cleveland.com: "Coco," opening Wednesday, Nov. 22, is the latest Pixar 3-D, computer-animated, musical fantasy adventure for kids and adults alike. And it has a local tie. "Coco" director and story idea creator Lee Unkrich is an alumnus of Chagrin Falls High School.
Unkrich, 50, who also directed "Toy Story 3," was doing promotion for his new film last week and called from Los Angeles to talk about his career and the making of "Coco."
7 comments:
When I started reading this article I was expecting more of an insight on the movie itself but instead got a spectrum of information from the research the Pixar team had to go through to finding out one of the animators was a CS major at Carnegie Mellon University. I was nervous hearing about this new movie Coco, because I was afraid Pixar would do a poor job at representing the mexican culture and the importance of Day of the Dead. However; hearing now that the Pixar research team spent a good amount of time in Mexico and bouncing ideas off of the locals to get the most accuracy gives me hope that this movie might accurately depict the Mexican culture. I also think that our country needs movies like this more than ever. Through the new government's hateful speech towards immigrants and those different than us, it is necessary to have reminders that everyone is human with their own traditions, cultures, and stories, and that it is important to listen and study it all before making judgements like we are pushed to do by our new president.
I actually just went to see Coco with my family. I was desperately missing Mexican culture as most of the people I knew in high school were Mexican and wanted to experience the aesthetic if nothing else.
The extreme research paid off. The team created a beautiful narrative that wove together many incredibly themes and values in Mexican culture. I left the theatre feeling extremely grateful for the people that came before me and the chosen family I have made. I also think that if I were of the older generation it would have helped me understand the need that children have to live their own lives for themselves.
I was actually surprised when I got to the end of the of the movie when the credits rolled and the name of the director wasn't a Latinx one. I was proud of the director for honoring Mexican culture. I hope that this trend of honoring culture instead of appropriating it continues.
Its always interesting to see what Carnegie Mellon’s alumni are doing and truly realize the huge outreach of the university. I am super excited to see this movie because I think it brings a lot of awareness to a culture that is often appropriated and misrepresented. In the mainstream, the Day of the Dead is just a costume that is worn on Halloween. Where, in reality, it is a complex and beautiful holiday for the people of Mexico. I think it was very important for Unkrich to consult his contacts in Mexico to ensure that he is portraying the culture accurately. I love the snippet about the slipper instead of the spoon as, though it is minor, it shows the attention to detail that this team values and is displaying. Reading about how many people worked on this project makes me truly appreciate the artistry of the film. Behind each movement and stroke is a person and that’s what I believe is so important about art and collaboration. These people have spent years creating a complex machine so that they can produce a beautiful project.
This is such a wonderful story to read. The film itself is on its own a really nice move in a more inclusive direction. Its so wonderful to not only see that someone immersed themselves in the culture they were going to tell a story with and interview to fully understand the culture but to see them also ask for feedback and correct the story and animation; it’s mind boggling. Changing animation is a process because the whole thing is rendered and just changing the spoon into a slipper is such an important detail in portraying the culture no matter how little it may seem. It is such a nice and comforting gesture but in actuality, it is such an important process that should occur. Then there is the story of this person and it brings back some memories as he worked on films that I know and have watched as a kid and even still today will watch. It is amazing to see the transformation and direction that Pixar is heading through the hard work done by the people that make up Pixar and that make its films.
It is always interesting to read about the research process for a very culturally based movie. I find it interesting because they have to be very careful and portray the culture accurately and as real realistically as possible. I would like to know whether they actually hired people from the culture that they want to portray whose job it was to be a cultural consultant, or if they just worked with the people that they met while on their “multiple trips to Mexico.” The creative team also faced an interesting dilemma in trying to make the Day of the Dead and the underworld palatable and friendly for young kids. I’m glad that they looked for a new solution and did not just make a copy of Jack Skellington, or another already present skeleton in kids movies. I’m looking forward to seeing this movie and what the feedback from critics is.
I really like the concept behind this film and the way that Lee Urich went about approaching Mexican culture. Because it would have been really easy for them to just go off of their assumptions of Mexican culture, but I wonder if it was a current awareness and more willingness to call companies and people out on cultural appropriation. Overall they seem to have a really good attitude about how they approached this film. For example, I really appreciate their attention to detail, such as changing the spoon to the slipper. Theoretically, its probable that nobody would notice, but the fact that they made the effort shows how much they care. Initially I just dismissed this film as a kids film, but as usual I am sure that the film is a lot more complex than it appears on the surface.
I am, again, impressed by the work that Disney puts in to holding truth in their movies. Because of the fact that they are animated children’s movies, I could see, and have seen, so many design teams disrespect a culture or group and simply brush it under the rug, but Disney always seems to be so responsible in caring for those details that expose children to the diversity in our world. I appreciate that while the director was not, and perhaps some of the creative team members, are not a part of Mexican culture, it was evidently important to the whole team that they honor the story. Beyond all of the impeccable research done, I was thoroughly impressed by the beautiful animations. It was a wonderfully detailed and vibrant experience. It is really interesting to me how they were able to take such a culturally rich story and make it accessible and interesting to children. It makes me happy to see such an active approach to ensuring the spread of culture and diversity.
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