Coco is Pixar's new Day of The Dead-themed animation and the first trailer just dropped
giving us a fantastic look at some of the characters we can look forward to meeting
in the movie.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, it's Jan here and, in this video, I'm doing to break down
the first trailer for Coco and reveal some hidden details you might have missed.
The trailer opens on a scene of Miguel entering an ofrenda, or shrine, for his musical hero
Ernesto de la Cruz.
Inside the shrine there are tons of pictures, records and lots of DLC mentions which, is
of course, short for "De La Cruz", and there's also two handmade signs that read "DLC Por
Siempre!" which in English means "DLC forever!".
There are lots of nice touches that Pixar have put into designing this traditional Mexican
ofrenda, in other words, a type of altar set up on the Day of the Dead to honour the memory
of a person's ancestors.
We can see orange and yellow marigolds, which are the flowers traditionally used in an ofrenda.
Other cool details include a plate of food with what looks like a sweet bread or pan
dulce, on top of which is a 'calavera', or Mexican candied skull.
And that's because, in an ofrenda, the favourite food of the deceased person is typically offered
to make them feel welcome and comfortable.
Next, Miguel puts on a video cassette of some old black and white recordings of his idol,
Ernesto de la Cruz, who's voiced by actor Benjamin Bratt.
You might have seen Bratt on screen recently as Jonathan Pangborn in Doctor Strange, and
his character in Coco is inspired by legendary Mexican film and musical icons such as Pedro
Infante, Jorge Negrete and Vicente Fernández.
OK, let's move on to the next scene where we see Miguel unfolding a torn photo with
the face of one person missing.
What we already know about Coco is that Miguel comes from a family of shoemakers, the Riveras,
who banned music in the family after Miguel's great-great-grandmother Imelda was abandoned
by her husband when he left to chase his musical dreams.
This picture is probably of Miguel's great-great grandparents and their daughter Mama Coco,
who is Miguel's great-grandmother, and judging by the broken picture frame on the floor it
seems that Miguel may have chanced upon this photo literally by accident.
Given this comes straight after the previous scene of Ernesto de la Cruz on TV serenading
a woman, it seems implied that the missing character from the photo is the deceased Ernesto.
So, perhaps this photo is the reason why we next see Miguel breaking into Ernesto's tomb
as he's trying to uncover something about his family's past.
Inside the tomb, Miguel sees Ernesto's old guitar, and as he touches it the flowers on
the floor light up suggesting Miguel shares a special connection with Ernesto.
By the way, this moment and the way the flowers light up and rise up around him reminds me
somewhat of the 2016 animated movie Kubo And The Two Strings.
And this special connection is what transports Miguel to the underworld together with his
dog Dante, who by the way is a Xolo, also known as a Mexican hairless dog.
Actually, the fact that the dog is named Dante seems highly appropriate given the themes
of the movie, as medieval Italian poet Dante's most famous work, The Divine Comedy, is all
about the author's travels through the realms of the dead.
Finally, the trailer ends with a lovely first look at the underworld in Coco.
The multi-coloured design and other-worldliness of it reminded me a bit of Inside Out, which
then left me wondering whether Pixar might include a cameo by Bing Bong here in the Land
of the Dead.
Bing Bong heroically sacrificed himself to save Joy from being trapped inside Riley's
Memory Dump and it would be wonderful to see him or any other deceased Pixar characters
appear in Coco's underworld.
Talking of connections to other Pixar movies, the inspiration for Coco actually kind of
came from a scene at the end of Toy Story 3.
Coco director Lee Unkrich, who also directed Toy Story 3, told EW that: "At the end of
Toy Story 3, we had this moment where Jessie turns on the boom-box and the Gipsy Kings
do a Spanish language version of 'You've Got a Friend in Me.'
Which, it turned out, ended up being a real precursor to this movie."
Obviously, there have been Day of the Dead-themed animations before, including the 2014 film
The Book of Life, but I still can't wait to see Pixar's own take on the theme.
So, what did you think about the first teaser trailer for Pixar's Coco?
And are there any dead Pixar characters you'd like to see appear in Coco's Land of the Dead?
I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
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Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!