(upbeat music)
- Showtime, chamaco!
- I had long been interested in the
Mexican celebration of Dia de Muertos.
We began a bunch of research and learned a
lot more about the celebration.
We traveled down to Mexico on several trips
to get to know the country and the people.
- We went to Mexico City,
we went to Morelia and Michoacan and Patzcuaro
and the most important thing were
the families and the people.
They shared their celebration with us
of Dia de Muertos and they fed us and included us.
- Have some more.
- No, gracias.
(all gasp)
- Si?
- That's what I thought you said!
- There's so much that I learned
about you know the different
styles of Mexican music and the wide
variety of ensembles and traditional tunes
and all of these things really kind of helped to give
Coco a really unique sound,
a really unique feeling that is rooted
in something real.
- I'm gonna be a musician!
- From the moment that I first pitched
the idea that became Coco,
it was imperative to me that we make
a film that was as authentic as possible,
and as respectful as possible,
and free of clichés and stereotypes,
and we worked really really hard every single day
of the six years we spent making the film
to try to do that.
- I found myself you know calling my
parents every weekend and asking about
family stories.
They make their way into
the film and hopefully when you watch it
you feel that reality,
you feel that love
and and it affects you
- Coco has a bigger scope then I think just
about any movie that we've made so far.
So it was more an issue of how to put this
big big movie this big adventure up on screen.
We had to create this whole Land of the Dead
with millions of light sources,
and thousands of buildings,
and tens of thousands of skeleton characters.
- Not bad for a dead guy.
- The world of the living
had more kind of one-to-one
reference to draw from
and a lot of Miguel's town of Santa Cecilia
is inspired by real places, real homes.
We had a lot of photo reference
and people that we met that we could rely on
in terms of creating that place.
- Hola, Miguel.
- Hola!
- I think it was the land of the Dead
that took more invention.
Frees you up in a way that
lets you play around and be very imaginative.
So they're different takes on the creation of a world.
- When Miguel is first coming up over the bridge
and you see the entire land of the dead
for the first time,
when we first rendered images of that scene
there was applause and audible gasps
and,
- Because I think we almost broke Pixar.
- I think we broke Pixar I think we did break Pixar.
- What?
- Ew.
- Working on this film I was very excited
to be able to be a part of it
because it was an opportunity to connect with my Mexican
heritage and to to create a story that
represents faithfully what I experienced growing up.
- Abuelita used to have a spoon
that she kept in her pocket in her apron right here
and whenever she would want to whack something
or whatever she would use the spoon to whack it,
but we're like no no no no,
if she's a Mexican abuelita,
she's going for the chancla.
- You leave my grandson alone!
- Dona, please!
I was just getting a shine.
- I know your tricks, mariachi.
- What did he say to you?
- He was just showing me his guitar.
(family gasps)
- Shame on you!
- I don't know why this is,
but everyone could relate to that.
- For me it brings me a lot of pride
that we've got a main character
that represents you know a huge segment
of the population that maybe don't see
themselves on screen and don't see
themselves as a protagonist.
- Why have you come here?
- I'm Miguel, your great-great grandson.
- I have a great-great grandson?
- Why not look at this kid and think
that's someone to aspire to,
that's someone who is really interesting
and is worthy of the attention of the entire world.
- Show me what you got muchacho.
(Miguel gasps)
- I'll be your first audience.
- We hope that after people watch Coco
they're inspired to be curious about where they came from.
Be curious about those ancestors that came before them
and were the foundation of where they are today.
- One cannot deny who one is meant to be.
- It's also a great movie to watch
with your whole family.
For children and parents and grandparents
and even great-grandparents to all get together
and watch the film together.
I think is a beautiful thing.
- I've been so thankful to work with a team
who completely from day one have supported
and wanted to put this incredible story on the screen
for the whole world to see.
I think everybody's got something that
they're gonna take away from this movie
that's gonna affect them personally
no matter where you come from.
- Never forget how much your family loves you.
- [Woman's Voice] Show me Pixar
- I'm walkiong like a skeleton.
- No skeletons don't walk like that.
- It's how you walk.
- No I don't!
(upbeat music)