Encanto (DreamWorks version)

Encanto is a 2023 American animated musical fantasy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. It was directed by Dean DeBlois, co-directed by Charise Castro Smith, and produced by Bonnie Arnold and Kelly Cooney Cilella, with original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The screenplay was written by Pam Brady, Castro Smith and DeBlois, both of whom also conceived the film's story with John Cleese and Miranda. Encanto follows a multigenerational Colombian family, the Madrigals, led by a matriarch whose children and grandchildren—except for Mirabel Madrigal—receive magical gifts from a miracle, which they use to help the people in their rural community, called the Encanto. When Mirabel learns that the family is losing their magic, she sets out to find out why and save the family and house.
Encanto had its world premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 15, 2023, and was released in the United States on June 30 in RealD 3D, 4DX, and Dolby Cinema formats. The film was grossing $523 million worldwide against a $120–150 million budget, making it the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2023. The film received acclaim for its characterization, music, animation, voice acting, emotional depth, and cultural fidelity; reviews named magic realism and transgenerational trauma as the film's core concepts. Publications have described Encanto as a cultural phenomenon. It was nominated for several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. "We Don't Talk About Bruno" and "Surface Pressure" were its two most successful songs, with the former topping both the US Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart for multiple weeks in a row.
== Production ==
=== Development ===
During a November 2016 publicity tour for Moana, Miranda revealed that early-stage work had begun on an animated project that DreamWorks former CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, had presented to him and Dean DeBlois. DeBlois subsequently revealed that after finishing How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019), they knew they wanted their next project to be a musical—which turned into a Latin-American musical after Miranda came on board. The two men discussed their common experience of having large extended families, and decided to make a musical film about a large extended family with a dozen main characters. 
First time feature producer Kelly Cooney Cilella came on board as producer in April of 2019, along with Bonnie Arnold. She loved the high school concept of the story because of her past experience when she was a teen in her native Rochester, Minnesota back in the mid-90s. after graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 2001, she got a job at Dreamworks where she worked from a story coordinator on Shrek 2 to a producer on the short film Bilby. With original director DeBlois, and the addition of another writer, Neighbors from Hell creator Pam Brady. 
During the five years it took to develop the film, DeBlois's "true north" was the theme of perspective, "about how you see the other people in your family and how you're seen". They began by brainstorming ideas on a whiteboard. Early on, they made "three important discoveries" about families which became the basis of the film's story: "1) most of us don't feel truly seen by our families, 2) most of us carry burdens we never let our families see, and 3) most of us are oblivious that nearly all of us, especially within our own families, feel the exact same way". In turn, it was Miranda who suggested that the "vibrant, broad spectrum" of Latin-American music could "best capture" the complexity of family relationships. Early in development, the production team spoke with many therapists and psychologists. All were asked who would be treated best by the parents in a four-person family; every answer differed. Bush concluded: "It's about how you perceive yourself in the family." The crew also consulted family members and DreamWorks Animation people.
DeBlois started to discuss Latin-American culture at length with Juan Rendon and Natalie Osma, who had previously worked with him on the making-of documentary Imagining Smurfs. Rendon and Osma both happened to be from Colombia and repeatedly drew upon their personal experiences with Colombian culture in their discussions, which caused DeBlois, and Miranda to focus their research on that country. Rendon and Osma became the first two of several cultural experts hired by DreamWorks Animation as consultants on the film, who collectively formed what DreamWorks called the "Colombian Cultural Trust".
In 2018, Rendon and Osma accompanied DeBlois and Miranda on a research trip to Colombia. During their two weeks in the country, they met with architects, chefs, and artisans to immerse themselves in the country's culture. They also visited the Gabriel García Márquez foundation. They visited big cities like Bogotá and Cartagena, but they found inspiration in small towns such as Salento (terrain) and Barichara(architecture). Bush noticed that "every town we went to had a very specific personality", because of how the country's mountainous terrain divides and isolates them.
In Barichara, they befriended Espinosa Uribe, who showed them around the town, and later hired her to consult on the film's historical and cultural authenticity. Espinosa Uribe was an inspiration for several aspects of the film's protagonist Mirabel, including her curly black hair, large eyeglasses, and gestures. The design of Mirabel's skirt was inspired by traditional skirts woven in the Vélez area.
The final version of the film is deliberately vague as to the timeframe in which it is set, but drew inspiration from early 20th-century Colombia. After exploring the 1950s, the directors decided to shift the look of the film to the early 1900s and to use a "folkloric Colombian aesthetic". At the beginning of the 20th century, the country endured the Thousand Days' War, which resulted in the populations of entire villages fleeing to save themselves as depicted in the film.
