Hola listeners, I'm Martina Castro and we're back with another episode of Duolingo's Film Club, the newest season of the Duolingo Spanish Podcast. This season we're exploring some of the most iconic Spanish language films and whether you've seen them or not, you're going to learn what makes these movies so special. In our signature bilingual format, our movie today is a family favorite, Coco. I bet most of you have seen it, but chances are you watched it in English. I did.
It was originally released in English in 2017 and it won an Oscar for best animated feature, but Disney and Pixar also made a Spanish version with Mexican voice actors. And that's the version of the movie we're discussing today. Coco is an iconic film because it captures one of the most important celebrations in Mexican culture, the day of the day or the day of the dead. The day of death is the only night of the year in which our ancestors visit us.
It's beautiful, the characters, the colors and the details of the movie are incredible. That's Mauricio Garcia, you may have heard him in an earlier session of Duos film club while he's back again to share his expertise in Mexican cinema and guess what? Mauricio was born and raised in the very region of Mexico that inspired the movie, Michoacán. So grab some popcorn and stick around because Mauricio will be giving us an inside look at Coco that you won't find anywhere else.
But if you plan to watch the movie, it's rated PG, so it's family friendly, just like our episode today. Before we dive into the film, there's a really important aspect of Mexican culture we have to talk about first. It's the celebration of el día de los muertos. It happens every year in November when families create an altar or a altar to honor their ancestors or ancestors who have passed on. It's a tradition that Mauricio has celebrated ever since he was a kid. It's a very beautiful tradition.
I'm born in Michoacán and I'm always celebrating that day. All the families have an altar and put the photos of the people who are already there. They also put in candles the favorite food of those people and many flowers of color orange. According to tradition, you have to put flowers in the altar of the houses. This helps ancestors to find their families. So now that you know about el día de los muertos, which is basically the backdrop of the entire movie, we can take a little deeper.
Coco tells the story of Miguel, a 12 year old boy who lives in a small Mexican town. He absolutely loves to play the guitar and to sing. But his family wants him to have nothing to do with music because one of his ancestors was a musician who abandoned the family. Still, Miguel is determined to follow his singing dreams. Then, on el día de los muertos, something magical happens. He journeys to the land of the dead. In that wonderful place, he meets some incredible characters.
When he arrives, Miguel decides to look for his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz. In the movie, he sings a very famous and famous Mexican singer and he sings the legend. While he's in the land of the dead, Miguel tries to find his idol or idolo, Ernesto de la Cruz, because he's convinced that this famous singer is also his long-lost great-great-grandfather. And while Miguel is there, he meets another important character, a trickster named Ector.
Miguel begins to explore the world of the muertos with Ector, his new friend of adventure. Miguel also seeks to find the cross, but also answers to a question. Why is music prohibited in his family? It's important for him, because his dream is to be a musician. The reason Miguel thinks de la Cruz is his ancestor is because of an old family photo. In the photo, we see Miguel's great-great-grandfather standing next to a guitar, but his face is missing, which fuels Miguel's search even more.
Mauricio explains why family photos are essential to the holiday the day of the martyrs. According to tradition, you have to put in the altar the photo of your ancestor. Like this, in this day of the festival, that person can come out of the world of the muertos, find his house and celebrate with his family. If his photo is not in any altar, the person can not go to the world of the vives. That happens to him as a character.
The film explains this tradition, because the two directors studied a lot Mexican culture before making the film. Ah, and one of them is Mexican. The film director that Mauricio just mentioned is Adrián Molina. He has always stayed connected to his family's roots in Mexico, and you can feel that in his work. During his research, Molina discovered that certain regions of Mexico have their own special rituals for the other osmortos, like the state of Michoacán, where our guest Mauricio is from.
There are several peoples in Michoacán. The copic film inspired a town called Pazcuaro. There are white houses of red, like in the film and the main square, it is also very similar. The inhabitants respect the tradition a lot, and in the day of the dead, the whole town is illuminated with the light of the stars. An entire town illuminated by candlelight. How beautiful. Who wouldn't love to see that?
Michoacán has such a rich heritage that is often called the soul of Mexico, and so many aspects of Cocoa are inspired by the small town life there. For example, Miguel comes from a family of shoe makers or zapateros. In Cocoa, the family of Miguel is a family of zapateros, and in the small towns, the family's profession is very important. It's true, the protagonist of the film is Miguel, but I think the true protagonist is the family.
Miguel has parents, uncles, cousins, a grandmother and his grandmother. Cocoa. In the movie, we can see the image of the Mexican rural family, with a profession that goes generation by generation. This attention to detail makes Cocoa stand out. It was Pixar's first film to feature Mexican culture, and the team wanted everything to be authentic, including the music. It was so good that Cocoa won an Oscar for Best Original Song in 2018. There are many styles of music in Cocoa.
For example, the ranchers, the boloes and the famous mariachis. The ranchers generally talk about adventures, life in the field and death. The boloes are usually songs of love, much more melancholic. And the mariachi is a mix of all the elements of Mexican traditional music. For me, music and the songs of the film are wonderful. Yes, the songs are so moving and definitely add to the storyline. But something else that sets Cocoa apart is the animation.
