Remember the excitement to hear an animated musical? Looking back, the Disney animation renaissance filled our hears with song and dance. And no other film did that so spectacularly well then The Little Mermaid.
Continue reading “D23Expo: ‘The Little Mermaid’ Gets a Neat Trailer”
Keith, Dominic and Britney recap the most eventful Oscars broadcast of all time.
We don’t know about you, but Hard NOC Life is feelin’ 2022. In our return, Keith, Dominic, and Britney catch up on what they watched over the holidays, including the Hawkeye finale, The Matrix Resurrections, and The Book of Boba Fett. Keith also shares a hidden easter egg he found while watching Lin-Manuel Miranda’s directorial debut, tick, tick… BOOM! and Britney got to talk to Naomi star Kaci Wallfall!
Encanto, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 60th film, is an animated musical that tells the story of the Madrigals, an extraordinary family who live in a magical casita hidden in the mountains of Colombia. Every Madrigal child is blessed with a unique magic gift, like super strength and healing powers, to use to help the family and surrounding town. Unfortunately, Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz) is the only one who didn’t receive a gift. But when she discovers that the magic is in danger of disappearing, she sets off on a quest to save it while also learning more about her family and realizing her true worth.
Continue reading “Adassa and Mauro Castillo Celebrate Colombian Culture Through Music in ‘Encanto’”
It’s hard to not feel something when you listen to the work of the late composer and playwright Jonathan Larson. From his Tony Award-winning musical RENT to his futuristic rock opera Superbia to his autobiographical rock monologue-now-turned-film tick… tick… BOOM!, Larson has inspired many musicians and composers throughout the years. EGOT winner Lin-Manuel Miranda, known for his award-winning work on Broadway and off, was one of the many that were influenced by Larson’s work after seeing RENT as a performing arts teenager.
Continue reading “High School Performing Arts Students Celebrate ‘tick… tick… BOOM!’”
First of all, score one for Walt Disney Animation for putting out two releases in one year that celebrate different stories from different cultures! With the terrific Raya and the Last Dragon earlier this year, and now the charming Encanto, it’s refreshing to see that the House of Mouse has been more proactive in telling stories that aren’t just rooted in Western European fairy tales. I think Moana really opened the door for this, and as far as our site is concerned, we couldn’t be happier.
Continue reading “NOC Review: ‘Encanto’ is Mostly Enchanting”
Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Encanto is an animated musical that celebrates Lantine and Latinx culture, specifically everything Colombia offers. The film follows Mirabel Madrigal (Stephanie Beatriz), the only child not blessed with a magical gift. As she struggles to find her place within her multigenerational enchanted family, she finds out that the magic that has helped them and the town is in danger of disappearing. So she sets off on an adventure to prevent that from happening.
Continue reading “‘Encanto’ Directors and Writers Find Magical Realism in Colombian Culture”
Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Encanto tells a story about family and individuality through the Latin American lens, specifically a Colombian one. The film follows the Madrigal family, where every child was blessed with a magical power that they are to use to help the family and better the community. Well, every child except Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz), who has to face the frustration of being the only one without a blessing.
Continue reading “Lin-Manuel Miranda on the Challenges of Songwriting in ‘Encanto’”
Years before Jonathan Larson’s hit rock musical, Rent, exploded in the theatre world, he was a struggling, up-and-coming composer, making ends meet by working at a local diner in New York, while the AIDS epidemic was raging on and taking lives of people he knew. All this and more was documented in an autobiographical musical he wrote called tick, tick… BOOM!, which originally premiered Off-Broadway in 2001, five years following his untimely death.
Continue reading “Official Trailer for Netflix’s ‘tick, tick… BOOM!’ Has Arrived”
Encanto follows three generations of family, of which everyone but Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz) has magical powers. Despite being ordinary and spending her entire life trying to measure up to the rest of the Madrigals, Mirabel discovers that the magic that defines her family’s legacy is in danger and that she may be the only one who can save it and them.
Continue reading “How the Magical Casita in ‘Encanto’ is a New Kind of Disney Castle”
Walt Disney Animation Studios gave a group of selected journalists their first look at their upcoming musical, Encanto. The film centers on the Madrigals, a magical family who live in an enchanted casita in the mountains of Colombia. At the age of five, the home gifts a Madrigal child a unique magical power, who then uses it to help the family and neighboring town. Everyone except, Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz). However, she when she discovers that the magic is in danger, she sets off on a journey to save it from being extinguished.
