I signed up just to comment on this post. A couple of people expressed why Pixar would make a movie with this concept. Just my opinion, Pixar has chose to do movies with visually bright and beautiful themes. Cars, Tropical Reef, Food, Insects & Bugs are visually stunning in person. And Pixar recreated those themes pretty damn well. If you Google Image “Dia De Los Muertos”, the images and designs are colorful and creative. I think they want challenge themselves and push the limits on animation. Just my opinion. 
Great point. I can definitely imagine a Dia de los Muertos film to have a very colorful mise en scene.
I don’t understand. They tried to copyright the holiday? How would that work? Like, people have to pay them to celebrate? What a weird thing to try to do.
I guess so. The only thing I could think of was that they wanted the title of the movie to be “Dia de los muertos”, but I don’t remember exactly what the sources say. I think it’s like when Disney copyrighted Tarzan, but that wasn’t so big because it was a book, but this is a holiday.
I wish I knew exactly which people tried to do this.
No no, they tried to copyright the title “Dia de los muertos”, which means that any merchandise (fruit preserves, fruit-based snacks, toys, games, clothing, footwear, backpacks, clocks and jewelrym etc.) that bears this phrase will have to pay Disney or something. It doesn’t affect people celebrating it though. Yes, it’s an extremely corporate, commercial-oriented thing to do, and I’m glad the backlash put Disney in its place a bit.
Nah, not even the Walt Disney company would be that devious to copyright a holiday. They just wanted to name the film “Dia de los Muertos”. Therefore, they would need to copyright that. If Disney did get it copyrighted, they would have a monopoly on those words in that order. Which of course is terrible, because there’s a holiday named that. So they’ll have to rename the film, or take out the copyright.
Oh, that makes more sense. That’s messed up, but slightly less confusing.
If they could have just thought of a more unique title altogether, this could have probably been avoided. But at least a lesson seemed to be learned, I hope.
On a side note, I hope I’ll be looking more forward to this later on. The concept of this movie…personally scares me a teeny bit, a first for Pixar. It will probably be gone before I know it.
I remember reading about the holiday a while ago. It sounds interesting! I do like colourful stuff, even when it concerns a slightly morbid topic. And I think they’ll change the title later on.
Most Disney films go through a few title changes in their lives. But the fact they were copyrighting suggests that that was to be their final choice.
I keep forgetting there are people from other nations. Dia de los Muertos is a relatively common thing where I am from.
Well if that’s the case, then at least that is probably good news. That likely means that their film truly evokes the feeling and spirit of the holiday, so that’s good!
It can be scene as good news, but this is a double edged sword. Because keep in mind it isn’t some holiday. It’s a very important and personal holiday, in religious traditions that honors those closest to us who have died. Which means people will be watching it with critical eyes, and great sensitivity must be shown.
I doubt that any holiday is just some holiday. I imagine all are very special to whomever celebrates them. And I would imagine that even those who cherish it the most will find it very joyful and relatable. I think those audiences celebrate Dia de los muertos can also be understanding to the nature of the film. I don’t see moviegoers being exceptionally critical except for maybe, well, critics.
Also, this is Pixar, which always does a lot of research on all of their films, and they have shown this in the bonus features of each of their releases as proof. Their attention to detail never fails, and they haven’t made a flat-out bad film. And especially with Lee Unkrich directing and considering how much he did to make Toy Story 3 not just a nod to the series, I don’t see him making huge mistakes here. He is so good at that I think he even took it a tad too far in Toy Story 3 (personally), that’s how much I think he cares, and I applaud him for that. I think this film will probably suite his dedication even better here, and as an original film as well. Now, of course Pixar can’t just slap something together. They need to pay close attention to what they’re making. But when was the last time they didn’t do that?
I think it’s normal for people to be considerably-but not overly-critical. Unless Pixar makes a move that is even just a teeny bit offensive even if not intentionally, I don’t think people should be overly critical and look for any opportunities to point out anything wrong. That being said, I highly doubt anyone will do that, and like I said, I think messing up a detail about something beloved, such as Dia de los muertos, is the last thing Lee Unkrich wants to do, and it’s probably the first thing on his mind.
I’m worried about the film, but not at all in the sense that they might be unfaithful to the tradition and culture in Dia de los muertos. I bet they will totally excel at that. I just have a personal problem with dead people coming alive if that’s what will happen, which might affect my enjoyment with the film. Just in terms of thinking this movie will get it so right that I might be uncomfortable through it or parts of it like the last film Lee Unkrich made. But personal issues aside, I really think Pixar won’t mess up in that area, and I don’t want to think they’ll mess up there unless I see for myself that they did so when I watch the film.
It’s really much too early to gage into any of this, it’s all completely speculation.
Pixar yes, does do a lot of background research and they of course aren’t going to outright offend an entire culture. But I will point out that the House of Mouse has already done it in regards to this film. That’s what all the controversy over this copyright has been a lot.
I don’t think that Disney outright wanted to offend anyone. But that’s what happened. You can still try to be culturally sensitive and it may not turn out well regardless. So Disney is on a fine line, but we’ll see what the whip up. I’m very curious and excited.
Okay. And I’m sorry if I came off as upset. I guess I just had a lot to say and I think I got carried away, so my bad 
And I won’t say Pixar won’t make any mistakes on this. They can mess up as much as any other studio can. But they seem to take the three and a half or more years it takes to get it as right as can be. There was one incident in Cars 2 where a line of Professor Z’s dialogue was changed so as not to remind their viewers in Japan of a disaster event, I believe. The same can be said for how Harryhausen’s explodes in Monsters, Inc. and even Disney themselves changed the setting of the climax Lilo and Stitch, both of which happened to not remind anyone of 911. So that they have made useful changes in the past so as not to offend anyone, so luckily they’ll catch those sorts of things.
^
But yeah, I understand that they still might make unintentional errors. All we can do is hope they handle all the final touches well. Hopefully they won’t make any mistakes too big.
I see what you mean there. Hopefully they will do well with this one and I’m sure they probably will.
We did activities at my school for this holiday, but my family doesn’t celebrate it. So honestly I don’t know much about the history or culture of it.
I don’t celebrate it, but I see that it is very special to many people. It sounds creative for a movie, but I’m actually anticipating this less than any other Pixar film that came before it. The next three films before that currently interest me more. However, I hope I am pleasantly surprised by many things int his movie, and since this is Pixar, why shouldn’t I be?
Living in New Mexico, I’m pretty exposed to Latin American culture, so it’ll be interesting to see what Pixar does with this film.
I’m not skeptical about this movie at all. Of course we don’t have a trailer yet or anything, but I’m so much more excited for this than Finding Dory personally.
I should stop being hesitant about this movie. The fact that it takes place in a very special holiday is not the part that bothers me, I think that’s very creative! Rather my little issue right now is a very “What if?”/“Is this what it’s going to be?”-type situation. I don’t know for a fact that that thing will happen or not, but it’s very likely to. On the other hand, I could very well not be bothered about that certain thing I’m thinking about at all. I’ll be more open to this film. [size=50]I actually am more eager for Finding Dory right now, though. [/size]