January 16, 2025 • 46 mins
Welcome to The Family Madrigal, and the Surface Pressure hiding underneath the perfect façade of a magical family with wonderful gifts - everyone except Mirabel. Who probably wonders "What Else Can I Do?" on the regular, when her Abuela seems to blame her for everything.
All Of You probably know the intergenerational trauma this movie perfectly depicts, but it's also a movie that took the time to show deep love and respect for Colombia, mi encanto. By having a Colombian Cultural Trust, and directors willing to take on suggestions and ideas, to make Encanto diverse and representative of real Colombian life, traditions and culture.
Tuns out, Stephanie Beatriz was also Waiting on a Miracle, while recording that exact song.
We Don't Talk About Bruno, except we do. Because Bruno is one of the most complex and interesting characters in this movie. And while Abuela has suffered great loss, become a refugee and a single parent to triplets in the space of one day, beautifully encapsulated by the Academy Award-nominated Dos Orugitas, she's also making her entire family suffer through her own anxiety and trauma.
Basically Encanto is pretty special, and it's one of Disney's greatest modern animated films because of it.
And that's why coffee's for grown-ups!
I would love to hear your thoughts on Encanto !
Verbal Diorama is now an award-winning podcast! I won the Best Movie Podcast in the inaugural Ear Worthy Independent Podcast Awards recently. I am beyond thrilled, and hugely grateful to the Ear Worthy team. It means so much to me to be recognised by a fellow indie outlet, and congratulations to all the other winners!
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(01:39):
Hi, everyone, I'm Em, andwelcome to Verbal Diorama, episode
283, Encanto. This is thepodcast that's all about the history
and legacy of movies you know.And movies you know. There's probably
definitely going to talk aboutBruno. But before we get into all
of that, a huge hi and welcometo Verbal Diorama. Whether you are
a regular returning listener,whether you are a brand new listener
(02:00):
to this podcast and haveliterally just joined us because
you love the movie Encanto,Regardless, thank you for being here.
Thank you for choosing tolisten to this podcast. There are
a lot of movie podcasts outthere that are all vying for your
ears and your attention. AndI'm so happy to have you here for
the history and legacy ofEncanto. So why am I covering Encanto?
(02:21):
Well, this is Animation Season2025. This is the fifth annual Animation
Season. It is a celebration ofanimation. Oops, I'm a poet and I
didn't know it in all of itsforms. So we're talking traditional
2D hand drawn stop motion andCGI, just like this movie. Or indeed,
a mix of all of the above,because there are movies out there
(02:43):
that do have a mix of thosedifferent art forms in them. This
podcast has been going for sixyears, and for the last five years,
I have covered some of thebest movies and also maybe some of
the not so great movies aswell. I have done the emoji movie,
after all. But I've also hadthe pleasure of featuring some of
the greatest animation studiosof all time. Leica, Aardman, Disney,
(03:06):
Dreamworks, Sony Animation,Pixar Studio, Ghibli, Cartoon Saloon,
Even studios that no longerexist, like Fox Animation, Blue sky,
and Don Bleed Studios. Themantra of animation season is quite
simple, and that is thatanimation. First of all, it's not
a genre. Really annoys me whenNetflix put it as a separate genre
(03:28):
for people to choose from.It's not a genre, it's an art form.
But also, I would like todispel the myth that animation is
just for children. There are alot of great children and family
movies that are animated.Similarly, there's a lot of movies
for children and families thatare live action. But animation is
not just for children.Animation is just simply a beautiful
(03:50):
art form, a way of visualstorytelling. And also animation,
in my opinion, is the perfectart form, because in animation you
can depict pretty muchanything. You're not confined by
the laws of physics, gravity,visual effects, limitations. You
don't have that in animation.And nothing that's animated ever
looks out of place, unlikesome really bad CGI that you might
(04:14):
find in some movie. It willreally take you out of the experience
of watching that movie, butyou don't have that in animation
because it all looks the same.And for me, this is why. Animation
season is in its fifth yearand remains so important to this
podcast and to what I believeVerbal Diorama is out there to achieve.
It is telling the history andthe legacy of movies in general.
(04:35):
But having an animation seasonis important because I really want
to highlight incredibleanimated films that, you know, like
Encanto, but maybe also someof the ones that you don't. Like
the Secret of Nin, likeNimona, like Perfect Blue, like Wolf
Walkers, or like the veryfirst ever episode of this podcast,
(04:56):
all the way back in February2019, Titan AE. Chances are you've
probably never heard of any ofthose. Or you've maybe never heard
of some of them. I mean, ifyou've heard of all of them, that's
great. People should knowabout those movies. But while I'm
covering a Disney movie todayon this podcast, there is so much
more out there in animationthat goes beyond Disney and Pixar
(05:18):
and DreamWorks. And if youdon't watch these movies, you're
missing out on some trulyincredible storytelling as well.
Now, I've rambled on a littlebit more about animation than I actually
planned to, but I just wantedto add that a huge thank you to everyone
who listens to this podcastand who continues to listen to and
support this podcast. As Isaid, this podcast has been going
almost six years now, over 280episodes. It means so much for your
(05:41):
continued support, so thankyou very much from me. But let's
just jump straight intoEncanto. I just made something unexpected.
Something sharp, somethingnew. It's not symmetrical or perfect,
but it's beautiful. And it'smine. What else can I do? Here's
the trailer for Encanto.
(08:09):
The Madrigals are anextraordinary family who live hidden
in the mountains of Colombiain a magical house in a vibrant town,
in a wondrous, charmed placecalled the Encanto. The magic of
the Encanto has blessed everychild in the Madrigal family with
a unique gift. From superstrength to the power to heal every
child except one. Mirabel. Butwhen she discovers that the magic
(08:34):
surrounding the Encanto is indanger, Mirabel decides that she,
the only ordinary Madrigal,might just be her exceptional family's
last hope. Let's run throughthe cast of this movie. This is a
huge family. I'm not in aposition to sing a song about all
of the members of the Madrigalfamily. Mostly because I don't want
(08:54):
to get a copyright strike. Butlet's run through them anyway. We
have Stephanie Beatrice asMirabel Madrigal. Maria Cecilia Botero
as Abuela Alma Madrigal. JohnLeguizamo as Bruno Madrigal. Jessica
Darrow as Luisa Madrigal.Diane Guerrero as Isabella Madrigal.
(09:14):
Angie Sapida as JulietaMadrigal Carolina Catan as Pepa Madrigal
Mauro Castillo as FelixMadrigal, Wilma Valderrama as Agustin
Madrigal Adasa as DoloresMadrigal Renzi Feliz as Camilo Madrigal
and Ravi Cabot Conyers asAntonio Madrigal Encanto has a screenplay
(09:37):
by Sharice Castro Smith andJared Bush, a story by Jared Bush,
Byron Howard, Sharice CastroSmith, Jason Hand, Nancy Cruz and
Lin Manuel Miranda and wasdirected by Jared Bush and Byron
Howard. Co directed by ShariceCastro Smith. The canonical 60th
animated Walt Disney AnimationStudios feature I say canonical because
(10:00):
there are some that count andothers that don't. Started life in
2016, a very good year forDisney animation. Both Zootopia,
which is called Zootropolishere in the UK because of copyright
stuff. Anderson Moana came outthat year. Moana, which I'm going
to be referencing quite a lotin this episode, actually also featured
songs by Lin Manuel Miranda.Zootopia was directed by Jared Bush
(10:23):
and Byron Howard. BothZootopia and Moana had been huge
hits, so bringing the bestbits of both made sense to Disney.
Howard and Bush wanted to makea musical next, and Lin Manuel Miranda
is the guy you get when youwant a good musical. See also Hamilton
and In the Heights. JohnLasseter brought the team together
(10:45):
and Miranda revealed during apress tour for Moana that early stage
talks were happening foranother Disney animation project.
And all three men, Miranda,Bush and Howard, all had the experiences
of growing up in large,extended families. They started with
a whiteboard and on it theywrote, families are made up of individuals
who evolved, who had hopes anddreams and faults and failures. Can
(11:07):
we tell a story that helps ouraudience see family from a different
perspective? It turns out aswell, but all families have issues.
Most people don't feel seen orunderstood by members of their family.
Most of us never truly tellour families all our troubles and
burdens, and for most of us,members of our families feel exactly
the same way we do. But wenever talk about it, so we never
(11:29):
actually find out and we justcontinue to struggle in silence,
which ultimately startscreating cracks in our family. But
we're going to get onto that.Juan Rendon and Natalie Osma, who
had collaborated with Howardand Bush on the making of documentary
Imagining Zootopia, wereconsulted on Latin American culture
with the idea of making themovie set in South America. Howard,
(11:51):
Bush and Miranda concentratedtheir research on Colombia. Since
Rendon and Osma are Colombiansand used their firsthand encounters
with Colombian culture intheir discussions, Disney animation
established what it dubbed theColombian Cultural Trust by hiring
Rendon and Osma as the firstof a number of cultural specialists
to serve as advisors on themovie. Similarly to what they'd also
(12:13):
done with Moana with theOceanic Story Trust, the team went
on a research trip toColombia, which included a trip to
the Gabriel Garcia MarquezFoundation. Garcia Marquez is regarded
as one of the most significantauthors of the 20th century, known
for his Spanish language multigenerational novel One Hundred Years
of Solitude, published in1967, which depicts 100 years in
(12:35):
a fictional Colombian villageduring the infamous Thousand Days
War, a civil war that ragedacross Colombia between October 1899
and November 1902 into Ecuadorand Venezuela, with an estimated
100 to 180,000 deaths, around3% of the population at that time.
