While social media has been dominated by the Oscars altercation between Will Smith and host Chris Rock, fans of Disney’s Encanto were quick to add to the woes of the 94th Academy Awards by calling out their decision to feature a remixed version of We Don’t Talk About Bruno that mostly side-lined the original cast members in favor of a Megan Thee Stallion rap and a finale led by Becky G and Luis Fonsi, best known for his mega-hit Despacito. While the song was not nominated for an award, mainly due to song-writer Lin-Manuel Miranda not expecting it to be one of the biggest Disney songs ever, the announcement of a performance by the cast stirred a lot of excitement amongst fans of Disney’s latest franchise, but many didn’t get anything like they expected.
We Don’t Talk About Bruno was essentially the song that broke the movie, becoming the first Disney song to top the U.K. and U.S. singles charts simultaneously, while almost all of the songs from the film landed somewhere in the Top Ten around the world for several weeks earlier this year. Having multiple characters from the movie singing about their experiences with the Madrigal family’s outcast member, it doesn’t instantly seem to be the stuff of chart success, but the catchy tune and lyrical acrobatics really caught the attention of audiences, and when it came to the first-ever live performance, it seemed the perfect song to be a real show-stopping song and dance number.
However, those who tuned in to see the ensemble performance were left confused, angry and disappointed when the performance turned out to be a mostly rewritten version of the song that centered its attention on the Oscars and handed most of the runtime over to a rapping Meghan Thee Stallion. The song was opened by the movie’s cast, which included Adassa (Dolores), Stephanie Beatriz (Mirabel), Mauro Castillo (Felix), Carolina Gaitan (Pepa), and Diane Guerrero (Isabela). However, after the first couple of lines, no one was singing the lines they did in the movie, and it soon became apparent why as Meghan Thee Stallion took over to sing a verse about Oscar statues and other non-movie related things. As if this wasn’t bad enough for fans of the song, following the rap, the cast were pushed further into the background of the performance by Becky G and Luis Fonsi, who took over with more rewritten lyrics, although most of them couldn’t be heard as they were lost in the mix. Check out the performance below.
The Oscars Change-Up of We Don’t Talk About Bruno Only Added to Negative Social Media Reaction to This Year’s Awards
The 94th Academy Awards has been riddled with criticism from start to finish, whether it is the snubbing of certain movies, who was and wasn’t invited to the event, or critics calling out the ceremony as irrelevant and outdated. With many expecting to see an elaborately choreographed version of We Don’t Talk About Bruno brightening up the Oscars, disappointed fans were more than happy to add to that wave of negative social media attention the Academy has been hit with this year more than any other. You can see some of the reactions below.
It would have been easy for the Academy to do the song in a way that would have pleased everyone, and that would have been by allowing the song to be performed in the same way it was in the movie. After all, that was the song that hit the top of the charts, and there was a reason for it doing so earlier this year. Also, having the Encanto cast in the performance but choosing to utilize them for less than a third of the song was almost like hiring Steven Spielberg to hold the clapperboard on set.
For fans of the movie, however, there was some consolation when Encanto took home the Best Animated Film award, although it did lose out on its two musical nominations for Best Song and Best Score, making it all in all not the spectacular night it could have been for the Disney feature.