Not only is Mauro Castillo Afro-Colombian like Félix, but the voice actors for his three children are all at least partially Black: Rhenzy Feliz (Camilo) and Adassa (Dolores) are Afro-Latino (though Feliz is Dominican-American rather than Colombian) and Ravi Cabot-Conyers (Antonio) is half-African American half-white.
Curiously, the Spanish dub is the first Disney film dubbed mostly entirely with Colombian voice actors, rather than either Mexican, American Latino or Argentinian actors, as Disney normally dubs their productions in Mexico, the U.S., or Argentina. The only non-Colombian participations in the film is regarding the ADR direction, which was still done in Mexico under the hand of Mexican voice actor Ricardo Tejedo, as Colombian voice actors doesn't have much experience on dubbing Disney media.note It should be noted, however, this is not the first time a Disney-made production is dubbed in Colombia; the last time was in the dub of My Scene Goes Hollywood in 2005, and in that case, Disney/Miramax was forced to bring back the voice actors from the My Scene's mini-series done by Nickelodeon out of necessity.
All-Star Cast: The Japanese dub deserves a special mention, as it features many well-known Anime voice actors, along with some celebrities, those being the theater actress Ruki Saito as Mirabel, singer Mie Nakao as Alma and Yumecchi (from comedy group "3 o'clock heroine") as Luisa. For the rest, we have Kazuya Nakai (Bruno), Aya Hirano (Isabela), Yumi Touma (Julieta), Tomokazu Seki (Agustin), Tasuku Hatanaka (Camilo) and Shunsuke Takeuchi (Mariano).
Awesome, Dear Boy: Sebastián Yatra says he agreed to participate without even knowing what the project was about because he was so excited to learn that Disney had contacted his agent.
Box Office Bomb: Budget, $120–150 million. Box office, $96,093,622 (domestic), $256,786,742 (worldwide). Being released in theaters during a spike in COVID cases during a year when audiences were still wary about returning to the big screen meant that it underperformed greatly compared to what a Disney animated film would traditionally be expected to do. The film's release onto Disney+ where it became an immediate worldwide smash hit ultimately made the film a very fast example of Vindicated by Cable, and few would consider the film overall to be a bomb for that reason.
The Cast Showoff: Dolores' voice actress is reggaetonnote A Caribbean-originated music genre with roots mainly in dancehall and hip hop artist Adassa, and she's given a long, tongue-twisty solo verse in "We Don't Talk About Bruno" that only an experienced rapper could pull off.
The Danza: Comes close to this in the Spanish dub, where Isabela is voiced by Isabel Garces.
Dueling Works: With Turning Red coming out only a few months after Encanto, there were similarities noted between the two movies. The protagonist is a young teen girl dedicated to helping her family that has a magical heritage, with themes involving generation trauma, high expectations surrounding duty to one's family, and toxic perfectionism. However, while there are broad-stroke similarities in the two films, it's downplayed when you look at specifics. Pixar and Disney routinely share story development screenings with each other so there's no attempt at either being a blatant rip-off. In addition, Encanto is about a powerless protagonist struggling to find her place of value in the family. While Turning Red deals with an enchanted protagonist struggling to break free from her family so she can express her unique self.
Executive Meddling: According◊ to character designer Dylan Ekren, the artists had to fight for Luisa to be buff.
Kids' Meal Toy: Toys of Mirabel, Luisa, Isabela, Pepa, Camilo, Antonio, Bruno, and a capybara were included in Happy Meals.
Life Imitates Art: There have been numerous TikTok videos of a Luisa toy from McDonald's holding up extremely large and heavy things, including the corner of a couch.
No Dub for You: Just like Coco, the movie does not have a European Spanish dub. The Latin American Spanish dub was used in both regions instead, due to the strong Colombian setting of the film.
Olga Merediz is Alma's singing voice in English, while Yaneth Waldman sings for her in Spanish.
Nguyễn Ánh Vân and Đặng Tú Hạnh are Luisa's speaking and singing voices in the Vietnamese dub, respectively.