The reason I'm mentioning thisis kind of important because while
(12:57):
Encanto isn't dated to aparticular time in Colombia's history,
and while the Encanto itselfis fictional, Pedro and Alba Madrigal
are fleeing a conflict, andit's highly likely that this is early
1900s Colombia during the daysof the Thousand Days War, where many
people fled to safety withtheir families to escape becoming
refugees in other places,sometimes other countries. While
(13:21):
on their Colombian trip, thesenior production team of Encanto
visited large cities, but theyfound more inspiration in smaller
places like Salento andBarichara, where they met tour guide
Alejandra Espinoza Uribe, whoshowed them around the town, showed
off his architecture, andafter signing an NDA stating she
wouldn't disclose anythingabout the trip and Espinosa, Uribe
(13:44):
would not only become acultural consultant on Encanto, but.
But she also looks remarkablylike Mirabel, with thick dark hair
and glasses, and the directorshave since confirmed that she was
part of the inspiration forthe design of Mirabel. But she also
showed the production team theactual lives of the people who lived
in Barichara, showed them thehandcrafted materials they used to
(14:06):
build and create with, andimplored the team to treat Colombian
heritage and culture withrespect. Mostly because to a lot
of people in Americaspecifically, Colombia is more well
known for its drug cartelsthan its culture or history, and
the production did want totreat Colombia with respect. Latin
American employees at Disneywere invited to join La Familia,
(14:29):
a group to collaborate onEncanto, to show cultural representation
and sensitivity, which led tothe removal of ideas surrounding
magical realism. Instead, theyread Cuban author Elego Campatier's
Lo real Maruvalosa, thewonderful real and understanding
the worldview of the Afro andindigenous populations, that water
(14:49):
is sacred for indigenouspeople, and that the miracle that
forms the basis of the movieshould come from a river. The directors
were receptive to any and allideas, and the large family at the
center became a diverserepresentation of Colombian's diaspora,
representing indigenous peopleas well as Afro Colombians. It was
la familia that added Bruno'sline, sana, sana colita de rana.
(15:13):
Apologies for the terriblepronunciation of that, which is a
lullaby, which in Englishmeans heel, heel, little frog's tail.
They also came up with thetitle Encanto. But obviously then
the pandemic happened and theDisney animation team was not actually
able to travel to Colombia andeveryone went remote, including Alejandra
Espinosa Uribe, who sentdetailed images of Colombian life
(15:36):
to the animation team,including hand gestures and facial
expressions. She also sentfabrics, including skirts made by
hand in Velez, so theanimation team understood the weight
of the fabric and the texture.This fabric was used for the inspiration
for much of the clothing inthe movie, but especially Maribel's
skirt. But I am gettingslightly ahead of myself here, because
(15:57):
while they had an idea of thestory they wanted and they had Alejandra
Espinoza Uribe's guides onColombian life, Howard Bush realized
they needed a secondscreenwriter to help flesh out the
characters, and they turned toCharisse Castro Smith, a playwright
who focuses on complexdimensional female roles. She's also
written for the TV seriesDevious Maids and Netflix's the Haunting
(16:19):
of Hill House. Castro Smith,who also looks a little bit like
Maribel, was brought on to cowrite, but was also asked to co direct.
After eight months on theproject, she used her bond with her
own Abuela to create amatriarch whose bravery and struggle
would lead to the weight ofexpectations she places on her own
family. She wrote the openingprologue and Abuela's story. She
(16:41):
even provided the scratchvocals for Abuela as well as other
characters. And unlike Moana,it would be a large family. Moana
was originally going to haveeight brothers before that idea was
scrapped. The family would beat the heart of Encanto, and everyone
knows the more characters, themore exposition you need to describe
each character, the more storyarcs you need for each character.
(17:04):
But they wanted to have thearchetypal family personalities that
occur in every family. Thegolden child, the rock, the outsider,
the one who is always tryingto help others, the one who knows
all the gossip and imbue thesepeople with magical powers that enhance
these stereotypes. Disney,when they heard about all of these
characters, were slightlyconcerned though. And as we've seen
(17:26):
on this podcast many times,lots of characters can either dilute
a movie or place the focusupon the most interesting of those
many characters. I mean, whocares about Batman when you have
Catwoman or the Riddler towatch? It was unheard of in Disney
to have so many characters,each with their own separate arcs.
They suggested having fivecharacters instead of 12 to alleviate
(17:49):
the issue and to introduceeach character without cumbersome
exposition. Lin Manuel Mirandawrote the song the Family Madrigal
even before the second orthird acts of Encanto had been completed.
He was inspired by the songBelle from Beauty and the Beast as
well as Colombian performersduring their research trip to Colombia.
Bear in mind as well that LinManuel Miranda was also working on
(18:10):
Tick Tick Boom at the sametime. He likes to work on multiple
projects at once. Apparentlyit would be two years after writing
the Family Madrigal that hewas writing the final song, Waiting
on a Miracle, which isinspired by the Colombian musicians
like musical group 200DCilantro in a small mountain town
Barichara and the region's 12string tipple which is 3/4 the size
(18:34):
of a classical guitar. And foreach sister, coincidentally, Lin
Manuel Miranda had inspirationin real life for the eldest perfect
sister Isabella. He knew aLatin American botanist and for middle's
strong sister Louisa. Hissister Luz was six years older and
the one who took on theresponsibility, whereas he was the
(18:54):
baby brother that got awaywith everything. Miranda also picked
up on the film's motif ofbutterflies and transformation to
create the folk like DosUruguitas which is sung by Sebastian
Yetra. It was the first songthat Miranda had ever written, Beginning
to end in Spanish. It's alsothe only song to rival married life
from up in emotionalresonance. Seriously, I always blub
(19:17):
like a baby at that particularscene in this movie. Various story
ideas were considered for themovie but discarded, including setting
the movie in the 1950s, havingthe story told over 100 years of
Madrigal family history, andhaving a modern woman travel back
in time to the early 1900s viaa magical doorknob. Other things
which changed as the scriptwent on were Maribel's name. She
(19:41):
was originally and ratherironically going to be called Beatrice.
Stephanie Beatriz would go onto voice her, and Tia Pepper was
originally going to beImmortal. And as for Bruno, well,
we don't talk about Oscar.Does it really work as well? And
yes, Oscar was Bruno'soriginal name. Other options for
the name for Bruno includedArlo, Marco, Anko, Andre and Emo
(20:05):
in initial drafts of Encanto,we don't talk About Bruno didn't
feature at all, and in earlydrafts they struggled to not let
it become a buddy moviebetween Mirabel and Bruno. But something
clicked when the filmmakersreckoned with the repercussions of
Bruno's gift, figuring thathis precognition would likely turn
the family and the townsfolkagainst him. And rather than tell
(20:27):
the story of Bruno'sestrangement with exposition, they
turn to Lin Manuel Mirandadelivering the truth in song form
and him disappearing after afamily wedding and after Mirror Bell
didn't get her gift when shewas five, she's now 15, so that means
Bruno has been gone for 10years by this point, and he'd become
almost like an urban legend,with everyone having their own misperception
(20:49):
of him and what he did. Butthe song also served to tell us a
little more about other familymembers, about Tia Pepper and Tio
Felix's wedding day, and alsoDolores's admission that she hears
him in the house. The designfor Bruno's room was partly inspired
by the Salt Cathedral ofZipakira, which is a stunning underground
(21:09):
cathedral in Colombia that'slocated inside a salt mine. The river
where Abuela Alma loses herhusband Pedro, and is given sanctuary
by the Encantone is based on areal multicolored river called Canio
Cristales, which exists inColombia. It is in the Department
of Meta, inside a remotenational park. A special permit is
(21:29):
needed to visit it, and only afew people are permitted to visit
each year. The area that theMadrigal family lives was inspired
by the Cocora Valley inColombia. Such was the production's
intent to really focus on andshowcase the beauty and Diversity
of Colombia. 800 people intotal worked on Encanto over five
(21:51):
years. Two of those years wereremotely at home, and the official
wrap on the film's script camein August 2021, three months before
the movie premiered. Alsorecurring in August 2021 was the
birth of Stephanie Beatrice'schild. I mentioned Waiting on a Miracle
was the last song Lin ManuelMiranda wrote. Stephanie Beatrice
(22:12):
recorded the song while shewas overdue to give birth. 48 hours
after recording Waiting on aMiracle, she gave birth to her daughter,
which now that I listen toWaiting on a Miracle, it kind of
gives that song so much moreresonance when she herself was literally
waiting on her own miracle.The entire movie wrapped in September
(22:33):
2021, which gave the Postproduction team a little over a month
to finish the movie before itpremiered. Visual effects innovations
for the movie included A neweye shader which supported refraction
and the development of avisual tool that emulates a hologram.
