Coco: Taking a Deeper Look

Name of Review Item:

Coco

Media Type:

Movie

Author/Creator:

Director: Lee Unkrich

Publisher and Copyright Date:

Walt Disney Pictures; Pixar Animation Studios, October 20, 2017

Name of Reviewer:

Edgar Reyes

Date of Review:

7/29/2019

Stars:

Url:

https://www.pixar.com/feature-films/coco/#coco-main

coco_movie_poster

Background

In Mexico, the “Day of the Dead” is a day of festive remembrance of family and friends who have passed away. Families typically visit the graveyards where their loved ones are buried and bring pictures of the deceased along with their favorite food, drink, and music. These items are thought to encourage the visit of the deceased one’s spirit from the “land of the dead”. The origins of this cultural tradition are thought be among the Aztec civilization 2,500 – 3,000 years ago (see reference 1 below for more information).

The movie Coco depicts this Mexican festival beautifully and the movie has become mandatory viewing for all young Americans of Mexican descent (trust me on this one).

Movie Synopsis

Miguel is a young boy who desires more than anything else to be a musician. However, he has the bad fortune of being born into a family that has completely shunned music and anything having to do with music for generations. On the day of the dead, Miguel somehow passes into the “land of the dead”, meets several of his ancestors he’s only seen in pictures, explores the history of his family’s relationship to music and fame, helps his family discover the truth behind a terrible incident, and resolves conflicts that have robbed the family of peace for decades.

It is a wonderful story exposing children and adults alike to concepts worth thinking about and discussing.

The Land of the Dead

Not only does the whole country of Mexico believe that people continue their existence after death in a subtler realm, but so do several other cultures like modern Tibetan Buddhists (ref: The Tibetan Book of the Dead), ancient Egyptians (2), the Ancient Mayans (3) and Aztecs (4), modern Hindus (5), Celtics (6), and even several modern American and British authors like the clairvoyants CW Leadbeater (7) and Annie Besant (8). In many cases, the aforementioned peoples and writings give a detailed geography of the other world, outlining various regions of it and describing their qualities. All these people and cultures (except Mexico, oddly enough), say that a person goes there after death and stays there for a time before eventually reincarnating in another body for another round of earthly life. [Sometimes in dreams we really speak to those people who are living in that realm for the time being.]

Crossing Over

There are 3 ways to cross over into and have experiences in the “Land of the Dead” (i.e. Subtle Realm):

Death – when the physical body ceases to function, this has absolutely no bearing on a person’s other energy bodies. Hence, his next level up” body -his subtle body- is perfectly fine at the time of physical death and he/she is able to interact with things and people on that plane.
Sleep – During sleep, the dreams we experience are usually a jumble mess of memories from the day, imaginings from the brain, and actual impression from the subtle realm where the astral body finds itself when the physical body is “deactivated”.
Meditation – In certain yogic practices, like Raja Yoga, sense withdraw is practiced. This means that a yogi can stop the functioning of his 5 physical senses and thereby become sensitive to impressions made upon his non-physical bodies by non-physical objects and/or people.

Conclusion

The “Land of the Dead” is a concept embraced by many different cultures around the world and throughout time. This movie does a great job depicting, in a fun and family-friendly way, what that “place” (realm) might be like.

If you liked this movie, there is another movie that came out a few years earlier that didn’t get as much attention but that is equally enjoyable and beautiful and also centers around the day of the dead and traveling to the land of the dead. It’s called “Book of Life”.