Cooney Cilella assembled her crew for the film, with Pierre-Oliver Vincent as production designer and Dave Walvoord as visual effects supervisor. The film's screenplay had additional material in the screenplay by Baby Mama writer/director Michael McCullers, Meghan Malloy, and the film’s co-directors themselves. DeBlois and Chris Sanders were the executive producers; Sanders was an executive producer of the second film and co-director of the first.
=== Writing ===
As the film steadily became more complex, with an entire family to develop, multiple songs, and a rich cultural setting with a deep tradition of magical realism, DeBlois realized they needed a second screenwriter to help write the screenplay. They selected Charise Castro Smith for her strong background in magical realism and experience with handling "real-world family dynamics". DeBlois described her as a "godsend", as she provided "a foundation of heart, vulnerability and authenticity". Castro Smith sought to create a distinct, imperfect, and completely human character in Mirabel, one that spoke to the lives of many Latinas while also being relatable to viewers globally.
From working on Moana, Miranda knew that film's protagonist, Moana, originally had eight brothers before they were removed to streamline the film's plot. As Miranda had expected from that experience, DreamWorks initially resisted moving forward with a dozen main characters for Encanto. Miranda deliberately wrote the film's opening number, "The Family Madrigal", to prove to DreamWorks that it was possible to efficiently introduce such a large family and its internal dynamics to the audience. Because of the film's 90-minute runtime, the filmmakers struggled to make the center family feel genuine, fleshed out, and human, and to give them arcs.
The crew worked hard to develop Encanto upon instantly identifiable family archetypes. The team focused on pushing past the archetypes and showing that family members are more complicated than the "masks" imposed on them. Each member of the Madrigal family is inspired by a common family archetype if it were exaggerated and made magical; for example, Isabela and Luisa are based on that of the golden child and rock, respectively. DeBlois explained that this method prevented each gift from feeling arbitrary, instead being prescribed by emotions and personality.
Like most DreamWorks Animation films, Encanto went through "many different versions" in its development, as various story ideas were explored and discarded. The ideas discarded along the way include: a young modern-day woman is transported by a magical doorknob to another world; Agustín was the family patriarch who discovered Encanto and personally built Casita there; the film would have been expressly set in the 1950s and featured cosmopolitan and modern fashions, as well as motor vehicles and a trip to the big city where Alma had originally come from; Casita was an extension of only Alma's personality, rather than the entire family; the film would have followed the story of multiple generations and Casita over a 100-year timespan; Mirabel was desperately trying to find her magical gift, rather than merely expressing frustration with not being granted one; the colors of Mirabel's world as seen from her perspective would have reflected her emotional state as she narrated the first two acts, and then changed over to more realistic colors when the film shifted to Alma's point of view in the third act; Luisa's room would have been made out of stone and appeared "boring" to reflect her sense of responsibility, but would have concealed a "secret exit" to a hidden room similar to a "theme park" where she could have fun; and Isabela at one point had a "dorky" suitor named Bubo who came from the big city.
After the film's release, DeBlois revealed via Twitter several more ideas which had been discussed and set aside: Alma gave birth to the triplets at the river, at the moment of Pedro's death; Isabela and Mirabel's mutual hostility culminated in a fistfight; and Mirabel celebrated her quinceañera. According to producer Bonnie Arnold, as the plot evolved over several years, "the core of the whole film" was always the relationship between Mirabel and Alma.
=== Casting ===
DreamWorks announced that Selena Gomez will be in the cast. Though no obvious roles which he could voice existed, due to the Madrigals' Colombian nationality and Mirabel's lack of an animal sidekick, Alan Tudyk—makes a cameo as Pico, a toucan. When he first came into the recording studio, Tudyk informed the crew that their scratch vocals for Pico were not actually those of toucans, but instead were parrots. He spent many hours doing imitations of various toucans. The team would speak to him in English, and Tudyk would respond using toucan noises.
=== Design ===
Encanto was the "hardest film" to date for heads of animation Renato dos Anjos and Kira Lehtomaki because they were asked to fully develop a dozen characters, as opposed to other animated films which primarily feature two or three characters out of a large cast. Accordingly, the characters required a degree of complexity that DreamWorks had previously never achieved. Journalist Edna Liliana Valencia Murillo was the Afro-Caribbean consultant and contributed greatly towards Félix, Dolores, and Antonio's designs. According to Howard, certain characters' Afro–Latin hairstyles were essential. Neysa and Lorelay Bové, the costume design lead and associate production designer respectively, hoped to represent the film's various communities well. Neysa requested Colombian consultants, which included an anthropologist and botanist.
