- “Camilo. Stop pretending you're Dolores so you can have seconds!”
- ―Félix scolding Camilo.
Félix Madrigal is a supporting character in Disney's 2021 animated feature film Encanto. He is the husband of Pepa Madrigal, and the father of Dolores, Camilo, and Antonio. As he married into the family, Félix lacks a magical gift of his own. Despite this, his carefree and fun-loving nature helps to manage his wife’s weather-controlling emotions.
Background[]
Félix's life before joining the Madrigal family is unknown other than that his biological family still lives in Encanto. At some point in his life, Félix met a woman named Pepa and affectionately helped her calm down when she was in a bad mood, making them both fall in love. Felix became one of the few people who gets along with Abuela Alma and over time became close to her. Unlike Abuela's bad relationship with Agustín, Alma immediately accepted Félix as part of the Madrigals and was completely in agreement that he and Pepa would fall in love.
On their wedding day Félix and Pepa were originally to be married on a sunny day, which became a hurricane due to Bruno's unfortunately badly timed good-natured teasing to calm his anxious older sister. Despite the wind and rain, Félix remembers his wedding day as "joyous" even though his wife disagrees with him even in the present day. Years later Félix and Pepa had a daughter (Dolores) and two sons (Camilo and Antonio) together. In addition to becoming the brother-in-law of Julieta, Bruno, and Agustín, he is also the uncle of Isabela, Luisa, and Mirabel.
Official Description[]
- Félix provides a grounding force for his deeply passionate wife Pepa—he’s easygoing and often the life of the party.
- Felix is Pepa's husband and father to Dolores, Camilo, and Antonio. He is kind and is always the life of the party. Felix loves his wife very much and wants nothing more than to make her happy.
Development[]
As with the rest of the Madrigal family, Félix was designed to reflect "family archetypes that are immediately relatable". As in the final production, the studio created Félix from the start with a cheerful and relaxed personality to contrast with the more nervous and restless personality of his wife Pepa. During the creation process, Félix, along with Agustín, were originally explored as a "double act". Originally they were both from outside the Encanto and they had a connection to Mirabel because they also don't have powers, in their case, because they married into the family.
Mauro Castillo, Félix's voice actor, describes his character: "Félix is the soul of the party. He loves the music. He's a music lover and he deeply loves his wife Pepa with her change of mood, and he loves everything of her. He admires every single member of the family, and he likes food a lot. The salsa."
Personality[]
Contrast to Pepa's sensitive and shaky personality, Félix is a laid-back and positive-spirited man, balancing his often nervous wife. He is a humorous and comedic man who easily puts on a smile to those around him, especially when it comes to cheering up his wife. The two are always in harmony as Félix understands Pepa's struggle to keep her emotions in check and so helps her to keep them at bay. The two are constantly together at meals and are affectionate with each other.
His carefree nature also enables him to get along well with other family members. Félix is funny and kind to the whole family, even Mirabel who is not very popular among the Madrigals due to her lack of gift. With his incredible cheerfulness he has a specialty of making not only his wife, but anyone around him smile. Félix is close to even the quieter members of his family, calling his brother-in-law Bruno "bro" and getting along very well with the strict Abuela Alma and even gets her to dance happily with him. Like Agustín, Félix is also humble and selfless, as he never complains when his wife loses control of her powers or being the only one in his family not to have powers.
While he goes along with his family (especially his wife) and towns people's refrains from talking about Bruno as his name is considered a taboo, Félix himself is not against bringing up his name when Mirabel inquired to learn more about her maternal uncle, only stopping when Pepa shushed him. Adding to that, Félix does not seem to hold any hard feelings against Bruno, even when he seemingly ruined his and Pepa's wedding day by adding distress to Pepa, and indirectly causing a hurricane, as Félix still remembers his wedding day as wonderful. When Bruno reunited with the Madrigals and cleared up the misunderstanding, Félix appears to have a hunch beforehand that Bruno is not malicious by heart and simply wanted to help his sister and supports his brother-in-law.
