Thread by @adamjsimon

Thanks to Disney+, Encanto has been a breakout cultural hit, the first non-Frozen Disney soundtrack to top the Billboard charts in a decade.

Here's what #Encanto tells us about #Disney's evolving strategy for animated features, a 🧵👇 #ship30for30 (1/14)

polygon.com/22877110/encan…

To make sense of Encanto, we have to go back to Frozen (2013), which was a small experiment in two new directions, both of which paid off big time, and laid the groundwork for the Madrigals. (2/14)

First, Frozen was a subversion of the traditional Disney princess marriage plot. In fact, it's Anna's blind desire for a fairytale that puts her relationship with Elsa at risk. (3/14)

In Encanto, we see a similar subversion of the marriage plot: from the start, the betrothal to Mariano is more important to Abuela than Isabela.

Instead, the actual thrust of the plot is Mirabel convincing Abuela that their family mattered more than their magic. (4/14)

Disney has moved beyond romantic love as a central plot for their animated features, and is instead focusing on familial relationships.

It's notable that the big hit between the Frozen films and Encanto was Moana (2016), which is also focused on family and heritage. (5/14)

The other experiment to come out of Frozen was related to setting and culture.

Frozen was very specifically set in Norway, with ceremony, costumes, architecture, score, and iconography inspired by Norwegian and indigenous Scandinavian culture. (6/14)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_(2…

Moana continued this trend for Polynesia, and expanded it to include more traditional Polynesian influence on the sung music, as well as the score. (7/14)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moana_(20…

In Encanto, the integration of a film's cultural setting seems complete, with a story and characters specifically part of Columbia's diverse population, and infused with many kinds of music and choreography that would be familiar to the Madrigals. (8/14)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encanto_(…

It's that cultural specificity — along with the universal understanding of how families keep secrets — that has propelled We Don't Talk About Bruno to the top of the Billboard charts. (9/14)

Disney realized that the best way to appeal to a global audience is through stories that are hyper-specific to a culture, with themes that transcend our cultural differences.

We should expect to see more cultural specificity going forward.

So what else can we expect? (10/14)

Encanto is also the first Disney animated feature that's a real ensemble film. While Mirabel is clearly the lead, there are a full 10 main characters. It's so many that the animators early on expressed some dismay at how many complete models they had to create. (11/14)

In fact, it's not hard to look at Encanto, and wonder if it wouldn't have been even better as a series than a feature. The running time barely allows for development of Mirabel's parents or cousins, and fan-favorite Luisa's plot line could have used a conclusion. (12/14)

But maybe the point was to leave the audience wanting. Maybe, with it's deep bench of characters and magical, living house, Casita, Encanto is actually the next generation of Disney franchise, ready-made for a Disney+ series, a line of toys, and a theme park attraction. (13/14)

Because as much cultural progress as they've made in the last decade, the Disney flywheel only spins in one direction. And for all it's charms, Encanto might be the most franchise-able Disney property in a long time. (14/14)

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I’ll have more on Disney (specifically: how Disney’s flywheel is breaking down, and theme parks vs VR/AR) coming soon!