During my COCO premiere experience I had the chance to interview several cast members of COCO who were all so incredibly amazing including Gael Garcia Bernal (voice of Héctor). He was so nice and down to earth and so humbled by our applause as he entered the room. Gael was so excited to start answering all of our questions since we’d all seen the premiere of COCO the night before.
Gael has such an amazing and important role in the movie which he first got to see in Morelia, Mexico. The film was released in Mexico on October 27th. He saw it for the first time in the United States at the premiere when we watched it. The film was so passionate for him at both premieres and both got an incredible reaction from the audience.
Gael said he received an email from Pixar that said something like, ‘Pixar wants you in a movie about day of the dead.’ He immediately thought, of course. At his initial meeting with Pixar they animated certain shows or films Gael had been in and put the dialogues into Héctor who Gael voiced in COCO. From there it was a very easy decision for Gael to do the film. He really liked the challenge of singing.
Mexico is very culturally rich. With COCO we learn a lot about the Day of the Dead. The celebration of this in Mexico is a huge celebration, a tradition, that is very open and generous. It invites a very personal point of view because the Day of the Dead is a reflection on death and nobody has the definite answer on what happens after. So it is a reflection on death that we all engage in it on a very personal level.
Gael actually plays a skeleton, Héctor, in the film. He really put himself on the same level of death and life. The reflections of life and death are a great way to find a persona answer to. You can find your own personal explanation around things.
The creators grabbed little aspects from each region in Mexico to offer a very personal point of view around the film. It’s the complexity of the tradition of the Day of the Dead that is incredibly deep and profound. Ultimately that reflection of life and death leads you to be a better human being to build a better society and future. You find yourself living a life in a more essential way. That’s really what the film shows about Mexico.
COCO is a way that Mexico can invite the world into a reflection of such complexity as the Day of the Dead. It is such an important celebration as you’ll see in the film. It shows how important it us for all of us to keep the memories and stories alive of those we loved.
Day of the Dead has never been so celebrated as it has now with the movie releasing. It is such a great reminder to keep our traditions alive. Mexico has a wonderful carnival and celebration for the day. This year you didn’t see much Halloween but instead Day of the Dead was celebrated much more.
Gael said it was great to walk around the streets to see people and kids painted with costumes. It is a very deep kind of engagement of a celebration instead of the materialistic aspect of Halloween. He said he it’s going to start changing and we’ll start seeing more cultures engaging more in the traditions, valuing them even more.
Gael said he feel like the notion of seizing the moment has been one of the most damaging aspects of western society. It has made us burn the forests that we have in front of us and made us live the now as if there was no tomorrow. As if we’re not engaging with a responsibility that freedom gives us to know that there’s a future and there’s people that will come after. And it is not a rush, life is more, it’s more a craft.
It’s built little by little and seizing the moment sometimes makes you fall into trap that it is now or never. There’s moments that it is now or never but you know when that is and it’s not that there’s a rule that you have to follow that path. Gael said he thinks it has been very damaging. It is interesting that in the film it kind of comes in play.
Check out the trailer for COCO below:
Fun for you and your kids: Disney Pixar’s Coco Printable Coloring Pages and Activity Sheets
Don’t forget! Olaf’s Frozen Adventure will be shown for a limited time in theaters before COCO!
Stay tuned over the next few weeks as I introduce you to the cast and creators of COCO!
Benjamin Bratt Celebrates the Latin Culture in COCO
Disney Pixar’s COCO is in theaters everywhere November 22, 2017! The perfect movie to take your family to Thanksgiving!
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Visit the official COCO website here: http://movies.disney.com/coco
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