In the Georgian dub, most of the characters with substantial singing roles had separate singing voices, with the main exception of Lali Gogidze (a professional singer already) as Isabela.
Pepa's speaking voice is Zanda Mgabolishvhili; her singing voice is Salome Esadze.
Luisa is voiced by Nino Tserodze, but her singing is done by Meme Zhordania.
Mirabel's speaking voice actress is Gvantsa Laghidze, and her singing voice is Nata Nakhopia.
Dolores' speaking voice was provided by Nutsa Mestumrishvili, while Tekla Sulakvelidze did her singing.
Outdated by Canon: After the movie first came out, many fans assumed that the birth order of the Madrigal triplets was: Pepa, Bruno, Julieta as that matched their order in the town mural and Mirabel introduces them in that order during "The Family Madrigal". However, director Jared Bush later revealed that the actual order is: Julieta, Pepa, and Bruno.
The film got a surprisingly small amount of advertising for a major Disney animated release and was released just as COVID-19 cases started to go up, resulting in few families going out to the movie theaters. A month later on Christmas Eve, it was released on Disney+. And from there, the film quickly blew up on Tik Tok and other social media platforms. It wound up becoming one of the most watched movies on the platform by the next month.
This also applies to the soundtrack, but particularly "We Don't Talk About Bruno". Following the film's release on Disney+, the song's popularity on social media completely skyrocketed with mentions of how infectiously catchy and memorable it is:
Not only did it top Spotify's global song charts, but it also became the first Disney song since "Let It Go" to get on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in America.
Said song and soundtrack sat simultaneously at #1 on their respective U.S. Billboard charts in the first week of February 2022, over two months after the theatrical debut of the film. At the same time, six other songs from the soundtrack also resided in the U.S. Top 100, including another top-ten entry with "Surface Pressure" at #9.
And to top it off, it became the highest charting Disney song ever over in the United Kingdom.
Vindicated by Cable: The film likely failed to recoup its budget during its short theatrical run, but became an immediate smash hit upon its release on Disney+, making it a very fast example of this trope.
Lin-Manuel Miranda has stated as the film was being conceived that he wanted it to be about a Latin American Disney Princess and that he wanted it to take place in the same universe as Moana, though nothing in the finished product confirms the latter.
Adassa wrote lyrics and performed lead vocals for a fanmade musical number called "Turn it Down", serving as Dolores' equivalent to "Surface Pressure". The official voice of Dolores collaborating on the song likely gave it a boost in credibility and aided its popularity despite it still falling outside of canon.
The last time Disney had two films up for Best Animated Feature was 2016 which featured one film set in a created world with notable world building (Zootopia) and a musical set in a non-Western European culture with songs by Lin-Manual Miranda (Moana). In 2021, Disney offered a film set in a created world with notable world building (Raya and the Last Dragon) and a musical seeped in a non-Western European culture with songs by Lin-Manual Miranda (Encanto). Bonus points in that the Oscar winner both times was directed by Byron Howard and Jared Bush.
This was the first Disney film to receive a full Georgian language dub, as opposed to a Voiceover Translation which is more traditional and common in that country (though a voiceover version was still made). The dub was actually sponsored by the Prime Minister of Georgia
Disney was aware that the movie's theatrical release in November of 2021 was going to be impacted by the omicron variant and even announced that Encanto would be released on Disney+ on December 24th, 2021 while the theatrical run was still underway. As expected, the film did not pull in much money ($100 million domestic, $250 million worldwide). However, the primary reason for the theatrical release was to allow the movie to be eligible for the Academy Awards for 2021. Once released on Disney+, the film exploded in popularity, topping the platform's "trending" nearly every day for the next three months. The film's sheer popularity on streaming led to the smash success of the soundtrack and "We Don't Talk About Bruno", jumping all the way to the top of the charts. This greatly improved the Blu-ray and digital release of the film and led to another theatrical release in February 2022.
◊ to character designer Dylan Ekren, the artists had to fight for Luisa to be buff.
