I saw the movie 'Coco' earlier this month and loved it, even though it did hit rather close to the bone for me (pardon the pun) with my own father passing away from Alzheimer's disease/pneumonia last year placing him in the land of the dead, so to speak.
"In Brazil, the title name was changed to "Viva", for the original title "Coco" could easily be mistaken by the Portuguese word "cocô", which translates to poop."
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| How Coco Pops would translate in Brazil?-) |
So in a way it does sound like that there is a lot of old s#it on the other side, come to think of it, but the film itself is a breath of fresh air;-)
I found this bit of trivia at the film's IMDB site interesting also, as the Sunnybank cinema I saw the movie in is home to a large part of the Brisbane Chinese community -
"In China, the film featured a content of "the dead" theme which is banned and not able to be imported and released.
When during cencorship of the film however, the censor board members were touched so much by the film and cried.
So, they took an exception for the film."
I found that rather interesting considering this old post -
Something Strange Happened to Me on THE WAY out of a Taoist Temple
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| Tarot card #19 |
"The orchestra conductor for Ernesto de la Cruz' musical show "Sunrise Spectacular" is a caricature of the film's composer Michael Giacchino."
"The orange flower seen throughout the film is the Aztec marigold (known also as the Mexican marigold or the Cempasúchil).
"The Santa Cecilia graveyard is named after Saint Cecilia, the Catholic saint of musicians."
""Cecilia" is a song written by US musician Paul Simon.
That is probably more like why Pixar would change the movie title in Brazil and where-ever else the coco monster resides, and kinda puts the cocô theory to bed I think:-)
I didn't plan on seeing 'Coco' at the Sunnybank cinemas, I had originally planned on seeing the movie earlier in the day at another cinema I prefer to see movies in, because it's about half the price to see a movie in those cinemas compared to Sunnybank, and I also don't like the recliner chairs that the Sunnybank cinema has in all of its cinemas, because I tend to fall asleep in those chairs if the movie hits a slow patch.
But a series of incidents as I was getting ready to head off to see this film early on Sunday morning made it impossible to get to the cinema I had originally planned to see the movie in.
When I looked around to see if it was on at any other cinemas, I didn't have much choice but to head to Sunnybank at 2pm and the price for tickets that day was $13 for some reason, which was better than the usual price of $19.50.
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| My dad passed away on the 13th of September last year |
The $13 price of the ticket actually proved a bit of a sign for me, as I had been waiting for the Chinese wall calendars for 2018 to come in at the Sunnybank Plazza newsagents for which I wrote about before in this post a few weeks back -
The last film I had seen at the Sunnybank cinemas was 'Murder on the Orient Express' and I had gone there because I was after a Chinese wall calendar for my kitchen wall for next year, but the newsagents told me they weren't in yet and to come back in a week or two.
Normally the first thing I do in the morning in my kitchen is to tear away yesterday's date off my Chinese wall calendar and then make a cup of coffee to start the day.
I remember last year on September 13th getting the phone call from my mother to tell me that my father had passed away at the home he was in.
The following day when I ripped the 13th away from the calendar, I didn't throw it into the recycling bin like I normally do, I put it away in a draw of keep-sakes instead.
When I went to see 'Coco' the Chinese calendars had come in, so I bought one (pictured above, next to the 13th of September, 2016 page I kept).
The irony of the song 'Remember Me' from 'Coco' was that the last year of my father's life with his battle with Alzheimer's was that he had a lot of trouble remembering who anyone was, including me.
So as much as I liked the movie, it was a real punch in the heart to sit through it for me personally.
I also picked up on the eternity theme with the way the film makers wrote Ernesto's name everywhere in the movie, too -
It's Already Been 50 Years Since Mr.Eternity Died?!
Oddly enough, both my father and I have the middle name of Sydney and a few weeks after my father's funeral I was down in Sydney to see my football club win their first ever NRL grand final.
My Happiest Birthday Ever
My Happiest Birthday Ever
My favourite player in the team is the captain Paul Gallen and his number is 13 and ironically the team's sponsor for that year was Infinity:-)
You have to wonder just who writes life's scripts when stuff like this happens, don't you?
The Quest for a Good Motel Room?
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| Looks like a rather FOOLish journey our young hero and his dog are on |
The flower is used in the tradition of Dia de Muertos in México to guide the deceased to the living."
"The Santa Cecilia cemetery is featured in the background of the Walt Disney Pictures logo.
