Disney Animation’s newest feature, “Encanto,” centers on the extended Madrigal family, who possess magical powers and live in an enchanted house. Only teenager Mirabel, voiced by “In the Heights” actor Stephanie Beatriz, lacks the gift of incantation.

The movie, which debuts in theaters Nov. 24, is rooted in Colombian culture, so filmmakers Byron Howard and Jared Bush traveled to Cartagena and Bogotá to study the details that would capture the country’s essence. Howard says, “We visited Bogotá, Cartagena and small towns like Barichara, Salento and Palenque and stunning natural landmarks like the Cocora Valley, and spent some time with Colombian families.”

Howard and Bush also learned about secret forests and places of magic called ‘encantos’ which helped the storytellers including Charise Castro Smith bring the Latin experience to the feature and help firmly root the story in magical realism. Says Howard, “These are all over Latin America, usually in areas of natural wonder. Our friends in Colombia told us that magic happens in these places and always has. But not European magic, not wizards and wands, but magic tied to emotion and part of a tradition called magical realism.”

Associate production designer Lorelay Bove’s touches were further inspired by Colombian homes. “We added some props that would be found in a cocina Colombiana — like a molinillo, which is a hot chocolate stirrer; a corn grinder; and traditional clay pottery called La Chamba.”

Bove and the art team wanted to ensure the home oozed energy and vibrancy. “We looked at different ways that the house could be moving and thought, ‘What if the stairs move out like a shelf?’” she says.

“The one thing the directors said was that there needed to be truth to the materials,” Bove adds. “They didn’t want to bend wood or metal; they still wanted to make it believable.” The spaces within the house reflected the inhabitants and their powers. That meant the non-magical Mirabel’s room was rather plain.

In comparison, her cousin Antonio, voiced by Ravi Cabot-Conyers, can communicate with animals. Bove looked at the coastline of Colombia and consulted with botanists to reflect natural scenery in the decor of his chamber, filling it with greenery and indigenous animals, including a jaguar and some toucans and capybaras.

For each character, Bove incorporated elements of Colombian folklore as well as hints into their personalities.

For instance, middle daughter Luisa (Jessica Darrow), who has superhuman strength, has images of dumbbells embroidered on her traditional skirt. The designer also used particular hues and patterns to differentiate each of the costumes. “We wanted to make sure to organize the families through distinct color palettes, to make sure that our audiences can track who’s who and which member is from each side of the family. Mirabel’s family has cooler tones to their clothing, while Aunt Pepa [Carolina Gaitan] and Uncle Felix [Mauro Castillo] have warmer color palettes.”

Disney has released a new clip from the 20th Century Studios and Locksmith Animation’s film “Ron’s Gone Wrong”.

The film features the story of Barney, a socially awkward middle-schooler and Ron, his new walking, talking, digitally-connected device, which is supposed to be his “Best Friend out of the Box.” Ron’s hilarious malfunctions, set against the backdrop of the social media age, launch them into an action-packed journey in which boy and robot come to terms with the wonderful messiness of true friendship.

“Ron’s Gone Wrong” features the voices of Zach Galifianakis (“A Wrinkle in Time”), Jack Dylan Grazer (“Shazam!”), Olivia Colman (“The Crown”), Ed Helms (“The Office”), Justice Smith (“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”), Rob Delaney (“Deadpool 2“), Kylie Cantrall (“Gabby Duran and the Unsittables”), Ricardo Hurtado (“The Goldbergs”), Marcus Scribner (“Black-ish”), Thomas Barbusca (“Chad”).

“Ron’s Gone Wrong” is coming to cinemas on Friday 22nd October. The film will then be available on Disney+ internationally after the 45-day theatrical exclusive window has been completed. While in the US, the film will have to go to HBO Max first, due to a pre-existing streaming contract made before Disney purchased 20th Century Fox.

Are you looking forward to “Ron’s Gone Wrong”?

In 2019, the hopelessly uncreepy animation The Addams Family made it look as if film-makers Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon had dug up the bluish mottled corpse of Charles Addams’s creation, attempted CPR and passed it off as a reboot. Now, here’s film No 2; and after a couple years there’s an unmistakably rotten smell wafting up from the franchise. As charmless as its predecessor, The Addams Family 2 is without an iota of ooky, nor any shred of kooky. Really, it’s just kind of ghastly – and not in the intended way.

Inexplicably, most of the talented voice cast return for more punishment. Oscar Isaac is paterfamilias Gomez, with Charlize Theron playing wife Morticia (though without the deliciousness Angelica Houston brought to the 90s live action movies). Actually, the best voice work here is done by Chloë Grace Moretz as the couple’s deadpan offspring Wednesday who, her parents discover, may have been switched at birth. That would explain why she sounds so alienated from the rest of the clan. The likely candidate for her biological father is black-turtleneck-wearing science entrepreneur Cyrus Strange (Bill Hader), who has been sniffing around. To escape his attentions, Gomez takes the family on a road trip across America.

There are a handful of decent one-liners as they take in the sights. “It’s a great wonder of the world and it kills the most tourists,” Fester says gleefully at Niagara Falls. It’s a badge of honour for the film-makers that the animation remains faithful to the visual style of Addams’s original cartoons, but it feels as if zero effort has been put into thinking about the ingredients of family-friendly spookiness. Instead of having dark-side charm, this is in eyeball-achingly bright and manic kids-movie mode. Even the jokes sneaked in for adults – such as a homage to Carrie when Wednesday is accidentally entered into a child beauty pageant – feel done to death. The obvious scheduling slot would have been Halloween, but you can see why they wouldn’t dare. Your little devils deserve better.

 The Addams Family 2 is in cinemas from 8 October.