"Dos Oruguitas" (; "Two Little Caterpillars") is a Spanish-language song from
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
's 2021 computer-animated musical feature film ''
Encanto
''Encanto'' is a 2021 American computer-animated musical fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The 60th film produced by the studio, it was directed by Jared Bus ...
''. Released by
Walt Disney Records as part of
the film's soundtrack on November 19, 2021, the song was written by American musician
Lin-Manuel Miranda and performed by Colombian singer-songwriter
Sebastián Yatra.
The song is played in the film over a
flashback depicting the life and death of Pedro Madrigal, the grandfather of ''Encanto'' protagonist
Mirabel. The lyrics are in Spanish, but an English-language version of the song, titled "Two Oruguitas", plays over the end credits. Music critics praised the song for its sentiment, production, lyrics, and Yatra's vocal performance, and often named it as the best song from ''Encanto''. Commercially, "Dos Oruguitas" entered the top 40 of the US
''Billboard'' Hot 100 and marked Yatra's first-ever appearance on the chart. The song was nominated for
Best Original Song
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
at the
94th Academy Awards
The 94th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Los Angeles. The awards were scheduled after its u ...
.
Background and release
![SEBASTIÁN YATRA EN BABAHOYO 2018 (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/SEBASTI%C3%81N_YATRA_EN_BABAHOYO_2018_%28cropped%29.jpg)
''Encanto'' is an American
computer-animated
Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes ( still images) and dynamic images (moving images), while computer animation refe ...
musical
Musical is the adjective of music.
Musical may also refer to:
* Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance
* Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
film, the 60th film by
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene fro ...
. The song is featured as the sixth track on
the film's soundtrack. It was written and composed by American singer-songwriter
Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also wrote the seven other songs of the soundtrack. He previously worked on Disney's 2016 animated film, ''
Moana'', as well.
It is sung by Sebastián Yatra, who grew up in the US but was born in Colombia. He was invited to join the ''Encanto'' soundtrack and sing the song after Miranda heard Yatra's song "Adiós".
Composition and development
"Dos Oruguitas" was the first song Miranda wrote completely in Spanish. This amount of Spanish was far outside his comfort zone.
Miranda said "It was important to me that I write it in Spanish, rather than write it in English and translate it, because you can always feel translation".
His goal was to write a Colombian folk song that "felt like it
adalways existed," which he thought would make the painful family history depicted in the accompanying animated sequence easier to watch.
He was inspired in particular by composers
Antônio Carlos Jobim
Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim (25 January 1927 – 8 December 1994), also known as Tom Jobim (), was a Brazilian composer, pianist, guitarist, songwriter, arranger, and singer. Considered one of the great exponents of Brazilian mu ...
and
Joan Manuel Serrat.
The song and accompanying sequence were originally planned to be in the prologue, but the filmmaking team decided they would fit better toward the end of the film.
Lyrics and context
"Dos Oruguitas" is a
non-diegetic
Diegesis (; from the Greek from , "to narrate") is a style of fiction storytelling that presents an interior view of a world in which:
# Details about the world itself and the experiences of its characters are revealed explicitly through narr ...
song, which plays during a flashback. In this flashback,
Mirabel learns about her grandmother's Alma's past and the hardship she went through: her romance with her husband Pedro, and how Pedro's self-sacrifice when they were fleeing a war allowed Alma to escape. This story helps reconcile Mirabel and her grandmother.
Co-director
Byron Howard
Byron P. Howard (born December 26, 1968) is an American animator, character designer, story artist, film director, film producer, and screenwriter. He is best known as the director of the Walt Disney Animation Studios films '' Bolt'' (2008), ' ...
said about the song: "It's probably the most critical bit of musical storytelling in the whole film because it has to do with the history of the family and Mirabel understanding her grandmother." The song itself is about two caterpillars falling in love and having to let each other go, which is a metaphor for the events in Pedro and Alma's lives.
Reception
Critical reviews
''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' critics dubbed "
We Don't Talk About Bruno
"We Don't Talk About Bruno" is a song from Disney's 2021 computer-animated musical feature film ''Encanto'', with music and lyrics written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. It was released by Walt Disney Records as part of the film's soundtrack on Nove ...
" as the most memorable track from ''Encanto'', but picked "Dos Oruguitas" as the best track for being a heartfelt ballad with "emotional resonance and beautiful sentimentality". ''
TheWrap
''TheWrap'' is an American online news website covering the business of entertainment and media via digital, print and live events. It was founded by journalist Sharon Waxman
Sharon I. Waxman (born c.1963) is an American author, journalist, ...
'' Drew Taylor also ranked it as the best song, saying that even without the accompanying visuals, "the song will still make you sob, whether you know Spanish or not."
''
/Film
''/Film'', also spelled ''Slashfilm'', is a blog that covers movie news, reviews, interviews, and trailers. It was founded by Peter Sciretta in August 2005.
Podcasts
Six podcasts have run on the site. ''The /Filmcast'', hosted by David Chen, De ...
'' critic Caroline Cao ranked it as the second-best song, describing it as "an elegy that honors what's been lost, even as it emboldens the survivors to find their way forward, carrying on those memories".
Commercial performance
"Dos Oruguitas" debuted on the US
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart at number 83, marking Yatra's first ever appearance on the chart. It eventually ascended to number 36.
The song peaked at number 2 on the US
Hot Latin Songs
The ''Billboard'' Hot Latin Songs (formerly Hot Latin Tracks and Hot Latin 50) is a record chart in the United States for Latin songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Since October 2012, chart rankings are based on digital sales, rad ...
chart.
Accolades
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
{{Sebastián Yatra
2020s ballads
2021 songs
Songs written by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Sebastián Yatra songs
Walt Disney Records singles
Songs written for animated films
Songs from Encanto
Spanish-language songs
Folk ballads
Folk songs
Songs about death
Songs about insects