Remember me before the memory of love fades
The film's real name is coco
Before the release of "Dream Quest", Disney had sent a lot of staff to do a lecture before many film test shows, and one of the important contents was not to feel that this was a low-grade version of the cartoon that was only suitable for children because the name of the movie was "Dream Quest". In fact, this is a movie suitable for all ages to watch, about dreams and families.
In fact, it is likely that in order to cater to the preferences of children, when the disney movie title is translated into Chinese, it sets a framework for itself - straightforward, funny, and in line with the preferences of children. But behind these general mobilizations, parades, and special attack teams, it is about things that are very important and worthy of being cherished in life, such as friendship, family affection, and self... "Dream Quest" is the same, behind the childish name, it explores a deep theme.
A world of the undead illuminated
Mexican Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead, the essence of Mexican culture
The English name of "Dream Quest" is coco, which is the name of the grandmother in the film. The choice of this name made Pixar rack its brains, because during the period when "Dream Quest" was on file, there were already movies that chose the name "Day of the Dead". Therefore, Pixar also dragged out a long time to finalize the name coco, and every time the film was mentioned before, it could only say "that unspecified movie about the Day of the Dead." ”
The film is mainly about Miguel, a 12-year-old boy who loves music, but can only quietly hide his dreams because of family opposition. On the day of the Day of the Dead, because of a guitar, the little boy enters the land of the dead and embarks on a fantastic adventure. The film's director, Lee Unkridge, chose the name coco mainly because grandma is a line between life and death in the film, and the puppy that accompanies the little boy born into death in the land of the dead is named Dante, and a trace of life and death can be seen from this name.
Miguel came to the world of the dead
The Day of the Dead is not unique to Mexico, but is actually celebrated in many Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America. It is said that the Day of the Dead is actually the result of the collision between the Spanish colonial culture and the local Indian culture, and the Mexicans celebrate the Day of the Dead in the most grand and distinctive way.
As an important festival of Indian culture, the Day of the Dead has a history of nearly three thousand years. In the 16th century, before the Spanish colonization, the Day of the Dead was celebrated in August. Later, after the colonists entered, the Day of the Dead became three days: October 31, November 1, and November 2. Among them, November 1 is used to commemorate children who died prematurely, and November 2 is used to commemorate the deceased relatives. But generally speaking, when we say Day of the Dead, we only mean the day of November 2, which is also the time when the story in the film takes place.
Mexican locals believe the dead need a cheerful atmosphere
However, what makes The Mexican Day of the Dead unique is that it is cheerful. Mexicans believe that death is not the end, but a journey to another world, so when the dead can one day return to the world of the living, it is naturally a matter of joy and celebration.
To this end, Mexicans will set up an altar in each household, in general, the altar will have three or more floors, the top layer can put the portrait of a religious celebrity or the deceased's favorite person, the middle layer can put the deceased's photos and their favorite food and things, the lowest layer represents the deceased's connection with the world of the dead, you can put some skeleton decorations, and so on. In addition, there will be candles and incense sticks throughout the altar to guide the dead, Mexican paper cuts, skull candy. Marigold petals are sprinkled on the cemetery's road to the village or town, allowing the undead to return along the fragrant path. At night, pumpkin lanterns are lit at the doorstep of the home to guide the undead; on the altar are offered corn soup, chocolate, bread, rice dumplings, hot sauce, pumpkins, sweets, desserts and other offerings for the undead to enjoy.
It can be said that the film shows the state of Mexicans when celebrating the Day of the Dead, and deeply understands the significance of the Day of the Dead for Mexicans.
Miguel and Grandma Coco
Changed again and again, the plot was completely overturned and rewritten
After the release of Toy Story 3, director Lee Unkrich began consulting with Disney to make a movie about the Mexican Day of the Dead. When Disney heard about the plan, it immediately gave the green light, even though at this time Unkrich had no story, characters, or even a plan outline. In the following years, the outline of the film changed and changed.
Between the original screenplay of "Dream Quest" and the final film, it can be said that there is almost no commonality. The original script wanted to tell the story of a culture-shocked boy of mixed race born in the United States, whose father was American and his mother was Mexican. When his mother died, the father took the boy alone back to his mother's hometown to learn about the Mexican part of his blood. Arriving in Mexico, coinciding with the Day of the Dead, the boy embarks on a fantastic adventure in an exotic world.
Unkrich's team had been working around this theme from the beginning, but as the work unfolded, Unkrić suddenly realized that they had fallen into a misunderstanding: "We initially thought it should be a story of a child learning to control his grief and learn to say goodbye to sad memories of the past." But in fact, this is the American view of the Day of the Dead, which is far from the cultural core of the Day of the Dead, the core of the Day of the Dead is not to forget the loved ones who have passed away. ”
So the whole team began to rethink and create, and Unkridge and his colleagues began to travel to Mexico to collect style, chat with locals, go to their homes, visit Mexican plazas and markets, participate in the Celebration of the Dead, and do everything they can to suck in all the details that can be seen and heard, hoping to capture the essence of Mexican culture more realistically.
