60 Fun Facts About Encanto

What magical gift does Mirabel's older sister Luisa have?

Luisa is also the tallest of the family, and her muscles alone made her a viral favourite when the first teaser trailer dropped in July 2021.

Isabela, the eldest of the Madrigal sisters, can do what with her gift?

A Colombian botanist advised the animators so the jacarandas, strangler figs and sundew Isabela conjures are all real species.

What is the gift of Mirabel's estranged uncle Bruno?

His prophecies were rarely welcome, which is why the townsfolk and even his own family came to treat him as bad luck.

Aunt Pepa's gift affects what?

Her sun earrings hint at the gift; when she is upset a small storm cloud tends to follow her around the house.

Five-year-old Antonio receives which gift at the start of the film?

His new room becomes a jungle full of creatures, and the planned Disney park ride is set on the day of his gift ceremony.

Cousin Camilo's gift lets him do what?

Co-writer Charise Castro Smith described Camilo as someone who "doesn't quite know who they are yet", which the gift literalises.

Which cousin's gift is extraordinary hearing?

It makes her the family gossip by default, and she is the one who spills Mirabel's secret at the dinner table.

How does Mirabel's mother Julieta use her gift?

Arepas from Julieta are the go-to remedy in the Encanto, which is handy given how accident-prone her husband Agustín is.

Alma, the family matriarch, is known throughout the film by what name?

Her full name is never spoken on screen; the word simply means grandmother in Spanish, and Olga Merediz provides her singing voice.

What do the Madrigals call their living, breathing house?

It waves its shutters, rearranges its floor tiles and generally behaves like a thirteenth member of the family.

Who wrote the film's original songs?

He said afterwards that he had been writing for the project since 2016, and it produced Disney's first Billboard Hot 100 number one of the century.

Before this film, the songwriter had written the songs for which Disney animated film?

He first hinted at the Colombian project during that film's 2016 publicity tour, five years before it reached cinemas.

Which composer, who had co-written songs for Coco, wrote the film's orchestral score?

She started scoring in September 2021, barely two months before release, and the score earned an Academy Award nomination.

Jared Bush and Byron Howard had just finished which Disney film when they chose to make a musical next?

They had made buddy movies about two characters learning about each other and wanted to try something completely different: a dozen main characters in one family.

Encanto holds which number in Walt Disney Animation Studios' official numbered film canon?

The studio's numbered canon starts with Snow White in 1937; Strange World would follow as number 61.

Which award did the film win at the 94th Academy Awards?

It was nominated in the score and song categories too, but its only win came in the animation category, matching its Golden Globe and BAFTA.

Which song from the film has a title meaning "Two Little Caterpillars"?

It plays over the flashback to Pedro and Alma's story, and an English version, "Two Oruguitas", runs over the end credits.

Which Colombian singer-songwriter performs the film's Academy Award-nominated Spanish-language ballad?

The songwriter invited him after hearing his track "Adiós"; it became the singer's first ever entry on the US Hot 100.

The film's nominated ballad lost Best Original Song at the 2022 Academy Awards to which track?

Billie Eilish's Bond theme took the statuette; critics later argued Disney should have submitted its chart-topping ensemble number instead.

Who voices Mirabel?

Her father is Colombian, and she had already sung for the same songwriter that year in the film version of In the Heights.

Mirabel's voice actress is best known for playing which Brooklyn Nine-Nine detective?

The stone-faced detective and the wide-eyed Mirabel are about as far apart as two roles can get, which delighted Nine-Nine fans.

Which Bogotá-born actor voices Bruno?

Disney deliberately cast several actors with Colombian roots; Wilmer Valderrama, who spent his childhood there, plays Mirabel's father.

Which Colombian pop superstar voices Isabela's handsome suitor?

He also voices the character in the Spanish dub, and the suitor's mother is the neighbour whose engagement dinner goes so badly wrong.

Which Disney "good luck charm" actor provides the vocal effects for Pico, the bird in Antonio's room?

He told the crew their scratch vocals were actually parrots, then spent hours doing bird impressions while the team spoke to him in English.

What kind of bird is Pico?

It appears because the animators wanted the ubiquitous Colombian bird on screen even though Mirabel has no critter sidekick of her own.

Where did the film hold its world premiere, a few weeks before it opened in US cinemas?

A separate Colombian premiere followed at Bogotá's Teatro Colón on the eve of the US opening.

On what date did the film open in US cinemas?

It opened the day before Thanksgiving against House of Gucci and took $40.6 million over the five-day holiday.

After an exclusive 30-day cinema run, the film arrived on Disney+ on what date?

The Christmas Eve drop is what turned a box-office underperformer into a phenomenon; two million US households watched that weekend alone.

Which film overtook it as the highest-grossing animation of 2021?

The Illumination sequel arrived at Christmas; the Madrigals had held the crown for barely a month.

Which short film was paired with it in cinemas?

The wordless raccoon short about parenting rode along on both the theatrical release and the later home media editions.

For how many weeks did the soundtrack sit at number one on the Billboard 200?

