From trash-talking capybaras to a space-bending casita and Camilo transforming into a giant
Bruno, the early versions of Encanto had some truly weird and wild storylines.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, I'm Jan and these are the surprisingly strange stories Disney
cancelled in Encanto!
Some spoilers ahead, of course, so take care.
TRASH-TALKING CAPYBARAS One of my favourite animals in Encanto was
Chispi the capybara, whose cool, unbothered demeanour added a lovely touch of comic relief
to the drama of various scenes.
And we nearly got a lot more of the cute creatures in a very strange storyline as early concept
art for the movie reveals some cheeky, taxidermied capybaras who liked to trash talk and pass
comment on the family.
In fact, in this piece of concept art, it looks like one of the stuffed animals was
being taken out of the house, perhaps because it was making too much of a nuisance of itself!
And I think it would have been especially amusing to hear their take on the disastrous
proposal dinner.
And it looks like this idea of talking animal heads would have extended to even more creatures
including turtles, birds, and what looks like an anteater as we see in this unused concept
art in the Art of Encanto book, which also has a talking rhino and bear with a fish!
Leave a thumbs-up and comment if you wish these funny creatures had been in the movie!
CAMILO IN WONDERLAND Now, Camilo does a fantastic evil transformation
into Bruno when he describes his uncle as having a "seven-foot frame" during "We Don't
Talk About Bruno"; however, Encanto co-director Jared Bush has
revealed a weird and wonderful animated sequence where Camilo was telling stories about his
uncle to his friends and as he transformed he grew to an absolutely gigantic version
of him.
This deleted scene has some strong Alice in Wonderland vibes as the giant room with a
tiny door at the bottom looks very similar to the room where Alice meets the talking
doorknob.
THE INDESTRUCTIBLE PEPA There's a wacky deleted scene that Disney
released of Mirabel doing chores with her father and uncle Félix.
Abuela had tasked them with cleaning up the house while the rest of the magical family
were sent off to perform more spectacular tasks.
This job in here is the most special.
Totally.
It totally is.
The scene was meant to show the contrast between the non-magical members of the family and
those with powers.
Looking great mami!
Watch the rock!
Thank you Pepa!
You are wel- Still alive!
In this early version of the story, Mirabel's aunt Pepa had the power of indestructibility
rather than being able to control the weather.
This made Pepa into something of a daredevil, performing crazy deeds far too dangerous for
any ordinary person.
And in that version, it was Mirabel's mother Julieta who had weather powers.
The problem with the indestructible Pepa though was that her powers felt too similar to Luisa's
great strength so that's why, in the end, she was given control of the weather.
The deleted scene also reveals a slightly different take on why Bruno, or Óscar as
he was then known, left the family.
He said a bunch of stuff.
Abuela got mad, and when Abuela got mad, the house got mad, and he was like I'm out.
And Abuela was like if you leave this house you are dead to me.
And Oscar was like I wish I was dead.
Then he left.
The house getting mad together with Alma is from an early draft of the story where the
Casita "was an extension of Abuela" and we would have seen this in things like a room's
wallpaper changing to match Alma's mood and colours as she moved around the house.
MAGICAL DOORKNOB QUEST In a version of the story before they'd even
created the character of Mirabel, after receiving a mysterious doorknob through the mail, the
film's female protagonist was sent on a quest to discover the secrets of the Encanto.
And this later concept art of Mirabel unlocking a secret door with a magical doorknob has
some intriguing Coraline and Pan's Labyrinth vibes about it mixed with Studio Ghibli.
An element of the magical doorknob still made it into the final film though when, at the
end, Antonio gives Mirabel a doorknob with her initial on it which she uses to bring
the reconstructed Casita back to magical life.
BAD CASITA Initial concepts for the magical house also
gave it a more mischievous personality and it was even antagonistic towards Mirabel to
begin with.
Bad Casita initially tried to stop Mirabel on her quest.
For example, there was this moment when the house sent her shooting up into the sky, another
moment where it looks like it blocked her way through a door by putting another door
in her way, and then there was this scene where it appears to have flooded her bedroom.
And in another spooky unused scene, family members discover Casita is spying on their
private conversation about how they think the house is crazy.
