In recent years, one of the hallmarks of the films created by Walt Disney Animation Studios has been the high degree of world-building. From the variety of video games at Wreck-It Ralph, in many biomes in Zootopia, in the vast land of Koumandra at Raya and the Last Dragon, the various adventures have been created largely around travel within extended environments. In this respect, however, are Jared Bush, Byron Howard and Charise Castro Smith Charm is a fascinating exception, as the story is much more comprehensive than we are used to.
Instead of throwing characters away on a journey that takes them away from home, the vast majority Charm It is housed in a single house – namely a sensual and charming house referred to as Casita. Like TARDIS from Doctor Who, Casita stands out for being bigger inside than outside (especially thanks to its collection of magic doors), but even the movie is arguably much smaller in scope than any Walt Disney Animation Studios feature from the past decade. It’s a big change of pace, and recently talking to the film’s director I learned that directing was a deliberate choice.
Before its release Charm Last week, I had the pleasure of talking to Jared Bush, Byron Howard and Charise Castro Smith during the virtual movie press day and noticed how the scale of the narrative in the film compares to travel in films from Frosted to Moana to Ralph is breaking the Internet. Bush noted that it was part of a selection that was made early in the development of the project and was initially thought to make the job comparatively easier than other productions; Said the filmmaker,
I think we knew very early on that this is what we wanted to try to do. He presented a great challenge in saying, “Okay, you’re stuck with this one place. How do you make this interesting for 90 minutes? And then I remember we had this discussion where we say to designers, like, ‘It’s going to be easy, because it’s going to be a house.’ And that proved to be very difficult to do.
Filmed in Colombia, Charm tells the story of the Madrigal family, who, for three generations, live literally enchanted in Casita. The descendants of the family’s mother, Abuela Alma (María Cecilia Boter), all have their own magical gifts – although the only exception is Alma’s youngest granddaughter, Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz), who stars in the film. Mirabel is vaguely regarded as a black sheep in the breed, but it is her responsibility to try to save her family when everyone’s strength begins to wane.
One of the great things about animation is that it gives directors the ability to tell any kind of story they want without the barriers inherent in live action – but the restrictions are not necessarily bad, and in fact they can be. extremely valuable in the creative process. As Jared Bush explained, the idea of trying to maintain its action Charm limited meant that creatives had to make certain choices they would not otherwise have considered and meant that they developed special accents that made the project stand out:
But what was great is, I think, that sometimes these limitations mean you have to be very creative in how to make the film feel great, and definitely in a musical where you have musical numbers, where they can spark your imagination or beyond that, it was really exciting. It also allowed us, I think, to turn to what makes animation so much fun, which is to literally bring this house to life and have the house personality and not be so nice to some people or love someone else, and really have fun with this.
In reflection, Jared Bush sees it as an aspect of himself Charm This made it unique compared to other recent titles from Walt Disney Animation Studios and that it added a special fuel to the process. Said the co-director,
It turned out to be this amazing entertainment constraint that I think really sets this movie apart from others.
It includes a soundtrack by Lin Manuel Miranda and the voices of John Leguizamo, Jessica Darrow, Diane Guerrero, Wilmer Valderrama, Mauro Castillo, Angie Cepeda and others, in addition to the aforementioned Stephanie Beatriz and María Cecilia Botero. Charm is now played in theaters everywhere. To find out all the other movies that are going to hit the big screen and flow in the remaining weeks of this fast-paced year, go to the 2021 Movie Release Calendar.
