Encanto

[Farerb]

Two more films + Anna and Elsa and there will be the same number of CGI princesses and hand drawn princesses. However I think after Encanto they won't do another "princess" movie for a while.

[DisneyFan09]

It just occurred to me that if the female lead in Encanto is included in the Disney Princess line-up, and let's face it, Disney won't pass up the opportunity to turn her into their first Latina princess regardless if she's royalty or not, we will have an equal number of white princesses and princesses of color.

True, but we`ll get more backlash and racial scrutiny of how Disney tend to neglect their non-Caucasian Princesses.

[Disney's Divinity]

I personally hope they make another princess film with an all or at least majority Black cast in the next decade. Ideally a film where there's actually a prince and a little bit of romance. That's just what I'd like to see.* I like films like Moana and Raya, too, but I also like the ones with romance as well. Or a musical with a male lead. I'm not sure if Disney will keep making films with a female protagonist repeatedly like this though--not that it would bother me at all if they did.

* It's something I want, but it also makes me worry that Tiana will be pushed even further to the back once they finally have another Black princess, particularly one from a 3D film.

[blackcauldron85]

^ I want more TP&tF (I'd love a short!!), not less.

[RyGuy]

I personally hope they make another princess film with an all or at least majority Black cast in the next decade. Ideally a film where there's actually a prince and a little bit of romance. That's just what I'd like to see.* I like films like Moana and Raya, too, but I also like the ones with romance as well. Or a musical with a male lead. I'm not sure if Disney will keep making films with a female protagonist repeatedly like this though--not that it would bother me at all if they did.

* It's something I want, but it also makes me worry that Tiana will be pushed even further to the back once they finally have another Black princess, particularly one from a 3D film.

Yes to all of this. Much of this seems like a reaction to (legitimate) criticism that Disney movies are formulaic, but now it seems like even that reaction is becoming formulaic.

[Atlantica]

^ I want more TP&tF (I'd love a short!!), not less.

I wonder if they will do some sort of short / tie in on Disney+ with the new Splash Mountain layover ?

[blackcauldron85]

^ I like your thinking! That's a great idea!

[Sotiris]

I wonder if they will do some sort of short/tie in on Disney+ with the new Splash Mountain layover?

I sure hope so. It would be a good opportunity to put to use the 2D animators left at Disney too. They often do original animation for the parks, albeit to a smaller scale, as part of the studio's Special Projects division.

[Disney's Divinity]

I don't expect anything for TP&TF unless it's a part of a princess project of some kind. And, unfortunately, I expect it would be in 3D even if it happened.

[Rumpelstiltskin]

I do hope it doesn't take forever for the story to get started in this movie. That's one of my problems with Moana; we have to wait really long before she finally sails away in her boat (at least it feels long).

And could this be the final project from the Lasseter era? He has been away for almost three years now, so his influence on the movie should be very modest, but he was the one who greenlighted the film in 2016, a year before he took his sabattical. So what will the first idea be that was pitched to Jennifer Lee and got greenlighted? Still no info about that.

[D82]

And could this be the final project from the Lasseter era? He has been away for almost three years now, so his influence on the movie should be very modest, but he was the one who greenlighted the film in 2016, a year before he took his sabattical. So what will the first idea be that was pitched to Jennifer Lee and got greenlighted? Still no info about that.

That would be interesting to know.

By the way, when some were commenting who could voice the protagonist of this film, I don't think anybody mentioned Sofia Carson. She's of Colombian descent, can sing and has worked for Disney before, so I think she could be a likely candidate for the role. What do you guys think?

[blackcauldron85]

^ I like Sofia Carson- she's talented, so I'd be happy with her! I wonder if Shakira would record a song for this, or even be part of the cast...

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Not sure what I think about the current trend that even the voice has to reflect the nationality and/or ethnicity of the character. Isn't it the voice that should count?

Look at Simpsons. It is now decided that the voice actor needs to be the same ethnicity of the character, meaning the actors who have done a lot of the voices for years will no longer do them.

Or the CGI version of Lion King, where they had mostly voice actors of African heritage (even if many of them haven't lived in Africa for many generations and have mixed with others) in a movie where not a single human being appears. They are all animals.

Or Frozen 2, where it is OK to turn a Norwegian village into a modern day melting pot of different ethnicities (just as in the live action version of Beauty and the Beast), but not to use voice actors to do the voice of any other race then their own.

When Walt Disney searched for the right voice for Snow White, he was sitting in a room where he could only hear the voice and not see the actress, because he wanted her to be cast because of how she sounded, not how she looked.

If Disney is about to make a movie set in a specific country, it's not a bad idea to use some famous voices from the country. But they shouldn't be totally obsessed about it.

