Coco: Day of the Dead Film by Pixar

Announced at D23.

uhhhhhh.....

uhhhhhhhhhhh......

The Book of Life did it first. And it was even directed by an Mexican director and animator. Sorry, Pixar.

edited 14th Aug '15 11:28:59 PM by higherbrainpattern

You hear that? Only one great story can ever happen on the Day of the Dead

Given that Pixar tried to fuckin' trademark "Day of the Dead" when they first announced their intention to make a movie based on the festival, I'm not really feeling this movie even needs to exist.

This was a concept that's been banging around for a while, to be fair. Way back when we were just hearing about what would eventually become Inside Out.

It's basically the A Bug's Life/Antz situation again.

edited 15th Aug '15 4:51:42 AM by edvedd

x2 Wait. Okay, I don't really care about Book of Life "doing it first" or whatever. But really? Pixar tried to trademark the name of a holiday?

Well I mean, they clearly didn't get very far with that, so it seems kinda petty to hold that against a film haven't even seen a trailer for.

I won't hold it against the movie, but I would certainly hold it against Pixar as a whole.

I imagine that process went like:

"Can we trademark this?"

"No, that's terrible."

"Well, damn."

edited 15th Aug '15 5:34:09 AM by edvedd

"Welp guys, we can't use that, we're gonna need like 3 years to get a new name!"

Considering they canned Newt when Rio came out, I'm shocked they're still going through with it.

Well Newt and Rio had pretty much the exact same general plot (I'm almost positive that Pixar could've done it better, but whatever) while this one seems to seperate itself from Book of Life somewhat. Granted they share the setting of the Day of the Dead and the family theme, it could still very well prove to be much different from Book of Life, like the protagonist is younger than Manolo and there doesn't appear to be a love story at all to start with.

edited 15th Aug '15 1:40:08 PM by LordVatek

This though. Just because one film already did a film based on the holiday doesn't mean anyone else can't do it. Especially considering how underrepresented Day of the Dead (and non-American/Christian-based holidays in general) are in films.

That being said, I understand where the concern comes from, considering Pixar's utterly dumbass move of trying to trademark the name of the holiday. I doubt there was any maliciousness behind it (Hanlon's Razor and all that), but that type of thoughtlessness doesn't bode well for good representation.

Then again, the writers themselves could be perfectly fine and was facepalming over the executives trying to trademark the holiday's name.

edited 15th Aug '15 1:52:52 PM by SkeletalPumpkin

I agree that two good movies can be made about the same holiday, but the fact that they both chose the same oddly specific one is probably where the concern comes from.

The main character Miguel◊ was revealed.

Come to think of it, will anyone remember The Book of Life when this comes out? I liked it, but I don't know if it's an instant classic.

The Day of the Dead isn't that oddly specific. I mean, if it had been any other Mexican Holiday? Maybe. But plenty of non-Mexicans at least have superficial knowledge of what the Day of the Dead is about.

I mean, does anyone bat an eye at the dozens of Christmas movies out there?

Speaking as a Mexican: if there can be tons of movie about Christmas, and tons of movies about Halloween, don't know why the big fuss about having two movies about this holiday.

Now, to be fair, there is another issue: people saying that it could be cultural appropiation having a white, Jewish directing a film about a Mexican, half-Catholic, half-Pre-Colombian celebration.

(I'm of the idea that cultural expressions are better when they're shared and enjoyed even by people outside the original ethnic group but, not everybody thinks the same way).

edited 15th Aug '15 8:03:24 PM by Anthony_H

The Book of Life should be remembered, damn it! It was fantastic and gorgeously animated. I'm kind of scared that this movie, because it has Disney funding and marketing behind it, will become an instant classic just because it's a Disney/Pixar movie (when it might not deserve it) and overtake the Book of Life completely and cause that movie to fall into obscurity.

Even if the characters were 2-Dimensional. The animation in Book of Life certainly wasn't. The film is a visual marvel, a cinematic masterpiece.

While I'm really looking forward to this and I'm sure Lee Unkrich can handle the subject with respect (Tim Schafer was able to do it with Grim Fandango). I can understand the fears that this will overshadow Book of Life ESPECIALLY since that film was headed by a Mexican and had a primarily Latinx cast.

Hate to say it, cause I love TBOL, but it already IS in obscurity. It had hardly any advertising, it only did OK in theaters, it wasn't nominated for a "best animated" oscar, it really only lives on thanks to its cult following.

Hell, maybe having more movies about Dia de los Muertos will open the doors for more people to find it and give it a chance.

So Miguel's a guitar player, huh....Will "unwitting champion of one of two rival Gods" come to be on his resume? Hmmmmmm, Pixar!?

I know. But given the "coincidental" past releases from Disney and Dream Works, I do wonder if we'll see this happen again. Sure the companies are different this time, but still...

edited 16th Aug '15 7:46:03 AM by nervmeister

It's sort of a leap to assume something that specific based on the fact that he plays an instrument.

Yes it was colossally stupid of Disney/Pixar to attempt to copyright "Day of the Dead." I can see why they might try, though; if they want to merchandise the film, they'll want to slap the title on that merchandise. They obviously don't want everybody else's merchandise to be associated with their film. Still, I can't believe they thought they'd be able to do this.

Still, I find it mildly amusing, some of the complaints I've read, that Disney/Pixar shouldn't try to commercialize the holiday, and that, as one poster put it, "Mexican culture is not for sale!" The Day of the Dead is ALREADY commercialized out the wazoo; not by any one corporation, certainly, but you can already get just scads of Day of the Dead merch. While I agree that a corporation should not "own" a holiday, some of the complaints seem a little disingenuous.

As to The Book of Life, sad to say, I doubt there'll be too many people in the general public who even remember it by the time this film comes out...

edited 16th Aug '15 1:06:07 PM by Robbery

Am I missing something here?