Abuelo Pedro's Death In "Encanto" Was Originally Supposed To Be Much Darker, And 72 Other "Encanto" Behind-The-Scenes Details

BuzzFeed
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If you think the world is over Encanto yet, think again. During Disney's earnings call on Feb. 9, they said the film "became the fastest title to cross 200 million hours viewed on Disney+." That's a whole lot of hours!

The family Madrigal
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

Fans have been looking up theories, easter eggs, and fun facts for weeks now, and thanks to Encanto director Jared Bush's love for his film and tweeting, he's been keeping us well fed!

Jared Bush, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Charise Castro Smith, and Stephanie Beatriz attend the world premiere of Encanto
Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images for Disney

I decided to scour through all his tweets to pull out the sweetest facts for all you Encanto fans out there, so here are 73 of the juiciest bits he's shared:

1.Lin-Manuel Miranda was given different naming options for Bruno from Jared while writing the music for the film, and Lin thankfully chose Bruno. "We Don't Talk About Emo" just doesn't hit the same way.

2.Speaking of names, Mirabel's original name was Beatriz. This was two years before Stephanie Beatriz was even cast to voice her. That's fate!

3.Mirabel's name isn't just some random pick either. Not only does "mira" mean "to see" in Spanish, but it also connects her with the word "miracle." As far as the title Encanto goes, "canto" means "sing" in Spanish, so naturally it's also appropriate for the name of this film.

4.Stephanie Beatriz was over nine months pregnant when she recorded "Waiting On A Miracle" and had the baby just 48 hours later.

5.When Camilo shapeshifted into Bruno in an early version of the film, he was in fact 7 feet tall as Camilo had said in "We Don't Talk About Bruno."

6.Abuela saying that her husband died just after her babies were born accurately implies that he died on their literal birthday. Now I'm crying again.

7.And if that isn't depressing enough for you, that scene was originally MUCH darker. There was a version of the story in which Pedro died at the river as Abuela Alma literally gave birth to the triplets.

8.Since we're in a sad mood already, the magical candle that provided the Madrigal family with their gifts was actually Abuela Alma and Abuelo Pedro's wedding candle.

9.In an early version of the film, Isabela and Mirabel get into a physical fight, as sisters do.

10.The design for Bruno's room was partly inspired by the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá, which is a stunning underground cathedral in Colombia that is located inside a salt mine.

11.They also considered using it as an inspiration for Luisa's room before they landed on giving it to Bruno.

12.The scene in which Mirabel comforts Antonio and gifts him a stuffed jaguar while underneath the bed in the nursery was the first to go into production and survived multiple revisions of the film. It was also partially inspired by Jared's son Emmitt, who was 8 years old at the time Jared wrote the film and was also shy and loved animals.

13.This sentimental scene was also part of Stephanie's audition. But most importantly, she sang "You're Welcome" from Moana during the audition — which animator Tony Smeed later brought to life in the most hilarious way possible.

14.During "We Don't Talk About Bruno," Agustín, who is Mirabel's dad, is seen dancing (but not singing) because Mirabel did not ask him about Bruno. He also just wanted to fit in.

15.In the scene where Mirabel enters Bruno's door and Pico the toucan abandons her, Mirabel's "Nope, you flew away immediately" line was improvised by Stephanie Beatriz.

16.While on the topic of Pico, actor Alan Tudyk voices the toucan in the film and spent hours recording it. He also did his research and was able to tell the filmmakers that the scratch vocals (which is the first 'rough' vocal draft) were actually a different species of bird.

17.The addition of the Bruno line "sana sana colita de rana" was an idea that came from a Disney Animation group called "Familia" that's comprised of Latinx employees. They also coined the title Encanto. No big deal.

18.There was supposed to be an after-credit scene in which the casita pours water on Antonio’s capybara named Chispi. The filmmakers ultimately cut it because they wanted the movie to end on a different tone.

19.The first line in the film is Abuela Alma saying, "Abre los ojos," because it was important to the filmmakers that the first words you hear are in Spanish. Actor Maria Cecilia Botero, who voices Abuela, also accidentally showed up dressed as Abuela when she went to her first recording session.

