ISABELA'S VILLAIN SONG | Animatic | What Else Can I Do | by Lydia the Bard

I’d hide all your plants when watching this one if I were you
Stream the song here! distrokid.com/hyperfollow/lydiathebard/isabellas-villain-song-feat-frostudio-chambersonic-3

"Tend to a plant with poison and expect a flower are you crazy?" THAT LINE WENT SO HARD.

Mirabel and now Isabela? I hope we get a Luisa villain song next. They've treated her as just free labour since she was just a little girl. Let her be selfserving for once!!

And Julieta didn't do anything to even talk to her daughters? She fusses over mirabel but leaves her other two to deal.

I would kill to see a Dolores villain song, like how she's just so sick of holding everyone's secrets, the family's verbal burdens. And maybe her envy for Isabela.

I loved how you made Abuela look indifferent and “are you done?” Until she saw Isabella cry in front of her. The Abuela was like, oh no.

This kind of makes you wonder; if Mirabel hadn't of found Bruno and tried to stop the prophecy, just about all the grandchildren in the Madrigal family could have ended up as villains.
Mirabel was always treated like an outcast.
Isabela was always expected to be perfect and marry a man she didn't love.
Luisa was always expected to be the strong one and bury her own "weakness".
Dolores not only had to keep dark secrets she overheard, but watched as her cousin was going to marry the man she loved just so she could have a "perfect" life. So, while she heard everyone else's troubles, no one ever heard her's.
Camilo is always having to be someone else and might not even know who he is deep down inside since people always see him as helpful when he's anyone else.
And Bruno was seen as a harbinger of doom just by trying to warn people of events in an attempt to help them, but always blamed him for his vision's outcomes despite being powerless to stop it all by himself.

This and the Mirabel song highlight something I’ve always felt was true: that ENTIRE family demonstrated restraint of unprecedented levels to not lash out at Alma for EVERYTHING she’s done.

"Strangling figs, hanging vines" sounds WAY darker in this context, oh my god!?

The most eerie part of these Encanto covers is how little the story needs to change to make them the villain. Isabela and Mirabel both get treated the same, the only difference being they finally snapped

I think my favorite of all this is Alma's expression the whole time. She doesn't give anything away until the very end, and even then, just a slight crack to show her true emotions in that stone-faced appearance. The ambiguity of Alma's feelings is brilliant here too: Is she sad because she messed up, or is she sad because her perfect flower wasn't perfect after all? Great work!

I love the fact that Isabella doesn’t trap Mirabel in the vines, and it’s an amazing details because Mirabel never went with the family and praised her for perfection. Yes, she was jealous and argued with Isabella, but Mirabel knew that Isabella was also a person, not an item or something to use. Isabella becoming the villain also means she would most likely recognize the two sisters being treated the same, abused and both opinions left unheard. Amazing detail, purely an awesome song and story.

I can definitely relate to the “I’m not perfect, no matter how hard I try I’ll never be good enough” feeling as an oldest child in a family of four kids

the really extra sad part is she's also mad at Mariano when we all know he would have happily called off the wedding and engagement if he knew how much it was hurting her and how she didn't want it to happen

I’ve always found it odd how the movie always says that Isabela’s gift is being perfect, obviously her gift is making plants. There’s lines in the movie saying “she’s never had a bad hair day” as if that’s part of her gift of being perfect, that’s unlikely sure but it can happen without supernatural intervention, the clearly magical thing about her is *conjuring plant life from thin air!*
It makes me wonder how her door ceremony thing went; Isabela making some flowers and the people being amazed, I imagine Abuela saying something like “she’s perfect” as a little girl conjuring pretty flowers is so right, makes it so easy to make her the idealized little girl who’s pretty and feminine and made of sugar, spice, and everything nice. Somewhere along the line the actual gift itself got lost in translation and she was no longer just the girl who made flowers and instead was the girl who was perfect, and that became the standard she was held to because it was her gift, wasn’t it? No, no it clearly isn’t, but somehow everyone decided to overlook that.

I deeply appreciate that she does not hurt her sister or littlest cousin in this video. The actual innocent people.

0:34 That scene instantly reminded me of tangled whenever Mother Gothel was removing the flowers from Rapunzel's hair so she would have no reminder of being outside the tower. I loved it.