The heads of animation forEncanto, Renato do Onjos and Kira
(22:53):
Lettermarki would state thatEncanto was the hardest film they'd
ever worked on, due to themultitude of characters, the complex
animation styles, and bringingin the choreographers much earlier
than usual. ChoreographerJamal Sims and assistant choreographer
Kai Martinez created thedances within the film. They were
shot by animators who thenused the footage as a reference to
(23:16):
animate the same moves ontothe characters. Bruno's hologram
was based on an existinghologram shader that had been developed
by Hyperion for Big Hero 6, aswell as a prototype of the teleportation
shader Pixar had used forportals in Incredibles 2. Their approach
was to develop a customsolution in Disney's Hyperion. Renderer
design said that all theartists had to do was set up the
(23:38):
3D geometry that they wantedto put inside of the hologram in
a target space hiddensomewhere in the overall scene, and
then select the geometry inthe main scene that they wanted to
act as the entrance portal,select the geometry in the target
space they wanted to act asthe exit portal and link the two
using the teleportationshader. Going from the start of brainstorming
(23:58):
and prototyping to deliveringthe final production version of the
hologram shader took the teama little over a week, which is incredibly
quick for a large newrendering feature. Felipe Zapata,
a Colombian botanist, wasconsulted by the production team
in order to choose andillustrate the plants and flowers
that Isabella could grow. Hisguidance made it possible to choose
(24:20):
the right plants and displaythem in precise detail. Isabella
would end up producing sundew,stranga figs and a river of jacarandas.
Realistic plants can also beseen in background scenery. These
include cecropia trees and thewell known but now endangered wax
palm. There are alsoeconomically significant plants shown
as well, such as coffee,because Colombian coffee is delicious
(24:44):
and it is one of Colombia'smajor exports. But there's one character
that I haven't actually reallymentioned yet, the biggest character
in the whole movie, and thatis the casita. And the casita presented
the team with additionaldifficulties. In addition to Maribel
and her family, the casita wasa character unto itself, and not
(25:06):
merely just a setting wheresongs and dances are performed. Encanto's
associate production designer,Laura Le Beauvais, realized that
the colors of the casita hadto sing as loudly as the music and
express as much as thedancing. Bovet experimented with
various color palettes fromcharacter costumes and drew inspiration
from a variety of Colombianmusicals and photographs, giving
(25:28):
each room of the casita itsown unique textile, handmade appearance
and expression. She also tookinspiration from Beetlejuice for
a home that seemingly comesalive. And speaking of color schemes,
color is most definitely notrandom in this movie. Each character
has their own color. Theychose magenta for the Abuela because
(25:50):
she had lost her husband in aColombian river that contains magenta
algae. And since turquoise isa healing color, they gave it to
Julieta, who is very calm anda healer. Mirabel again, is the odd
one out because she has noparticular color that identifies
her with the house. The househas many aesthetic flaws that are
intended to convey genuinenessand the genuine human struggle Mirabel
(26:13):
has in binding her ownidentity. Mirabel's costume incorporates
nearly every color in herfamily, much like the house has many
colors in common, but none ofits own. Casting this movie made
casting almost entirely LatinAmerican actors, the only exception,
of course, being Alan Tudyk,who has a small cameo as a toucan.
(26:33):
And it also meant casting manyvoice actors of Colombian heritage,
including Stephanie Beatriz,whose father is Colombian, John Leguizano,
who was born in Bogota, DianeGuerrero and Hadassa, whose parents
are both Colombian, and WilmaValderrama, who spent his childhood
in Colombia. Many of the castreprise their roles for the Spanish
dub of the film. StephanieBeatrice is obviously most well known
(26:57):
as Detective Rosa Diaz inBrooklyn 9 9. And so when the production
was casting, they originallythought of her for Luisa, thinking
that she was tough like Rosain real life. When they realized
that shock horror, she's justacting tough as Rosa Diaz, they instead
cast her as Mirabel. And thisis one of those incredible animated
movies that actually has areally important message behind all
(27:20):
of the beauty and the colorand the amazing songs and the wonderful
characters, and that this is amovie about generational trauma and
how we pass our trauma down.Part of the team's multi year research
process for Encanto includedspeaking with psychologists, trauma
counsellors, mental healthexperts, family therapists, and dozens
of families who helped themfind the dynamics and struggles of
(27:42):
the madrigals stemming fromAbuela's constant state of survival
mode and being so protectiveof the family and the family's gifts,
which leads to the weight ofexpectation, which leads to cracks
in relationships depicted bycracks in the casita, the fact that
Abuela's past is always spokenof positively, in that they found
the village. They built acommunity. Nothing negative is ever
(28:04):
really talked about. So muchso that when Mirabel doesn't get
a gift, it's never talkedabout. She's just seen as the disappointment
of the family. And yet Mirabeltries to view it positively that
she's worthy in otherrespects. But her grandmother clearly
thinks that she's a burden onthe family because she can't give
the family what the rest ofthem can, even though Abuela herself
(28:25):
also has no gift. Abuelasurvived conflict, she was a refugee,
she had three tiny babies totake care of, and she lost her beloved
husband all in the same day.She's scared to leave the encanto
because stepping foot outsideis reliving her trauma. The threat
of losing the casita, of goingback to a violent world, of facing
(28:45):
all that pain again, of seeingher children and grandchildren put
in harm's way. Basically, thethreat of reliving the trauma, of
losing someone she loves, endsup driving her toxicity and fuels
her anxiety, as well asalienating Maribel, who doesn't have
a gift to help protect theencanto. So when Bruno sees a vision
of Mirabel ending the magicand destroying the casita, it fuels
(29:08):
her grandmother's alienationeven more, which also fuels Bruno's
self imposed isolation. Andyet, it's Bruno and Mirabel, the
two black sheep of the family,who actually end up breaking the
cycle of toxicity. Ultimately,by discussing their issues, talking
about their problems, itrepairs the intergenerational trauma.
It repairs the casita, letsAbuela grieve her loss, and also
(29:31):
lets Abuela realize that she'streated Mirabel awfully. And she
sees so much of herself inMirabel, which has led to Abuela
keeping her at arm's length.Now, let's be frankly honest. You
can't just magically repairintergenerational trauma. This is
not a reflection of realitybecause it takes time to heal. Sometimes
(29:53):
it can take years to heal. Youhave to go to a lot of therapy. But
this movie goes some way toshow that even the most perfect person,
the one who seemingly haseverything worked out, the one who
always posts perfect photos onInstagram, the one who seemingly
has a perfect life, perfectjob, perfect spouse, or perfect children.
It's just not true. TheMadrigals put on an Instagram perfect
(30:17):
life with all their magicalgifts, but ultimately they are just
as messed up as everyone else.The weight of expectation burdens
all of us. Whether that'sexpectation of others or just yourself.
I always have a weight ofexpectation on me every episode.
And that is to give you anobligatory Keanu reference. If you
don't know, this is part ofthe podcast where I try and link
(30:38):
pretty much every movie that Ifeature with Keanu Reeves for no
reason other than that he isthe best of men. Now I actually really
thought about this for a longtime and then I realized it was so
obvious because the easiestway to link Keanu Reeves to this
movie is that he starred withactual Bruno John Leguizamo in John
Wick Chapter 2. Now obviouslyyou can't really compare John Wick
(31:01):
Chapter 2 and Encanto otherthan I enjoy both of them very much.
I wouldn't necessarily suggestthat they are a good companion piece
for each other. However, thatis quite simply the most obvious
and easiest way to link Keanuto this movie. I've already spoken
a little bit about the music,about Lin Manuel Miranda's process
of writing the songs inEncanto, and obviously this was a
(31:25):
movie that was made partlyduring the COVID 19 pandemic and
so the soundtrack was recordedunder strict COVID protocols. So
the orchestra and the choirwere divided and recorded in different
sections and on differentdays. They span the distance from
Los Angeles to Colombia.Jermaine Franco composed the score
for Encanto. She is the firstwoman to compose music for a Walt
(31:47):
Disney Animation Studios film,and also the first Latina to win
a Grammy for Best ScoreSoundtrack for Visual Media with
her score for Encanto.Following the release of Encanto
on Disney, the soundtrackalbum saw huge commercial success
and it became, quite simply, aviral phenomenon with TikTok videos
(32:09):
tagged with Encanto amassing27.7 billion views as of June 2022.
All of Encanto's originalsongs were listed on the US Billboard
Hot 100 and the soundtrackspent nine weeks at the top of the
Billboard 200 chart inAustralia, Canada, New Zealand and
the UK. The album peaked atnumber one. Surface pressure and
(32:31):
We Don't Talk About Bruno havebecome the album's biggest singles,
peaking at number eight andnumber four respectively. We Don't
Talk About Bruno also toppedthe UK Singles chart for several
weeks. We Don't Talk AboutBruno is Disney's first ever original
song to top the charts here inthe UK and is its second best selling
song in the US behind A WholeNew World from Aladdin. It surpassed
(32:55):
Frozen's Let It Go as thehighest charting Disney song. The
Family Madrigal also chartedhere in the UK at number seven. In
addition to the Granny forBest Score Soundtrack, it also received
the Annie Award forOutstanding Music in a Feature Film,
the Grammy Award for BestCompilation Soundtrack, and Academy
Award nominations for BestOriginal Score and Best Original
(33:16):
Song for Dos Uruguitas. Andagain due to the COVID 19 pandemic,
many of the crew members onthis movie worked remotely for over
a year and never actually metin person until Disney put on a socially
distanced outdoor screening ofthe final version of the film. The
teaser trailer was released inJuly 2021 before the movie was even
(33:38):
finished, and the publicreaction to Louisa's physical appearance
was praised. So when Louisadidn't really get represented in
Disney merchandising in favorof Mirabel and Isabella, it did draw
some criticism, but Disneymarketing has always favored the
traditionally pretty femalecharacters. There was also little
merchandising of the AfroColombian members of the family either
(34:00):
like Antonio or Dolores. Soreally, if we want to break generational
curses, it might be a goodidea for Disney to start with merchandising
characters who are showingdifference in representation. Just
an idea. I know it's a bit outthere, but let's just put it out
there anyway. Encanto's worldpremiere was held at the El Capitan
(34:20):
Theater in Los Angeles on the3rd of November 2021 and they also
had a Colombian premiere atthe Teatro Colon in bogota, Colombia
on the 23rd of November 2021.The movie was released theatrically
in the United States on the24th of November, but in response
to the COVID 19 pandemic, ithad an exclusive 30 day theatrical
(34:43):
run before being released onDisney on the 24th of December. But
in those 30 days this moviedid business. On his first week of
release it landed at third inthe box office, having technically
only been out a day at thatpoint, but still earned $13.4 million.
