Pixar Reveals Title and Details of Their Day of the Dead Film COCO
During their D23 Expo animated film program, Disney and Pixar announced that the title of their Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) film will be Coco. The film is named after one of the main characters.
The story follows a 12-year-old boy named Miguel who sets off a chain of events relating to a century-old mystery. Director Lee Unkrich was inspired to make the film from the question, “What if you could meet your long dead family members?” This is the brief plot description:
“Coco is the celebration of a lifetime, where the discovery of a generations-old mystery leads to a most extraordinary and surprising family reunion.”
Unkrich explained how he was fascinated by the holiday honoring the dead. For research, he traveled to different parts of Mexico to get a better idea of how the holiday was celebrated, and he spent time with many families who shared the traditions of the holiday with him. I'm sure you've all seen that its celebrated with beautiful and colorful macabre folk art. Unkrich said he was mesmerized by the “juxtaposition of skeletons with bright festive colors.”
The film was described as having a breathtaking, beautiful, fun, and emotional story. The audience was then shown a diorama pitch clip that gave us an idea of the kind of imagery and tone that we will see in the film.
It featured a wonderfully colorful Mexican town populated by happy, playful skeletons. They are wearing incredibly detailed dresses and other types of clothing. The skeletons are celebrating, dancing, and playing mariachi instruments. They even use their bones as instruments. At the end, we are introduced to the main boy character when his skull mask falls off while he is playing the guitar in a skeleton band.
There aren't many other details about the film at this time, but it looks like it's going to be a fun movie.