It's bright, colorful and again very authentic. Now let's move on to a language learning moment from the film, to deepen your cultural understanding in our segment, Bon Le Plé, or Press Play. Today we have a clip from one of the opening scenes when Miguel's grandmother tells him why El día de los Muertos is so important. Just one quick vocabulary note, when you hear her say Ophrenda, she's referring to the family's altar. Okay, here we go. Hello friends, how are you doing? I'm fine.
And when you hear her say Ophrenda, she's referring to the family's altar. Okay, here we go. A la ofrenda, vamos. El día de muertos es la única noche del año en que nuestros ancestros nos visitan. Ponemos sus fotos en la ofrenda para que sus espíritus crucen de vuelta. Eso es muy importante. Si no las ponemos ellos no cruzaran. ¡Es perfecto, amigo!
In this clip we hear Miguel's grandmother talking about their family altar, and she shows him how it's decorated with flowers, food, candles, and photos of their ancestors. El altar es perfecto para recordar. Creo que la idea de poner fotos comenzó en el siglo XX y se ha hecho muy popular. Porque es la ofrenda para los ancestros. La tradición dice que sus almas vienen a pasar esa noche con su familia. Entonces, por eso, se pone la comida favorita de esas personas que ya no están con nosotros.
Then, at the end of the scene, Miguel's grandmother says something really important. Y todo es para que la familia se reuna. That sentiment really hit home for Mauricio. While on the surface Coco looks like a movie about a journey, he says it's ultimately a story about identity. Miguel viaja al mundo de los muertos, porque su familia no lo deja ser músico. Y él esté nojado porque es su sueño más grande. Pero luego entiende que su familia también es parte de su sueño y regresa.
En la película entiendes que es importante buscar tu identidad. Pero también es importante recordar de dónde vienes. Miguel y yo nos parecemos un poco. Yo me fui de mi pueblo a la gran ciudad para estudiar literatura y buscar algo diferente. Tu besoerte porque mi familia no tuvo problemas con eso. Y siempre vuelvo a mi chocán, porque allí están mi corazón y mi familia. Miguel también regresa.
Whether you've seen Coco or not, we're pretty sure today's Datos Curiosos will teach you something new about the movie. We asked our guest Mauricio to share some of his favorite fun facts about Coco and he has some really good ones. Number one, the inspiration behind Miguel's loyal furry friend Dante is a breed of hairless dog that has existed in Mexico for thousands of years. They're called cholo dogs. And to get Dante exactly right, Pixar animators brought real life cholo dogs to the studio.
It was great to see a cholo on the screen, it's not like a real dog. But sometimes they're on the streets. I like it a lot because they're like mythological creatures. The Aztecas believed that they accompanied people on their journey to the other world. And in the movie, I love when Dante goes to the world of dead people and a little bit of a fridge. Fun fact number two is about the music in Coco. Remember the character Ernesto de la Cruz, the singer?
Well, he's actually inspired by two real life Mexican cinema legends, Jorge Negrete and Pedro Infante. They were very important names in the Mexican cinema, which began in the 1930s. Generally, the Mexican cinema movies showed the music of rural areas of the country. Okay, last one. Number three. Originally, the movie was going to be called the de los mortos. And Disney tried to trademark the title, which of course is also the name of the holiday.
This ignited a backlash because many Mexican Americans felt like it was cultural appropriation. So, Pixar changed the name. I think that changing the name was a good idea, because it's an important celebration, not a brand. They changed the name to Coco, the grandmother of Miguel's mother, her grandmother and this character was actually a person of Michoacán. He was called Maria Salud Ramirez Caballero.
It's incredible, because Coco appears a lot to Maria Salud, but also to the Mexican grandparents who live in these villages. And there's something curious. Maria Salud lived up to the 19th century. And now we have one more bonus trivia, but it's a spoiler. So, if you haven't watched the movie, skip ahead to the end, or come back when you've caught up. Here it goes. By the end of the movie, Miguel realizes that his great-great-grandfather really is Ícdod. The trickster who becomes his friend.
And it turns out that everyone was wrong. Ícdod never abandoned his family. He was betrayed by his friend, and ever since he had been wandering the land of the dead, trying to find a way back to his loved ones. It's a surprise ending that challenges a stereotype in a lot of Mexican movies. It's such a sweet ending for the movie. And for today's session of Dua's film club, thank you to our guest, Critic Mauricio Arcia. He currently works in Mexico City as an editor at Ediciones Cal y Arena.
Thank you for sharing with me this film. See you later. This episode was written by Tálico. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. This is the film. I'll see you in the next video. Duolingo believes in making education free, fun, and available to everyone. To join, download the app today or find out more at Duolingo.com. The Duolingo Spanish podcast is produced by Duolingo and Adon de Media. I'm the Executive Producer and your host, Martina Castro. Gracias por escuchar.