Continue reading “‘Encanto’ Directors Talk Representation and Working with Lin-Manuel Miranda”
Making an animated film at Walt Disney Animation Studios is a tremendous undertaking. It takes years of development, not to mention countless rewrites to perfect the script, numerous in-house screenings, and so much more. Encanto, Disney’s 60th animated feature, brings music and dance together to tell the story of Mirabel Madrigal (Stephanie Beatriz), a Colombian teenager facing the fact that she is the only one who doesn’t have any magical abilities in her family. But when she discovers that magic is in danger, she sets off on a journey to save it.
Continue reading “How Colombian Culture, Music, and Dance Tell a Magical Story in ‘Encanto’”
When you’re a NOC you’re a NOC all the way from your first bubble tea to your last dying day! The boss, Keith Chow, stops by to talk musicals!
Continue reading “FDI Cast 120: I Want to Cast in America!”
Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation’s Vivo will release globally August 6 on Netflix. The animated film includes the voices of Lin-Manuel Miranda, Zoe Saldaña, Juan de Marcos, Brian Tyree Henry, Michael Rooker, Nicole Byer, Ynairaly Simo, and Gloria Estefan. As we get closer to the premiere, Netflix just dropped the official trailer and poster for Vivo, only adding to fans excitement about the movie.
Continue reading “Netflix Has Released the Official Trailer for ‘Vivo’”
Vivo will be released globally August 6 on Netflix! The incredible voice cast includes Lin-Manuel Miranda, Zoe Saldaña, Juan de Marcos, Brian Tyree Henry, Michael Rooker, Nicole Byer, Ynairaly Simo, and Gloria Estefan.
Continue reading “Get All the Details on Netflix’s ‘Vivo’”
When you’re running through the Speed Force, and there’s nobody around, do you ever really crash or even make a sound?
That’s one of the questions I didn’t ask the Dear Evan Hansen star Jordan Fisher when he sat down with me over Zoom to talk about his heavily hyped debut as Impulse on The Flash.
Continue reading “Jordan Fisher on ‘The Flash’ and Waving Through the Speed Force”
I once heard the great political philosopher and activist Angela Davis argue that Americans are so obsessed with race as an identifying feature that when we meet racially ambiguous people, we are anxious until we know on which side of the color line they fall. Upon hearing this, I was relieved by the articulation of something I had suspected was at the heart of my experience. It was like experiencing great art, that rush of adrenaline that comes with recognizing what we’ve known all along presented as fantastically new.
Continue reading “The ‘Heights’ of Anxiety and the Color Line: Racial Ambiguity in a Culture of Absolutes”
Walt Disney Animation Studios has just released the teaser trailer, new posters, and cast for Encanto. The film will open in theaters on November 24 and tell “the tale of an extraordinary family, the Madrigals, who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia in a magical house, in a vibrant town, in a wondrous, charmed place called an Encanto.”
Continue reading “Get Excited for Walt Disney Animation Studios’ New Original Film ‘Encanto’”
This week on Hard NOC Life, Britney and Dominic break down episode 2 of Loki. And go on many tangents. From Spider-Man to Game of Thrones to Ms. Marvel and eventually back to Loki.
This week on Hard NOC Life, Britney, Keith, and Dominic discuss In the Heights and Loki.
When people think of Jonathan Larson, the first thing to come out is the Tony Award-winning musical Rent. But, Larson had done many musicals before that, one of which, is based on his life called tick, tick… BOOM!
Performed in 1990 Off-Broadway as a one-man show, tick, tick… BOOM! was an autobiographical rock monologue about his experience feeling rejected because of what he considered a failure for his musical, Superbia. After Larson’s death in 1996, it was reworked into a stage musical by playwright David Auburn and musical director Stephen Oremus. Now, making his feature directorial debut, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda takes the story from stage to the big screen.
Continue reading “Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Directorial Debut ‘tick, tick… BOOM!’ Releases Teaser Trailer”
Now that In the Heights is officially in theaters and streaming on HBO Max, what better time than now to re-up my convo with Lin-Manuel Miranda, originally recorded for the Hard NOC Life podcast.
Continue reading “NOC Interview: Lin-Manuel Miranda on the Making of ‘In The Heights’”
This week on Hard NOC Life, Britney basks in the glory of her favorite superhero, Spider-Woman, finally getting shine as the crew — aka Keith and Dominic — break down news of Issa Rae’s casting in the Spider-Verse sequel, plus sneak peeks at Shazam: Fury of the Gods and Michael Keaton in The Flash.
Continue reading “Hard NOC Life 220: Issa Rae is Spider-Woman”
