Introduction: Death is one of the most beloved toys of Mexicans, the eternal love of Mexicans.
The movie "Dream Quest" is an animated film produced by Disney Pixar. Set against the backdrop of Mexico's Day of the Dead, the film tells the wonderful story of Mig, a boy who loved music and dreamed of becoming a world-famous musician but was born in a shoemaking family that completely eliminated music, and went to the world of the dead to participate in the Festival of the Dead in order to prove his musical talent, hoping to find his grandfather and get his blessings. The presentation of Mexican culture in the life of the young boy Mig in the film and the colorful and mysterious world of the undead construct the core value of the story with the three themes of "family", "dream" and "life and death".
First, the real and delicate cultural restoration
The Day of the Dead is a traditional cultural festival in Mexico, similar to the Zhongyuan Festival on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar and the Qingming Festival on the first of April, the traditional Day of the Dead in Mexico also has a fixed day or two as a fixed date of the festival every year, and the Mexican Day of the Dead is on November 1 and November 2 every year. But the difference is that the word "death" is a painful and sad word in China, and it is very respectful to the deceased. Mexicans, on the other hand, have a very different attitude towards "death", and in ancient Mexican culture their understanding of "death" is indifferent, believing that the dead will not really leave, they will continue to live in another world. Legend has it that on this day, the deceased people can return to the human world to spend time with their families, so this day has even become the most joyful day in mexico City, Mexicans all over the country will go to the streets to play, wear special costumes, wear skull masks and sing and dance, they make a lot of paper cuts with skull patterns, make some skull-shaped food to pay tribute to the dead, intended to remember the deceased family, and remember them forever.
The movie "Dream Quest" is to integrate the traditional cultural customs of the Mexican Day of the Dead into the animation, not to mention that the film production team spent more than several years in Mexico to investigate, so that almost all the cultural elements of the Mexican Day of the Dead have been restored to the film and then passed on to the audience, which shows that this is also the respect and humility of the film creators for the traditional culture of Mexico. Through this kind of edutainment animation, it is obviously more convincing and more attractive to the audience than purely virtual fairy tales. The living people dress up as "ghosts" on the day of the Dead to hold a yin and yang "party" with the family of Yongbei, which sounds strange but the film is actually a different and warm picture, which is the story canvas of the creator. The meticulous picture and unique cultural integration in the film, from the details to the film scene design, make every frame of the film worthy of appreciation.
When the audience follows the camera for the first time into the dazzling world of the undead, it is inevitable that the protagonist Mig will have an incredible and admirable reaction, this colorful world of the undead is actually based on the city of Guanajuato in Mexico, and the colorful and layered houses are built on the city's mountains, which is called "God's overturned palette", and it looks like a colorful world. The paper cuts seen in the film similar to the Chinese ones are actually made by the Mexicans with chisels, which depict the images of skeletons, flowers, birds, the sun, etc., which is the Mexican paper cut, which is a carrier of the Mexican Day of the Dead; in addition, there are golden yellow flowers that appear in the film and the petal bridge paved with it, in reality this flower is regarded as a flower connecting the two worlds, which mexicans call "golden flower". On the day of the Day of the Dead, Mexicans will sprinkle petals on their homes and cemeteries with the intention of relying on the fragrance of flowers to guide the deceased relatives home; in addition, the altars, creatures, skulls, rice dumplings and other elements that appear in the film are real items that exist in the real life Mexican Day of the Dead, and the traditional culture of the Mexican Day of the Dead also reflects the Romantic Restoration of Mexico under the portrayal of the creators.
In addition, there is an understanding and definition of "life and death", the so-called "absolute death" is actually forgotten by the living people, and the forgotten undead in the film will disappear one by one in the undead world, never to see their relatives again. If the undead want to see their living relatives on the day of the Dead, they must have the setting that the living person remembers that the person existed, providing the audience with another new definition of "life and death". The memory that resides is the divine power that maintains the existence of the undead, and the disappearance of the body does not represent the demise of man and forgetting is the final end of declaring death.
Second, the narrative core of family affection and dreams
Family affection is the most resonant level for the audience, the movie "Dream Quest" mixed with two other themes in addition to life and death for narrative, the film focuses on the concept of family, in the pursuit of dreams on the road to the audience to dial out the importance of family affection. Mig's pursuit of his dreams is not a simple adventure game, he came to the world of the dead with two major tasks, one is to get the blessing of Grandpa Gaozu to realize his musical dream and return to the world, and the other is to help Extor realize his wish to reunite with his family. The progression of the story also allows the audience to discover one truth after another, in the film, MiG receives three blessings in the world of the undead, and each blessing has the collision of the director's family affection and dreams.
The first great-great-grandmother's "blessing" for Mig's unsustainable prohibition of touching music was clearly an incomprehensible "blessing"; the second time it no longer restricted the child from chasing his dreams and made him remember the love of his family; and the third blessing was unconditional. This novel expression of family affection subverts the old way of family love narrative, a lot of emotional preparation and the use of music to enhance the appeal of the story to achieve empathy with the audience. Dreams and family affection do not always stand on the opposite side, at the end of "Dream Quest", Mig's actions show that in the choice between dreams and family affection, chasing dreams is no longer important, and being with family is the most important thing, which is also a point that can move the audience in the film, and also let people have a deeper understanding of family and dreams.
epilogue
The film "Dream Quest" places the contradiction and conflict between dreams and family affection and the traditional culture of Mexico, which is undoubtedly a successful film that uses clever ideas to resolve the contradictions at a high level, and it is also a successful export of traditional Mexican culture. The twists and turns of the story are also unexpected, the in-depth interpretation of the film makes the audience have a new understanding of death, the opposite of life is not death, but forgetfulness, death is not the end of life, forgetting is.