In 2013, Pixar's parent company, Disney, decided to register the Day of the Dead trademark, a move that was boycotted by the Latino community and ultimately failed. Even more irritating to Unkridge was that in 2014 Fox produced the animated Book of Life while his team was working on the film. The film is voiced by Diego Runa, Chanin Tatum, Zoe Soldana, and is also based on the Mexican Day of the Dead. In addition, a Mexican animation studio announced that it will release a movie about the Day of the Dead in 2016, and it will be called "The Day of the Dead". The release of several films of the same genre in just a few short years is also a big trouble for Unkridge, so the schedule of "Dream Quest" has been revised, initially expected to be released in 2016, and then given two release times, one is November 22, 2017, and the other is June 15, 2018. Thankfully, Unkrich's team completed the production in time to allow the film to meet three weeks after the Day of the Dead.
The stunning Chrysanthemum Bridge
The routine is too deep, and you can see through the results at a glance
Watching "Dream Quest" must remember to bring tissues, there are a few tear spots in this movie like poisonous chicken soup, poking at people's hearts. Douban netizens gave this film a high score of 9.4, higher than 99% of the animation! The film review website Rotten Tomatoes also gave the film a super high freshness of 96%; but, on the other hand, in the eyes of professional film critics, the film's rating is only 78 points, which is not as good as classics such as "Brain Agent" and "Robot Wall-E".
The rhythm of the script of "Dream Quest" is actually extremely delicate, every conflict, every twist is dead to the beat table, very good at mobilizing people's emotions, but this also makes the film into a very embarrassing situation - the audience can easily guess what will happen in the next second, making it difficult for the film to surprise the audience.
For example, Miguel's family is a family of shoesmakers, everyone is very smooth life, but Miguel is the rebel, the final solution must be his reconciliation with the family; when De la Cruz was killed by the clock, the audience can easily think that he may be Miguel's ancestor; when Eckto appears to escape from the bridge, according to the general film routine, it can be guessed that he is actually Miguel's family; when Ecktor mentions that he was poisoned, It can also be guessed that there will be a grudge between him and De la Cruz, and the big star's skin will eventually be exposed....
In addition, in order to restore the life of Mexicans, the director Unkrich chose an all-Latino voice cast, and the screenwriter Adrian Molina also came from a Latino family: "When I was in high school, my grandparents would come and live with us, just like the characters in the film, my grandmother was in a wheelchair, she and my grandfather both spoke Spanish, and English was not spoken well..." Therefore, in the film, the screenwriter added a lot of Spanish vocabulary, as well as some Mexican celebrities. The addition of these words and celebrities is a bit of a struggle for audiences who want to listen to the soundtrack of the film but don't have a foundation in Spanish. Some lines and memes need to be chewed well to feel the emotions that the film wants to express.
Miguel loves music
Between life and death, animated movies open their minds
The film opens with a paper-cut show, accompanied by rich Mexican music, and the little boy Miguel's narration and paper cut-out lay out the family secrets, which sets the tone of the film. When Miguel arrives in the world of the dead, the more brilliant colors and magical architectural superpositions are dazzling. The world of the undead is vertically structured, which contrasts with the horizontal arrangement of Saint Cecilia. The distribution of the towers also represents a sense of historical layering: the Mesoamerican pyramids are located on the ground floor, while the Spanish colonial style buildings are built on the top floor. The whole world is built with people's continuous exchanges, so period after period, level by level. In addition, marigold petals also gave the creative team a lot of inspiration, especially when they considered what to use to connect the living world and the land of the dead in the story, and immediately decided to build a bridge made of bright orange petals.
Of course, such a scene may already be too familiar. In 2002, a director made a 6-minute short film about the Day of the Dead, and the director adopted a stop-motion animation model that blurred the boundaries between the living and the dead. The 2007 Mexican cartoon The Legend of Navarra uses exaggerated images to convey the relationship between life and death, good and evil. The 2013 graduation design of three female students is quite amazing, this film is a three-minute short film co-produced by three girls from the Ringling College of Art and Design, Ashley Graham, Kate Reynolds and Lindesi St. Pierre, which tells the story of a little girl mourning at her mother's grave on The Day of the Dead, and a magical blue ghost flower brings her into the mansion, and a skeleton garden party begins. The entire short film is similar to "Dream Quest" in both style and content, and the story is also intended to correct the misunderstanding of Mexican traditions in American culture. Interestingly, in the three girls announced, among the production tools they used, there were also tools developed by Pixar Studios, and I don't know if they were also influenced by Pixar's story construction.
Zombie bride
There are many impressive animations about life and death, including "Zombie Bride", which was filmed in 2005, which is a brain-opening work. The film was directed by the great director Tim Burton, voiced by Johnny Depp and Burton's girlfriend at the time, the famous British actress Helena Bonham Carter. It tells the story of an upstart youth who accidentally hit and accidentally married a dead zombie girl. The film uses a lifeless cold tone in the world of the living, which is quite depressing; but it uses various colorful colors in the world of the deceased, full of humanity. The story is close to Burton's usual black tone, telling the truth that the world is not all pure good, and there is not all the devil in hell.
West China Metropolis Daily - Cover News Reporter Yan Wenwen