Since Encanto arrived in theaters on November 24, it has climbed to the top of the Thanksgiving box office with a $40M opening weekend. Audiences have been singing its praises thanks to the enthralling story, strong performances, and - of course - gorgeous music. Set in a small town in Colombia, the film follows the Madrigal family and the enchanted house that grants each of them magical powers. Each of them but middle daughter Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz, In The Heights), that is.
The creative team behind Disney's masterpiece, including acclaimed songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) took a research trip to Colombia before production began to ensure they had an authentic sense of place to build on. But even those who joined a little later, like composer Germaine Franco (who previously worked on Coco and The Book of Life), made sure to study the culture and music of the country in order to craft a story that felt as real as it did fantastical.
Franco spoke to Screen Rant about the journey of finding the right sounds to encompass the magic realism that drove the story and the excitement of melding her own work with that of Miranda's.
Screen Rant: What was the experience of working on Encanto, and of getting to lead the composition of the score, like for you?
Germaine Franco: I started Encanto last October, so I worked on it pretty much for a year. The experience was fantastic. It's a beautiful story, the animation's incredible, and the songs are great. Who wouldn't want to work with that team?
Jared [Bush] and Byron [Howard] were wonderful collaborators, and they were so very specific about what they wanted from the score. They wanted it to sound different; they didn't want it to sound like traditional Hollywood. It was really nice that they gave me some freedom to experiment with new sounds and new textures and to give voice to Mirabel and the rest of the family through the score.
And also, I was working in between all of Lin's songs; weaving the scoring between the songs and the dialogue and working to make it sound like a cohesive whole. The songs were already written before I even joined. He was working on them, but generally, most of the songs were written.
What was that aspect of the collaboration like for you? Were you having to adapt your vision to Lin-Manuel Miranda's songs, or was there more of a back-and-forth?
Germaine Franco: Not really adapt, but Lin had already created a musical world for the songs. And then one of the things I was able to do was to give Mirabel her theme and make a general Encanto theme and then weave that in the story. And then I made sure that the sound of the score fit with the songs that he'd already written, in terms of instrumentation. I also added some orchestra to his songs, which were produced by Mike Elizondo and Lin.
It was really great to work with Lin. He's an amazing genius of a musician and storyteller, and Mike is a wonderful producer. The whole experience was very memorable and exciting. I had a whole orchestra and rhythm section and choirs and soloists. As a composer, it's really an amazing opportunity to have live people playing your ideas, because then they add humanity to it. It's much better than my ideas played into a demo on a computer with a synthesizer.
I know the Encanto team went on a research trip to Colombia, but you also did your own research to incorporate elements of magic realism - which is something that Encanto relies on heavily. What texts or experiences did you pull from when you were trying to find the sound for that genre?
Germaine Franco: I was not able to go to Colombia, because it was during the pandemic and they had gone a few years before the project. So, what I did was I took myself there mentally. [laughs] I spent so many, maybe thousands of hours listening to Columbian music of all kinds and just immersing myself in audio and video, films and books. Reading Gabriel García Márquez in Spanish and just putting myself in that place of magical realism.
As for experiences of my own, magical realism involves spiritual elements as well as experiences in nature. There's a whole other realm that exists besides this physical realm, and some people are able to be aware of it and others aren't. Others don't believe in it, but I personally do. I just wanted to imagine: what does that sound like? What does magical realism sound like? That was my challenge.
I created new textures with different Colombian instruments; like the gaita from Colombia. I had a marimba made in Colombia and shipped here. A marimba de chonta, which is a specific marimba that is only found in Colombia; you cannot find it anywhere else. There's a master marimba maker named Ali Cuama, who comes from a long line of craftsmen. His dad was one of the most famous makers, and there's a style of playing that you hear in that one cue when Antonio is getting a gift. When the door opens, that is definitely one of the most Afro-Colombian cues in the film.
