Before the movie was even being made Disney tried to copyright “Dia de los Muertos”. You can see the problem with that, I hope- copyrighting and attempting to turn a holiday that originated from poc (all the way back to Aztecs even) into a trademark to rake in cash. Dia de los Muertos is an incredibly important day to Mexicans for spiritual reasons, as well as just for values and culture. The fact that Disney/Pixar even THOUGHT to do that is sickening in my opinion and made me lose interest immediately back in 2011.
It’s a rip-off from a movie directed written by Mexicans who put their hearts and souls into the movie because they knew they could get away with it.
The plot of The Coco is:
A Mexican boy named Manuel Miguel loves music and plays guitar but his family is deeply rooted in its tradition of bull fighting shoemaking and doesn’t want him to be a musician. He dies, travels to the Land of the Remembered Dead and seeks out his loved ones and meets all his ancestors which him get home and finally embrace his dream of music.
Wow. Sounds a hell of a lot like the plot of The Book of Life. Sure, no love triangle, but everything else is the damn same.
So let’s just entertain the notion for a moment that this:
is a fluke.
Some may say, hey, who cares if the stories are the same/similar? Fairytales are retold all the time, people just put their own spin on it. Plus, we get more Mexican/Latinx representation, right?
Pixar/Disney turned The Book of Life down when Jorge pitched it to them.
Everywhere Jorge Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua went, people said a “hispanic story isn’t universal”and wanted to compromise his vision. Pixar is one of them.They saw The Book of Life didn’t do well and wouldn’t be getting its intended 2 other movies (which would have included a latina woman as the star) and said, well, Elena of Avalor (a spin off of a baby show about a princess from a fictional country who has a magic guitar or whatever and looks a lot like Maria Posada) is doing well, so there’s a market! Let’s try this” because they know that Pixar is unstoppable. It’s all about brand recognition and marketing. Pixar will never have to worry about having enough money or the opportunity to make a movie.
The Book of Life is HIS story, based on his own love of culture and the holiday, not a fairy tale that can be retold over and over. It’s very special to him not only as a Mexican but because his best friend dies when they were children and his mother taught him about the spirit of dia de los muertos and as long as you remember someone, they’ll always be with you. He proposed to his wife Sandra on dia de los muertos so all his ancestors and favorite people could be there. The part of the movie where Manolo leads Maria to the tree with candles is based on his proposal.
“
This movie is really who I am.”
Dia de los muertos and playing guitar isn’t the only thing about being Mexican. Mexico has its own legends and fairy tales and hell, Mexican/Latinx characters could be in something that doesn’t center around their ethnicity. Like white people get when they’re the standard.
The Book of Life wasn’t DIA DE LOS MUERTOS: THE MOVIE (which Pixar was basically going to name it) because Jorge is just one Mexican and he doesn’t speak for his whole country. It was a movie that took place during Dia de los Muertos which his original characters to show his love for the day’s spirit and, ironically, was about writing your own story. Not only that, but it had themes of sexism, man’s destruction of nature, that sometimes traditions can be wrong, and life and death and love. That’s all universal.
What’s gonna happen when the movie comes out is there’s going to be merchandise everywhere. There are going to be skull masks, sugar skulls, stuffed skeletons, sombaros, and the like sold by a multi-billion dollar company and the imagery will be tied to Coco, not Dia de los Muertos anymore. Instead of buying such things from Mexican craftspeople and artists, they’ll be mass produced and used as a toy and costume. I’m not offended by white people painting their faces for the holiday as long as they understand the signifigance of it. This doesn’t help explain the signifigance, it just places a Disney trademark on the imagery for their own profit.
I may be a bit biased because I had the chance to attend The Book of Life art panel/Q&A (xxx) and met him again at his art show in July (xx), but as I said in the linked posts, the book of life has the most heart and soul and detail and care I’ve ever seen put into a movie. The art is incredible and stylized and it’s amazing what they were able to to with 3D models and translating the style. It makes me sad no one caught the panel on video because the amount of symbolism behind everything is truly remarkable and hearing the people behind it talk about it is unmatch.
Here are just a couple things I love about Jorge and why I love him and his work and the movie so much, besides he and Sandra being some of the nicest people I’ve ever met:
“One of my favorite things about Mexican folk art is this idea that artisans are making it,” Mr. Gutierrez said by phone from Washington. “So there are all these imperfections, and every piece is completely unique.
The motif of anti-bullfighting and man vs animal
LA MUERTE
“anyone can die… these kids are going to have the courage to live”
No research trips because they’re too touristy and you can’t understand a whole culture from one trip.
Excuse me if I sound bitter, but I guess I am. I can’t help it when the animation industry and Hollywood is all about money and it’s discouraging when it doesn’t matter how hard you try or how much care is put into something. It’s not fair, plain and simple. It’s happened before time and time again, but I have a great connection to this movie and Jorge’s work has helped me a lot to accept who I am (which I’d be happy to talk about in a different post if you’re interested).
Disney have a history of copyrighting things that should be public domain and setting their lawyers on it until they can. They’ve have multiple laws changed though their efforts. They’re an evil company.
lanablack 