Bruno Madrigal - Wikipedia

Concept and writing

After finishing their work on Zootopia (2016), Byron Howard and Jared Bush decided that they wanted their next project to be a musical. Songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda, with whom they had previously worked with on Moana (2016), was interested in developing a Latin-American musical.[1] Having previously worked on Moana, Miranda was involved early in the development process for Encanto.[2] Bush and Howard's relationship with filmmakers Juan Rendon and Natalie Osma, who had previously worked on the documentary "Imagining Zootopia", initiated a casual conversation about Latin America culture, which over time influenced them to focus on Colombia.[1] They eventually chose Colombia as the setting for Encanto due to its tradition of magical realism and diverse ethnicity. They decided to focus the plot on an extended family with each member being based on familiar archetypes to create relatable characters. Bush explained that the family's powers were devised as a natural extension of these archetypes in order to create "a magic born of emotion and personality and character".[1]

The development phase for Encanto (2021) took five years with the story being repeatedly reworked by its six writers. According to Bush and Howard, a key addition to the team was writer and playwright Charise Castro Smith, whom they brought in two years into the project and a year later asked to be co-director. Castro Smith said that she spent a lot of time working on the character development with Bush and rewriting the screenplay "1700 times".[3] The writers decided to focus the story on an unusually large cast of 12 main characters. According to Bush, the team conducted research by consulting therapists and psychologists: "One gave us an interesting stat: In a four-person family, each was asked 'Who is treated the best by the parents?' Their answers were never the same. It’s about how you perceive yourself in the family."[4]

During development, a team of five Disney employees took a research trip to Colombia, including writers and co-directors Bush and Howard. Alejandra Espinosa was the local guide for Disney on a four-day tour of Barichara, after which she was contracted as a cultural consultant.[5] Rendon and Osma were the film's main consultants on Colombia and accompanied the team to Bogotá and Cartagena so that various aspects of Colombian culture could be incorporated into the film. They introduced the team to local artisans, architects, botanists and chefs to educate the team on Colombian history and culture and expose them to everyday life. In addition to the consultants, a group of Latin American Disney employees were consulted, who watched the film and provided feedback. Castro Smith said that this was beneficial to the film's development.[1] The original story concept was to focus on a large diverse family that represented Afro-Colombians, while the character Bruno represented the indigenous people of Colombia, whom Espinosa commented are "invisible and nobody talks about them".[5]

Bruno was originally younger, around the same age as Mirabel, and depicted as "kind of a chubbier, funnier uncle who she met earlier in the movie", according to Howard. Bruno's role changed once the writing team realised that his gift of precognition would cause other characters to reject him with tragic consequences. This story concept provided an interesting idea for Miranda to write a song that focused on the character being absent for ten years and developing a reputation based on gossip and misperception.[6] Bruno was previously named Oscar, but the creative team looked for other names to avoid any potential legal issues with real-life Oscar Madrigals in Colombia.[7] Miranda chose Bruno from a list of potential names, including Arlo, Andre, Anko, Marco, and Emo, because it allowed for the catchy line "We don't talk about Bruno no no no" in the Encanto song "We Don't Talk About Bruno".[7][8] For Bruno's character development, story artist Mark Kennedy conducted research on people who have been confined or have no human communication: "I thought about what it would be like for Bruno to be burdened with this gift of being able to see the future - how would that affect his personality? How are people affected when they are shunned by their families?"[9]

Design

A team of designers worked on Bruno's character design, including visual development artist Meg Park, who created his costume. Costume design lead Neysa Bove said that he was originally designed wearing a garment similar to a fortune teller in the 1900s, but after consulting with a team of Colombian experts, the design was changed to a traditional poncho. Emerald green was chosen as Bruno's main color because of the emerald trade of Colombia and for its mystical properties, such as the usage of emeralds to predict the future. The Quimbaya were used as a resource in designing the iconography on his poncho. Other details reflect Bruno's circumstances, including small holes added to his poncho caused by rats eating through the fabric and a grey tone added to his skin caused by a lack of sun exposure from living indoors.[10] One idea for Bruno's costume was to have him wear a rug he found around the house.[8] The final version of his costume is a ruana[8] "meant to be the old ceremonial outfit that Bruno used to wear when he was having visions of the future for the people that came to see him", according to Park.[11]

Voice

American actor John Leguizamo, who was born in Bogotá, Colombia, voices Bruno in Encanto. He joined the cast after receiving a call from Miranda.[12] He said that the film appealed to him due to it being an all-Latinx Disney movie, which he did not think he would see happen in his lifetime.[13] Like Bruno he experienced similar feelings of being an outsider within his family: "I always would say what nobody wanted to hear, like Uncle Bruno. And I'm gonna get ostracized for that; for telling the truth, and for things coming true that are negative. I had a little bit of that negativity going on." He described Bruno as a "quirky offbeat guy who had bad social skills" and when voicing the character he was allowed to "go to the weirdest places because my intonations are really bizarre and offbeat".[14]

Leguizamo worked with Howard and Bush on his portrayal of the character, which changed over time. He said that at the start Bruno was a little cockier but he ended up being more vulnerable and awkward.[15] Leguizamo was given room to improvise according to Castro Smith, particularly in a scene in which Bruno recounts the plot of his constructed rat telenovela to Mirabel.[16] Leguizamo admitted that he struggled with the singing part of the role. While recording a short rap section he asked Miranda for help: "we did it like a million times. I think it took two days to get it done."[17]