Coco: Day of the Dead Film by Pixar

So, one question. I likely missed something but... why exactly was Miguel cursed and sent to the Land of the Dead?

Because he stole Ernesto de la Cruz's guitar on Dio de Los Muertos, which is supposed to be for giving to the dead, not taking from them.

Which in turn could be further foreshadowing that De la Cruz was NOT his ancestor. If he WAS, then he may well have been fine taking it by claiming it as his inheritance

I've just watched this film on a whim because it was on Netflix.

Holy shit what right does this movie have to come along and knock my socks off

Oh my god this movie was so good

Except it wasn't actually De La Cruz's Guitar, it was Hector's

!! Oh HOLD UP

Oh my god yeah it was.

R u me?? I JUST watched this on Netflix over the weekend. I saw it before, but now it was with my parents, and they loved it.

I was expecting a cute little romp. I was not expecting one of the best films I'd watched this year. Or last year.

I feel like I missed something about this movie. It was alright, but I don't understand why people like it so much, you know? It just felt average to me. Better than things like Cars or Inside Out, but couldn't hold a candle to some of Pixar's older works, like The Incredibles.

People just like that kind of story I guess.

It hits on a very touching longing on wanting to connect with family before they’re gone.

So I decided to watch Coco on a whim since it's on Netflix and I might have been mildly spoiled by how Ernesto was the bad guy, but I didn't have the context on why that was so, so it's all good.

Speaking of good, this movie was really good. Probably helps that I haven't watched Pixar movies in a while.

Truth be told, my family's Cuban rather than Mexican, but I could easily see how anyone with a Mexican background could get the feels. (Plus, I have a feeling my mom would like this once I show it to her.)

Finally, that dedication they had at the end of the credits? That got my eyes swelling up a little, like kind of giving me the urge to bust a tear. ;__;

Those were feels, man...

Probably my only criticism is that I don't much care for it being called 'Coco'. It feels more like a forced instance of Disney's weird 'One Word Title' they have going on rather than a natural title.

I much prefer the international titles which use 'Remember Me' instead. Which I'd argue is the stronger thread as that song gets sung 3 different times and changes meaning each time, creating a stronger thematic resonance where as 'Coco' the name, besides refering to his grandmother, doesn't mean much to the story itself.

Maybe, although I think the title “Coco” works in that her name is the Wham Line of the story and her memory is the crisis of the true third act.

Also the film was originally going to be called “Day of the Dead” but that led to an infamous copyright kerfuffle.

It wasn't the naming of the movie that caused it. What caused it was the fact that Disney had the brilliant idea to try and trademark the name "Day Of The Dead", requiring anyone using it referring to the holiday to get their permission! Didn't go over well.

It weirdly ended up working out in the long run, though. That controversy got them to hire several cultural consultants, which helped the movie become so accurate that it turned into the insane hit it was in Mexico.

Edited by IniuriaTalis on Jul 16th 2018 at 12:32:23 PM

It was also probably because, based on DVD interviews, the plot of the movie was nowhere near the iteration we got by the time the trademark controvercy happened. One of the first treatments was an American kid (I want to say he was from Flordia?) discovering that he's hispanic and, after a tragic event, mourns the death of his mother. The resolution was going to be that the kid (named Marco) needed to accept his mother's death, let go, and move on.

It seems to be that it wasn't until consultants came on board that they realized that Day of the Dead is not about letting go and mourning and etc, but about celebrating and remembering your loved ones.

Edited by InkDagger on Jul 17th 2018 at 3:58:38 AM

It was supposed to be named The Day of The Dead, but then Disney tried to trademark than and then all hell broke loose.

.... yikes. Well I suppose finding the right story is the surest way of making a great one, especially when you're just learning about the holiday you're writing about!

I watched this movie a few days ago. It was pretty good, but I saw the twist of Héctor being Miguel's real ancestor waaaaayyy ahead of time. Like, basically as soon as he appeared I figured out that's where they were going.

The one thing I really didn't care for was De La Cruz's Engineered Public Confession. It came off as really cliché and way too reminiscent of Waternoose's defeat in Monsters, Inc.', as well as Bellwether's similar defeat in Zootopia (though I felt it was pretty cliché there, too). I do wonder if the movie would not have been better off without making De La Cruz into a villain. Like, maybe he'd have been more interesting if he'd been characterised as a weak, selfish, but not actually malicious man who took credit for his partner's work after his untimely death, but never actually intended to hurt anyone.

Personally I was hoping De La Cruz would have been his grand father, but with an emphasis on the difference between family of blood and family of choice which is something I've been wanting to see disney explore for awhile.

Not QUITE sure if it would fit with the Holiday they're honoring though so I'm not really bothered by it. My idea might not translate very well.

Eh, if there's any time to have a message of "your beloved celebrity idol might secretly be a horrible monster", it's now.

What happened before fotografía was a thing

The dead just had to wait around until the last person who'd ever heard of them died? Does this mean famous people never die? Given how Catholic Mexico is, does this mean they never reach heaven?

Oh god i had to go and think about it

Or there isn't a heaven everyone goes to but load of afterlifes instead?

The Indigenous precursor to today’s Dia de Los Muertos used handcrafted effigies in place of photos, so presumably that was the old method of access before photography.