I finally got around to watching the Disney film, Encanto. I don’t subscribe to Disney+, but have been keeping a list of things they have that I’d like to see, and so signed up for the month to sort of binge all of that. I’ll cancel at the end of the month and then start keeping another list. Anyway, one of those things to watch was Encanto. Well-done, not great (for my taste), but it built well and was enjoyable overall. And it has quite a good score by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The point of this, though, is not the movie itself, but that I thought the song “Dos Oruguitas” was wonderful and highly-deserving of its Oscar nomination for Best Song. All the more interesting is that the song is in Spanish, one of the rare songs in a foreign language to get nominated in Oscar history. They do sing it in English, though, over the end credits, but it's the Spanish version that was nominated. (Oddly, “Dos Oruguitas” wasn’t the most popular song from the film. That was “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” that hit #1 on the Billboard chart, the first-ever for Miranda. It’s an effective song in the film, and I can see why people liked the group-sung number, it’s got some very catchy moments in it. But “Dos Oruiguitas” is a gem.) I don't know if there are a lot of people like me here who haven't seen the movie and therefore didn't know the song, so I figured I'd post it. To give some perspective, the song comes at a very emotional moment in the film, when the family appears to be losing its magic that held the village together. It’s the only song not performed by a character, but sung over a montage by popular Columbian artist Sebastián Yatra. The montage is a flash-back of sorts, largely recapping how the family got to this point, focusing on the patriarch, who sacrificed his life to protect the others, and the matriarch. “Oruiguitas” means caterpillar, and the song is about sometimes having to separate so that you can grow into who you’re meant to be, before reuniting and perhaps finding the magic again. (Towards the end, the young girl you see with short, curly hair and big glasses is actually the main character blended in from present day, who is being told the tale by her grandmother.) The number is very lovely in English…but even though I don’t speak a Spanish, I think I prefer that version more. It’s haunting, heart-breaking, tender and rich. But to hear more specifically the lyrics of what the song is about, here it is -- And as a bonus, here’s the end-credit version in English.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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