Encanto (2021)

Jack loved and I didn't hate this animated Disney musical about a magical family living in a magical house in Colombia, dealing with familial and community relationships as well the effects of past war. The Oscar voters loved it, too, as it won Best Animated Feature. Its voice actors include Stephanie Beatriz as Mirabel (the protagonist), John Leguizamo as Bruno, Diane Guerrero as Isabela, and Wilmer Valderrama as Agustin. The cast and crew are mostly Latinx.

Three directors are credited (Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Charise Castro Smith), two screenwriters (Smith and Bush), and six wrote the story (all of the above plus Jason Hand, Nancy Kruse, and the omnipresent Lin-Manuel Miranda).

The Oscar-nominated original instrumental score by Germaine Franco comprises the middle half of the Apple Music soundtrack and most of the songs' music and lyrics were written by Miranda, including the Oscar.-nominated song Dos Orugitas (two caterpillars which become mariposas, or butterflies).

Beatriz was last blogged for In the Heights, Leguizamo for Nancy, Valderrama for Larry Crowne, Bush and Howard for Zootopia, and Miranda for In the Heights.

Guerrero is best known for 57 episodes of Orange Is the New Black as Maritza Ramos and Smith is an accomplished playwright making her co-directing debut here. Hand has graduated from art and animation departments to writing as has Kruse, who worked on animation for 71 episodes of The Simpsons and directed 25. Franco is the first woman to score a Disney animated feature. Her previous work includes six episodes of Vida, Little, and Yearly Departed 2020, all of which were diverse female-centric projects.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are enchanted, averaging 91 and 93%, respectively. If you watch it with kids, keep the credits going for a change, because the characters are sprinkled about, doing things that follow the story.

I watched it March 18 on Disney+ with English audio and captions. Jack watched it some time before that.