What Makes a Character? Ft. Encanto

by Aaron Argot

The cornerstone of every story - film, television show, book, has to be its characters. They are the instruments that move the story along. One of my favorite things to do is ask people who their favorite characters are in a movie or tv show. Not surprisingly, a lot of the time we have different answers. People are going to have different preferences, and how good a character is can be subjective. But how much of it is subjectivity? There are clear ways to tell if a character is stronger than another. The most basic example is that the main character is likely to be preferred to that bartender that doesn’t even have a name in the script. There are a number of “categories” that can be looked at to see how some characters might be preferred over others. Each of these categories are more objective by themselves and it is the blending of them in a character is what can make characters stand out. Encanto (Byron Howard, Jared Bush, 2021), with its large and diverse cast makes it the perfect example.

The first category, and also the one which holds the most weight, is depth. This is basically all of the information about a character that impacts the story. Character elements that this includes are things like a character’s backstory, and important details about that character, such as Mirabel’s exclusion of a magical gift, that proves itself a hardship for her to deal with, or Bruno’s reputation of making bad things happen. Oftentimes, the more screen time (or word count) a character has, the more fleshed out they will become and are more likely to stand out as a character than those with less, although this is in no way a fixed rule. The depth of a character changes as the media goes along, and is why we can go from hating a character to loving them. This is shown chiefly through Abuela and Isabella, who are generally disliked by the audience and grow to become liked by the audience. That change that was able to happen through the use of development and revelation is what made them stronger characters.   However, that is just one example, villain characters and other characters that the story has us dislike can be stronger characters than most. Character depth is the most objective aspect when looking at whether a character is notable. Characters in Encanto who have lots of depth include Mirabel, Abuela, Bruno, and Isabella. 

The next category which might be equally as important for people when choosing who their favorite character is as depth, is personality. A character having a strong personality does hold a lot of merit for the likeability of that character. And there is something to say about strong personalities and the objectivity of a character's importance and presence in a story. Someone’s personality affects how they act,and character’s decisions often correlate to their depth. But even if a character just has a strong personality or just one that is likable, then that character can be called good. This varies from person to person and is less concrete and measurable, but from person to person, a character’s personality can be worth more than the depth of other characters and propel them to the rank of that person’s favorite. Even though personality is mostly subjective, I think that Pepa’s side of the family has a lot of personality. Pepa herself is vulnerable to mood swings, Félix is affectionate and uplifting, Dolores is more mellow and makes little squeaks when she’s talking, Camilo is funny and passionate, and Antonio is understanding and sometimes sarcastic. Personality can add to the atmosphere of a story and ultimately make it better, so it does play an objective role.

The last category is likely the most subjective, and that is the aesthetic of a character. This includes different aspects about their identity and their appearance. This is one of the reasons it is good to have a diverse cast, so that the story does not end up being stale, and there ends up being a variety of characters people can prefer or identify with. In Encanto, there is a diverse range of ages, skin colors, and other aspects of their appearance. But there is another thing that is similar to aesthetics that is mostly not linked with appearance, and that is abilities. Some people like Batman over Superman for no greater reason than the skill set. Of course, oftentimes there is greater meaning connected to it, like sometimes someone will like Luisa because she is strong and that’s cool. But some might like Luisa because she is strong and helps her community and due to that has an overwhelming sense of pressure put on her. So while there definitely is a surface level of preference, there are also underlying reasons for liking some abilities over others.
Every good story has good characters. Most people have different preferences in which characters they like. The different aspects of a character, such as their depth, personality, and overall aesthetics, are what guide people to those preferences. When there are usually general similarities in which characters most people like, there is a case to be made for certain characters to be objectively better in the story. And while popularity is not the strongest or most objective metric, examining those character aspects helps to uncover why someone might like one character over another.