COCO COLORING PAGES AND FUN FACTS

Day of the Dead, a Hispanic cultural holiday where people remember and honor friends and family who have died in order to support those who have passed away with their spiritual journeys, is upon us.  In recognition of these festivities, A GEEK DADDY has some free COCO coloring pages you can download and enjoy courtesy of our friends at Disney's PIXAR Animation Studios.  They are releasing a new animated feature film titled COCO on November 22 that has a plot revolving around the Day of the Dead.

COCO showcases the importance of family, honoring your ancestors, and following your dreams.  The movie's plot revolves around a boy named Miguel who dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz.  He is baffled by his family's generations-old ban on music.  A mysterious chain of events lead to Miguel being transported to the Land of the Dead.  There he meets a charming trickster named Hector who joins him in an adventure to unlock the real story behind Miguel's family history.



Here are some coloring pages featuring the characters Miguel, Hector and Ernesto from the movie plus some fun facts about COCO:

FUN FACTS ABOUT THE MOVIE

CHANGE OF PLANTS – Artists at PIXAR like to add vegetation—grass, trees, bushes—to the exterior environments within their movies. But the filmmakers felt the Land of the Dead in COCO should be different. The only living plants in the vibrant fantastical world are marigolds.  They found during research trips to Mexico that the color and aroma of marigold petals are believed to help guide the spirit of a family’s loved one home during Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead).

RECYCLED – Miguel’s loyal canine companion Dante is a Xolo dog—short for Xoloitzcuintli—the national dog of Mexico whose origins are deeply rooted in Mesoamerican civilization. The Xolo was regarded as the representative on Earth of the Aztec god Xolotl, the god of fire and lightning. Nearly hairless, Xolo’s also often have missing teeth and for that reason their tongue naturally hangs out. The PIXAR creative team wanted to include this into Dante’s design and have his tongue behave like a character itself.  To achieve the look, they borrowed the rig used in “Finding Dory” for “septopus” Hank’s dynamic tentacles.  Rigs are animation tools PIXAR uses to give characters movement.

PULLING STRINGS – In COCO, Miguel recycles an old guitar, patching it up and painting it to mirror Ernesto de la Cruz’s signature guitar. But filmmakers knew that if they assigned an adult artist to do the design, it wouldn’t look right. Director Lee Unkrich called on his son to tackle the project and create the recycled guitar’s design.

CLOTHES MAKE THE CROWD – More than 500 pieces of clothing were made to dress the crowd characters—from the residents of Santa Cecilia to the skeleton-attendees of Ernesto de la Cruz’s party in the Land of the Dead. PIXAR artists spent time drawing in life sessions with Mexican folkloric dancers to craft apparel to be used in the movie. Artists shaded, shaped and combined the 500 individual pieces in a variety of ways to outfit thousands of crowd characters. 

CHIN UP –  Because Ernesto de la Cruz is a larger-than-life character, artists wanted to give him identifiable attributes, including a cleft in his chin—visible in both the living and dead versions of the character. He also sports a pencil-thin mustache, which was common in the era Ernesto was popular.  • Ernesto wears all white in the The Land of the Dead is full of vibrant colors so Ernesto wears all white to ensure he is the center of attention.  Even his bones are pristine because he’s so well remembered.  Plus animators gave Ernesto a bit of a swagger to showcase his celebrity status. 



For more information about COCO, visit movies.disney.com/coco