Every original song from the album also charted on the Hot 100, and it hit number one in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK as well.

It became the first Disney soundtrack to top the Billboard 200 since which film's?

The 2019 sequel had been the previous Disney album to reach the top; this one stayed there far longer.

The Bruno ensemble number set a Hot 100 record for most credited artists on a number one. How many?

It also became Disney's longest-reigning Hot 100 chart-topper and the studio's first original song ever to reach number one in the UK.

During early development, Bruno had a different name. What was it?

The songwriter changed it so he could rhyme the character's name with a repeated "no, no, no" in the gossip number.

What is the title of Luisa's solo song about the burden of always being the strong one?

It reached the US top ten alongside the ensemble number, giving the film two top-ten hits at once, a first for any Disney movie.

The opening number "The Family Madrigal" was modelled on the opener of which earlier Disney musical?

Like "Belle", it introduces the whole town in one go; the songwriter wrote it partly to prove a dozen main characters could be established in a single song.

Mirabel's "Waiting on a Miracle" was written in which time signature to set her apart from her family?

The filmmakers had noticed musicians in a small Colombian town playing in that rhythm, and it symbolises Mirabel living in a different rhythmic universe.

The animators developed a signature dance style for each character. What is Luisa's?

Mirabel's style is Cali salsa; the film was the first from Disney Animation to have choreographers involved from the very start of development.

Encanto's living house was also inspired by which 1988 film about a house that comes alive?

Tim Burton's haunted-house comedy gave the animators a model for a building with a personality of its own.

It was the first Disney Animation film since which 2011 release to use the taller 1.85:1 aspect ratio?

The choice was made to "get closer to the characters", trading widescreen spectacle for intimacy inside the house.

Which small Colombian town gave the filmmakers their architectural inspiration on the 2018 research trip?

The tour guide who showed them around there was later hired as a consultant and became a model for Mirabel's curly hair, glasses and gestures.

The conflict that drives Alma and Pedro from their village echoes which real war from Colombia's history?

The film is deliberately vague about its era, but the design team settled on an early-1900s folkloric look after first exploring the 1950s.

How many original songs does the film have?

The soundtrack download also carries 27 score pieces and was issued in 46 languages, so the runtime is far longer than the film's 90 minutes.

Which Colombian star performs the upbeat, non-diegetic track "Colombia, Mi Encanto"?

The vallenato veteran's tune plays as a radio-friendly celebration of the country rather than as a song sung by any character.

How many Grammy Awards did the film win at the 65th ceremony?

It swept the visual media categories: score soundtrack, compilation soundtrack and best song for the Bruno ensemble number.

Which Florida theme park announced an Encanto ride in 2024 for a 2027 opening?

It anchors a new Tropical Americas land replacing DinoLand U.S.A., and the original voice cast was announced as returning for it.

What is the title of the 2024 young adult prequel novel about seventeen-year-old Bruno?

Alex Segura's book explains why the family stopped mentioning him long before Mirabel's story begins.

After the first teaser trailer, internet users gave Luisa what nickname?

Her physique made her the breakout of the July 2021 teaser, months before anyone had heard her song.

Each Madrigal wears a symbol of their gift. What is embroidered on Luisa's skirt?

Mirabel, having no gift of her own, wears the symbols of everyone else's on her skirt instead, along with her own face and name.

Bruno has two other personalities he acts out with. What are they called?

One is scared of nothing and the other patches the cracks in the walls, which is roughly how Bruno has spent his decade in hiding.

Mirabel's accident-prone father Agustín keeps getting attacked by what?

Director Jared Bush pointed to the running bee gags as the shorthand for how hapless Agustín is around a magical family.

Which creatures lead Mirabel to Bruno's hiding place by carrying off pieces of his vision?

They are his only company behind the walls, and he uses them to stage tiny telenovelas for himself.

Bruno's shattered final vision is made of what material?

Reassembled, it shows Mirabel standing in front of the cracking house, the image that panics the whole family.

The yellow butterflies seen throughout the film are a nod to which Colombian author?

The filmmakers visited his foundation on their research trip, and magic realism became a core concept of the story.

Bruno's prophecy for the delivery man Osvaldo, which duly came true, was that he would do what?

It is one of the townsfolk grievances aired in the gossip song, and a good example of how Bruno got blamed for merely predicting things.

How old is Alma, the family matriarch?

The candle's miracle happened fifty years earlier, when she fled with newborn triplets, so she was around 25 at the time.

What CinemaScore grade did opening-weekend audiences give the film?

Critics were warm too, with a Metacritic score of 75, but it was the Disney+ release rather than reviews that made it a hit.

The 2022 live concert version of the film's music was staged at which venue?

Cast members performed the songs over two nights, and a concert film reached Disney+ a few weeks later.

Roughly how many animators worked on Encanto, out of a crew of more than 800?

Disney had planned to send many of them to Colombia in March 2020 as the film moved into production.

What was Encanto's worldwide box-office total?

It took $96.1 million in the US and Canada and $160.4 million elsewhere, then found a far bigger audience on Disney+.