Ghostbusters Afterlife was thenumber one movie that week. Its second
(35:04):
week is shot up to number one,where it stayed for two weeks before
dropping down to second on therelease of west side Story and then
down to third in its fifthweek, which by that point it debuted
on Disney Plus. Despite this,it still stayed around in the top
10 for two more weeks though,and continued to make money in cinemas.
It even jumped back up from22nd at the box office to 14th in
(35:27):
its 14th week of release. Onits 120 to 150 million dollar budget,
Encanto made 96 milliondollars domestically in the US and
160.7 million dollarsinternationally, for a total worldwide
gross of 256.8 milliondollars. Now it likely didn't quite
break even depending on howDisney account for it. And technically,
(35:50):
this was in the middle of aglobal pandemic, so I still think
this movie did exceptionallywell. It ended up the second highest
grossing animated film of 2021behind Sin 2, and it became a much
bigger hit than I think Disneyintended it to be, with the soundtrack
going viral. Encanto wouldalso have the best opening weekend
for an animated film duringthe pandemic. Critically, it's also
(36:13):
loved as well. It has a 92% ofrotten tomatoes, with many critics
praising the animation, thecharacters, story and Lin Manuel
Miranda's songs. It was alsopraised for its Latin American representation
and diversity and itsdepiction of family dynamics. But
the film's lack of atraditional villain, something Disney
has been doing more and morein recent years, did come under criticism.
(36:36):
Out of 99 nominations, Encantowon 48 awards, including the Academy
Award for Best AnimatedFeature, three Annie Awards for Best
Character Animation Feature,Best Music Feature, and Best Storyboarding
Feature. It also won the BAFTAfor Best Animated Film and the Golden
Globe for Best Motion PictureAnimated. And we don't talk about
(36:57):
sequels, no no, no. And norhas anyone involved in the production.
As of December 2024, LinManuel Miranda did host the 2022
live musical Encanto at theHollywood bowl, which features some
of the cast members singingthe movie's songs. The Hollywood
bowl hosted the stage musicalon the 11th and 12th of November
(37:18):
2022, and on the 28th ofDecember 2022 the production was
made available on Disney plus,which is where I saw it and I really
loved that live musicalversion of Encanto. I thought it
was really fun and it was alsogreat to see some of the cast members
actually looking very similarto their animated counterparts. Now
(37:39):
I've never been to Colombia,but here in the UK I think we maybe
have a different opinion onLatin American countries than somewhere
like the US does. And what Imean by that is that US TV shows
and movies tend to depictColombia as violent drug lords or
where some characters madecomes from. There never seemed to
be any positive representationof Colombia in the media that I saw
(38:01):
because that media came fromthe US and I guess here in the UK
we don't meet very manyColombians. To me, Colombia gave
us Shakira and so in mysheltered English upbringing, Colombia
must be great because Shakirais great. I should probably add that
I never really watched ModernFamily, so a character coming from
Colombia played by SofiaVergara also wasn't really on my
(38:23):
radar. Disney has this historyof Attempting to depict non English
speaking or non Europeancultures. And their stuff mostly
tends to be more miss thanhit. And it tends to be why their
older stuff has contentwarnings for outdated language or
opinions on Disney plus Disneyhave struggled in the past with handling
(38:44):
different cultures or handlingrace. Even Moana has its criticisms
from Pacific Islandercommunities. But at least Moana tried
to include key Polynesianelements in Moana's story. Hollywood
has never really known how todepict Colombia, and it seems to
me, going from think pieces onthe Internet, at the very least,
that they seem to haveactually got it fairly right within
(39:06):
Canto. Colombia as a countryhas a messy, violent history. At
least the last 200 years hasbeen fraught with nine civil wars,
the advent of communism andarmed conflicts resulting in things
the country is infamouslyknown for, like drug trafficking,
violence and trauma affectsall Colombian families in a way,
and so it makes sense that amovie set in the early 20th century
(39:29):
would also reflect thatsuffering and pain, but in a palatable
way that the whole family canunderstand. Going back to what I
mentioned in Turning Red abouthow you can depict these things in
animation in a more palatableway than you can in live action,
even today, so many people arefleeing war and persecution and ending
up as refugees, they can'talways find their own magical encanto.
(39:51):
So the fact we can seeColombia in its beauty, its culture,
its wonder and its joy, aswell as the music, the stories and
the characters in a wellresearched movie that doesn't just
depict Colombia, it respectsColombia and loves Colombia. They
could have chosen to focus onthe conflict to the killed Pedro
and caused Abuela's pain, butthey chose to focus on the story
(40:13):
of surviving and thriving. Andit's hard to comprehend a family
member being, quote unquote,the villain or the antagonist having
a rift in your family andfeeling like you don't belong because
you're different. It's hard.But I love that this movie goes there
and gives us a seeminglyperfect family and then shows us
the issues and cracks and lackof communication and understanding
(40:34):
that happens in all families.As well as that weight of expectation,
I can relate on differentlevels to different characters. Mostly
Louisa, because I'm the strongone. I'm not nervous. I'm as tough
as the crust of the earth is.But also Mirabel, the people pleaser,
the one who just wants to makeher family proud despite not following
the same path as everyoneelse. My sister is Isabella, she
(40:57):
just is. Except in my familyon the eld, since she's the youngest.
But my sister is the perfectIsabella. Bruno is perhaps one of
the most complex andinteresting characters in the movie,
so heavily burdened by hisgift and by his love for his family
that he excels himself, butnot really, but exists in some lonely,
resentful purgatory. Bruno iseasily what Mirabel could have ended
(41:21):
up becoming, but unlike Bruno,Mirabel turns any resentment she
may have into empathy for hersister Isabella and for her grandmother.
Even though her grandmotherhas emotionally abused her for years
for not meeting herexpectations, Mirabel forgives her.
Mirabel breaks the cycle ofabuse, of hurt people, hurting people.
(41:41):
Mirabel has the real gift Someof the other little things I love
about this movie are the malecharacters Felix and Augustine, who
are just so happy to be therethat they embrace this life. Also
with no powers but just lovetheir winning and take on their surnames
because they have zero toxicmasculinity. But mostly a huge thank
(42:02):
you to this movie for showingso many different skin tones and
educating people on the beautyand majesty of Colombia of having
literally some of thecatchiest songs that have come out
in recent years on Disneymovies. But most importantly, I now
know that Columbia is morethan just Shakira. But I want to
end on this. You are worthmore than your gift, whatever that
(42:26):
gift may be. Remember that.Thank you for listening. As always,
I would love to hear yourthoughts on Encanto and thank you
for your continued support ofthis podcast. If you want to get
involved and you want to helpthis podcast grow, you could leave
a rating wherever you foundthis podcast or review or a rating
and review. Both is good. Youcan also find me. I am at Verbal
(42:47):
Diorama on all of the socialmedias, so Twitter kind of I'm more
or less leaving there now,Facebook, Instagram threads, Blue
sky and Letterboxd. But theeasiest way you can show support
is simply by telling yourfriends and family about this podcast.
And if you like this episodeon Encanto, you might also like some
previous episodes. I've donemany episodes on Pixar movies and
(43:10):
many episodes on animatedmovies full stop. But the two that
kind of came to mind when Ithought of this one were episode
75 Coco and 282 Turning Red,which is the previous episode. But
there are a lot ofsimilarities between Turning Red
and Encanto, especially whenyou think of intergenerational trauma
and passing down your traumato your children. So the next episode
(43:34):
don't make me throw thishummus. It's spicy. We are moving
away from Pixar and Disney andwe're going to go to Laika and their
second feature, the follow upto the excellent Coraline. This time
though without Henry Selick.Norman Babcock is just a normal 11
year old kid who enjoyswatching low budget horror movies
(43:55):
with his grandma. But hisgrandma is dead. And coming up to
the anniversary of the BlitheHollow witch and the witch's curse
that only Norman with hispowers of talking to the dead can
prevent. And when he fails,zombies arise from the dead and start
meandering into the town. Thenext episode of Animation season
(44:16):
is gonna be on the movieParaNorman. So please join me next
week for the history andlegacy of ParaNorman. Now, I always
say this podcast is free andit always will be free. However,
unfortunately it's not free tomake a podcast. So this podcast relies
on the generous support ofsome wonderful listeners. If you
(44:37):
wish to join them, you areunder no obligation. You can continue
to listen to this podcast forfree for as long as you want. However,
if you would like to supportthis podcast and you feel like you've
got some worth from thispodcast, then there are two ways
you can do that. You could goto verbaldiorama.com tips and give
a one off tip. Or you can goto verbaldiorama.com/patreon and
(44:57):
you can join the amazingpatrons of this podcast. They are
Sade, Claudia, Simon, Laurel,Derek, Katie, Andy, Mike, Luke, Michael,
Scott, Brendan, Lisa, Sam,Jack, Dave, Stuart, Nicholas, Zoe,
Kev, Pete, Heather, Danny,Ali, Stu, Brett, Philippan, Michelle,
Zenos, Sean, Rhino, Philip K,Adam, Elaine, Kyle, and Aaron. If
(45:18):
you want to get in touch withme, you can. You can email verbaldioramail.com
you can give me generalhellos, you can give me feedback
or suggestions. Or you go toverbaldiorama.com find everything.
