USA TODAY International Edition
Get clued in to the ‘Coco’ culture
The filmmakers behind Pixar’s animated musical tale Coco (in theaters now) spent years traveling to Mexico, all to make sure they were authentic in capturing the culture south of the border.
The biggest “head-scratcher” they’ve heard from Mexican people: “The fact that any family in Mexico would have a rule against music,” says co-director and screenwriter Adrian Molina.
To be fair, it’s also a major source of conflict for the main character of Coco: In the household of fledgling musician Miguel (voiced by Anthony Gonzalez), any and all tunes are outlawed because his great-greatgrandfather abandoned the family for a music career. Wanting to seek out his ancestor during Día de los Muertos, Miguel winds up in the lively afterlife of the Land of the Dead.
Coco director Lee Unkrich ( Toy Story 3) put together an all-Latino cast. (“That was non-negotiable.”) Here are the cultural references you’ll want to know:
Ernesto de la Cruz closely resembles real Mexican stars.
Miguel’s idol (Benjamin Bratt), whom he meets in the Land of the Dead, is an A-list balladeer modeled after famous Mexican actors like Pedro Infante and Jorge Negrete in the golden age of Mexican cinema (1930s-60s), “guys who in their own day were the equivalent of Frank Sinatra here in America,” Bratt says. “They were genuine stars who had a magnetism they carried with them, whether they were onscreen or in real life.”
Original songs shows the breadth of Mexican music (and not just mariachi).
Many forms are represented on the Coco soundtrack, from German-influenced norteño and brassy banda to
son jarocho, a style with Spanish and African elements that appears in the upbeat song Un Poco Loco, performed by Miguel and his new pal Héctor (Gael García Bernal). “(Mexican) music is so passionate — every single song is like a tearjerker, a real emotional drama,” says Edward James Olmos, the voice of Chicharrón, a curmudgeonly pal of Héctor’s who helps Miguel during his journey.
But there are some standards, too.
As Miguel’s great-greatgrandmother Mamá Imelda, Alanna Ubach sings La Llorona, a classic song about a woman who cries at night for the loss of her child. It’s one with a personal connection for Ubach: “That was the one song my mother would sing to me before putting me to bed.”
A beloved holiday inspires a colorful invented afterlife.
Miguel journeys to the magical landscape of the Land of the Dead that’s filled with spirit animals as well as skeletons of loved ones, who walk a bridge scattered with marigold petals (thought to guide the dead back to the Land of the Living) for the annual Day of the Dead celebration. In Mexico, it’s beloved by many, who honor their relatives by putting out photos of them and bringing gifts to their gravesites. The holiday is a big deal for 13-year-old Gonzalez, whose grandfather died when he was 6. “It’s a day where I can be with him again because he was really special to me and to my heart,” he says.
‘Coco’ borrows the legend of La Chancla.
Miguel’s grandma Abuelita (Renée Victor) whips off her sandal and threatens a mariachi guitarist she believes is a bad influence on the kid. It’s a reference to the shared experience of Latin kids being afraid of footwear as a disciplinary tool. It’s one more example of the filmmakers’ “definitive understandings of the culture,” Olmos says. “They really got the story right.”