59 Fun Facts About Encanto

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

Superhuman strength. Luisa parks stray donkeys and can lift a whole church for the villagers, yet she confides to Mirabel that her gift has started to falter.

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

Make flowers bloom. Perfect blossoms are all anyone expects of Isabela until a row with Mirabel makes a cactus sprout by accident, and she starts growing spiky, imperfect plants for the fun of it.

In Encanto, where has Bruno been hiding for the ten years since he vanished?

Inside the walls of the house. He never left: after a troubling vision about Mirabel he hid there to protect her from blame, quietly patching the cracks as they appeared.

In Encanto, Aunt Pepa's gift affects what?

The weather. It follows her mood: clouds gather when she frets, and her wedding-day nerves, set off by Bruno remarking that it looked like rain, blew up into a hurricane.

Which gift does five-year-old Antonio receive at the start of Encanto?

Talking to animals. His is the family's first gift ceremony since Mirabel's, when her door faded away and she got nothing; Antonio's opens onto a rainforest full of creatures.

What is cousin Camilo's gift in Encanto?

Shapeshifting. Camilo was five when his uncle vanished and knows him only from rumours, which is why his verse of 'We Don't Talk About Bruno' plays Bruno as a seven-foot bogeyman.

Which Madrigal's gift in Encanto is extraordinary hearing?

Dolores has extraordinary hearing, able to pick up a pin drop across the Encanto; it makes her the family's reluctant gossip, and she spills Mirabel's vision secret at the dinner table.

How does Mirabel's mother Julieta use her gift?

She heals people with her cooking. A single arepa con queso closes the cut on Mirabel's hand, and her accident-prone husband Agustín keeps her kitchen busy.

In Encanto, Alma, the family matriarch, is known to her family by what name?

Abuela, Spanish for grandmother. Her fear of losing the miracle makes her push the family so hard that her expectations, not Mirabel, turn out to be what is cracking their home.

What do the Madrigals call their living, breathing house?

Casita. It answers the family by flipping its floor tiles and swinging its doors, and when the magic dies it collapses and has to be rebuilt by hand by the Madrigals and their neighbours.

Who wrote Encanto's original songs?

Lin-Manuel Miranda. Keen to make what one director called the definitive Latin American musical, he travelled through Colombia with the film-makers in 2018 and wrote all eight of its songs.

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

Moana. He had quietly spent years on its songs, and while promoting it in November 2016 he let slip that he was already at work on another, still-secret Disney film.

Germaine Franco, who composed Encanto's orchestral score, had earlier co-written songs for which Pixar film?

Coco. For Encanto, Franco steeped herself in Colombian music, working out her themes in rhythms such as bambuco and exploring the country's traditional instruments.

Encanto's directors, Jared Bush and Byron Howard, had just finished which Disney film when they decided to make a musical?

Zootopia. After that 2016 buddy comedy about two characters learning about each other, Bush and Howard wanted something completely different: a musical about a dozen members of one family.

Encanto is the 60th film in a Disney Animation canon that began with which feature?

Snow White. The film that opens the canon earned Walt Disney an honorary Academy Award made of one full-size statuette and seven miniature ones, handed over by Shirley Temple.

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

Best Animated Feature. Two weeks earlier The Mitchells vs. the Machines had won all eight of its Annie Awards, including best feature, yet the Academy chose Encanto.

Which Encanto song earned a Best Original Song nomination at the 2022 Academy Awards?

Dos Oruguitas. Its two little caterpillars have to let go of each other to become butterflies, which is why it plays as the film shows how Alma lost Pedro.

Which Colombian singer performs Encanto's Academy Award-nominated Spanish-language ballad?

Sebastián Yatra. The songwriter wrote the ballad in Spanish first, instead of translating it, so that it would sound like a Colombian folk song, and Yatra sang it live at the 2022 Academy Awards.

Encanto's nominated ballad lost Best Original Song at the 2022 Academy Awards to which song?

No Time to Die. Billie Eilish and Finneas's Bond theme won, while Encanto's chart-topping Bruno number was never in the race: Disney had entered only the ballad, before the film came out.

Who voices Mirabel in Encanto?