Find old episodes on thewebsite. You can listen to episodes
on the website too. Or you canjust fill out the contact form and
say hi. You can also find workthat I do at filmstories.co.uk, you
(45:39):
can check out issues of themagazine and articles too. And finally,
(46:23):
Bye.
Hi, everyone, I'm Em, andwelcome to Verbal Diorama, episode
283, Encanto. This is thepodcast that's all about the history
and legacy of movies you know.And movies you know. There's probably
definitely going to talk aboutBruno. But before we get into all
of that, a huge hi and welcometo Verbal Diorama. Whether you are
a regular returning listener,whether you are a brand new listener
(02:00):
to this podcast and haveliterally just joined us because
you love the movie Encanto,Regardless, thank you for being here.
Thank you for choosing tolisten to this podcast. There are
a lot of movie podcasts outthere that are all vying for your
ears and your attention. AndI'm so happy to have you here for
the history and legacy ofEncanto. So why am I covering Encanto?
(02:21):
Well, this is Animation Season2025. This is the fifth annual Animation
Season. It is a celebration ofanimation. Oops, I'm a poet and I
didn't know it in all of itsforms. So we're talking traditional
2D hand drawn stop motion andCGI, just like this movie. Or indeed,
a mix of all of the above,because there are movies out there
(02:43):
that do have a mix of thosedifferent art forms in them. This
podcast has been going for sixyears, and for the last five years,
I have covered some of thebest movies and also maybe some of
the not so great movies aswell. I have done the emoji movie,
after all. But I've also hadthe pleasure of featuring some of
the greatest animation studiosof all time. Leica, Aardman, Disney,
(03:06):
Dreamworks, Sony Animation,Pixar Studio, Ghibli, Cartoon Saloon,
Even studios that no longerexist, like Fox Animation, Blue sky,
and Don Bleed Studios. Themantra of animation season is quite
simple, and that is thatanimation. First of all, it's not
a genre. Really annoys me whenNetflix put it as a separate genre
(03:28):
for people to choose from.It's not a genre, it's an art form.
But also, I would like todispel the myth that animation is
just for children. There are alot of great children and family
movies that are animated.Similarly, there's a lot of movies
for children and families thatare live action. But animation is
not just for children.Animation is just simply a beautiful
(03:50):
art form, a way of visualstorytelling. And also animation,
in my opinion, is the perfectart form, because in animation you
can depict pretty muchanything. You're not confined by
the laws of physics, gravity,visual effects, limitations. You
don't have that in animation.And nothing that's animated ever
looks out of place, unlikesome really bad CGI that you might
(04:14):
find in some movie. It willreally take you out of the experience
of watching that movie, butyou don't have that in animation
because it all looks the same.And for me, this is why. Animation
season is in its fifth yearand remains so important to this
podcast and to what I believeVerbal Diorama is out there to achieve.
It is telling the history andthe legacy of movies in general.
(04:35):
But having an animation seasonis important because I really want
to highlight incredibleanimated films that, you know, like
Encanto, but maybe also someof the ones that you don't. Like
the Secret of Nin, likeNimona, like Perfect Blue, like Wolf
Walkers, or like the veryfirst ever episode of this podcast,
(04:56):
all the way back in February2019, Titan AE. Chances are you've
probably never heard of any ofthose. Or you've maybe never heard
of some of them. I mean, ifyou've heard of all of them, that's
great. People should knowabout those movies. But while I'm
covering a Disney movie todayon this podcast, there is so much
more out there in animationthat goes beyond Disney and Pixar
(05:18):
and DreamWorks. And if youdon't watch these movies, you're
missing out on some trulyincredible storytelling as well.
Now, I've rambled on a littlebit more about animation than I actually
planned to, but I just wantedto add that a huge thank you to everyone
who listens to this podcastand who continues to listen to and
support this podcast. As Isaid, this podcast has been going
almost six years now, over 280episodes. It means so much for your
(05:41):
continued support, so thankyou very much from me. But let's
just jump straight intoEncanto. I just made something unexpected.
Something sharp, somethingnew. It's not symmetrical or perfect,
but it's beautiful. And it'smine. What else can I do? Here's
the trailer for Encanto.
(08:09):
The Madrigals are anextraordinary family who live hidden
in the mountains of Colombiain a magical house in a vibrant town,
in a wondrous, charmed placecalled the Encanto. The magic of
the Encanto has blessed everychild in the Madrigal family with
a unique gift. From superstrength to the power to heal every
child except one. Mirabel. Butwhen she discovers that the magic
(08:34):
surrounding the Encanto is indanger, Mirabel decides that she,
the only ordinary Madrigal,might just be her exceptional family's
last hope. Let's run throughthe cast of this movie. This is a
huge family. I'm not in aposition to sing a song about all
of the members of the Madrigalfamily. Mostly because I don't want
(08:54):
to get a copyright strike. Butlet's run through them anyway. We
have Stephanie Beatrice asMirabel Madrigal. Maria Cecilia Botero
as Abuela Alma Madrigal. JohnLeguizamo as Bruno Madrigal. Jessica
Darrow as Luisa Madrigal.Diane Guerrero as Isabella Madrigal.
(09:14):
Angie Sapida as JulietaMadrigal Carolina Catan as Pepa Madrigal
Mauro Castillo as FelixMadrigal, Wilma Valderrama as Agustin
Madrigal Adasa as DoloresMadrigal Renzi Feliz as Camilo Madrigal
and Ravi Cabot Conyers asAntonio Madrigal Encanto has a screenplay
(09:37):
by Sharice Castro Smith andJared Bush, a story by Jared Bush,
Byron Howard, Sharice CastroSmith, Jason Hand, Nancy Cruz and
Lin Manuel Miranda and wasdirected by Jared Bush and Byron
Howard. Co directed by ShariceCastro Smith. The canonical 60th
animated Walt Disney AnimationStudios feature I say canonical because
(10:00):
there are some that count andothers that don't. Started life in
2016, a very good year forDisney animation. Both Zootopia,
which is called Zootropolishere in the UK because of copyright
stuff. Anderson Moana came outthat year. Moana, which I'm going
to be referencing quite a lotin this episode, actually also featured
songs by Lin Manuel Miranda.Zootopia was directed by Jared Bush
(10:23):
and Byron Howard. BothZootopia and Moana had been huge
hits, so bringing the bestbits of both made sense to Disney.
Howard and Bush wanted to makea musical next, and Lin Manuel Miranda
is the guy you get when youwant a good musical. See also Hamilton
and In the Heights. JohnLasseter brought the team together
(10:45):
and Miranda revealed during apress tour for Moana that early stage
talks were happening foranother Disney animation project.
And all three men, Miranda,Bush and Howard, all had the experiences
of growing up in large,extended families. They started with
a whiteboard and on it theywrote, families are made up of individuals
who evolved, who had hopes anddreams and faults and failures. Can
(11:07):
we tell a story that helps ouraudience see family from a different
perspective? It turns out aswell, but all families have issues.
Most people don't feel seen orunderstood by members of their family.
Most of us never truly tellour families all our troubles and
burdens, and for most of us,members of our families feel exactly
the same way we do. But wenever talk about it, so we never
(11:29):
actually find out and we justcontinue to struggle in silence,
which ultimately startscreating cracks in our family. But
we're going to get onto that.Juan Rendon and Natalie Osma, who
had collaborated with Howardand Bush on the making of documentary
Imagining Zootopia, wereconsulted on Latin American culture
with the idea of making themovie set in South America. Howard,
(11:51):
Bush and Miranda concentratedtheir research on Colombia. Since
Rendon and Osma are Colombiansand used their firsthand encounters
with Colombian culture intheir discussions, Disney animation
established what it dubbed theColombian Cultural Trust by hiring
Rendon and Osma as the firstof a number of cultural specialists
to serve as advisors on themovie. Similarly to what they'd also
(12:13):
done with Moana with theOceanic Story Trust, the team went
on a research trip toColombia, which included a trip to
the Gabriel Garcia MarquezFoundation. Garcia Marquez is regarded
as one of the most significantauthors of the 20th century, known
for his Spanish language multigenerational novel One Hundred Years
of Solitude, published in1967, which depicts 100 years in
(12:35):
a fictional Colombian villageduring the infamous Thousand Days
War, a civil war that ragedacross Colombia between October 1899
and November 1902 into Ecuadorand Venezuela, with an estimated
100 to 180,000 deaths, around3% of the population at that time.
The reason I'm mentioning thisis kind of important because while
(12:57):
Encanto isn't dated to aparticular time in Colombia's history,
and while the Encanto itselfis fictional, Pedro and Alba Madrigal
are fleeing a conflict, andit's highly likely that this is early
1900s Colombia during the daysof the Thousand Days War, where many
people fled to safety withtheir families to escape becoming
refugees in other places,sometimes other countries. While
(13:21):
on their Colombian trip, thesenior production team of Encanto
visited large cities, but theyfound more inspiration in smaller
places like Salento andBarichara, where they met tour guide
Alejandra Espinoza Uribe, whoshowed them around the town, showed
off his architecture, andafter signing an NDA stating she
wouldn't disclose anythingabout the trip and Espinosa, Uribe
(13:44):
would not only become acultural consultant on Encanto, but.