A lot of people mentioned how Mirabel could’ve easily become a villain during her song but thinking about it that whole family was one bad day away from snapping.

I like the detail of the vines not imprisoning Mirabel, Camilo or Antonio. Even though she is upset with the rest of her family for the pressure and not doing anything to stick up for her, she doesn’t want to hurt the children because they hadn’t contributed to her perfectionist attitude. Luisa and Dolores both are shown early in the video to play with the old Isabela but do nothing about Abuela’s pressure and ways even when they became adults. So the three youngest (and Bruno I suppose though he never shows up in the video at all) are free because they are innocent in this issue.

Here's a small detail about the song that I noticed.
This isn't the first time Isabella tried expressing how she feels towards Abuella. The difference is that, in the flashbacks, Abuella had the freedom to dismiss her and walk away.
Now, she doesn't have that freedom anymore. She's going to listen to Isabella whether she wants to or not. And she really doesn't want to. And it's in that moment where she is forced to see the pain she's caused that she realizes how much she messed up; but by the time she decides she wants nothing more than to fix it, it's too late. She took too long, and Isabella is done.

2:43
I love that little detail that through all boasting and expressing her anger the grandma passed all that off as Isabella having some tantrum but it took a single tear for it to finally get it through her head all of that was coming from a place of legitimate pain, not just a spoiled brat being told No.
And as she tries to get her attention we see it’s too late and she’s turned her back on her.

Can't wait!! I think Dolores should have a villian song cuz shes so use to hearing everything and like she could literally use people's secrets against them if u think about it
Edit:I LOVE THE SONG OMGGGGGGG!!!

The flower metaphor at 1:18 is absolute perfection. The way she compares herself to the flowers that she grows, how she isn't capable of caring for her flowers if no one ever cared for her. I'm no botanist or gardener, but plants need to be taken cared of and not forcibly planted where they don't want to grow, and the same has to be said for people, especially needing a loving, supporting family that encourages you to be yourself. Absolute perfection.
Also, it goes without saying that the vocals carry the message even further.

This is my second time watching this and I still love that Lydia kept the line "a hurricane of Jacarandas". The irony of that one line is fantastic. An ornamental plant, famous for its beautiful blue/purple flowers, which:
difficult to control once established
invasive
destructive to infrastructure
Kills any plant life around it and drains the life (water) out of the very ground it grows.
Jacaranda perfectly summarises Isabella's Villain arc.

Isabela went from hopeless, asking "What else can I do?" to rising up and instead saying, "Now the one who's trapped isn't me, it's you." 10/10 Lydia, thank you for blessing us with another stunning song.

Oh, wow. Mirabel and now Isabela as a villain? That’s extra cool, thank you, Lydia. Can you maybe do Luisa, too? When the pressure gets too hard on her and she snaps... Or Pepa? That could be such a wild storm… Or maybe even Abuela? I mean, she low-key already is a villain in this story, but not that much and with a redemption arc… But imagine the sad love song about butterflies even more tragic, and with a twist of her getting this miracle and using it for revenge…

Then Mirabel walks up to Isabel, arms up to be as non-threatening as possible. Hugs her, reaches to wipe her tears, and says:
“I’m with you, big sister. She totally deserved that.”

“As new shoots arise” and Antonio is the main focus of that shot

I love how Isabella’s outfit did like a Frozen/Poison Ivy transformation.

I absolutely love the attention to detail in this, specially at 1:06, where the statues of Isabela, formally smiling and posing all become dull sighted and glare at the camera. Gave me chills when I noticed it.

“I owe nothing to you”
This hits so close to home. It’s my most used line after confronting my family, and the realization that set me free.

And we all see how even when confronted with anger and desperation, Abuela stonewalls her and gives her an expression that this is exactly what she expected. That would be devastating for Isabella to have to see.

