Charise Castro Smith brings Latin experience to ‘Encanto’

By SIGAL RATNER-ARIAS
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Charise Castro Smith, the first Latino woman to co-direct a Walt Disney Animation Studios movie, admits that she has felt terrified at times. But when the chance to work on “Encanto” came around she had no doubts. Castro Smith says the movie is a chance for brown children “to see themselves and to see themselves represented in a positive way and feel seen.” “Encanto,” which Castro Smith codirects with Jared Bush and Byron Howard, is set in Colombia and follows a teenage girl dealing with the frustration of being the only member of her family without magical powers. Castro Smith joined the project as a writer and had never been a director. ”Encanto” opens in theaters in November.