While Félix respects Abuela as the matriarch of the family, he is often annoyed by her reprimands to Pepa to keep control of her emotions to prevent constant raining, with Félix backing up and supporting his wife. Félix is a good father and can be very affectionate. He gets along very well with his nieces, calling Isabela "our angel," and he insists on telling Mirabel about Bruno when she is concerned about being in one of his visions, in spite of Pepa's protests. He can also be protective of the younger members of the family, as seen when the house was collapsing, quickly saving Antonio from the falling debris and carrying him in his arms even after leaving the house. After the fall of the house, Félix carefully checks on Camilo's head to make sure he is not hurt (considering he tried to save the Miracle Candle earlier and almost suffered a hard fall) and then looks for Mirabel when she disappears.
Physical appearance[]
Félix is a dark-skinned Colombian-Afro-Latino man with poofy black hair that has a graying "skunk stripe," dark brown eyes, and a gray and black stubble of facial hair on his chin. Like Bruno, has a mustache and hair on his chin and face. Felix is a man with a large amount of chest hair and is stocky with very broad shoulders. He is also noticeably shorter than Pepa and is about the same height as Bruno or Julieta. His clothing is meant to reflect his personality and who he is; his traditional bright yellow guayabera decorated with triangles (a common South-American style of men's shirt) with red alforzas (a style of pleats) represents the stability he gives to his wife and children. Félix also wears orange striped pants tied with a belt and matching yellow sockless shoes. On his wedding day, he wore an exact copy of his current clothes only in white.
Powers and abilities[]
Having married into the family, Félix has no magical gift of his own. However, he can be quite agile and quick on his feet. During the fall of Casa Madrigal, Felix pulls Antonio out of the falling rubble with incredible reflexes and runs with him out of the ruined house while avoiding the falling pieces of the house. He is a very graceful dancer and has almost no problem in matching his wife's quick dance steps in "We Don't Talk About Bruno".
Appearances[]
Encanto[]
Félix first appears waking up and joining his family for a stroll in the village. In "The Family Madrigal", Félix is introduced, along with his brother-in-law Agustín, by Mirabel. As Mirabel explains that he became part of the family by marrying Pepa, Félix shares a kiss with his wife. Since the day was also his younger son Antonio's fifth birthday and gift ceremony, Felix soon returned home to help prepare for the celebration. As Pepa became increasingly anxious about the ceremony, Félix tried to remind her that the tornado she was stirring up was messing up the flowers. Isabela appeared and helped Pepa calm down by giving her a bouquet of roses, while Félix called her "our angel" and Pepa thanks him. Later on Félix went out to look for Antonio, who had hidden because of the anxiety of the ceremony.
Before Antonio's ceremony was about to begin, Félix greeted him joyfully and cheerfully shooed away one of Pepa's rainclouds so that Antonio wouldn't get wet. Félix criticized Camilo when he playfully turned into a miniature version of him and mocked his way speaking, responding with irritation when Camilo continued to make fun of him. Félix then joined Pepa at the top of the stairs next to Antonio's new door. The couple anxiously held hands as Antonio moved closer to their door to receive their gift, afraid the ceremony would fail. When the ceremony proved to be a success, Félix lovingly kissed his wife's hand and excitedly cheered Antonio on as the boy and his animal friends explored his new room. As the party moved into Antonio's magical bedroom, the Madrigals got together and a family photo was taken, which everyone unknowingly excluded Mirabel from. While dancing with his mother-in-law, Félix and everyone else heard from a panicked Mirabel that there where cracks in the Casita. When everyone came to investigate, the cracks weren't there and Alma ushered everyone back to the party.
The next morning, Félix appeared to scold Camilo for pretending to be his sister to get more food for breakfast. As the family sat down to eat, he calming Pepa when she became annoyed at Mirabel for stealing her chair and giving Antonio a thumbs up for trying to use his new gift to help his Abuela. Later that day, Félix overheard Pepa and Mirabel talking about Bruno. Félix burst in dramatically to tell Mirabel all about Bruno's powers, over his wife's objections. Félix told Mirabel that if Bruno prophesied that something terrible would happen, there was no changing it. As Pepa scolded both of them, reminding them that they don't talk about Bruno, Félix wrapped an arm around her waist and they began to tell about Bruno's teasing on her wedding day. In "We Don't Talk About Bruno" Felix constantly interrupted his wife to talk and kept his part of the conversation playful, saying that he considered his wedding to be a joyous day in spite of the weather and joining the verses of his other relatives.
