Disney puts family front and center in Encanto, weaving a magical tale of a house in Colombia that imbues each member of the extended Madrigal family with special gifts when they turn 5. Each member except for Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz, In The Heights), who remains the only ordinary child with no explanation for why. But when the film premieres on November 24, Mirabel may be the only chance her family has to save themselves and their beloved casita from ruin.
Zootopia creators Byron Howard and Jared Bush teamed up with The Haunting of Hill House writer Charise Castro Smith to bring the magic realism of Encanto to life, with songs written by the legendary Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton). Together, they establish each Madrigal as their own person while connecting them back to the house and bonding them eternally to one another.
Howard, Bush, and Castro Smith spoke to Screen Rant about the research that went into making their version of Colombia specific, how the music informs the story and vice versa, and why Stephanie Beatriz makes the perfect Mirabel.
Screen Rant: As a Latina myself, I love that Encanto is incorporating the diversity of race and skin tone that is within the community, which is something that we don't often see portrayed onscreen. Could you speak to focusing not only on the specificity of Colombia but also the diversity of the Latinx community?
Charise Castro Smith: It was a really intentional choice from the very beginning. We wanted a family that was diverse and representative, in terms of personality and relationships, but also in terms of their ethnicity and how they looked and how they presented in the world.
We made very specific and mindful choices about representing the many cultures that are within Colombia, in terms of having that mix of European and Indigenous and Afro-Latino characters, and in terms of hair texture. We had a consultant, Liliana, who helped us to make really specific choices about all of that. It was really important for us to represent the diversity of Colombian and Latinx people.
I also love how each family member, especially the three sisters, feels that they owe something to the family and have to struggle with how they balance themselves and their gift - or lack thereof. Jared, can you talk about incorporating those stories in one movie?
Jared Bush: We talk a lot about how this movie is really family therapy for us. I think we're all trying to figure ourselves out, and how we put our families through the struggles and the fun; it's the struggles of family. We definitely wanted to try to find as many personalities and issues as we could. It's a real challenge.
This is a movie where we have 12 main characters, and we wanted them all to be real and fleshed out and human and to have arcs. And that's really hard to do in 90 minutes. But I will say that, from the beginning of this movie, that's what we wanted to do. We all held hands and said, "We want to tell a story with an extended family of three generations. There's going to be a lot of people, and it's going to be hard, but that's what's gonna make this movie really special."
I think every step of the way, between Charise and Byron and myself, we spent a lot of time talking about our own families; talking to different people in our studio. We have this amazing Familia group that we started talking to four years ago, and we just started telling family stories. When Lin-Manuel Miranda came in - of course, that was also day one - he has a large extended family.
We all rallied around that, knowing what a challenge it would be. But I will say that, at the end of the day, it is what's really going to separate this movie; what we're really proud of. It's not like anything we've ever tried, and it's ambitiously crazy, but we're really proud of it and so excited for people to see it.
Byron Howard: We took Lin's dad to Colombia with us. We grabbed Lin's dad and took him because we needed to see that family dynamic firsthand. That's how much we care.
Speaking of Lin, his music has such a signature sound. What was the collaboration process with him, in terms of the dialogue between the music and the story and what he himself brings to it?
Byron Howard: To Lin's credit, he was on this project with us very early. From the get-go, we teamed up knowing we wanted to tell something with a strong musical presence and a strong presence about family - this extended family idea was very present, even four and a half or five years ago.
When we went down to Colombia together, it was amazing to watch Lin go from town to town and be this sponge, absorbing drums from Palenque and percussion and guitar from Cartagena and Barichara. It was this amazing experience to see him as a musician, taking this all in and getting ready to take it back home to produce this amazing music.
He wrote eight original songs for us, and every single one of them is different. And I love that they're not limited by time period; they're all timeless. Some of them are very modern and contemporary. There's a Luisa song that's a crazy awesome reggaeton song, which could be on the radio today. He also wrote a song in the film that's so poignant and beautiful, which sounds like it could be a folk song from 100 years ago.
That scope of music was something that we were getting excited about. And the fact that he was participating with Jared and Charise as they were sculpting that screenplay and iterating was, I think, a key relationship for all of us.
Obviously, this is about a family, and all of the Madrigals are important. But nearest and dearest to my heart is already Mirabel, and Stephanie Beatriz has just the range. Can you talk about why she was right for the role, and what she added to it?
Charise Castro Smith: It's funny, she came in for a different role. But I think as soon as we heard her read as Mirabel, it was just obvious that it needed to be her. She has so much personality; she was so funny, and her voice sounds so unique. She's able to improvise and added all these amazing little moments for the character that Jared hadn't even thought of.
But then she's also really able to deliver these moments of gravitas. She has this huge scene towards the end of the movie that's really important, and it's just heartbreaking. And then she's also an incredible singer. She knocked her songs out of the park; they're full of personality and bursting with life. She just really took this character that we already loved and raised it to the stratosphere. She has just been incredible.
I want to say that she must have been reading for Luisa because that's the first thing that I would think of.
Jared Bush: Of course! Because of [Brooklyn Nine-Nine's] Rosa, right? She came in, and we were like, "Woah, what?"
The house is so fascinating, especially how it has rooms and attitudes for different people. How do you not run out of ideas for that?
Jared Bush: Honestly, it's the opposite. We work in this place with hundreds of geniuses that are creative and imaginative. Early on, we knew that we wanted this house to be a character in our story - actually, I think Charise was like, "It's really more like the family dog." It wants to be around you. It has favorites, and it has people it doesn't like so much. It's flawed, and we love that.
But I think, in this place where everyone has this amazing imagination, the trick was really: how much can we fit into the movie? There's tons of stuff that we can't do because we just simply don't have time for it in 90 minutes.
I will say that throughout the project, someone would come up with a great new idea, and we'd have to go to our design teams and say, "Is it possible that the house does this?" and they'd say, "Well, we never designed the house to be able to do that." We're like, "Yeah, yeah... It's a really good, funny idea, though." And they go, "Alright..." and they go and make magic happen. It was really more an embarrassment of riches, to be honest, with Casita.
What is the magic power or gift from a Familia Madrigal member that you would like to have for yourself?
Byron Howard: This is such a tough one. The more I think about it, I think Camilo has it pretty good. I think being able to shapeshift and be whoever you want from one day to the other - because I don't always feel like being me; I get tired of this and would like to shake it up a little - would be nice.
Charise Castro Smith: I'm gonna go with healing power today because I love to cook. The healing power of food; I'm gonna go with that one.
Jared Bush: i think for me, I'd like to go with the flowers in my footsteps. That's amazing. I'd love it; that sounds super cool. I'd go with Isabela in a heartbeat.
Encanto opens in theaters on November 24.
