In the Heights (2021)

Make way for more Latine representation! Disney has released a beautiful new poster and toe-tapping musical trailer for their 60th animated film, Encanto, with music from Lin-Manuel Miranda. Encanto follows the Madrigals, a family living in a magical house in the mountains of Colombia where each child receives an “Encanto”, or a gift that gives them magical powers. The trailer shows Madrigal children who have super strength, shapeshifting abilities, plant-growing powers, and an affinity for animals. But one child has no gift -- 15-year old Mirabel struggles to find a place in her family as the only one who’s “not special.” However, when she discovers that something is threatening the magic of the Encanto, she decides she may be the only one who can save it.

Mirabel is clearly known as the black sheep of her family. At one point, someone hands her a basket of trinkets and even says, “I gave you the special since you’re the only Madrigal kid with no gift. I call it the ‘Not Special Special,’ since, uh, you have no gift!” Yet Mirabel later says, “Gift or no gift, I’m just as special as the rest of my family.”

In a statement following the trailer’s release, Stephanie Beatriz, who voices Mirabel, said "Mirabel is a really funny, loving character who also deeply yearns for something more. She's also not afraid to stand up for what she knows is right — something I love and relate to very much. I'm Colombian on my father's side, and playing this role fills me with immense pride."

I can’t help but be excited to see that most of the Encanto cast descends from Colombia, a decision affirming that all Latines are not interchangeable, as popular media frequently depicts us. The cast includes: 

Seven years before the Pulitzer Prize-winning global phenomenon that is Hamilton opened on Broadway in 2015 and blew the roof off staged musicals forever, creator Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first Broadway musical, the Tony Award-winning In the Heights, opened in the same theater in 2008. Now, like Hamilton, it’s also a movie, a glorious movie more powerful than the original staged production. This cinematic reincarnation tweaks the order and number of some of the songs and characters and expands the physical and thematic landscape using all manner of movie craft which could be mustered by Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu. The result is a visual and emotional feast that lifts the original material to dizzying heights at a time when its themes around immigration, diversity, identity, and the American dream are more elevated in our consciousness than ever before.

The film begins quietly, sweetly like a fairytale about a “suenito,” a little dream of a better life and a place that was disappearing. A young man named Usnavi (Anthony Ramos as a soulful everyman in the role Miranda played on B’way) sits by a beautiful island beach telling this story to a group of wide-eyed children. This new framing device is a little confusing as his tale flashes back to a tight-knit NYC neighborhood called Washington Heights, home to a diverse Latinx community– Dominican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, South American, and beyond–“where the streets were made of music.”

The film begins to pulse as the camera (Alice Brooks, cinematography) roams the street, scaling fire escapes and windows framing families watching kids playing on the pavement below. We follow Usnavi, now rapping out the title song and stepping on a manhole cover, setting it spinning to the beat of the lives on this block. This opening sequence is a dazzler, every edit (Myron Kerstein) a spark illuminating a cross-section of characters, each in search of some version of the American dream, each instantly charismatic and relatable.

Usanavi runs the bodega but dreams of opening his own restaurant bar back in the Dominican Republic. He’s crushing on gorgeous Vanessa (Melissa Barrera) who dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Strolling back to the block fresh from her first year at Stanford is Nina (Leslie Grace) brilliant, independent, and the pride and joy of her hardworking father Kevin Rosario (Jimmy Smits) who owns the car service. Nina reconnects with her love interest, the dynamic Benny (Corey Hawkins) the car dispatcher, and Usnavi’s best friend. Daniela (Daphne Rubin-Vega) and her team have big dreams for her beauty salon. Hovering over all is Abuela Claudia (Olga Merediz who played the role on Broadway) a character written for maximum schmaltz. Childless herself, “Abuela” has adopted the entire neighborhood, a grandmother to all. I always have trouble with this character as written, and always want it played a little against the grain, less overtly wise and wonderful. No luck here…