In addition, the abridged orchestral version of the song "When You Wish Upon a Star", which is used as the music for the studio logo, is played in the Mexican mariachi style."
It was first recorded by Simon and Garfunkel for their 1970 album Bridge Over Troubled Water.
When released as a single, it reached #4 in the US charts.
The single did not chart in the UK, despite being released as the follow-up to Simon and Garfunkel's number one hit "Bridge Over Troubled Water".
The "Cecilia" of the title is generally interpreted as being a capricious lover, causing both anguish and jubilation to the singer.
However, another interpretation is that Cecilia might refer to St. Cecilia, patron saint of music in the Catholic tradition, and thus the song might refer to the frustration of fleeting inspiration in songwriting.
St. Cecilia is mentioned in another Paul Simon song, "The Coast" (from his 1990 album The Rhythm of the Saints): "A family of musicians took shelter for the night in the little harbor church of St. Cecilia.""
""Coco" in Spanish is a hypocorism for "Socorro" an actual common name for women, originated from "Virgen del Socorro"(Virgin of Relief)."
Socorro is also a Portuguese-Spanish noun meaning "help" or "relief" (cf. "succor").
"In the movie the spirit of Frida Kahlo points out Dante as being a Xolo dog (Xoloitzcuintli dog), which is a nice tribute to Frida.
During the mid 20th century the xolo dog as a breed was beginning to decline in popularity.
Frida and her husband, Diego Rivera, helped to save the breed by including the Xolo dog as part of their art.
Thanks to Frida and Diego, the breed became known again to the world."
"Miguel's last name, Rivera, is a reference to film producer Jonas Rivera, who has worked with Pixar Animation Studios since 1994 and produced two of their films: Up (2009) and Inside Out (2015)."
"Dante is the second dog to play a major part in a Pixar film by accompanying the main protagonist in their adventure.
The first was Dug from Up (2009)."
"The dog's name, Dante, is a reference to Dante Alighieri, the Italian poet and author of the 'Divine Comedy', originally called 'Comedia'.
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| Look what Dante Dug UP;-) |
The Divine Comedy describes Dante's journey through the realm of the dead.
In México, the Xoloitzcuintli (the Mexican hairless dog depicted in the film) is the guide of the deceased through his/her way to the Mictlán (the underworld, the place where all the souls go after death)."
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| Dante/Horse?! |
"Since Ernesto De La Cruz had such a large impact on Miguel, he named the stray dog "Dante" after a horse in one of De La Cruz's movies which can be seen and heard at De La Cruz's house party on the projectors."
"First Pixar film to show an on screen death of a major character, in this case when Ernesto gets crushed to death by the falling bell.
All other deaths in Pixar films have been slightly off-screen, out of view or not in the scene at all."
I guess there are many messages in this movie, but the one I'll take is that you should make hay while the sun shines (for your horse?-) because you just never know when the bell is going to toll for you or a loved one.
Sometimes life does feel like one big bucket of "cocô" depending on our point of view.
But 'Coco' is not "cocô", so go see it over the holidays.
Happy Holidays and let's hope the New Year rings in something better than this year.
BUT WAIT ... There's more.
Maybe the real reason Pixar changed the name of the movie from 'Coco' to 'Viva' in Brazil was more to do with this scary legend -
Coco (folklore)
Happy Holidays and let's hope the New Year rings in something better than this year.
BUT WAIT ... There's more.
Coco (folklore)
"The myth of the Coco originated in Portugal and Galicia. According to the Real Academia Española, the word coco derives from the Galician and Portuguese côco, which referred to a ghost with a pumpkin head.
The word coco is used in colloquial speech to refer to the human head in Portuguese and Spanish.
Coco also means "skull"."
"In Spain, Portugal, and Latin America (including Brazil), parents sometimes invoke the Coco as a way of discouraging their children from misbehaving; they sing lullabies or tell rhymes warning their children that if they don't obey their parents, el Coco will come and get them and then eat them."
"It is not the way the Coco looks but what he does that scares most. It is a child eater and a kidnapper; it may immediately devour the child, leaving no trace, or it may spirit the child away to a place of no return, but it only does this to disobedient children.
The coca is on the lookout for child's misbehavior on the top of the roof, the coco takes the shape of any dark shadow and stays watching.
It represents the opposite of the guardian angel and is frequently compared to the devil.
Others see the Coco as a representation of the deceased of the local community."
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