Hey, brother!
Ben, last week, a brand new trailer for Pixar's Coco came out and, as ever, there is a ton to unpack
but, easily the thing that stood out to me the most was this lovely creature.
I mean multi-combination creature with wings talons and claws! I mean not for nothing
but this thing totally looks like a Grizzly Eagle Shark. Is it possible that we inspired a character in a Pixar movie?
[Theme Music]
Hey Brother!
Almost definitely not, but I'm going to leave the door open at only almost
probably impossible so...
Good job everybody.
But whether it's based on the Grizzly Eagle Shark or not the actual backstory on this thing is actually pretty awesome
and maybe I should stop calling it a thing because it does in fact have a name and
does look kind of dangerous. Her name is actually
Pepita. Aww, isn't that cute! :)
[Pepita Roars]
Maybe not, but
Pepita does still translate to 'nugget' or 'pumpkin seed',
which is still adorable. Just maybe don't bring that up around her. Pepita is what is known as an Alebrije,
which I feel confident I am saying incorrectly.
My editor Derrick is just staring at me like...
But whatever, sticking to that pronunciation, Alebrijes, first, let's get some background on them,
and then we can discuss how it's gonna fit into the Pixar universe or more specifically Coco.
Alebrijes are brightly colored, Mexican folk art sculptures of
fantastical creatures. They originated from a single man, Pedro Linares, who in the
1930s fell ill and began having fever dreams where he imagined a very strange place. In this place
he imagined trees, rocks, clouds, rivers, but instead of those things being those things,
they were instead weirdly colored creatures and animals that he had never seen before that weren't even animals,
they were just mixtures and cross breeds of different animals. Wow, are we sure he didn't actually just invent Pokemon like in the 1930s?
Yeah, no
I'm pretty sure he just invented Mexican Pokemon because that is exactly what this sounds like.
Man can you imagine how different those games would be if this guy was born in the 90s,
and had you know like a background in game design?
Huh, what is pocket monster in Spanish: monstruo de bolsillo! So maybe Bolsillomon?
Gotta catch'em all! Tengo que atraparlos a todos?
I'm sorry,
Mexico. Yeah, I would totally play in that game.
Although, if you actually want to see me play Pokemon you should head over to Super Carlin Gaming channel,
we have four full seasons
of Nuzlocke that you can check out.
Actually similar to pokemon the name, Alebrijes, came from what the animals were saying. Although instead of saying their own name
They all just said one single word Alebrijes.
I swear we're gonna find out that I've been like saying the plural of this the whole times. After Linares recovered from his fever dreams,
he was so fascinated by them that he began creating
sculptures of the animals out of paper mache. Then in the 1980s, some fifty years later, his artwork was put on display,
with some other Mexican artists including a woman named, Maria Sabina. Maria was from a town called
Oaxaca where the carving of small animals out of wood was already a common practice.
But after seeing Linares's
Paper mache sculptures, the people of Oaxaca began carving Alebrijes.
And this is where things really took off pioneered by yet another Mexican artist Manuel Jimenez, or as I like to call him Man
Jim. Seriously, I'm so sorry Mexico. Man Jim began spreading the craft to other towns
which crazily, started to become a big source of income for them, and I don't know about you guys
but I love the idea that an entire town is known for and/or
surviving by carving little wooden figures of made-up creatures that is,
awesome. Like it is literally estimated that over a hundred and fifty different families made their living by carving Alebrijes.
Over one hundred and fifty like maybe a hundred and fifty one?
I mean I swear, are we sure it's not just Pokemon? Tengo que atraparlos a todos! Bolsillomon!
What I just had there was an Italian accent on a Mexican word that I made up about a Japanese game
so, I feel certain that I have offended somebody. But the trade became so popular that the word Alebrije
stopped just meaning made-up
fantastical creature and instead like became a verb for carving small made-up creatures out of wood and Alebrijes rose in popularity
so much, that families were literally stopping other professions like, farming, to instead carve these little things. Can you imagine just like,
"Guys I remember when we used to you know grow food?