I even was able to have a Colombian choir - since I couldn't physically go there, I went to Carlos Vives' performance at the Hollywood Bowl. He's amazing; I love his music. I listened to so much of his music during the time I was writing for inspiration. I have to thank the head of animation music, Matt Walker because he encouraged me to go. I got to meet all the players backstage, and I walked away from that concert saying, "Let's get the Colombian singers." Disney allowed me to do a Zoom choir session with 12 singers in Colombia, and then I was online producing it. It was amazing.
Also, I worked with an accordion player from Colombia who is in Carlos' band. So, even though I can't go to Colombia, I kind of had Colombia immersed in the score through the instruments and through the players. Justo Almario, a famous clarinet and sax player, is also on the score - there's a lot of Colombian elements, and it's a hybrid score. There's an orchestra, but the rhythm section is really the foundation of it. And all the players are just stellar. I worked with Federico Ramos, who is the guitarist for Coco, he plays all the Colombian guitars. And I even had a Colombian harp, which is called the arpa llanera, in the film. Just as many textures as possible that you would find in Colombia. And lots of drums, of course.
As a Latina who has grown up in the US, I haven't seen such an exploration of Latin American cultural touchstones like magic realism in the mainstream. It was very exciting to see that brought to the forefront here.
Germaine Franco: It was a really fun exploration, because that's part of the literary tradition of Latin America, to apply that to music. We didn't really have an idea of, "Oh, it should sound like this." It was an open canvas of wondering, "What does it sound like?"
And it's just my own personal vision, but it's also inspired by the animation and the story. We had many discussions as a team about what that sound would be, and I think the score is a direct result of working and collaborating with the filmmakers. I don't think I would have come up with that specific score on my own.
Speaking of the journey you took with the score, it must be fun to craft a score for such a large cast. There are many distinct personalities, though not everyone necessarily gets their own full song to explore that. How did you find and differentiate the right cues for each character in emotional beats, especially for tracks like "Antonio's Voice" or "Bruno's Tower?"
Germaine Franco: Because it's such a big cast, like you said, not everyone gets their own theme or cue. I focused on Mirabel because she's the protagonist and Abuela Alma. There was an idea of her character - or not really a character, but a theme of her always trying to help her family and never giving up. There's a persistent rhythm that's compared to the cumbia.
To differentiate, I gave certain people certain rhythms and certain instruments. For example, whenever Mirabel's looking for an answer, you might hear that [imitates a rhythm] sound of the cumbia. That was just one motif. And then there's the Encanto theme about the whole house at the beginning, and you hear that throughout in different variations. Basically, it was the Encanto theme that represented the house, the place, and the family.
And then Bruno had his moment. When you first meet him, you don't know really what to think, but it's sort of comedic. Then, when the family's together at the table at that one dinner that turns completely to chaos, that's just a general tango and fun. It just goes completely off the wall and crazy, which I had a lot of fun with because I know there's lots of dysfunctional dinners in any family. I laughed so much when I wrote that.
It was really exciting. And there's other Latinos on it too: Stephanie Beatriz singing, María Cecilia Botero, Jessica Darrow, and Diane Guerrero. There's Adassa, who is a singer in her own right. Mauro Castillo, who plays Félix, is a singer. There's a lot of great actors in the film, and they did a great job with the singing. But there's also Yvette Merino, who's a producer.
There's a lot of exciting Latino voices on the filmmaking team, and I'm just happy to be part of it. I'm so glad that you enjoyed it. There are some inner details and, if you've read novels with magical realism, you can see what we were trying to do.
Finally, what is the next step in your post-Encanto journey?
Germaine Franco: I'm still enjoying the wave of Encanto. I just went to see it last week again. I am starting a few things, but I'm not really able to talk about them at the moment. I am just excited to do music for film, and I'm really happy that it came out and the world can see the work of so many artists - thousands of artists worked on that.
For me, my path is music. I love music, I love storytelling, and I continue to do my best to help filmmakers tell their stories through the music.
Encanto is currently out in theaters before heading to Disney+ on December 24.
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