Pixar released its newest animated film, the family-oriented, Mexican-themed "Coco" this week. While a veteran in the world of animation, its director, Lee Unkrich, still felt great pressure in re-creating a real world culture as an animated film.
Unkrich recently spoke about the anxiety that came with directing a film like "Coco," which largely revolved around Día de los Muertos or the Day of the Dead, and the Mexican culture of honoring those who have passed onto the afterlife.
"I did have a lot of anxiety when we were making this film about the fact that we were taking on a real culture in the world, and the fact that I'm not Mexican or Latino myself," shared Unkrich. The director added that there was an enormous responsibility to get things right. In the process, he surrounded himself with experts and had also immersed the production team in Mexican culture.
The director compared the anxiety to what he called "fear-based filmmaking," that he experienced when he was directing one of the most successful films of the company, "Toy Story 3." In the film, he worked very hard in fear of letting people down. "I was petrified of going down in film history as the guy who directed the bad sequel to the two beloved Toy Story films," he said.
Unkrich utilized extensive research and travel to enable the team to confidently tell a story located in Mexico, and from the perspective of Mexican characters. He also had advisors that provided more information about the culture.
The veteran director went to as far as partnering with young writer and animator Adrian Molina, who is of Mexican descent, to handle the directing tasks for the movie.
These steps contributed to an accurate animated portrayal of the Mexican culture, which was very important since "Coco" also represented Pixar's move toward racial diversity in its films. This is something that, for many years, has been neglected by the company.
