‘Encanto': Germaine Franco on Being the First Female Composer of a Disney Animated Feature

thewrap.com:

“Encanto,” Disney’s latest animated musical, is having a moment.What’s so odd about this is that the movie was released back at Thanksgiving, but only now is reaching the kind of cultural critical mass that is usually associated with Disney’s most zeitgeist-capturing efforts.

With the movie landing on Disney+ on Christmas Eve, its popularity exploded, particularly when it came to the songs by “Hamilton” mastermind Lin-Manuel Miranda, which are now topping streaming charts along with the full album, featuring the lush original score by Germaine Franco.TheWrap spoke with Franco, who had previously contributed music to Pixar’s “Coco,” about how she initially got involved with the project, maintaining the Disney sound, what her reaction to the response has been, and how it feels to be the first female composer to score a Disney animated film.How did you initially get involved?I was approached by Tom MacDougall, who’s the head of Disney Music and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

They both suggested me for the project, and then I met with the directors, Byron [Howard] and Jared [Bush], one of the producers, and Clark [Spencer, President of Walt Disney Animation Studios].

We had a discussion about what creative concepts they were interested in exploring for the score. And then I got the job. But I had worked with Tom on “Coco” for three years.