But she also looks remarkablylike Mirabel, with thick dark hair
and glasses, and the directorshave since confirmed that she was
part of the inspiration forthe design of Mirabel. But she also
showed the production team theactual lives of the people who lived
in Barichara, showed them thehandcrafted materials they used to
(14:06):
build and create with, andimplored the team to treat Colombian
heritage and culture withrespect. Mostly because to a lot
of people in Americaspecifically, Colombia is more well
known for its drug cartelsthan its culture or history, and
the production did want totreat Colombia with respect. Latin
American employees at Disneywere invited to join La Familia,
(14:29):
a group to collaborate onEncanto, to show cultural representation
and sensitivity, which led tothe removal of ideas surrounding
magical realism. Instead, theyread Cuban author Elego Campatier's
Lo real Maruvalosa, thewonderful real and understanding
the worldview of the Afro andindigenous populations, that water
(14:49):
is sacred for indigenouspeople, and that the miracle that
forms the basis of the movieshould come from a river. The directors
were receptive to any and allideas, and the large family at the
center became a diverserepresentation of Colombian's diaspora,
representing indigenous peopleas well as Afro Colombians. It was
la familia that added Bruno'sline, sana, sana colita de rana.
(15:13):
Apologies for the terriblepronunciation of that, which is a
lullaby, which in Englishmeans heel, heel, little frog's tail.
They also came up with thetitle Encanto. But obviously then
the pandemic happened and theDisney animation team was not actually
able to travel to Colombia andeveryone went remote, including Alejandra
Espinosa Uribe, who sentdetailed images of Colombian life
(15:36):
to the animation team,including hand gestures and facial
expressions. She also sentfabrics, including skirts made by
hand in Velez, so theanimation team understood the weight
of the fabric and the texture.This fabric was used for the inspiration
for much of the clothing inthe movie, but especially Maribel's
skirt. But I am gettingslightly ahead of myself here, because
(15:57):
while they had an idea of thestory they wanted and they had Alejandra
Espinoza Uribe's guides onColombian life, Howard Bush realized
they needed a secondscreenwriter to help flesh out the
characters, and they turned toCharisse Castro Smith, a playwright
who focuses on complexdimensional female roles. She's also
written for the TV seriesDevious Maids and Netflix's the Haunting
(16:19):
of Hill House. Castro Smith,who also looks a little bit like
Maribel, was brought on to cowrite, but was also asked to co direct.
After eight months on theproject, she used her bond with her
own Abuela to create amatriarch whose bravery and struggle
would lead to the weight ofexpectations she places on her own
family. She wrote the openingprologue and Abuela's story. She
(16:41):
even provided the scratchvocals for Abuela as well as other
characters. And unlike Moana,it would be a large family. Moana
was originally going to haveeight brothers before that idea was
scrapped. The family would beat the heart of Encanto, and everyone
knows the more characters, themore exposition you need to describe
each character, the more storyarcs you need for each character.
(17:04):
But they wanted to have thearchetypal family personalities that
occur in every family. Thegolden child, the rock, the outsider,
the one who is always tryingto help others, the one who knows
all the gossip and imbue thesepeople with magical powers that enhance
these stereotypes. Disney,when they heard about all of these
characters, were slightlyconcerned though. And as we've seen
(17:26):
on this podcast many times,lots of characters can either dilute
a movie or place the focusupon the most interesting of those
many characters. I mean, whocares about Batman when you have
Catwoman or the Riddler towatch? It was unheard of in Disney
to have so many characters,each with their own separate arcs.
They suggested having fivecharacters instead of 12 to alleviate
(17:49):
the issue and to introduceeach character without cumbersome
exposition. Lin Manuel Mirandawrote the song the Family Madrigal
even before the second orthird acts of Encanto had been completed.
He was inspired by the songBelle from Beauty and the Beast as
well as Colombian performersduring their research trip to Colombia.
Bear in mind as well that LinManuel Miranda was also working on
(18:10):
Tick Tick Boom at the sametime. He likes to work on multiple
projects at once. Apparentlyit would be two years after writing
the Family Madrigal that hewas writing the final song, Waiting
on a Miracle, which isinspired by the Colombian musicians
like musical group 200DCilantro in a small mountain town
Barichara and the region's 12string tipple which is 3/4 the size
(18:34):
of a classical guitar. And foreach sister, coincidentally, Lin
Manuel Miranda had inspirationin real life for the eldest perfect
sister Isabella. He knew aLatin American botanist and for middle's
strong sister Louisa. Hissister Luz was six years older and
the one who took on theresponsibility, whereas he was the
(18:54):
baby brother that got awaywith everything. Miranda also picked
up on the film's motif ofbutterflies and transformation to
create the folk like DosUruguitas which is sung by Sebastian
Yetra. It was the first songthat Miranda had ever written, Beginning
to end in Spanish. It's alsothe only song to rival married life
from up in emotionalresonance. Seriously, I always blub
(19:17):
like a baby at that particularscene in this movie. Various story
ideas were considered for themovie but discarded, including setting
the movie in the 1950s, havingthe story told over 100 years of
Madrigal family history, andhaving a modern woman travel back
in time to the early 1900s viaa magical doorknob. Other things
which changed as the scriptwent on were Maribel's name. She
(19:41):
was originally and ratherironically going to be called Beatrice.
Stephanie Beatriz would go onto voice her, and Tia Pepper was
originally going to beImmortal. And as for Bruno, well,
we don't talk about Oscar.Does it really work as well? And
yes, Oscar was Bruno'soriginal name. Other options for
the name for Bruno includedArlo, Marco, Anko, Andre and Emo
(20:05):
in initial drafts of Encanto,we don't talk About Bruno didn't
feature at all, and in earlydrafts they struggled to not let
it become a buddy moviebetween Mirabel and Bruno. But something
clicked when the filmmakersreckoned with the repercussions of
Bruno's gift, figuring thathis precognition would likely turn
the family and the townsfolkagainst him. And rather than tell
(20:27):
the story of Bruno'sestrangement with exposition, they
turn to Lin Manuel Mirandadelivering the truth in song form
and him disappearing after afamily wedding and after Mirror Bell
didn't get her gift when shewas five, she's now 15, so that means
Bruno has been gone for 10years by this point, and he'd become
almost like an urban legend,with everyone having their own misperception
(20:49):
of him and what he did. Butthe song also served to tell us a
little more about other familymembers, about Tia Pepper and Tio
Felix's wedding day, and alsoDolores's admission that she hears
him in the house. The designfor Bruno's room was partly inspired
by the Salt Cathedral ofZipakira, which is a stunning underground
(21:09):
cathedral in Colombia that'slocated inside a salt mine. The river
where Abuela Alma loses herhusband Pedro, and is given sanctuary
by the Encantone is based on areal multicolored river called Canio
Cristales, which exists inColombia. It is in the Department
of Meta, inside a remotenational park. A special permit is
(21:29):
needed to visit it, and only afew people are permitted to visit
each year. The area that theMadrigal family lives was inspired
by the Cocora Valley inColombia. Such was the production's
intent to really focus on andshowcase the beauty and Diversity
of Colombia. 800 people intotal worked on Encanto over five
(21:51):
years. Two of those years wereremotely at home, and the official
wrap on the film's script camein August 2021, three months before
the movie premiered. Alsorecurring in August 2021 was the
birth of Stephanie Beatrice'schild. I mentioned Waiting on a Miracle
was the last song Lin ManuelMiranda wrote. Stephanie Beatrice
(22:12):
recorded the song while shewas overdue to give birth. 48 hours
after recording Waiting on aMiracle, she gave birth to her daughter,
which now that I listen toWaiting on a Miracle, it kind of
gives that song so much moreresonance when she herself was literally
waiting on her own miracle.The entire movie wrapped in September
(22:33):
2021, which gave the Postproduction team a little over a month
to finish the movie before itpremiered. Visual effects innovations
for the movie included A neweye shader which supported refraction
and the development of avisual tool that emulates a hologram.
The heads of animation forEncanto, Renato do Onjos and Kira
(22:53):
Lettermarki would state thatEncanto was the hardest film they'd
ever worked on, due to themultitude of characters, the complex
animation styles, and bringingin the choreographers much earlier
than usual. ChoreographerJamal Sims and assistant choreographer
Kai Martinez created thedances within the film. They were
shot by animators who thenused the footage as a reference to
(23:16):
animate the same moves ontothe characters. Bruno's hologram
was based on an existinghologram shader that had been developed
by Hyperion for Big Hero 6, aswell as a prototype of the teleportation
shader Pixar had used forportals in Incredibles 2. Their approach
was to develop a customsolution in Disney's Hyperion. Renderer
design said that all theartists had to do was set up the
(23:38):
3D geometry that they wantedto put inside of the hologram in
a target space hiddensomewhere in the overall scene, and
then select the geometry inthe main scene that they wanted to
act as the entrance portal,select the geometry in the target
space they wanted to act asthe exit portal and link the two
using the teleportationshader. Going from the start of brainstorming
(23:58):
and prototyping to deliveringthe final production version of the
hologram shader took the teama little over a week, which is incredibly
quick for a large newrendering feature. Felipe Zapata,
a Colombian botanist, wasconsulted by the production team
in order to choose andillustrate the plants and flowers
that Isabella could grow. Hisguidance made it possible to choose
(24:20):
the right plants and displaythem in precise detail. Isabella
would end up producing sundew,stranga figs and a river of jacarandas.
