Pixar mines Mexico for film subject matter
Pixar finds unlikely inspiration in Mexico’s Day of the Dead. Bob Thompson explains.
Shortly after wrapping Toy Story 3, veteran Pixar director Lee Unkrich was kicking around the idea for an animated adventure using Mexico’s Day of the Dead as a backdrop.
The Día de los Muertos holiday honours ancestors with parades, festivals and observances which include marigolds, skeletal replicas and decorations morbid or otherwise.
The plot line is unique for an animated narrative, but so were talking toys a few decades ago.
The Unkrich-directed animated translation is called Coco, and its in the final stages of preparation for a splashy November opening around the time Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico.
Recently, Coco producer Darla Anderson and the writer and codirector Adrian Molina were at a Toronto screening room to show some of the movie’s highlights and discuss all things Coco, named for a key character in the film.
In the animated motion picture, Miguel (voiced by Anthony Gonzalez) aspires to be a musician just like the legend he adores, Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt).
Sadly, his close-knit family has a generations-old ban on music because of an unfortunate event.
Convinced he could win a local talent show, Miguel tries to borrow one of de la Cruz’s guitars from a mausoleum. But the theft attempt magically transfers Miguel into the Land of the Dead. On his journey to find his way home from there, the 12-year-old comes across a hustling Hector (Gael García Bernal), who pretends to be a guide.
In the beginning, after Unkrich flirted with the idea for Coco, Molina developed a script and the project gained momentum, especially after Molina was promoted to co-director. Unkrich, Anderson and Molina had collaborated on Toy Story 3, so they made quick progress.
It helped, too, that Unkrich is one of the trusted Pixar originals along with Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton and John Lasseter, now Disney-Pixar animation boss.
The early script had humour, some drama and a strong diversity theme. A green light for the production followed, as did the full Pixar focus on streamlining the 3D animation and the story. The more they evolved the look, style and dialogue, the more excited the Coco team became.
“It’s a world that does lend itself to animation,” Anderson says. “You can’t help but want to see all that colourful activity. People instantly got excited about the possibilities.”
As usual, the Pixar crew went on several fact-finding missions to various parts of Mexico before, during and after a few Day of the Dead festivities.
Molina, a Mexican-American, wanted to make sure he got the details correct, even though he realizes the goal to please everybody, everywhere is nearly impossible.
“There is no one person who knows everything about the Mexican culture,” Molina says. “We got communities together and we talked about things that are familiar and the things that are different. It opens the door to create characters and a story that is authentic.”
The same sort of regional variations occur with the music, food and dress. But the one thing Mexicans had in common, Molina points out, “is that they were honouring loved ones who had passed away.”
The origins of the modern Mexican holiday go back hundreds of years to an Aztec festival saluting the goddess Mictecacihuatl. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the multi-day fiesta pays tribute to friends and family members who have died, doing so mostly with a dark wit.
“There is a certain irreverence to the Mexican sense of humour,” Molina says. “We wanted to make sure we incorporated that.”
Casting a complete Hispanic ensemble was just as key for Coco.
Initially, Mexican-American actor Gonzalez was hired to do the preliminary voice of Miguel. After a while, Unkrich, Molina and Anderson came to realize he was perfect for the permanent job.
“He’s such a professional and so sweet and it comes through in his voice,” Molina says.
From the start, Bratt had the de la Cruz part if he wanted it.
“Benjamin’s suave and charming and he has lots of effervescence,” says Anderson of the U.S. actor, whose mother’s an Indigenous Peruvian.
García Bernal, who earned raves for his role in the Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle, was Anderson’s first choice to voice Hector.
“It’s so nice when an actor turns out to be as nice as you want them to be,” she says.
Meanwhile, the opening date is approaching.
“We’re pushing the technology and pushing ourselves,” Anderson says. “But I’ve never seen my job as hurrying people. I see it as getting to the finish line with smart people who are problem solvers.” The ace in the hole is Unkrich. “Lee’s deeply apart of the Pixar DNA and he knows all the levels we have to hit,” the producer says.