Stephanie Beatriz. She was already having contractions when she recorded 'Waiting on a Miracle', told nobody at Disney, and gave birth to her daughter the next day.

Mirabel's voice actress in Encanto is best known for playing which Brooklyn Nine-Nine character?

Rosa Diaz. She played the stone-faced detective most of the precinct is afraid of for all eight seasons, from 2013 to 2021, about as far from wide-eyed Mirabel as a role can get.

Which actor voices Bruno in Encanto?

John Leguizamo. Born in Bogotá and raised in Queens, he insists he is no singer: his single short rap verse took two days of takes, with the songwriter patiently coaching him.

Which Latin pop star voices Isabela's suitor Mariano in Encanto?

Maluma. His Mariano tries to propose to Isabela at a dinner that falls apart, and ends the film as her cousin's boyfriend instead; the singer voiced him again in the Spanish dub.

Which actor, heard in every Disney Animation film since Wreck-It Ralph, squawks as Pico the bird in Encanto?

Alan Tudyk. After his first two Disney films, Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen, were hits, casting him became a studio in-joke, so every film since has found him a part, even a bird's squawks.

What kind of bird is Pico in Encanto?

A toucan. The directors described the keel-billed Pico as enthusiastic but clueless, the classic recipe for a Disney sidekick, though Mirabel herself goes through the film without one.

Where did Encanto hold its world premiere, three weeks before it opened in US cinemas?

El Capitan Theatre, Hollywood. Disney owns the restored movie palace and holds many of its premieres there, which is why Encanto was first shown in it.

Encanto opened in US cinemas in 2021 on the day before which holiday?

Thanksgiving. Disney opened it on the Wednesday, in cinemas only, and it led the long holiday weekend at the box office ahead of Lady Gaga's House of Gucci.

After only 30 days in cinemas, Encanto arrived on Disney+ on which day in 2021?

Christmas Eve. With families at home for the holidays, a film that had made only a modest mark in cinemas took off on streaming and its songs spread from there.

Which film overtook Encanto as the highest-grossing animated film of 2021?

Sing 2. Illumination's sequel opened two days before Encanto left for streaming after just 30 days in cinemas, and it went on to about $408 million worldwide.

Far from the Tree, the short shown before Encanto in cinemas, follows a parent and child of which animal?

Raccoon. The young one is scolded by her father for wandering into danger, then grows up to catch herself snapping at her own son in just the same way.

Encanto's soundtrack first topped the Billboard 200 in January 2022 by displacing which singer's album?

Adele. Her album 30 had held the top spot for six weeks when the Encanto soundtrack, lifted by the film's arrival on streaming, overtook it and went on to nine weeks at number one.

Encanto's album was the first Disney soundtrack to top the Billboard 200 since which film's?

Frozen 2. Its album led the chart for one week in 2019, and no soundtrack of any kind got back there until Encanto's jumped from seventh to first in its sixth week on the list.

Before Encanto's Bruno hit, which Disney animated song had topped the Hot 100?

A Whole New World. Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle's single of the Aladdin duet hit number one in March 1993, ending the 14-week reign of Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You'.

What was Bruno called in early drafts of Encanto?

Oscar. Colombia had too many real Oscar Madrigals for Disney's lawyers, so a director sent the songwriter a list of other names; he picked Bruno at once, and the song's 'Bruno, no, no, no' soon showed why.

What is the title of Luisa's solo song in Encanto?

Surface Pressure. The songwriter wrote it with his own older sister in mind, about the responsibility an older sibling feels, and it reached number eight on the Hot 100.

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

The songwriter modelled it on 'Belle', the opener of Beauty and the Beast (1991), which introduces the whole town in one go; he wanted to prove a dozen relatives could be established in one song.

Mirabel's 'Waiting on a Miracle' in Encanto is written in which time signature, to set her apart from her family?

3/4. It is waltz time: on their research trip the film-makers heard Colombian musicians playing guitars and tiples in it, and the songwriter gave that rhythm to Mirabel alone.

Which dance style did Encanto's choreographers give Luisa as her signature way of moving?

Reggaeton. Each character got a style to match a personality: Luisa leans on reggaeton moves, while mistake-prone Mirabel dances double-time Cali salsa to play up her awkwardness.

Encanto's Mirabel is the first female lead of a Disney animated feature to wear which accessory?

