoint slide 28]
    • 1 Corinthians 12: 26.

Photo Copyright for Encanto PowerPoint: Slides 1 and 27 Disney / Slides 2 and 21 Disney / Slides 3, 17 and 20 Disney / Slide 4 Pixabay.com / Slide 5 and 6 Pluto Pablo Carlos Budassi Saturn Public domain Venus Public domain Mars Pixnio.com / Slide 7 and 8 Pluto Pixabay.com Mickey Mouse Pixabay.com Donald Duck Pixabay.com Goofy Flickr.com / Slide 9 48 Public domain 199 Public domain (also Slide 10) 2 Nitroller 0 Pixabay.com Slide 11 whale Pixabay.com shark Pixabay.com (also Slide 12) seal Pixabay.com dolphin Pixabay.com / Slide 13 yellow Pixabay.com blue Pixabay.com green Pixabay.com (also Slide 14) red Pixabay.com / Slide 15 and 16 Swiss flag Pixabay.com Iceland flag Pixabay.com Australia flag Pixabay.com Cuban flag Pixabay.com / Slide 18 and 23 Disney / Slide 19 and 22 Pixabay.com / Slide 24 Disney / Slide 25 Disney / Slide 26 Disney / Slide 28 Pixabay.com

RESPOND

Reflection

  • When have you ever felt like ‘the odd one out’?
  • What is your particular ‘gift’? When did you discover it? How does it help/hinder you in your life?
  • When have you ever felt the same pressure as Luisa and Isabela? If never, do you know someone who has felt like either of them?
  • What does Mirabel learn about herself through the course of the film?
  • What does Abuela mean when she tells her family, ‘The miracle is you’?

Prayer

  • Dear God, we thank you for the many gifts that you have given us. May we use these gifts not for ourselves but for the good of everyone. We ask you to bless our homes and our school. May they be places where everyone finds love and acceptance. Help us to admit when we are wrong and not to fear change. May we be willing to give and receive forgiveness. In your name we pray. Amen.

YOU WILL NEED:

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