I like how it kinda looked like Mariano was smiling in the frame where she threw the ring. I like to think he's proud of her

I know this isn't the story for this song, but I can just imagine this taking place after Mirabel's villain song.
The family rebuilt and are continuing on like nothing happened. Like Mirabel never existed and tore the house apart. Yet there's been a noticeable absence, and Abuela has become stricter with Isabela, using Isabela as a tool to rebuild their reputation. Isabela's started to crack though. She watched her little sister snap, and she's constantly wondering what Mirabel meant by "Poison Rose, you might think no one knows, but I see right through your disguise." Was it an insult? Or was it Mirabel trying to help her one last time? It's a question that runs through Isabela's mind on repeat.
The day comes and Abuela tries marrying her off, and all she can think about is how Mirabel always disliked the idea of Isabela being married off like a pawn. That thought spirals within a few seconds into bitterness at the rest of the family for allowing this. And when that cactus sprouts, Isabela realizes something. If Mirabel, supposedly powerless Mirabel, found her freedom by confronting the family, why couldn't she? Mirabel tore the house apart in her rage, the same Mirabel that Abuela said was giftless. "If Mirabel could do that," Isabela wondered, "Then what else could I do?" And again, Mirabel's words run through her mind, and Isabela makes the decision then. No more hiding under this disguise to appease Abuela. It was time for the real Isabela to shine, thorns and all.
Mirabel watched from a distance, feeling proud that her sister finally broke free too. Now she waits for Luisa to breakaway too.

Yikes. Ever since seeing the original "What Else Can I Do," I've held that Isabela is the most dangerous member of the Madrigal family. This is the second Isabela villain song I've seen, and they both end with implied carnage, so I take it I'm not the only one who thinks that.
You almost had me crying for her. It was an amazingly good touch, showing what *growing up* as Isabela was like. Poor little baby Izzy... and there was that one scene that almost turned into the adult Isabela protecting her childhood self, and I'm a huge sucker for that trope.

I love how Encanto is still talked about. It’s an amazing movie, despite being surrounded by a lot of mid Disney movies

This song shows just how dangerously close Isabela was to becoming a villain. Just like Mirabel, Anna, Merida, Anastasia, and even Cinderella. Had Mirabel been even just a fraction of a second too slow, then something like this that wasn't in Bruno's vision could've easily occurred. That's what i love about your series: you always strategically set their villainous origins at just the right moment where they could've turned to the dark side. And after seeing your post about how Asha is next, honestly I never considered the scene where Magnifico crushes Asha's mother's wish right front of her as another potential point where she could've snapped. I had only considered the scenes where Asha learned the truth about Magnifico or where she learned that one of her own friends had betrayed her and sold her out.

Luisa needs to be next!!! All the Madrigals deserve a villain version of themselves ❤

2:17
I love the line “tend to a plant with poison and expect a flower, are you crazy?!” So mucj

"tent to a plant with poison and expect a flower, are you crazy?"
🌸💀
such a strong line ❤
and so relateable!

I love that she doesn’t hurt anyone she just keeps them away from her

I love that childhood flashback of Isabella wanting to be imperfect before her grandma comes in and pressures her to meet her expectations
Along with the fact that she’s more mad at her grandma more than Mariano since he was just oblivious with Isabella’s situation and blinded by love

I know people more want to see Luisa or Dolores next, but I really wanna see Camilo and Bruno, is it possible? You're doing masterpiece, Lydia❤

0:23 this is chilling. The expression on her face, it is actually terrifying, it looks likes someone's about to go into her villain arc-

✨Can we take a minute to appreciate the villian dress? Its so GORGEOUS AND HOT! ✨

Great work as always.
Something I couldn't help but notice is that Alma seems notably more composed in comparison to when Mirabel went Awol. She herself said at the end that she was so scared of losing the miracle that she forgot who it was for. She might’ve subconsciously realized that her pushing her family to be perfect was causing so much strain earlier and just repressed the guilt? And Mirabel snapping instead of Isabella took her more off guard because she didn't have any pressure on her to be the pride of the family.

Isabela does truly seem like villain material

"Tend to a plant with poison and expect a flower - are you CRAZY?!"
That line is fkn BRILLIANT!! Also loving Isa's Circe vibes!

Can we agree Abuela is the real villain of both the villain songs and the actual movie

Yesss 🌸
Isabella is a beautiful Rose hiding her thorns for too long now
.... but now she is finally going to Show her family that every Rose has thorns as Sharp and spicky as a cactus 🌵🥀

I could actually see this one working as a single narrative with Mirabelle's Villain Song. Alma pushes Isabela too far, and this in turn sparks Mirabelle to realize she's had it even worse than Isabela. A Villain sister duo!