Realistic plants can also beseen in background scenery. These
include cecropia trees and thewell known but now endangered wax
palm. There are alsoeconomically significant plants shown
as well, such as coffee,because Colombian coffee is delicious
(24:44):
and it is one of Colombia'smajor exports. But there's one character
that I haven't actually reallymentioned yet, the biggest character
in the whole movie, and thatis the casita. And the casita presented
the team with additionaldifficulties. In addition to Maribel
and her family, the casita wasa character unto itself, and not
(25:06):
merely just a setting wheresongs and dances are performed. Encanto's
associate production designer,Laura Le Beauvais, realized that
the colors of the casita hadto sing as loudly as the music and
express as much as thedancing. Bovet experimented with
various color palettes fromcharacter costumes and drew inspiration
from a variety of Colombianmusicals and photographs, giving
(25:28):
each room of the casita itsown unique textile, handmade appearance
and expression. She also tookinspiration from Beetlejuice for
a home that seemingly comesalive. And speaking of color schemes,
color is most definitely notrandom in this movie. Each character
has their own color. Theychose magenta for the Abuela because
(25:50):
she had lost her husband in aColombian river that contains magenta
algae. And since turquoise isa healing color, they gave it to
Julieta, who is very calm anda healer. Mirabel again, is the odd
one out because she has noparticular color that identifies
her with the house. The househas many aesthetic flaws that are
intended to convey genuinenessand the genuine human struggle Mirabel
(26:13):
has in binding her ownidentity. Mirabel's costume incorporates
nearly every color in herfamily, much like the house has many
colors in common, but none ofits own. Casting this movie made
casting almost entirely LatinAmerican actors, the only exception,
of course, being Alan Tudyk,who has a small cameo as a toucan.
(26:33):
And it also meant casting manyvoice actors of Colombian heritage,
including Stephanie Beatriz,whose father is Colombian, John Leguizano,
who was born in Bogota, DianeGuerrero and Hadassa, whose parents
are both Colombian, and WilmaValderrama, who spent his childhood
in Colombia. Many of the castreprise their roles for the Spanish
dub of the film. StephanieBeatrice is obviously most well known
(26:57):
as Detective Rosa Diaz inBrooklyn 9 9. And so when the production
was casting, they originallythought of her for Luisa, thinking
that she was tough like Rosain real life. When they realized
that shock horror, she's justacting tough as Rosa Diaz, they instead
cast her as Mirabel. And thisis one of those incredible animated
movies that actually has areally important message behind all
(27:20):
of the beauty and the colorand the amazing songs and the wonderful
characters, and that this is amovie about generational trauma and
how we pass our trauma down.Part of the team's multi year research
process for Encanto includedspeaking with psychologists, trauma
counsellors, mental healthexperts, family therapists, and dozens
of families who helped themfind the dynamics and struggles of
(27:42):
the madrigals stemming fromAbuela's constant state of survival
mode and being so protectiveof the family and the family's gifts,
which leads to the weight ofexpectation, which leads to cracks
in relationships depicted bycracks in the casita, the fact that
Abuela's past is always spokenof positively, in that they found
the village. They built acommunity. Nothing negative is ever
(28:04):
really talked about. So muchso that when Mirabel doesn't get
a gift, it's never talkedabout. She's just seen as the disappointment
of the family. And yet Mirabeltries to view it positively that
she's worthy in otherrespects. But her grandmother clearly
thinks that she's a burden onthe family because she can't give
the family what the rest ofthem can, even though Abuela herself
(28:25):
also has no gift. Abuelasurvived conflict, she was a refugee,
she had three tiny babies totake care of, and she lost her beloved
husband all in the same day.She's scared to leave the encanto
because stepping foot outsideis reliving her trauma. The threat
of losing the casita, of goingback to a violent world, of facing
(28:45):
all that pain again, of seeingher children and grandchildren put
in harm's way. Basically, thethreat of reliving the trauma, of
losing someone she loves, endsup driving her toxicity and fuels
her anxiety, as well asalienating Maribel, who doesn't have
a gift to help protect theencanto. So when Bruno sees a vision
of Mirabel ending the magicand destroying the casita, it fuels
(29:08):
her grandmother's alienationeven more, which also fuels Bruno's
self imposed isolation. Andyet, it's Bruno and Mirabel, the
two black sheep of the family,who actually end up breaking the
cycle of toxicity. Ultimately,by discussing their issues, talking
about their problems, itrepairs the intergenerational trauma.
It repairs the casita, letsAbuela grieve her loss, and also
(29:31):
lets Abuela realize that she'streated Mirabel awfully. And she
sees so much of herself inMirabel, which has led to Abuela
keeping her at arm's length.Now, let's be frankly honest. You
can't just magically repairintergenerational trauma. This is
not a reflection of realitybecause it takes time to heal. Sometimes
(29:53):
it can take years to heal. Youhave to go to a lot of therapy. But
this movie goes some way toshow that even the most perfect person,
the one who seemingly haseverything worked out, the one who
always posts perfect photos onInstagram, the one who seemingly
has a perfect life, perfectjob, perfect spouse, or perfect children.
It's just not true. TheMadrigals put on an Instagram perfect
(30:17):
life with all their magicalgifts, but ultimately they are just
as messed up as everyone else.The weight of expectation burdens
all of us. Whether that'sexpectation of others or just yourself.
I always have a weight ofexpectation on me every episode.
And that is to give you anobligatory Keanu reference. If you
don't know, this is part ofthe podcast where I try and link
(30:38):
pretty much every movie that Ifeature with Keanu Reeves for no
reason other than that he isthe best of men. Now I actually really
thought about this for a longtime and then I realized it was so
obvious because the easiestway to link Keanu Reeves to this
movie is that he starred withactual Bruno John Leguizamo in John
Wick Chapter 2. Now obviouslyyou can't really compare John Wick
(31:01):
Chapter 2 and Encanto otherthan I enjoy both of them very much.
I wouldn't necessarily suggestthat they are a good companion piece
for each other. However, thatis quite simply the most obvious
and easiest way to link Keanuto this movie. I've already spoken
a little bit about the music,about Lin Manuel Miranda's process
of writing the songs inEncanto, and obviously this was a
(31:25):
movie that was made partlyduring the COVID 19 pandemic and
so the soundtrack was recordedunder strict COVID protocols. So
the orchestra and the choirwere divided and recorded in different
sections and on differentdays. They span the distance from
Los Angeles to Colombia.Jermaine Franco composed the score
for Encanto. She is the firstwoman to compose music for a Walt
(31:47):
Disney Animation Studios film,and also the first Latina to win
a Grammy for Best ScoreSoundtrack for Visual Media with
her score for Encanto.Following the release of Encanto
on Disney, the soundtrackalbum saw huge commercial success
and it became, quite simply, aviral phenomenon with TikTok videos
(32:09):
tagged with Encanto amassing27.7 billion views as of June 2022.
All of Encanto's originalsongs were listed on the US Billboard
Hot 100 and the soundtrackspent nine weeks at the top of the
Billboard 200 chart inAustralia, Canada, New Zealand and
the UK. The album peaked atnumber one. Surface pressure and
(32:31):
We Don't Talk About Bruno havebecome the album's biggest singles,
peaking at number eight andnumber four respectively. We Don't
Talk About Bruno also toppedthe UK Singles chart for several
weeks. We Don't Talk AboutBruno is Disney's first ever original
song to top the charts here inthe UK and is its second best selling
song in the US behind A WholeNew World from Aladdin. It surpassed
(32:55):
Frozen's Let It Go as thehighest charting Disney song. The
Family Madrigal also chartedhere in the UK at number seven. In
addition to the Granny forBest Score Soundtrack, it also received
the Annie Award forOutstanding Music in a Feature Film,
the Grammy Award for BestCompilation Soundtrack, and Academy
Award nominations for BestOriginal Score and Best Original
(33:16):
Song for Dos Uruguitas. Andagain due to the COVID 19 pandemic,
many of the crew members onthis movie worked remotely for over
a year and never actually metin person until Disney put on a socially
distanced outdoor screening ofthe final version of the film. The
teaser trailer was released inJuly 2021 before the movie was even
(33:38):
finished, and the publicreaction to Louisa's physical appearance
was praised. So when Louisadidn't really get represented in
Disney merchandising in favorof Mirabel and Isabella, it did draw
some criticism, but Disneymarketing has always favored the
traditionally pretty femalecharacters. There was also little
merchandising of the AfroColombian members of the family either
(34:00):
like Antonio or Dolores. Soreally, if we want to break generational
curses, it might be a goodidea for Disney to start with merchandising
characters who are showingdifference in representation. Just
an idea. I know it's a bit outthere, but let's just put it out
there anyway. Encanto's worldpremiere was held at the El Capitan
(34:20):
Theater in Los Angeles on the3rd of November 2021 and they also
had a Colombian premiere atthe Teatro Colon in bogota, Colombia
on the 23rd of November 2021.The movie was released theatrically
in the United States on the24th of November, but in response
to the COVID 19 pandemic, ithad an exclusive 30 day theatrical
(34:43):
run before being released onDisney on the 24th of December. But
in those 30 days this moviedid business. On his first week of
release it landed at third inthe box office, having technically
only been out a day at thatpoint, but still earned $13.4 million.
