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I am thrilled to share with you more about my visit to San Fransicio from a couple of months ago, where I was able to see a preview of the Disney Pixar movie Coco and sit down with the creators and learn all the amazing details of putting this beautiful creation together.
No Disney movie is complete without those additional characters that we love and really bring that special added touch to the movie. Today we learned about Dante (Miguel’s beloved dog sidekick), Alebrijes (Mexican folk art) and Pepita, (an Alebrijes that is a spirit guide). These characters really tie the movie together and add to the already rich Mexican culture. I know you are going to love them as much as I do!
Alonso Martinez is an amazing artist and creator. He really was able to capture the feel of the Alebrijes and Pepita in the Movie… He said one of the challenges was to bring them to life yet still give them the “solid” form feel of a carving.
Our whole group was lucky enough to be able to work side by side with Alonso in the the art room at Pixar, we were able to decorate our very on 3D creations of Pepita. He was able to give us points and tip on how to blend the colors and give more dimension. He said, “don’t be afraid to add lots of color”, in fact the more color and the brighter, makes it only better.
10 Fun Facts About Dante, Alebrijes and Pepita
- Dante’s breed is named after the Aztec dog. They are ancient dogs that date back 3500 years ago.
- Dante’s breed is know as a healing dog. Because their skin is so warm, it is known to treat body aches and ailments
- They had to use Skin simulation when creating Dante ( this is to give shin jiggle)
- Dante’s Breed is considered “hairless” however they do have a fair amount of sporadic hair on their body
- Creator, Alonso Martinez, has been collecting Alebrijes since he was a kid
- Alebrijes are one of Mexicos most recognized forms of art.
- Alebijies don’t have any mythological or symbolic meanings
- Pepita is heavily inspired by the Mexican folk are Alebrijes.
- Alebrijes have nothing to do with Dia de los Muertos but they are such a huge part of the Mexican culture they wanted to celebrate them.
- They wanted Pepita to be strong and fierce … so they looked to having her be very cat like
Alebrijes were created in 1936 from a man named Pedro Linares who was a Pinata maker… one night while he was very sick, he had a “fever dream” where distorted brightly colored animals with with wings and chicken feet or donkeys with dragon tails came to him in a forest. During the dream they had come up to him and started chanting the word “Alebrijes”. As soon as Pedro woke, he knew he needed to capture these creature and began making them out of paper mache. Today they are made out of a soft wood called copal wood where they are still intricately hand painted.
The Alebrijes, Pepita is a spritit guide in the movie Coco. She has glowing eyes and a tail with tick mark all over. Her glow illuminates her environment and casts light on objects all around her. They had challenges on how to make something so massive believable. She had so much unique detail that they have never faced… Like, how big will they make her wing span for such a large creature and how do they blend hair and feathers. They also wondered how will they allow movement in the hair and feathers, yet be able to maintain the patterns on her. One of the solutions was to make the hair and feathers all go the same direction and not have so much patten detail on the shoulder blades where much of the movement would be.
Dante, is going to be your new favorite sidekick! He is Miguel’s trusty partner on his journey to the land of the dead. Dantes is a Mexican Hairless Dog called Xoloitzcuintli, or Xolo for short, his breed is very common in Mexico. He plays an important part in the movie Coco as they are know to be spirit guides to the dead.
They had a lot of fun creating Dante, he is a street dog, who they describe as ” The lights are on but nobody is home”. Dante is a sloppy, silly and clumsy dog… very much like a puppy in an adult dogs body. Poor Dante is the under dog….hahaha, so to say, he looks very scrappy with bumps, splotches, bad teeth and his trade mark floppy tongue… but he is dearly loved by Miguel.
I HOPE YOU FOUND THIS AS INTERESTING AS I DID! MARK YOU CALENDARS, AS THE RELEASE OF COCO IS GETTING CLOSE – I CAN’T WAIT!
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COCO OPENS IN THEATERS EVERYWHERE ON NOVEMBER 22ND!
