Pixar's beautiful new Day of the Dead animation Coco is full of easter eggs including teases
to Incredibles 2, Toy Story, and Finding Nemo.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, it's Jan here, and today I'm going to run through all the
Pixar easter eggs in Coco, some cool cameos you might have missed, plus I'm explaining
how Coco fits into the Pixar theory.
And I'm starting a new Disney Funko Pop giveaway on this video.
To enter, make sure you're a subscriber and leave a comment about Coco.
Towards the start of the movie, when Miguel runs through the streets of his hometown,
if you look very carefully, you'll notice some Pixar-themed piñatas on sale, including
Woody and Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story movies and Mike from Monsters Inc.
Which is especially fitting as Coco director Lee Unkrich was also a director on two of
the Toy Story movies and Monsters, Inc.
The Pizza Planet truck made its first appearance back in 1995 in the very first Toy Story movie,
and if you love spotting Pixar's easter egg regular pop up in their films, then you'll
be glad to see it in Coco as it drives past Miguel's house playing music.
"No music!"
By the way, Pizza Planet is actually written in Spanish on this truck because, according
to director Lee Unkrich, the idea is that there's a Pizza Planet franchise in Mexico.
Continuing the Toy Story theme, one of the performers at the talent contest in the Land
of the Dead is wearing a skull T-shirt, just like Sid wore in the first and third Toy Story
movies.
Also in the Land of the Dead, you'll find the Luxo ball on a table in the background
when Dante and Frida Kahlo's monkey race around her workshop.
The Luxo ball appeared in Pixar's very first short film, Luxo Jr, together with two desk
lamps, one of which is still used in Pixar's logo.
And the Lucha Libre stand in Miguel's hometown has numerous wrestling masks on sale, one
of which has the same colour design as the Luxo ball as well as its star.
Fans of Finding Nemo and its sequel should keep their eyes open for the curious little
clownfish and his dad who pop up in a couple of places.
First, there are Nemo, Marlin, and Dory figurines on the alebrijes table in the town.
And I'm wondering if these figures could also be Destiny from Finding Dory and if these
could be Remy from Ratatouille?
By the way, there's also a little sculpture of the Coco character Pepita here, who turns
up later in the Land of the Dead.
And sneakily hidden among the marigolds on the Rivera family's ofrenda, there's another
Nemo.
He's really hard to see as his colour blends in with the flowers, but now you know where
he is, you should be able to spot him!
The A113 easter egg, which has appeared in every single Pixar movie to date, can be found
on the door of the Bureau of Family Grievances in the Land of the Dead.
The appearance of A113 in Pixar's films is an homage to the classroom at California Institute
of the Arts where many of Pixar's animators studied.
Pixar's films always include easter eggs for their next movie, which in the case of Coco
means Incredibles 2.
In the Land of the Dead, when Miguel and Héctor are on their way to the talent contest, you
need to look very carefully as, down one of the streets, there's a hard-to-spot Incredibles
poster.
You can see it when someone sets off a firework, which lights up the wall of a building where
the poster is.
Coco includes numerous cameos by icons of Mexican culture and history in the Land of
the Dead.
There's a funny moment in the queue to get into Ernesto de la Cruz's party where the
bouncer gets a selfie of his disembodied skull taken with El Santo.
El Santo was a legendary figure in Lucha Libre, or Mexican professional wrestling, and was
known as "el Enmascarado de Plata" because of the silver mask you can see him wearing
to the party in Coco.
The famous Mexican film stars Jorge Negrete and Pedro Infante also appear at de la Cruz's
party.
In fact, the character of Ernesto de la Cruz was actually partly inspired by Pedro Infante.
Mexico's renowned comic film actor Cantinflas appears later during a group sing-song with
de la Cruz.
Also in the group is the famed Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata and the influential Mexican
actress and singer, María Félix.
The orchestra conductor at the big concert towards the end of the movie is a nod by Pixar's
animators to Michael Giacchino, who composed the score for Coco.
The concert's conductor wears a bowtie and top hat and his look reminded me of photos
like this one of Giacchino.
In real life, Frida Kahlo was a hugely important Mexican artist, and in Coco, she plays a suitably
significant and artistic role during Miguel's journey in the Land of the Dead.
Scattered around Kahlo's workshop in the film are references to some of her real paintings,
including her self-portraits and still life works with watermelons, papayas, and coconuts,
the Spanish word for which just happends to be 'coco'.
And Frida's alebrije monkey and her affinity with Miguel's dog Dante reflects the fact
that, in real life, Frida Kahlo had several pet monkeys as well as xolos, or Mexican hairless
dogs as they're also known.
John Ratzenberger, Pixar's good-luck charm, has voiced a character in all of Pixar's movies
so far, and in Coco he has a small role as the voice of Juan Ortodoncia.
The promo clip, Dante's Lunch, features a cool Cars easter egg via the Number 95 shoes
a little boy is wearing as Dante zooms past him.
In the main film, there's also a possible Lightning McQueen easter egg via the lightning
bolt on Miguel's T-shirt.
By the way, there are three different Coco easter eggs in Pixar's last movie, Cars 3,
and if you want to find those and all the others you missed in that movie, hit the link
at the end of this video or in the video description below.
Ok, what about the Pixar theory and how does Coco fit in?
For anyone who doesn't know, there are a number of Pixar theories around, but the best-known
one is by Jon Negroni who has suggested a unified timeline for all the Pixar films.
In Coco, we can see real-life Pizza Planet trucks driving around and Pixar characters
appearing in piñatas and alebrijes which does tie in with the theory that a shared
universe exists.
The Cars easter eggs though might be a little problematic as, if we assume Coco takes place
in the present day, then there's a potential timeline problem because, according to Negroni's
Pixar theory, the Cars movies don't take place until some time after 2110 and the events
of WALL-E. However, the Pixar theory posits that the
Cars characters were at one time driven by real human owners and when they later came
alive they inherited the characteristics of their previous human drivers.
Which means Lightning McQueen might have had a real human racing driver who was alive around
the time when Coco takes place, hence the Cars easter eggs.
So, what did you think of Coco?
And did you spot any other cool easter eggs?
Let me know in the comments below and don't forget to also subscribe for your chance to
win a Disney Funko Pop.
Congratulations to the winner of my recent Cars 3 giveaway, whose name is on screen now.
If that's you, send me a message via my About page on YouTube and remember to include your
details so I can send your prize out to you.
And if you enjoyed this, hit that like button, turn on your notifications to get my upcoming
videos, and tap the screen to watch more of my Disney and Pixar animation videos, including
Incredibles 2 and Olaf's Frozen Adventure.
Thanks for watching and see ya next time.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!