Entertainment News | 'Encanto' Wants Audiences to Look Deep Within Their Families, Say Directors

New Delhi, Nov 26 (PTI) "Encanto", the Walt Disney Animation Studios' new film, is an attempt to understand one's family and reflects a lot of their own lived experience, say directors Byron Howard, Jared Bush and Charise Castro Smith.

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"Encanto", a Colombia-set story, explores the compelling but complicated relationships within family members through the Madrigals, who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia, in a magical house situated in the vibrant town of Encanto.

In an interview with PTI, the directors behind the movie looked back at how they created a culturally-authentic family film while staying confined to their homes due to the pandemic.

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Bush, best known for co-directing Oscar-winning animation "Zootopia", said working on the movie with their respective families around was an "unexpectedly wonderful" experience.

"We never knew, when we're setting out to tell the story about family in a home, that we would end up telling the story with our families from our homes. I think it turned out to be a really unexpectedly wonderful thing to be able to do that as we all saw our families differently," he said.

What one calls a family can be difficult to understand sometimes, believes the filmmaker.

"And that family, one may not know as well as they think they do. And that family may not know them as well as they should. So we really wanted to tell a story that delved into those questions, and hopefully has the audience ask questions about their families when they leave the theatres," he added.

In the film, the magic of the Encanto has blessed every child in the Madrigal family with a unique gift, from super strength to the power to heal, except Mirabel.

To tell a story, which has not just one but a bunch of people in focus, was an exciting experience for Howard, the director behind Disney's much-loved movie "Tangled".

He said stepping away from the format, where the film is centred on just one or two characters, was a difficult task.

"I'm just very excited about how the movie speaks to these ideas of large extended families, something that we haven't really conquered before with the Disney films. We typically are playing about two characters having experience of going on a journey together. But we were all committed to doing this very difficult task together and getting a dozen characters represented on screen," Howard said.

"Just being able to kind of come into the room and talk about our own experiences with our family or find ourselves in these individuals has been really remarkable."

For Smith, it was all about embracing family archetypes so that viewers get something to relate to in terms of recognising their own families and seeing those relationships reflected back.

The story is told through an ordinary 15-year-old who's struggling to find her place in her family. But when she discovers that the magic surrounding the Encanto is in danger, Mirabel decides that she, the only ordinary Madrigal, might just be her exceptional family's last hope.

The experience of feeling "ordinary" in the world full of extraordinary people, was something that was always dear to them as the idea, Smith said.

The director believes it is important to show that being ordinary can also be a superpower in times of crisis.

"We've all had the experience of feeling like we're ordinary in the midst of extraordinary people who all just seem to have it all together, and their lives are perfect. And we're the only ones that are kind of struggling with everything.

"Mirabel as a protagonist was a really amazing character to work on and craft over these years, just because she's so human, vulnerable and funny and so open hearted. It's been just a joy to spend all this time thinking about her and working on this character," she said.

"Encanto" released in Indian theatres on Friday.

The voice cast of the film features Stephanie Beatriz, Maria Cecilia Botero, Wilmer Valderrama, Adassa, Diane Guerrero, Mauro Castillo, Angie Cepeda, Jessica Darrow, Rhenzy Feliz and Carolina Gaitan.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)