And in this zany test animation, Mirabel had to compete with Casita for Abuela's approval,
while the house deliberately sabotaged her efforts to please her grandmother.
FUNHOUSE CASITA And Encanto almost had an additional mind-bending
sci-fi-ish element blended with its magical realism, giving it shades of Doctor Strange
or Inception, where Casita would have turned itself into a funhouse creating these weird
slanting, disorienting corridors and doorways that folded in on themselves.
This idea also reminds me of these trippy visuals in the third Conjuring movie, The
Devil Made Me Do It.
SPACE-BENDING CASITA In another strangely entertaining version
of Casita, the space in the house would have made even less "logical sense", for example,
in this unused concept art, Mirabel could hide in this cabinet over on the left but
her arm would e able to emerge magically through this cupboard on the right so she could sneak
a pastry or two.
MIRABEL'S DEEP DIVE And in another unused Casita storyline, there
was a vast underwater world beneath the house that Mirabel had to explore, which I suspect
was part of her original quest.
MAGICAL WALLPAPER In the end, the filmmakers opted to make Casita
a much friendlier character, and we can see that change in this unused concept art where
the house helped Mirabel by folding pieces of wallpaper into magical birds that would
guide her on her mission to discover the mystery of the encanto.
In some other art, it also appears the wallpaper could act as a portal or door to a magical
world behind the walls.
In this art, a door seems to open up in Isabela's bedroom wall to a place where she could relax
and be happy.
Then there's this unused art, which shows how originally Casita's mood was going to
reflect Mirabel's mood, for example, here you can see the wallpaper crying when Mirabel
feels sad at being left out of the family fun.
And the house also joined in on re-enactments of historical battles with Isabela's magical
potato people.
More on that later.
COFFEE WITH CASITA I love this idea of Mirabel sharing a morning
coffee with the magical house and putting hats on the chairs and lamp that Casita communicated
through.
We got a little touch of this rejected idea in the final movie when Casita pours coffee
for the family.
LUISA HOLDS UP THE SKY It's a shame we didn't see inside Luisa's
room because there were some very cool ideas for how it would look.
For instance, the room would have had several large boulders that fell from above and Luisa
had to keep them up with her feet.
That idea was intended to be "reminiscent of the myth of Atlas carrying the sky".
Most of the things in the room appear to be made of rocks, including the stone bed, but
one especially sweet contrasting detail is the little puppy Luisa holds.
And there's some more cute concept art of Luisa with puppies here.
JUNGLE FURNITURE As impressive as Antonio's room is in the
movie, an early idea had an even more surreal design.
For example the furniture inside had merged with parts of the rainforest and the windows
were portals into the jungle, with waterfalls streaming through.
In the end, these ideas were deemed too confusing to use for the final film.
COLOMBIAN ROCK As for the emerald vision tablet that Mirabel
found in Bruno's room, the original design was a lot more stylised and its look was inspired
by the San Agustín statues in Colombia.
ALMA'S NIGHTMARE Abuela's trauma from losing her husband Pedro
was a key element of the final movie, but in an earlier storyline she was also going
to have a nightmarish vision of some terrifying ghost-like horse-riders which would have brought
back the horrors of what happened by the river with Pedro.
The idea was scrapped for being too scary and also because it was considered too similar
to scenes with the Druun in Disney's Raya and the Last Dragon.
THE FORBIDDEN FOREST Another dark, deleted storyline had Mirabel
venturing outside the safety of Casita and into what was dubbed a "forbidden forest".
The off-limits spiky wooded area looks like it's part of an early version of the movie
where Mirabel was going to discover Isabela's secret garden.
In fact, Isabela was incredibly different in the original Encanto story;
she had a secret boyfriend who she married and she could even create living magical potato
creatures.
And you can get all the details on that in my Isabela Deleted Scenes video.
Tap here to watch it and there's also a link in the video description.
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So, Movie Lovers, would you like to see any of these unused storylines in an Encanto sequel?
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Tap left for my full Encanto playlist and discover the shocking alternate endings to
the movie you never got to see!
And if you liked this video, do leave a thumbs-up, I really appreciate it.
Thanks for enjoying this movie with me and hope you have a marvellous movie-loving week!
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!