In 'The Casagrandes Movie,' a family trip to Mexico turns into a wild adventure
"The Casagrandes Movie" on Netflix features 12-year-old Ronnie Anne Santiago and her hilarious Mexican American multigenerational family, inserting an angry Indigenous demigod along the way.
A new animated fantasy comedy movie that follows the adventures of a preteen Latina who wants to do her own thing while surrounded by her multigenerational Mexican American family premieres Friday on Netflix.
“The Casagrandes Movie” extends the fun of the Nickelodeon series that ran for three years before wrapping up in 2022. The film features Ronalda “Ronnie Anne” Santiago — who first appeared as a character in Nickelodeon's “The Loud House” before getting her own series — who's looking forward to spending summer vacation skateboarding with her friends, but is instead surprised with a family trip to Mexico to visit her relatives for her 12th birthday.
Voiced by actor Izabella Alvarez, Ronnie Anne ends up accidentally freeing the ancient, angst-filled demigod Punguari of the Purépecha, an Indigenous community in the Mexican state of Michoacán.
Ronnie Anne in "The Casagrandes Movie" ends up accidentally an ancient demigod of the Purépechas in Mexico.Netflix / Nickelodeon Animation Studios“The best part for me is that we got to represent the Purépecha community — you hear about Aztecs and Mayans, but there are many Indigenous cultures in Mexico,” director Miguel Puga told NBC News in an interview. Puga grew up traveling to that region of Mexico during his own summer and winter school breaks.
The movie included cultural consultants to ensure correct and appropriate language and images, and while it's largely in English, the film includes some Spanish and Purépecha.
Rating: 5