There’s no doubt that Disney’s latest animated film, Encanto, has had immense success and has become an instant classic. The story of the family Madrigal enchanted and moved us all, but besides the great and deep story that the movie portrays, there’s no doubt that one of the things that have made it an instant favorite of the audience is Lin Manuel Miranda’s original songs.
The entire soundtrack was created by the popular musical creator, and already one of Disney’s favorite composers (Moana and the upcoming The Little Mermaid), and although every single one of the songs has something really special (“Under the Surface” hits really hard in many of our psyches, and let’s not even start with “Dos Origuitas”), the song that’s captivated the world is, without a doubt, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.”
One just needs to open the TikTok app or explore for a couple of seconds the Instagram reels section and there will be at least one video playing the iconic song. Not only that, the song has been so well-received by the public that it has been announced that “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” has just become the highest-charting Disney animated song in the past 26 years. That means that the catchy song has surpassed the phenomenon that was Frozen’s “Let It Go” a couple of years ago (and you might remember, that was literally everywhere!). So, one may think, given the success and the great composition the song is, there’s no doubt that this will finally give Lin Manuel Miranda’s his first Oscar (he was nominated for his song “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana). Well, not really, and it’s all Disney’s fault.
As a matter of fact, the song won’t even be nominated. The thing is, in case you don’t know, that the Academy doesn’t really get together to decide what to nominate after just watching the films on the movies or streaming. Each studio or production submits their movies in each of the categories, that is, best movie, best director, best actor, best actress, and so on. In Encanto’s case, Disney submits the movie for consideration in two main categories, Best Animated Film and Best Original Song. Once it’s all submitted, the Academy now nominates. As a funny coincidence, Bruno was originally named Oscar, and just as they decided to say goodbye to the name Oscar, Disney might as well say goodbye to their Best Original Song award.
Sadly, in the process, Disney made a huge mistake, or better said, failed to anticipate the public’s reaction to the movie and decided to play safe (but ineffectively). To be fair with Disney, the deadline for submissions was on November 1; by that time, the movie hadn’t even premiered, so there was no way to know which song would be the most popular one. Instead, the studio decided to play safe and submit “Dos Oruguitas,” a heartfelt tune that definitely made us cry our eyes out, but that doesn’t really have the punch that “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” has. Even “Surface Pressure” was more Oscar material (if you ask me), and has reached spot number 5 on the Billboard list just after “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.”
I have to agree with Roger Friedman from Showbiz 411, in that the only chance “Dos Oruguitas” has to get a nomination or even win is that the voters think this is the Bruno song without listening to the song, which is very unlikely. Let’s remember that the strongest contender this year is Billy Eilish’s “No Time to Die” from the namesake James Bond movie, and we just know how much the Academy loves James Bond tunes. The movie in general still has a chance on the Animated Film category, which is likely to get with Disney’s Luca being the strongest contender. As for Lin Manuel Miranda, hope is not dead, since he could still achieve the EGOT status if the Academy considers his directorial debut in Tick Tick… Boom and grants him the award.
We’ll have to wait for that, in the midtime, we can say that Disney really screwed up and didn’t do their job of acknowledging the potential of the songs and opting for playing safe with a not that spectacular song.
Photos from Disney, Encanto
