Post
by Nightshadow » Sat Mar 17, 2018 9:53 pm
@pknumba1: I liked the movie a lot, and I haven't heard of any Mexican hating it. They may love it more or less, but no one hates it. There are some things that disappointed me, like the underworld, and the fact that there is no bread of the dead (it's not made with dead anything, it's just because of the shape) and no sugar candy skulls, which I thought by now, people around the world more or less know. The latter were in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in the Honeydukes cellar because thanks to Cuarón, that movie is also filled with Mexican references. I have seen that this two things scare foreigners, and I have actually scared a couple. Imagine getting a sugar skull with your name on the forehead. Maybe it's weird, crazy or scary for you, but for us it means the person who gives it to us took the trouble of following the original tradition, and we are grateful. One of this sugar skulls with the name of the person for who you make the offering is a perfectly accepted substitute for a picture. You see, in Mexico we mock death, which is why our festivities for the dead are parties and fun. We mourn the dead when they die, but afterwards we celebrate life and mock death because we're all going to die anyway. Coco is not the Egyptian Book of the Dead because it's mythology is Aztec, but there are similarities. There is no judge at the entrance, no Anubis and no weighing of the heart, the dead person's spirit walks to the underworld and the god welcomes him. The journey is a test or a mix with a purgatory, but you enter it regardless of good or bad deeds. It is underground and there are levels and rivers, which is also similar to Dante's Inferno. Day of the death is a mix of the Aztec traditions and the catholic ones, which happened because Mexico was part of Spain until the 1800s. This is very common for us in many things, we didn't let go of the Aztec part and we incorporated Spanish and catholic things. There are words in Mexican Spanish spoken in Mexico City that are Aztec, and people in Yucatán peninsula have Mayan words in the Spanish they speak. However, there are a lot of ancient cultures who have similar underworlds. The underworld in Coco is not the Aztec underworld, it's not even close, it's just a generic version full of decorations we do have in Mexican graveyards on the day of the dead, and more like a city with events like the music contest that do happen in villages all around Mexico. It's like a mirror of the real Mexico, kind of what was done in The Corpse Bride. And really accurate Frida Kahlo, I must say. For me and for a lot of Mexicans, the fact that Disney took the time to research and we do see Mexico in the movie, the characters, the way they dress and act, the names (though I don't know if Miguel calls Coco "mamá Coco" in English)... there are a lot of things that look so familiar and so faraway from USA, that we see that they made the effort to portray it as accurately as can be expected. I don't know if Chicanos were harsher towards the movie, but at least everyone around me, myself included, loves it.
We didn't like the Oscars performance, though. Gael García missed the mark, we found out that the ending credits version of Remember Me was sung by a man of color and we kept wondering why, and then Mexican singer girl (Natalia Lafourcade) is a pop singer who has no woman-mariachi-like voice, so everyone had a better candidates for the parts. Mexican music when sung by women, has to be sung by a contralto woman, so the Oscars version sounded really off and weird.
I side with Haru and kanta on this one too, Disney is trying new things, sometimes they turn out weird like the Maleficent live action's true love kiss, and sometimes they turn out well like the no love story stuff they've been doing with Elsa and Moana (though Brave did it before and better imo). I think Pixar did a good job with Coco, I would like to know if Celtic people thought they did good with Brave, and by comparison, if Disney did a good job with Moana and Hawaiian culture. I have the idea that Pixar puts more effort nowadays. But yes, let's all be skeptical until we see whether or not they make a good job of what we love and live everyday.
@Haru: looks rough, hope at least your apartment is better now. I live in a house, so I can only imagine how bad this must be.
@Mura_Kaze: congrats!!!! <3 I feel you, two of my wisdom teeth were horizontal and I also had to get surgery, but you'll be ok, I'm sure ^^
@kantanaamaya: good luck on your interview, I hope you get the job. I've only been to one job interview and one interview for getting a position as a junior researcher in a lab for a couple of months.