"tend to a plant with poison and expect a flower - are you crazy?" probably is my favourite line in this song

The part from 1:00 to 1:08, especially the part where the topiaries change to reflect Isabela dropping her perfect persona, and them looking at the camera, is just _perfect._

"Tend to a plant with poison and expect a flower, are you crazy?"
I love the, you reap what you sow approach with these lyrics
Great job as always!

The fact that even her *door* reflected what was about to happen (i.e. becoming angry) just goes to show how much Isabella has felt over the years, and that with only one slight change; even a flower can spread its thorns (as cringe as it may sound)

Did anyone else notice the fact that the flowers wilted at the very beginning of the song when Abuela leaves?? That's a nice touch!

2:09
Notice how Mariano is smiling?kinda?
He knows he'll die yet is happy she, Isabela is standing up for herself (i think)

Luisa's face before the climax is literally her saying "You've traumatized the child."

I must say love how Abuela is disappointed in Isabela the whole video and shows only a tear at the end reaching out for Isabela only as she leaves. Far too little. Far too late.

SHE HAD EVERY RIGHT TO DO THAT IN THE MOVIE

Man, I'd love a Luisa villain song with how she's expected to literally hold a whole town together with her strength while masking her pressure and fear

1:51 OMG... she looks gorgeous; a goodess. That outfit was amazing. Good job

Oooooh YES! I’m so excited for Isa’s poison ivy era 👏🏽
Also this has gotta be my favorite Disney villain rollout from you so far Lydia AHH! Tia’s song was stunning and I can’t wait for this one!

Looking through all of the awesome comments about different villain songs for the Madrigals, I got an idea: what if every family member got some sort of villain song at some point, and when they’re all done on their OWN, a huge mashup is created that’s almost like all of them rising up against Alma?
Each character would have a piece of their own villain song, but have parts together and the end could be like how We Don’t Talk About Bruno was set up (especially in Mirabel’s villain song)- the separate songs in the background as the Madrigals join together and stand up for themselves and each other.
After all, Madrigal means “several voices,” does it not? 😁💕

Why does Isabella look so beautiful in her dress even though it's her villian fit?-

The truth is that this is more like Isabela's real song, rather than "villain"... Poor Isabela. Like Mirabel, she really had its own issues too... Loved the lyrics!

Isabella, a perfectionist, she has a right to go villain mode because everyone be like:
PERFECT,PERFECT ISABELLA!

I really want a villainous song of Pepa because everything has to do with her feelings.Imagine after all these traumatic events will do to her, she will end up destroying everything 💀

I would love to see a combination of this version and MilkyyMelodies's sad version, where it starts off sad and then before saying "I do", she snaps and it switches to the villain version ♥

It seems like Mirabel's breakdown could have led to a chain reaction within the family where others who felt repressed or neglected followed her lead, or at least had their loyalty to the family shaken

Her villain attire is simply divine...quite regal and contrast greatly with her final dress on the movie

"How could you when I was just a child?" Felt that in my soul

Now I ask myself how was Abuela able to hold control over the family for so long? All her Children and her Grandchildren, except Mirabel but she understood herself very good with Casita, were basically God's. What was there that Abuela could do against them?

As someone who has very abusive family constantly feeling the pressure of them and an Isabela stan this is just amazing awesome job Lydia!!

Let's me honest. Any of the Madrigals could've easily gone down the villian route and that's one of the reasons why I don't believe Abuela should've had a redemption arc. I was waiting for this and you didn't disappoint! I love it!

I feel like you could make a villian song for each of the grandkids. Lets be honest the family used Luisa as free labor, Camilo would of never had a chance to know who he was because he had to always change into others, Dolores was only useful for her hearing, and Antonio the day after his birthday the Granmother was trying to figure out how to put his miracle to use.

"YOUR WEAK AND YOUR HELPLESS"i feel like i know this tune of this line

Mirabel's sisters definitely deserved more screentime. Their arcs felt so condensed.

Now we soon need a villain song for Luisa or maybe for Bruno or Abuela Alma. Mirabel's sisters and cousins deserves to have more screentime.

OH MY GOD 2:37 IS SUCH A GOOD PART

0:21 I honestly have zero clue why…but the part where the music halts and lets realization settle into Isabella’s face is so powerful…then the transition to her door and her expression changes, making it more angry and hurt is beautiful. Everyone did a fantastic job on these parts. Spine chilling.

