Encanto turns five this week, and the film’s magic still feels close. From a hidden Bruno to the records it keeps breaking, here are eight details that make the Madrigals’ world even richer.
Bruno never left Casita
That hushed name in “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” was hiding inside Casita the whole time. Mirabel follows rats carrying pieces of his last vision to a secret passage behind a portrait. There she finds Bruno, who reveals he never left, and whose visions alternate between Mirabel saving Casita and destroying it.
Perspective was the film’s true north
Howard and Bush’s “true north” was perspective — “about how you see the other people in your family and how you’re seen.” Early on, they made three discoveries: most of us don’t feel truly seen by our families, most of us carry burdens we never let our families see, and most of us are oblivious that nearly all of us feel the exact same way.
Therapists couldn’t agree on the favourite child
The production team spoke with many therapists and psychologists. Asked who would be treated best by parents in a four-person family, every answer differed. Bush concluded: “It’s about how you perceive yourself in the family.”
Colombia arrived through two cultural consultants
Howard and Bush discussed Latin American culture at length with Juan Rendon and Natalie Osma, who had worked with them on Imagining Zootopia. Both happened to be from Colombia and drew repeatedly on their personal experiences, which shifted the research focus to that country. They became the first two of several cultural experts in Disney’s Colombian Cultural Trust, and joined a 2018 research trip to Colombia.
Alan Tudyk’s cameo was pure toucan
No obvious role existed for Alan Tudyk, Disney’s “good luck charm,” because the Madrigals are Colombian and Mirabel lacks an animal sidekick. He makes a cameo as Pico, a toucan. In the studio, he told the crew their scratch vocals for Pico were actually parrots, then spent hours imitating various toucans.
A taller frame got closer to the characters
Encanto is the first Walt Disney Animation Studios film since Winnie the Pooh (2011) to use the taller 1.85:1 aspect ratio instead of 2.39:1. The decision was made to “get closer to the characters.” The directors used romantic lighting inspired by magical realism to amplify, exaggerate, and distort perception in line with Mirabel’s point of view.
The songs had been brewing from the start
In June 2020, Lin-Manuel Miranda publicly revealed he had begun writing eight original songs in both Spanish and English. After the premiere, he disclosed that he had been writing songs for the film from the very beginning. Germaine Franco began scoring the film on September 8, 2021.
A number-one song and album first
The soundtrack reached number one on the US Billboard 200, the first Disney soundtrack since Frozen 2 (2019) to top the chart. “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” topped the US Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart. Encanto became the first Disney film to produce a number-one song and a number-one album.
Which of these Encanto details surprised you most? Tell us your favourite Madrigal memory — no need to keep quiet about Bruno.
Facts from Wikipedia: Encanto, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Film images from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