After helping his family set up the table for the Guzmáns' arrival, Félix scolded Camilo for shapeshifting very quickly, leaving a funny expression on his face, and told him to fix his face. After straightening his features, Camilo whispered in his ear that Mirabel had found Bruno's vision. Félix was taking a drink of water at the time and accidentally sprayed his drink across the table in shock, drenching Mariano's shirt. Félix then passed the information about Bruno's vision to Pepa, who then passed it on to Julieta. As the growing anxiety in the house caused everyone's magic to become erratic, Félix watched, bewildered and powerless to help, as his family began to lose control of their powers. After the failed dinner, as the cracks continued expanding and Alma argued with Julieta and Agustín, Félix attempted to help Pepa control a snowstorm over her head, sticking up for her when Alma told her to calm down.
Later that same day, Félix and the rest family returned to courtyard to find Alma and Mirabel having a heated argument about Alma's unhealthy perfectionism. As the Casita started collapsing around them, Félix helped his wife keep her balance and cried out that the Miracle Candle was in danger. While others in the family rushed to save the candle, he watched in fear as the rest of the house crumble. Félix quickly rushed to save Antonio from some debris falling from the house and ran with him out of the ruined house. After the house completely collapsed, Félix carefully checked Camilo to make sure he wasn't hurt, having previously entered the house to try and save the candle. When Julieta noticed Mirabel went missing, the Madrigals and the other townspeople spread out to search for her.
By the next day, Félix and the family saw that Mirabel and Alma (having made up with each other) returned to Casita's ruins, and he became angry when Camilo interrupting the reunion to dryly remind the optimistic Agustín that the Madrigals were still homeless. During "All of You", Alma revealed to the entire family that Bruno hid behind the rubble and they immediately accepted him back into the family. While Bruno apologized for what happened at their wedding, Félix was happy to see Bruno again, calling him "bro" and agreeing that Pepa should freely show her emotions. With family all together, Mirabel rallied them to fix the house and the entire town also pitched in as thanks for all the Madrigals had done for them. Félix joined in rebuilding the family home, laying bricks with Dolores and Antonio. After completing the house, Mirabel added a doorknob the family made just for her to the front door, which caused Casita to spring back to life, and the magic returned to the entire Encanto. The Madrigals then celebrated the returned of their home and gifts with a family picture.
Once Upon a Studio[]
Félix returns alongside his family at the Disney Animation studio for a group photo with all the characters from the previous films to celebrate the 100th anniversary.
Trivia[]
- Félix's birthday is on November 11, coinciding with the Colombian city of Cartagena's Independence Day.
- Early in production, the character's name was Fernando.
- Félix means "Happy" and "lucky" in Latin, conceiving perfectly with his character since he is a happy-go-lucky guy, who always knows how to put a smile on the face of his temperamental wife Pepa.
- It also pairs well with both his brother-in-law's name, since Agustín sounds like "angustias" (anguish) and his daughter Dolores, whose name means sorrow.
- "Félix" can also mean "blessed" in the Christian sense.
- According to Jared Bush, Félix is "a little older" than his wife and her siblings.
- Due to his charming demeanor, Félix has always been on good terms to Abuela Alma in his younger years, which earned her immediate approval when he and Pepa fell in love and got married.
- Félix's natal family is still alive and lives in Encanto.
- Félix can play the tiple.
- In The Art of Encanto, Félix is stated to have Caribbean heritage.
- Like Agustin, it seems that he took his wife's surname, rather than per the usual marriage customs in Colombia and other Spanish-speaking countries where both of them keep their own surnames.
- In the book Disney Encanto: A Tale of Three Sisters, Félix can get fed up with Camilo's shapeshifting into him. He's described as looking “ready to box Camilo's ears” in one scene.
- Félix is one of five characters to be voiced by the same actor in multiple versions of the film, the others being: Pepa, Alma, Julieta and Mariano Guzmán, as Mauro Castillo voiced Félix in the English and Latin American Spanish dubs of the film.
- Félix and Pepa got married in a hurricane, to the annoyance of his wife. It is a little-known omen that rain during a wedding is actually often a sign of good luck: it means that the couple will last and hard to unravel. In the present, the two are a happy and loving couple despite their opposite personalities.