0:33 _oh_ isabela just trying to have fun with her sisters but abeula interrupting would explain why there was such a divide between her and mirabel 😭

Good thing Isabela didn't avenge Mirabel, but her Abuela (the real "villain") What a great villain song this turned out, Lydia. Have a happy saturday afternoon and God bless you, take care and i hope i see you soon for more, greetings from Colombia.

2:30 your weak and your helpless ❤
Love that bit !!!

"tend to a plant with poison and expect a flower" gave me chills. woah.

Wow that's very emotionally deep lyrics right there, I like how she finally stretched out her true surpressed colors while changing not just her home but herself as well.

So i had a déjà vue in 2:28 where she says : you are weak and you are helpless , which i found beautiful cause it give a surge of power like the music "The call" from league of legends

The line “ tend to a flower with poison and expect a flower are u CRAZY” was so amazing and the are u crazy bit was so amazing

This happens with many families in real life, even if you don't want to acknowledge it. They ask too much and when we can't fulfill their expectations, we're losers to their eyes. Been there........ and sucks. Great video, it gives words that we can't say out loud.

"Tend to a plant with poison and expect a flower - are you crazy!?"
Wow. All the lyrics in this are amazing, but THAT one just hits me the most 😮

Let’s be real Isabella deserved that villain arc

Is it just me or did anyone else notice that when Abuela Alma was picking flowers out of younger-Isabella's hair, that it looked like the scene in Tangled where Mother Gothel picks flowers out of Rapunzel's hair??? And did anyone notice that Isabella got, well, chubbier as the video went on? This shows how Isabella went from the perfect rose of the family, to be imperfect, symbolising her abandoning Abuela's expectations.

I love the subtle hint at the beginning of Isabela’s true feelings, when Abuela walks away at the beginning the roses wilt, and it does the same before the “Hurricane Of Jacarandas” part.

How would *blank* become a Villian?
Luisa: From the movie, she is used as free labour for everyone around her. She really wants a break and asks Alma for one. Alma says no, and sends her away to do her chores. Luisa snaps after being asked to move the bridge/take care of the donkeys
Pepa: Her Villian song could be her unleashing so many buried emotions that she snaps and causes the storm OF A LIFETIME!!
Dolores: She knows her power is a curse and grows sick of hearing everyone else's drama/personal lives. She snaps when Isabel and Mariano are hosting their wedding
Camillo: He doesn't want to be ignored or seen as free entertainment for others
Julieta: She grows exhausted from staying up late to heal others in the town, for free I may add, and lack of sleep contributes to her villain song. She's pretty much a nurse for everyone in the village, and being a nurse, from what I hear, is a very tiring job.
Bruno: It'll be like a "Oh, You think I'm evil? Fine... I'll become evil,"
Felix or Augustin: (I'm making them sympathetic, why? I don't know) They both are tired of seeing their wives and kids being bullied by Alma, and they snap. It could make a good duet song!
Mariano: He deals with some stuff in his personal life. Maybe his mother dying? Or maybe trying to share his poetry with the world and getting humiliated for it? Or a mix of both. Hell, maybe he just wants to be seen as more than a handsome face from people who aren't Dolores. Maybe a mix of all three mixing with each other that causes him to snap? There wasn't too much surface depth put into his character from what I saw, but he would make for a decent villain (Probably even better than King Magnifico- a villain that had so much potential but wasn't the best)

How is no one mentioning that poison ivyesque transformation sequence at 1:46 that was beautiful great work to the animator and as always great work lydia

I won’t lie, if all of these villain songs were translated into a book form… I would love to have just a big collection of short stories, that sort of told the villain stories of these characters. It would honestly be more interesting than the original stories that Disney wrote.

Y'all idk why but at 2:43 her voice is so haunting and beautiful and yet so sorrowful and meaningly as well and the fact that she asks alma "what else can I do?" just makes it even more sad

I like your design of her dress the vines really compliment the long flowing sleeves. Plus seeing this side of Isabella it really shows how much the grandmother had a hold on the whole family

I love how in both the Mirabel villian song and in this one, the real villian is Abeula. Sometimes the pressure to meet expectations can be more destructive than any external threat. As always great story telling, singing and art!

"Tend to a plant with poison and expect a flower." Very clever! LOVE that!