20.The opening prologue and Abuela Alma's story was a part of co-writer and co-director Charise Castro Smith's very first draft. Keep in mind, these scripts typically change CONSTANTLY. She also provided the scratch vocals for many of the characters.

21.The process of creating Encanto first began with dotting down key ideas and themes on a white board.

22.Directors Jared Bush and Bryon Howard created a small book of short stories prior to writing or creating the film that would ultimately help them explore the tone and vibe of the story overall. The cover of the book says, "There is always another door" in Spanish and the pages featured tell a story about a character named Bisabuela Rosa, who is "mostly immortal."

In this one, they created a character named Emilia who has a father that has the power to heal. Her older brother is able to produce rain, while Emilia can (barely) create fire. One night, she was able to produce a flame that later resulted in an accident that killed her brother.

23.Carolin Gaitán, who voices Pepa, met Lin-Manuel Miranda on a flight back from Colombia way before she knew about Encanto. She auditioned two years later for the role and didn't tell them about this chance encounter until she landed the part.

24.Pepa's gift, which controls the weather, was originally supposed to be one that makes her indestructible.

25.In case you were curious, Mirabel is 5'2".

26.And if you're curious about how old some of the Madrigal family members are: Isabela is 21, Dolores is also 21 (but a couple months younger), Luisa is 19, Camilo is 15, Mirabel is also 15, and Antonio is 5.

27.As far as the spouses go, Félix is a bit older than the triplets (Julieta, Pepa, and Bruno), and Agustín is a bit younger than them. Agustín also fell in love with Julieta because he is so accident prone and constantly needed to be healed.

28.When it comes to the triplet's birth order, Julieta is the "oldest," Pepa came second, and Bruno is the "baby."

29.Since Mirabel is 15 in the film, the filmmakers played around with the idea of having a quinceañera for Mirabel in the film.

30.Apparently animating belly buttons is a monumental task. In the case of Osvaldo (aka the man with the gut), funds and time had to allocated to make his shirt pop/show his belly button since the animation team thought it'd be worth the struggle. It was, it was.

31.His full name is Osvaldo Orozco Ortiz, but he was originally called "Donkey Delivery Guy."

32.Speaking of names, the woman whose fish died is named Señora Pezmuerto, which literally translates to Mrs. Deadfish.

33.In the script she is called Señora Ozma, named after Natalie Osma, who took the Encanto team to Colombia on their research trip.

34.Choreographer Jamal Sims and assistant choreographer Kai Martinez created the dances within the film. They were shot by animators, who then used the footage as references to animate the same moves onto the characters.

35.You can also likely thank Kai and Jamal for Mariano's iconic walk in "We Don't Talk About Bruno."

36.Live-action footage is often used by animators as a reference to how the final animation should look. Animators themselves often had to be their own actors as proven by the video below.

37.If you look closely, you can see that parts of Agustín's outfit symbolize his three daugthers. The flower is for Isabela, one sock has Luisa's symbols, and another sock is in the style of Mirabel's embroidery.

38.The area that the Madrigal family lives in was inspired by the Cocora Valley in Colombia. Both Jared and Bryan visited the area and fell in love with it.

They also used parts of the Chocó Rainforest, Caño Cristales, los Estoraques, Barichara, and Villa de Leyva to build out this world.

39.If you look at Bruno's tower in the very first Encanto teaser, you can see flashes of green light coming from it. This means he was having visions inside of it.

40.The first time Adassa, who voices Dolores, went in to record her verse for "We Don't Talk About Bruno," Lin-Manuel was extremely impressed.

41.The now Oscar-nominated song "Dos Oruguitas" is the first song Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote completeley in Spanish.

42.And when he played it for everyone on Zoom, people had to turn their cameras off because they began sobbing.

43.Same goes for Jared's mom. He played the song for her prior to the film coming out and, like most of us, she couldn't hold it together.

44.And as a not-so-fun fact, Abuelo Pedro is the same age that Sebastian Yatra was when he recorded the song.

45.The "tick tock" sound you hear under the words "grip, grip, grip" on "Surface Pressure" came from Lin-Manuel Miranda, who recorded that with his own voice as percussion in his demo. It ultimately stayed because the filmmakers loved it so much.

