5 Fun facts about Coco and Dia de los Muertos #PixarCocoEvent

This post may earn affiliate income from links and/or review products to help support this site from the companies .

 

 

I feel so privileged, that I got to go and learn the behind the scenes of Coco during the Pixar event earlier this summer. Not only was it an incredible experience but being able to walk away with such knowledge that I never knew before. I am embarrassed to say, but prior to this trip, I really had no idea what Dia de los Muertos “Day of the dead” was really all about. Like many, I thought it was the Mexican version of halloween…. it is not!. Throughout the event, I was so fortunate to learn the truth not only through the creators of Coco but by the many fellow bloggers that attended that were open to sharing their story and how they celebrate.

The writers felt they had an enormous responsibility to be as authentic as possible, this was a tribute to Mexico and they wanted to make sure they “got it right”. Because of this, they had taken numerous trips down to Mexico to several different regions to make sure they capture all aspects of how Dia de los Muertos is celebrated. Guatemala was a huge inspiration for this production with the layers of structures in the town, it felt like there were layers of treasured history, a perfect setting for their story.

 

5 Fun facts about Coco and Dia de los Muertos

 

1. There is no living vegetation in the “Land of the dead” other than the marigolds. They wanted distinction between the two worlds and the marigold bridge is the connector. Marigolds represent the “path to family” in Mexico.
2. They tried to make the land of the dead, a place like know one has ever seen before… this was a challenge becuase, well, no one has ever seen it before, so they lacked real life inspiration to create this mystical city.
3. They created towers to symbolize ancestry. The buildings capture history… the very base of the towers are the long gone family members and build up through the family. The top of the tower is always in construction symbolizing current time.
4. In certain areas, it is either called called Dia de los Muertos or Dia de Muertos because it is split on how it is referred. The makers of Coco were aware of this and made a continuous decision to use both references in the movie, you will however notice consistency and how the character refers to the holiday, will remain throughout the movie.
5. The land of the dead has no streets, no weather and has every color possible in the rainbow.

 

Dia de los Muertos is a celebration of long gone family members and a celebration of life, the main idea of the celebration is to keep their spirit alive, they do this by sharing stories, especially to the children to keep history alive, they make the favorite meal of their loved ones, and putting their pictures up on the altar along with many candles within the home. The whole family comes together and preps for the events. Hours are spent in the cemetery cleaning, sweeping and grooming the the Burial site and paths. I learned from someone that the night before is reserved for lost children and is more of a sad quiet environment. Traditionally, to call the loved ones back, bright Orange marigolds are laid about, in the cemetery, on the pathways and altars to lead the way for the loved ones.

Now that I am educated,  I now walk through the stores and see their beloved holiday of love, family and memory…. I hurt that it is viewed as a scary Halloween event. I really respect that Pixar and Disney are releasing the movie on November 22 and having very nice spacing between the movie release and Halloween.

Like COCO on Facebook

Follow COCO on Twitter

Follow COCO on Instagram

Visit the official COCO website

COCO opens in theaters everywhere on November 22nd!