[D82]

I like Sofia Carson- she's talented, so I'd be happy with her!

Actually, I haven't seen the Descendants movies or anything else she's been in, so personally I don't have an opinion of her. I just searched for Colombian actresses in Hollywood and hers was one of the names that came up. I've just heard her sing and I think she's not bad at it.

I wonder if Shakira would record a song for this, or even be part of the cast...

I think it's quite likely she would participate in some way since she's also Colombian and has already worked with director Byron Howard in Zootopia.

Not sure what I think about the current trend that even the voice has to reflect the nationality and/or ethnicity of the character. Isn't it the voice that should count?

I understand your point of view and I actually agree that an actor voicing a character of a different ethnicity than theirs is not really bad in itself. Unlike in live-action, in animation you don't see their real appearance, plus they usually cast actors who, though have the same heritage as the character, have been born in an English speaking country, so the voice they provide is not really different from what an actor of a different ethnicity would've done. However, it's usually difficult for minorities to get jobs in Hollywood, so if they don't cast them in these roles that are of the same ethnicity as them, what jobs are they going to get? And it's not as if they gave them other roles that are not of their ethnicity. For instance, do you know many black actors who voice white characters? So, if they hire a white actor to play a black character, they're robbing a black actor of this opportunity. That's why personally I'm in favor of this practice. Plus, if the actors are familiar with the culture and customs of their place of origin, they can also provide the character with some nuances, or act as consultants and give their advice about certain things, which is something that others who don't have that origin wouldn't be able to do.

In the case of The Simpsons, though, maybe they went too far. The voice is a big part of a character and to suddenly change the voice of beloved characters I guess can't have been easy for fans of the show. I guess even some people from the same ethnicity as those characters might be opposed to recasting them.

[Rumpelstiltskin]

I didn't say they should not get the job of being the voice of someone with the same ethnicity. It was a comment about the current obsession about it. If they get jobs or not, depends on studios willing to hire them (usually already established actors). If they want to, they don't have to use the excuse about matching etchnicities. In animation there are for instance plenty of non-human characters.
I don't know any black or other actors doing the voice of white characters, the only example I can think of right now is an Asian doing the voice of a white character in Tales of Arcadia. And I don't know any white actors doing the voice of black characters, except a couple of the actors in Simpsons. They even decided to take Apu out of the show, despite one of the higher people in the studio being the same ethnicity himself and which was strongly against it.
Yes, actors familiar with a specific culture could provide some ideas, and I said it wasn't a bad idea to use famous voices from those countries. But then we're talking about nationality and culture, not necessarily ethnicity. Which is also a new trend. Not sure if they have used for instance actors with French background if they are doing a movie set in France. Or someone with Norwegian background in Frozen. But time will tell what will happen in the future.

[UmbrellaFish]

Skyler Shuler claims on Twitter:

Disney just recently trademarked MIRABEL MADRIGAL, the lead character in Disney’s ENCANTO.

https://twitter.com/skylershuler/status ... 39329?s=21

“Madrigal” is a word I associate with two things— the Madrigal dinners that my high school chorus used to put on and “Mrs. Madrigal” the matriarch character from the Tales of the City books. It is a real Spanish surname so the connection to Ren Faire dinners and music may just be coincidental? https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=madrigal

[Disney's Divinity]

I always thought Mirabell was a man's name... I've only heard the name in The Way of the World (and it was spelled with two l's there). I suppose it's unisex?

[UmbrellaFish]

Wiki says it was formerly a unisex name, but is now almost exclusively used for girls. I guess a bit like Ashley or Lindsey.

[D82]

Skyler Shuler claims on Twitter:

Disney just recently trademarked MIRABEL MADRIGAL, the lead character in Disney’s ENCANTO.

https://twitter.com/skylershuler/status ... 39329?s=21

“Madrigal” is a word I associate with two things— the Madrigal dinners that my high school chorus used to put on and “Mrs. Madrigal” the matriarch character from the Tales of the City books. It is a real Spanish surname so the connection to Ren Faire dinners and music may just be coincidental? https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=madrigal

The name and surname together are a bit of a tongue twister, though Mirabel is a nice name. I've never heard of anyone called that here in Spain, but maybe it's more popular in Latin America. What I personally think of when I hear Madrigal is the name of the stadium of a famous Spanish soccer team, but according to the dictionary it's a kind of poem and a kind of musical composition.

[Farerb]

According to Wikipedia:

Mirabel is a female name stemming from the Latin word mirabilis, meaning "wondrous" or "of wondrous beauty". It was used as both a male and female name in the Middle Ages, but is now almost exclusively female.

A madrigal is a secular vocal music composition of the Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque (1600–1750) eras.