46.The people who are circling/dancing around Mirabel during "We Don't Talk About Bruno" are there because they are the ones weighing heaviest on her mind at the moment. Yes, even Señora Pezmuerto.

47.The three kids who follow Mirabel around during "The Family Madrigal" have names that connect them back to a real-life person. Alejandra (left) is named after Alejandra Espinosa, who helped the filmmakers when it came to accurate Colombian representation. Pumped Juancho (middle) is named after Jose 'Weecho' Velasquez, the development artist who stitched Mirabel's dress. Cecilia (right) was named after co-director/co-writer Charise Castro Smith's daughter.

48.Jared's son also did the original scratch vocals for Pumped Juancho (aka the caffeinated kid) and was ultimately replaced just two months before the film was released. It's tough out here in Hollywood.

49.The townsperson below who interacts with Abuela is named Lili as an ode to Liliana Valencia, who is an Afro Colombian journalist and worked as a consultant on the film.

50.While in Colombia doing research, they were introduced to the musical group 200 de Cilantro, where they then fell in love with a 12-stringed guitar called a tiple. They later incorporated the tiple into the soundtrack.

51.Many conspiracies went around that Mirabel lost her gift solely because she rubbed her hands on outfit before touching the doorknob as a kid, but Jared confirmed that is simply not true.

52.The golden doorknob that was handed to Mirabel at the end of the film took weeks to perfect because they wanted to get the shine and wear on it just right.

53.Angie Cepeda, who voices Julieta, is the only original cast member who voices her character in the English, Spanish, and Italian versions of the film.

54.Joaquin Baldwin, who was the layout supervisor in Encanto, added the part in which Bruno scuba flops back into the the wall as a placeholder. It was so good that it was kept in the final version of the film.

55.Bruno calls himself Hernando as an ode to Hernando Bahamon, who is a Colombian local and invited both Jared and co-director Bryon Howard over to his house for dinner.

56.Composer Germaine Franco had a marimba built in the Chocó region of Colombia and shipped to the US so she could play it and incorporate it into Encanto's score.

57.The soundtrack had to be recorded under strict COVID protocols, so the orchestra was divided and recorded in different sections and on different days. They even spanned between Los Angeles and Colombia.

58.It's no secret that Encanto effectively explores generational trauma. Well, as part of the research process, the filmmakers spoke to psychologists, trauma counselors, mental health experts, family therapists, and dozens of families to make sure they got it right.

59.During "The Family Madrigal," right before Abuela comes in with her verse, you may not have noticed that the Madrigal family forms a "M" formation around her. Animator Jonah Sidhom also noted that working from home meant he had to use his bedsheets as a skirt reference.

60.When quarantine put the film on pause, Diane Guerrero, who voices Isabela, sent animation designers photos of food from her family in Colombia.

61.The Madrigal family has never left their own village.

62.Camilo's name is both a play on the word chameleon, but also an ode to Camilo García, who took care of the Encanto team while they were in Colombia.

63.The pointed design on Abuela Alma's chair vs. everyone else's rounded design (as well as its height) was purposefully made to show that she is in fact the matriarch and in charge.

64.Camilo doesn't acquire another Madrigal family member's gift when he shapeshifts into them.

65.In an early storyline, Camilo's "default" form wasn't his true form, and once he lost his gift, the family didn't recognize who he was.

66.The emerald glass Bruno creates is made from "emerald dust" in the sand.

67.The interior of Abuela's room in the casita is a replica of the room she had in her old home before her village was destroyed.

68.The Madrigal family gifts aren't chosen at random, they each reflect innate personality traits the family members already had as kids.

69.Mirabel doesn't know much about Bruno because she was 5 years old when he "left."

70.Antonio already knew all about Bruno prior to meeting him because the rats had already told Antonio about him off camera.

71.It took five whole years to create Encanto, from ideation to finished product.

72.It also took a team of 800 people to put the entire film together.

73.The official wrap on the film's script was in August of 2021, just three months before it premiered.

And finally, the entire picture wrapped in September, just one month before it premiered. Keep in mind, post-production still had a lot of work to do on their end after this.

In conclusion, it took a village of many dedicated people to create such a thoughtfully made film and it came out — dare I say — magical. Keep tweeting those fun facts Jared!

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