Ghostbusters Afterlife was thenumber one movie that week. Its second
(35:04):
week is shot up to number one,where it stayed for two weeks before
dropping down to second on therelease of west side Story and then
down to third in its fifthweek, which by that point it debuted
on Disney Plus. Despite this,it still stayed around in the top
10 for two more weeks though,and continued to make money in cinemas.
It even jumped back up from22nd at the box office to 14th in
(35:27):
its 14th week of release. Onits 120 to 150 million dollar budget,
Encanto made 96 milliondollars domestically in the US and
160.7 million dollarsinternationally, for a total worldwide
gross of 256.8 milliondollars. Now it likely didn't quite
break even depending on howDisney account for it. And technically,
(35:50):
this was in the middle of aglobal pandemic, so I still think
this movie did exceptionallywell. It ended up the second highest
grossing animated film of 2021behind Sin 2, and it became a much
bigger hit than I think Disneyintended it to be, with the soundtrack
going viral. Encanto wouldalso have the best opening weekend
for an animated film duringthe pandemic. Critically, it's also
(36:13):
loved as well. It has a 92% ofrotten tomatoes, with many critics
praising the animation, thecharacters, story and Lin Manuel
Miranda's songs. It was alsopraised for its Latin American representation
and diversity and itsdepiction of family dynamics. But
the film's lack of atraditional villain, something Disney
has been doing more and morein recent years, did come under criticism.
(36:36):
Out of 99 nominations, Encantowon 48 awards, including the Academy
Award for Best AnimatedFeature, three Annie Awards for Best
Character Animation Feature,Best Music Feature, and Best Storyboarding
Feature. It also won the BAFTAfor Best Animated Film and the Golden
Globe for Best Motion PictureAnimated. And we don't talk about
(36:57):
sequels, no no, no. And norhas anyone involved in the production.
As of December 2024, LinManuel Miranda did host the 2022
live musical Encanto at theHollywood bowl, which features some
of the cast members singingthe movie's songs. The Hollywood
bowl hosted the stage musicalon the 11th and 12th of November
(37:18):
2022, and on the 28th ofDecember 2022 the production was
made available on Disney plus,which is where I saw it and I really
loved that live musicalversion of Encanto. I thought it
was really fun and it was alsogreat to see some of the cast members
actually looking very similarto their animated counterparts. Now
(37:39):
I've never been to Colombia,but here in the UK I think we maybe
have a different opinion onLatin American countries than somewhere
like the US does. And what Imean by that is that US TV shows
and movies tend to depictColombia as violent drug lords or
where some characters madecomes from. There never seemed to
be any positive representationof Colombia in the media that I saw
(38:01):
because that media came fromthe US and I guess here in the UK
we don't meet very manyColombians. To me, Colombia gave
us Shakira and so in mysheltered English upbringing, Colombia
must be great because Shakirais great. I should probably add that
I never really watched ModernFamily, so a character coming from
Colombia played by SofiaVergara also wasn't really on my
(38:23):
radar. Disney has this historyof Attempting to depict non English
speaking or non Europeancultures. And their stuff mostly
tends to be more miss thanhit. And it tends to be why their
older stuff has contentwarnings for outdated language or
opinions on Disney plus Disneyhave struggled in the past with handling
(38:44):
different cultures or handlingrace. Even Moana has its criticisms
from Pacific Islandercommunities. But at least Moana tried
to include key Polynesianelements in Moana's story. Hollywood
has never really known how todepict Colombia, and it seems to
me, going from think pieces onthe Internet, at the very least,
that they seem to haveactually got it fairly right within
(39:06):
Canto. Colombia as a countryhas a messy, violent history. At
least the last 200 years hasbeen fraught with nine civil wars,
the advent of communism andarmed conflicts resulting in things
the country is infamouslyknown for, like drug trafficking,
violence and trauma affectsall Colombian families in a way,
and so it makes sense that amovie set in the early 20th century
(39:29):
would also reflect thatsuffering and pain, but in a palatable
way that the whole family canunderstand. Going back to what I
mentioned in Turning Red abouthow you can depict these things in
animation in a more palatableway than you can in live action,
even today, so many people arefleeing war and persecution and ending
up as refugees, they can'talways find their own magical encanto.
(39:51):
So the fact we can seeColombia in its beauty, its culture,
its wonder and its joy, aswell as the music, the stories and
the characters in a wellresearched movie that doesn't just
depict Colombia, it respectsColombia and loves Colombia. They
could have chosen to focus onthe conflict to the killed Pedro
and caused Abuela's pain, butthey chose to focus on the story
(40:13):
of surviving and thriving. Andit's hard to comprehend a family
member being, quote unquote,the villain or the antagonist having
a rift in your family andfeeling like you don't belong because
you're different. It's hard.But I love that this movie goes there
and gives us a seeminglyperfect family and then shows us
the issues and cracks and lackof communication and understanding
(40:34):
that happens in all families.As well as that weight of expectation,
I can relate on differentlevels to different characters. Mostly
Louisa, because I'm the strongone. I'm not nervous. I'm as tough
as the crust of the earth is.But also Mirabel, the people pleaser,
the one who just wants to makeher family proud despite not following
the same path as everyoneelse. My sister is Isabella, she
(40:57):
just is. Except in my familyon the eld, since she's the youngest.
But my sister is the perfectIsabella. Bruno is perhaps one of
the most complex andinteresting characters in the movie,
so heavily burdened by hisgift and by his love for his family
that he excels himself, butnot really, but exists in some lonely,
resentful purgatory. Bruno iseasily what Mirabel could have ended
(41:21):
up becoming, but unlike Bruno,Mirabel turns any resentment she
may have into empathy for hersister Isabella and for her grandmother.
Even though her grandmotherhas emotionally abused her for years
for not meeting herexpectations, Mirabel forgives her.
Mirabel breaks the cycle ofabuse, of hurt people, hurting people.
(41:41):
Mirabel has the real gift Someof the other little things I love
about this movie are the malecharacters Felix and Augustine, who
are just so happy to be therethat they embrace this life. Also
with no powers but just lovetheir winning and take on their surnames
because they have zero toxicmasculinity. But mostly a huge thank
(42:02):
you to this movie for showingso many different skin tones and
educating people on the beautyand majesty of Colombia of having
literally some of thecatchiest songs that have come out
in recent years on Disneymovies. But most importantly, I now
know that Columbia is morethan just Shakira. But I want to
end on this. You are worthmore than your gift, whatever that
(42:26):
gift may be. Remember that.Thank you for listening. As always,
I would love to hear yourthoughts on Encanto and thank you
for your continued support ofthis podcast. If you want to get
involved and you want to helpthis podcast grow, you could leave
a rating wherever you foundthis podcast or review or a rating
and review. Both is good. Youcan also find me. I am at Verbal
(42:47):
Diorama on all of the socialmedias, so Twitter kind of I'm more
or less leaving there now,Facebook, Instagram threads, Blue
sky and Letterboxd. But theeasiest way you can show support
is simply by telling yourfriends and family about this podcast.
And if you like this episodeon Encanto, you might also like some
previous episodes. I've donemany episodes on Pixar movies and
(43:10):
many episodes on animatedmovies full stop. But the two that
kind of came to mind when Ithought of this one were episode
75 Coco and 282 Turning Red,which is the previous episode. But
there are a lot ofsimilarities between Turning Red
and Encanto, especially whenyou think of intergenerational trauma
and passing down your traumato your children. So the next episode
(43:34):
don't make me throw thishummus. It's spicy. We are moving
away from Pixar and Disney andwe're going to go to Laika and their
second feature, the follow upto the excellent Coraline. This time
though without Henry Selick.Norman Babcock is just a normal 11
year old kid who enjoyswatching low budget horror movies
(43:55):
with his grandma. But hisgrandma is dead. And coming up to
the anniversary of the BlitheHollow witch and the witch's curse
that only Norman with hispowers of talking to the dead can
prevent. And when he fails,zombies arise from the dead and start
meandering into the town. Thenext episode of Animation season
(44:16):
is gonna be on the movieParaNorman. So please join me next
week for the history andlegacy of ParaNorman. Now, I always
say this podcast is free andit always will be free. However,
unfortunately it's not free tomake a podcast. So this podcast relies
on the generous support ofsome wonderful listeners. If you
(44:37):
wish to join them, you areunder no obligation. You can continue
to listen to this podcast forfree for as long as you want. However,
if you would like to supportthis podcast and you feel like you've
got some worth from thispodcast, then there are two ways
you can do that. You could goto verbaldiorama.com tips and give
a one off tip. Or you can goto verbaldiorama.com/patreon and
(44:57):
you can join the amazingpatrons of this podcast. They are
Sade, Claudia, Simon, Laurel,Derek, Katie, Andy, Mike, Luke, Michael,
Scott, Brendan, Lisa, Sam,Jack, Dave, Stuart, Nicholas, Zoe,
Kev, Pete, Heather, Danny,Ali, Stu, Brett, Philippan, Michelle,
Zenos, Sean, Rhino, Philip K,Adam, Elaine, Kyle, and Aaron. If
(45:18):
you want to get in touch withme, you can. You can email verbaldioramail.com
you can give me generalhellos, you can give me feedback
or suggestions. Or you go toverbaldiorama.com find everything.
Find old episodes on thewebsite. You can listen to episodes
on the website too. Or you canjust fill out the contact form and
say hi. You can also find workthat I do at filmstories.co.uk, you
(45:39):
can check out issues of themagazine and articles too. And finally,
(46:23):
Bye.
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