The 'We Don't Talk About Bruno' and Milwaukee Bucks crossover that you absolutely need

There's a line in "We Don't Talk About Bruno," the ubiquitous musical hit from Disney's animated sensation, "Encanto," when the mysterious, titular Bruno is described as having a "7-foot frame."

Like many parents of young children around the globe, Waunakee's Justin Wills has heard the song over and over and over. But that line gave the 39-year-old Milwaukee Bucks season-ticket holder an idea.

Wills used it as a jumping off point for a parody crossover between the song written by Lin Manuel Miranda — one that became Disney's second ever No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart — and the NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks. After three weeks of fine-tuning, he released "We Don't Talk About That Bro" to the world.

"That bro," as you might imagine, is Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Wills doesn't have formal video-editing training. He runs an e-commerce company, owns a gym in Whitewater and describes himself as a serial entrepreneur, but he'd at least learned iMovie software for a family vacation. He produced Bucks highlight videos during the 2019 season and posted them to his YouTube channel but said he hadn't had time to post anything new for the Bucks' run to the 2021 NBA title.

Then came a bit of inspiration from "Encanto," a movie in which the character Bruno has become persona non grata in the Madrigal family because his premonitions offered an inconvenient forecast of the future.

"The kids listened to that song and that soundtrack all the time," said Wills, a father of three, including daughters Jada, 13, and Sage, 8, and son Zion, 1. "Right away, I thought about doing KD (Kevin Durant) and (James) Harden to start it off. I wrote that verse so fast and initially decided to end it before it mixed (singing voices) together at the end, I thought it'd be way too challenging to mix the song and get singers to do the harmonizing. That was one part I didn't write that first night; I couldn't think of a way to put all that together.

"Then I decided to go for it."

The parody revisits Milwaukee's thrilling win over the Brooklyn Nets in the 2021 Eastern Conference finals from the point of view of the two Nets stars, with additional appearances from Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat, Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks and, of course, the Phoenix Suns. Wills used video editing software to make it appear as if the players are singing the words with their own lips.

Wills said he wrote many of the lyrics for his 3-minute 40-second creation in one night but needed time to find vocalists.

"The 13-year-old especially was really excited (about the video); she went to all the playoff games with me last year and is a big Bucks fan, too," Wills said. "She was trying to help me write the lyrics. ... Every time I got somebody submitting me their voice recording, they wanted to listen to it and see if they liked it and if they wanted to pick that person for the song."

Wills said he "can't sing at all," so he searched for vocalists on the freelance website Fiverr, and he reached out to singer Chloe Dichoso, who had posted her own version of the female portions of "We Don't Talk About Bruno" to YouTube.

In all, he said the venture cost him between $250 and $300, a figure he admits is a lot for a video "just for the laughs."

"I was kind of willing to do it just for that," he said. "Obviously, it's copywritten material between the NBA and Disney, so I know there's no way to make a dime off it."

Wills grew up in Wisconsin Rapids and started watching the NBA in the early 90s – though mostly Bulls games with only limited Bucks telecasts available. He said his fandom intensified during the 2001 run to the Eastern Conference finals, when he drove to the playoff games.

"It's the one team I've been a fan of my whole life," Wills said. "It's been a pretty incredible ride since Giannis came (to Milwaukee)."

JR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Waunakee man fuses Milwaukee Bucks title run with 'Encanto' song