Glasses. Her green frames were a deliberate choice: the film is about perspective, how Mirabel sees her family and how they see her, so the designers built it into her face.

At the end of Encanto, what does the family give Mirabel to finish the rebuilt house?

A doorknob. The family made it for the front door just for her, and the moment Mirabel fits it the house springs back to life and everyone's magic returns.

Which war does Encanto's own Colombian consultant link to Alma and Pedro's flight?

The Thousand Days' War. The film never names its conflict, but its history consultant says the flight could be set in this 1899 to 1902 war between Liberals and Conservatives.

Which song is Encanto's finale?

All of You. It is stitched together from the tunes of the songs before it, and in it Alma apologises and the Madrigals learn they are worth more than their magic.

Which Colombian star sings the upbeat 'Colombia, Mi Encanto' on the Encanto soundtrack?

Carlos Vives. The song is a tribute to the country, not a character's number, so no Madrigal sings it: it plays over a family party and again as the end credits roll.

Encanto's soundtrack, score and Bruno song all won in 2023 at which awards?

Grammy Awards. The album came out weeks too late for the 2022 ceremony's cut-off, so its three wins, for compilation soundtrack, score and song, arrived more than a year after the film.

Which Walt Disney World park announced in 2024 an Encanto ride for 2027, as part of a new Tropical Americas land?

Animal Kingdom. Its new Tropical Americas land is replacing DinoLand U.S.A., with a ride through the family's house planned alongside an Indiana Jones attraction.

Which member of Encanto's Madrigal household married into the family and so has no magical gift?

Félix. The gifts go only to Alma's descendants, so Pepa's husband and his brother-in-law Agustín have none; Félix, a director said, is just there to have a good time.

After the house collapses in Encanto, where does Alma find the runaway Mirabel?

By the river. It is where soldiers killed her husband Pedro fifty years earlier, and there Alma finally admits that her fear of losing the magic has been hurting the family.

Each Madrigal in Encanto wears a symbol of their gift; which one is embroidered on Luisa's skirt?

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

In Encanto, Bruno acts out two other personalities; what are they called?

Hernando and Jorge. Bruno introduces the pair to Mirabel: Hernando is 'scared of nothing' and Jorge makes the spackle.

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

Bees. In the opening number he drops his axe into a beehive while chopping wood, and he turns up at the family party with his face and hands swollen from the stings.

In Encanto, which creatures lead Mirabel to Bruno's hiding place by carrying off pieces of his vision?

Rats. They scurry off with the shards and Mirabel follows; they are Bruno's only company in hiding, and he has trained them to act out tiny telenovelas for him.

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

Emerald. Every vision Bruno has ends as a glowing slab of it, and even in pieces this one still shows Mirabel standing before the cracking house, the picture that panics the family.

The yellow butterflies seen throughout Encanto echo the work of which Colombian author?

García Márquez. In his One Hundred Years of Solitude, yellow butterflies swarm around Mauricio Babilonia, and the directors named him among the magical-realist writers who inspired the whole film.

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

Grow a gut. Osvaldo sings his complaint in the Bruno number as though the prophecy had caused his belly: one of several villagers who blame Bruno for merely telling them what was coming.

Alma fled her village in Encanto carrying which children?

Triplets. Julieta, Pepa and Bruno had only just been born when the family fled, which is why all three are 50 in the film and Alma, a young mother then, is 75.

Which rapper added a verse when Encanto's cast performed the Bruno song at the 2022 Academy Awards?

Megan Thee Stallion. The song had not been nominated, yet the ceremony staged its first live performance anyway, and her verse came as a surprise even to the film's director.

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

The Hollywood Bowl. Most of the voice cast came back to sing their roles live over two nights, backed by a full symphony orchestra and a Colombian band, and the filmed show reached Disney+ weeks later.

What does the Spanish word that gives Encanto its title mean in English?

Charm. An encanto can also be a charmed place, and that is how the film uses it: the Madrigals' hidden valley is their Encanto, a spot where magic and everyday life meet.

Which European country was Encanto's biggest box-office market outside North America?

France. Its cinemas took about $24 million, more than double the total in Colombia, where the story is set, and well ahead of China's $12 million.