We NEED to Talk About These Behind the Scenes Facts from Disney’s ‘Encanto’

Disney’s Encanto has been in the headlines a lot lately, and for good reason!

A heartwarming tale of the importance of family and embracing each others’ differences, the movie danced onto our screens and into our hearts. There’s no doubt that it takes a great deal of work to make a movie, and even more that doesn’t make it to the screen! We’re sharing TEN behind-the-scenes secrets from the creators of Encanto!

Disney hosted an Encanto watch party a few weeks ago, where fans could watch the movie at home and follow along on Twitter for some fun facts.

During the watch party, we found out some awesome behind-the-scenes tidbits, like how the writers almost included a post-credits joke scene involving a capybara. You can check it out below!

We considered an after credit joke to end the movie, but ultimately felt going out on the emotion and joy of the family coming back together was the way to go… but the hilarious @darrinbutters animated it!! So here you go! THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR WATCHING WITH US!! #ENCANTO pic.twitter.com/XUMn6IfgeF

— Jared Bush (@thejaredbush) January 30, 2022

And, we bet you didn’t know that the final song was much longer. According to Yahoo News, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s original version was seven minutes long!

This finale All Of You was originally 7 minutes long but we were OUT OF TIME. They were like, "we can only animate four minutes." Y'all wanna see what I cut? -LMM #Encanto

— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) January 30, 2022

The emotional song Dos Oruguitas was the first fully Spanish song that Lin-Manuel Miranda ever wrote. It’s a story about two caterpillars representing Abuela and Abuelo Madrigal. Miranda shared the original lyrics in a Tweet.

First draft of Dos Oruguitas I turned in, with english translations for the non spanish speakers in the creative team. -LMM #Encanto pic.twitter.com/vLiLyQ7WnY

— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) January 30, 2022

And, speaking of lyrics, the backstory of the family was supposed to be in the opening number, sung by Mirabel.

So originally, this backstory was in the OPENING NUMBER! Here's the lyrics, sung to the same tune as the one you know, with Mirabel narrating backstory. (Also Abuela was still expecting!!!!) -LMM pic.twitter.com/7TrSCmWtx8

— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) January 30, 2022

Encanto even received direction in the most mundane of circumstances — from Miranda’s neighbor Fabian, a professional botanist. Fabian shared his knowledge of plant life with Miranda to ensure that the exotic foliage was accurate!

Our next door neighbor Fabian in our last apartment is a botanist for the NY Botanical Gardens.Called him in a panic, saying, "I need to know everything about Colombian plants, & other exotic weird plants you can give me." An hour later, all these GREAT NEW WORDS! -LMM #Encanto pic.twitter.com/jq7AyOp2T9

— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) January 30, 2022

In other unexpected Encanto news, the iconic “tick tock” sound you hear in the hit song Pressure? That was done by Lin-Manuel using his own voice as percussion — everyone loved it so much they decided to keep it in the final cut. How cool is that?!

Hear the “tick tock” sound like a clock under the grip grip grip section? @Lin_Manuel recorded that with his own voice in his first demo as percussion and we loved it so much we made sure it stayed in forever! #encanto pic.twitter.com/JlD0o6Oad8

— Jared Bush (@thejaredbush) January 30, 2022

Every Disney character needs a cute animal sidekick, and Encanto’s Pico the Toucan fits the bill (ha, get it?). The lovable bird is voiced by Alan Tudyk, who apparently took researching his role so seriously that he corrected showrunners on their toucan sounds.

And since we’re on the subject of our toucan Pico, the voice of this scene stealer is @AlanTudyk who spent HOURS recording it – he did his homework so well, that when he arrived to record he told us our scratch toucan sounds were actually a different species of bird. #encanto https://t.co/RnY6n8Yl42

— Jared Bush (@thejaredbush) January 31, 2022

Pico the Toucan is the sidekick to Mirabel Madrigal, voiced by Stephanie Beatriz. While she was recording Waiting on a Miracle, she was over nine months pregnant!

Guess what… for @iamstephbeatz’s final record of this song… she was OVER 9 months pregnant. 48 hours after she finished this song she HAD A BABY. #Encanto pic.twitter.com/GNbHghEXgJ

— Jared Bush (@thejaredbush) January 30, 2022

Speaking of Stephanie, she sang a Moana song as part of her audition for the movie!

The scene with Antonio was part of @iamstephbeatz’s audition. And it melted our hearts. She ALSO sang a song for that audition, ‘You’re Welcome’ and it was so endearing that amazing animator Tony Smeed brought it to life! #encanto @Lin_Manuel @TheRock @hhgarcia41 @DisneyAnimation pic.twitter.com/d5HzP6QGoP

— Jared Bush (@thejaredbush) January 30, 2022

And, in what might be the most shocking fact of all — Bruno almost wasn’t named Bruno! Jared Bush shared a screenshot of a text conversation between himself and Lin-Manuel Miranda discussing other possible names for the character.

Ready for this most significant text of our entire #Encanto production? April 29th 2020. Little did we know… pic.twitter.com/hBZ6A7fvN3

— Jared Bush (@thejaredbush) January 30, 2022

“We Don’t Talk About Andre” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Be sure to stay tuned to AllEars for more behind-the-scenes Disney news!