Behind The Story Of COCO – #PixarCOCOEvent

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Photo Credit Disney/Pixar

I was so intrigued and excited to be able to speak with the filmmakers Director Lee Unkrich, Writer and Co-Director Adrian Molina and Producer Darla K. Anderson of the movie new Disney/Pixar movie COCO that will be coming to theaters in November 2017!
The movie COCO is a heartwarming film that involves love, family and togetherness and centers around Dia de los Muertos or Day Of The Dead. I was only able to preview 35 minutes of the movie, but was drawn in by all the color and lights! You can’t help but fall in love with the deep culture they captured of Mexico! Miguel, a 12 year old boy (the lead character) who has a burning passion for music but struggles against his family’s generations-old ban on music. “He harbors a strong passion for music,” says Unkrich.

 

How Did the idea of COCO begin?

When they initially pitched the idea in Sept 2011, the rule of thumb is they have to come up with 3 different story ideas. They like to do that so that way they have options and are involved in the process and are allowed to give different perspective. However, when John heard the story idea of Coco and having it focus around Dia de los Muertos a spark instantly was light! He immediately wanted them to start moving forward with the idea and they were on a plane down to Mexico within just a few short weeks so they do research and see first hand what takes place during Dia de los Muertos.

Photo Credit Disney/Pixar

How did they go with the name COCO at the title?

Even I can’t answer this fully… as they said “it’s a secret”

They felt the whole movie is about the importance of love, family and remembrance… so they found it very fitting to name the movie after Miguel’s Great Grandmother. She was the oldest person alive in the the family, therefore, she was the keeper of all the family history and stories. They also said they wanted to add a little mystery to the title, having the audience question from the beginning, why is the movie titled ‘COCO’? I guess we will all find out together 😉

Photo Credit Disney/Pixar

What were some of the challenges in the movie?

Nothing is ever easy and it is always full of challenges to make a movie but what makes it easier is having a great team that works together and has such great ideas! They compared putting a movie together like a rubix cube… once you get one aspect or “side” put together and you really are happy with it and it is feeling good… you need to move it around to make the rest of the story fit and flow together. They mentioned it is a constant flow of correction and revision. Adrian had mentioned that sometimes the hardest part of creating a movie, is falling in love with an idea and running with it, only to realize later on that it is just not going to work and that it needs to get cut from the film.

Photo Credit Disney/Pixar

They all agreed that this movie was the most visually complex movie they have made and full of such heart! They mentioned that this movie “was a love letter to Mexico”. Through the movie they were able to show how deeply they love and appreciate the people, land, and culture of Mexico and Dia de los Muertos . Through their research, Lee was surprised how different Dia de los Muertos was celebrated, not only from region to region but from town to town. They walked away learning so much, as did I. I must admit, I was not very educated about Dia de los Muertos, but just the short preview of the movie and being surrounded by so many amazing bloggers that were willing to educate and share their stories, I am so excited to learn more.  I am so excited to see the full movie as I said , we have only see a snippet… the whole movie is full of secrets

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COCO opens in theaters everywhere on November 22nd!