Synopsis
From the creators of Wish and Encanto, a brand new Disney animated musical with original songs from Lin Manuel Miranda: in the Philippine's Chocolate Hills lies the peaceful, enchanted village of Santa ..., where the Ginayuma family lives, blessed with magical abilities. Benedicta Ginayuma, fifteen years old, is about to receive her ability, a passage normally coinciding with teenage, just like her sisters Irene and Monica, her big sister-like older cousin Gloria and her same age cousin Manuel did before: her ability, however, won't be very respected from the majority of the rest of the family and the villagers, until that will help with an ancient threat to the place's sacred magic.
Cast
- Siena Agudong: Benedicta Ginayuma, the 15-years old youngest daughter of Leon and Sol Ginayuma and younger sister of Irene and Monica, as well as the movie's protagonist
- TBA as child Benedicta; ... also voices Iris Ginayuma, Raul and Matilde Ginayuma's daughter, Gloria and Manuel's younger sister, Lydia's twin sister and Benedicta's cousin, hopefully waiting for her ability
- Cassandra Gava as Adele Ginayuma, the paternal grandmother of Benedicta, with the ability of foreseeing the future
- Alec Mapa as Oscar Ginayuma, Adele's oldest son and Benedicta's uncle, with the ability of talking to the spirits: considered unlucky by the rest of the village, he escaped and was believed to be dead for a long time
- Alfredo Narciso as Leon Ginayuma, Adele's middle son and Benedicta's deceased father, who had the gift of superhuman strenght and a lion's courage
- Liza Del Mundo as Matilde Ginayuma, Adele's youngest and only daughter and Benedicta's aunt, with healing abilities
- Demetria McKinney as Sol Ginayuma, Benedicta's widowed mother
- Ginger Gonzaga as Irene Ginayuma, Benedicta's mid 20s eldest sister, with the ability of ...
- Eva Noblezada as Monica Ginayuma, Benedicta's late teens middle sister, with the ability of perfection: apparently a "Little Miss Perfect" type character, she's actually much more complex than that
- TBA as Raul Ginayuma, Matilde's husband and Benedicta's uncle
- Vanessa Hudgens as Gloria Ginayuma, Benedicta's late teens older cousin, with the gift of animal communication
- TBA as child Gloria
- Kyle Echarri as Manuel Ginayuma, Benedicta's same age cousin, with the gift of ...
- TBA as Lydia Ginayuma, Iris' twin sister and Benedicta's cousin
- Alan Tudyk ( only non-Filipino in the cast) as Kaibigan, a Philippine hornbill and Benedicta's "pet"; Tudyk also provides the voice effects for a binturong trying to eat a chic Kaibigan after he fell from his nest, until Benedicta and Gloria intervene
- Bruno Mars as Fabian, a handsome young villager in his mid 20s and Irene's future husband
- Tia Carrere as Fabian's mother
- Dante Basco as Ramon, a local man owning a colorful jeepney vehicle
- Joel De La Fuente as Padre Teofilo, a priest working in the local church
- Bobby Lopez as Musician
- Lourdes Benedicto as TBA
- Sumalee Montano as Gabriela, a local woman; Montano also provides secondary voices throughout the movie
- Eric Bauza as secondary voices
- Jennie Kwan as secondary voices
Spin-off
A spin-off short movie, Gloria the Bird-sitter, has been announced for early 2027: in the short, Gloria, Benedicta’s cousin with the ability to talk to animals, will take care of Kaibigan’s chicks, with comedic developments. Vanessa Hudgens and Alan Tudyk are confirmed to reprise their roles of Gloria and Kaibigan respectively, together with Siena Agudong as Benedicta, Eva Noblezada as Monica, Alec Mapa as Oscar and Ginger Gonzaga as Irene.
Trivia
- This is the second Walt Disney Animation Studios movie of the 2020s to be animated in a 1:85:1 aspect ratio after Encanto, as well as the sixth Disney movie in general from the said period after Luca, Encanto, Turning Red, Elemental and Hoppers;
- The movie's watercolor animation style is described by the creative staff as " an homage to Disney classics and to the beauty and culture of the Philippines, with a dash of Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli into it too"; it has also been compared to some recent DreamWorks Animation movies such as The Bad Guys, Puss in Boots 2: The Last Wish, The Wild Robot and Ronan Boyle and the Bridge of Riddles;
- This is the third Walt Disney Animation Studios movie to feature songs by Lin Manuel Miranda after Moana and Encanto;
- Benedicta means " (she who is) blessed", while Ginayuma means " charmed";
- This is one of the few Disney movies lacking a clear and definite villain;
- This is Alan Tudyk's thirteenth role in a Walt Disney Animation Studios movie after the two Wreck-It Ralph movies, the first two Frozen movies, Big Hero 6, the two Zootopia movies, the two Moana movies, Raya and the last Dragon, Encanto, Strange World and Wish, as well as the eighth voicing an animal;
- Like other Disney movies, this movie features a variety of cameos:
- During the opening flashback sequence, when the villagers lived by the sea, some sea creatures can be seen, including a crab and a fish reminiscent of Sebastian and Flounders from The Little Mermaid and a whale shark from both Pixar’s Finding Dory and Moana 2;
- Coincidentally, Lin Manuel Miranda also wrote the new lyrics for the 2023 live action adaptation of the first;
- The lanterns featured in the Kerabau Festival are similar to those in both Tangled and live action Aladdin;
- A chicken similar to Heihei from Moana briefly appears in one scene;
- Gloria’s green earrings could be a reference to the prophecy of Bruno Madrigal in Encanto;
- The Kerabaus ( water buffaloes) appearing as props during one of the songs are similar to the reindeer in Frozen II and the donkeys from Encanto doing the same;
- The name of one of the Kerabaus, Ferdinand, is a clear reference to Ferdinand the bull, protagonist of both the 1938 Disney animated short and the 2017 Blue Sky Studios movie;
- In the Hindi language dub the voice of Gloria is Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas, already known for being the voice of Kaa in the local dub of 2016 The Jungle Book and of Queen Elsa in the local dub of Frozen II, while her voice in the Latin American dub, Carla Medina, is best known as the local voice of Mayor Assistant Dawn Bellwether from Zootopia and as a departure agent of the Land of Souls in Coco;
- It is the highest grossing animated film of 2026, even surpassing DreamWorks’ Shrek in Wonderland
- Coincidentally, Gloria’s voice actress in the Italian dub is the same of the Queen of Hearts, the main antagonist of the said movie