This is better." Guys, guys. Can you imagine if one such person used to be a professor,
but now taught people how to carve Alebrijes out of oak? Well. What would they be called then, huh?
Huh?
And initially this was great, a lot of different families competing with each other each trying to, "carve out" their own niche. Haha
I guess that is something you "wood" do.
(laughs)
On fire today guys. I "saw" what you did there. Sorry. I'll stop,
I don't want you to get "board". Not that you "wood". Just please "stick" around. Please don't "leaf".
I promise we're gonna "branch" out, okay? Seriously, sorry, enough puns, going back to Pixar, back to my "roots". :)
Seriously, though eventually the market became saturated and design started to become less imaginative.
I mean,
I guess there's only so many brightly colored fantastical creatures a man can own, right? Haha!
He said seven generations into Pokemon and still actively playing Pokemon Go. But by the early
2000s the Alebrijes had fallen out of popularity, basically creating two different tiers the highly ornate very
expensive Alebrije, or the
mediocre cheap highly reproduced Alebrije.
Which I feel like is probably what you see in like gift shops, you know like right there next to all the,
keychains with individual names on them. Ugh.
Gotta keep your keys clean people. But that being said I have a feeling they are about to rise in popularity once more,
thanks to a certain Pixar movie and a particular Pepita.
Seriously!
How cool-looking is this character! Interestingly though, for all the Mexican history associated with the Alebrijes, they are not
associated with Dia de los Muertos almost, at all. And yet we can see a lot of Alebrijes in the Coco trailer,
so, clearly Pixar is taking some creative liberties with them,
but my question is if they're not traditionally associated with the holiday
then, what are they doing in the movie? Well at the end of the day,
I think it's because Coco is not a movie that is going to just be about Dia de los Muertos.
I think it is a movie that is aiming to be in every aspect, a
celebration of Mexican art, culture, and history. From the music to the
Calaveras to the papel picado to the Alebrijes, they wanted all to be represented and Pepita is maybe the most
all-inclusive character of them all. Yes,
we said earlier in that these creatures were inspired largely by one man's fever dreams,
and yet even those creatures you can trace back some further Mexican art in history to. For example,
Many of these supernatural creatures of Mexico's indigenous past, were brightly colored when painted. Elements of Mexico City's Chinatown
can be seen, and maybe most relevant is the terrifying and sometimes
fantastical art of Jose Guadalupe Posada. Best name ever, by the way.
He's responsible for like the whole like,
Calaveras skull thing that's just so largely associated with the holiday now and basically the inspiration for every other character in the movie.
But all of that I think has been expertly rolled into this one terrifying, but also awesome creature, Pepita.
But as for what she will specifically be doing in the movies, Alebrije have been known to, (especially the monsters), ward off bad
spirits. And in the trailer she does look to be chasing down Miguel who I can't imagine is like a bad guy or like wishing
harm on any of them,
but in the world of the dead, I can imagine a living boy being considered a bad
spirit that needed to be scared off. So she might not be a Grizzly Eagle Shark,
but this tiger-ram-eagle-guana, might just be the character
I am most looking forward to seeing in Coco. Ben, my question for you
And everybody else is: we've seen a couple of trailers for Coco now
what are you most looking forward to? Like, the music, the culture, the Alebrijes? and, and,
What combination of animals would you put together to make your own Alebrijes?
Let me know in the towel section down below. Also, a quick reminder that our monthly Patreon livestream is happening tonight,
and it is not too late to sign up over on our Patreon page. These socks are amazing! Guys,
thanks for watching the video as always please remember to leave a like on it if you haven't already and subscribe so you don't miss
any future
Pixar action from us. If you'd like to see us review the first Coco trailer you can click this video right here
Or if you'd like to see us analyze the Norwegian culture of Frozen you can check out this video right here.
But Ben, that's all got for you today man. I will see you in another life brother.