Instead of fabrics similar to neoprene that are often depicted in films, the characters' costumes are generally loose. The clothes are meant to appear as though they are from Colombia. The designers emphasized embroidery, texture, and movement; each costume—except Isabela's—is asymmetric, with a handmade feeling. In Encanto, personalities and family ties are represented through color. For example, Pepa and Félix's side of the family wear warm tones of orange, yellow, and red—an homage to his Caribbean ancestry.
By contrast, Julieta and Agustín's side wear cool tones of blues, purples, and greens. Alma "sits in the middle", with darker hues, such as purple, black, and brown. Each Madrigal has a symbol on their clothing that denotes their gift, such as barbells on Luisa's skirt and Pepa's sun earrings. Due to her lack of a gift, Mirabel has symbols of the other family members' gifts embroidered across her skirt, in addition to her face and name.
The residents of the Encanto dress in neutral tones; thus, the main family are distinguished by their vivid colors. They needed to be distinctive while not standing out, which visual development artist Jin Kim said occasionally made them harder to design than the main cast. Disney used simple silhouettes for the villagers' clothes to make them seem and feel similar to typical residents from the Colombian coffee region. They incorporated depictions of the Sombrero vueltiao from the Zenú Indigenous Community and the Sombrero Aguadeño from the Aguadas Community.
The animators were challenged by the directors to make Mirabel distinctively different from all prior heroines; she had to be both capable and imperfect, but not merely just clumsy. The Casita was inspired not only by traditional Colombian homes but films in which houses come alive, especially Beetlejuice (1988).
The production team learned in their research that music, dance, and rhythm are core elements of everyday life in Colombia. As a result, Encanto was the first DreamWorks film to have choreographers involved in the development process from start to finish, meaning they worked closely with the production team to develop songs, characters, and story.
This is in contrast to older films where the story was already in place by the time a choreographer was hired to consult on specific scenes. For Encanto, DreamWorks initially hired African-American choreographer Jamal Sims, who insisted on immediately hiring Colombian-American dancer Kai Martinez as the film's animation reference consultant. They worked together with a team of dancers to prepare choreography reference footage for each scene, and then gave feedback to the animators on scenes as they were animated. They developed different dance styles for different characters; Luisa's style is reggaeton, while Mirabel's style is Cali salsa.
For selection and animation of the plants and flowers that Isabela could make grow, the production team consulted with Colombian botanist Felipe Zapata. His advice allowed appropriate plants to be selected and then shown in accurate detail. The river of jacarandas and strangler figs and the cascade of sundew that Isabela produces are all based on this input. Plants in the background scenery are also realistic. These included the iconic, but now vulnerable wax palm and dramatic Cecropia trees. Economically important plants, like coffee, also appear.
Over 800 people, 108 of them animators, were involved in the production of Encanto. DreamWorks Animation was planning to send many of its animators to Colombia starting on March 15, 2020, in preparation for the film's transition from development to production. This second research trip had to be cancelled after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The studio's animators ended up having to work remotely with the Colombian Cultural Trust; for example, Espinosa Uribe gave the animators a virtual tour of Colombia with the help of her cell phone. Diane Guerrero sent the studio's designers photographs of Colombian food taken by her relatives in Colombia.
=== Cinematography ===
Encanto is the first DreamWorks film to employ a tall frame, a decision made to "get closer to the characters". This layout was supplemented by romantic lighting. According to DeBlois, romantic (meaning heightened in spirit) is the film's key word in terms of the approach towards cinematography and lighting. The latter was also inspired by magical realism, due to the genre's heavy influence on the writing and characters.
The directors aimed to use the film's optics to portray strong emotions. Alessandro Jacomini and Daniel Rice—directors of cinematography and lighting respectively—stated this use "would amplify, exaggerate, and distort perception, which is very in line with Mirabel's point of view as a narrator". Her feelings of being left out were also shown using emotive lighting. The directors frequently reminded the crew of the emotional subtext of every scene as well as the intricacies of the individual parts. The filmmakers hired cinematographer Roger Deakins (known for frequently collaborating with the Coen brothers) as a visual consultant to help them with lighting and overall look of the film and in elaborate sequences, such as the song "Surface Pressure". 
== Soundtrack ==
In June 2022, Miranda publicly revealed that he had begun to write the film's music, which would have eight original songs in both Spanish and English. After the film's premiere, he disclosed that he had been writing songs for the film from the very beginning. On April 8, 2023, Germaine Franco, co-composer of the songs for Coco (2017), began to score the film.
Encanto (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) was released on June 19, 2023. A huge commercial success alike the film, the soundtrack reached number one on the US Billboard 200, becoming the first DreamWorks soundtrack since that of Frozen II (2019) to top the chart.