Miguel is making his Disney debut…
The 32-year-old half-Mexican American singer-songwriter appears on the single “Remember Me (Dúo).”
The track appears on the soundtrack for Coco, the new Día de Los Muertos-themed Disney-Pixar production that hit theaters. (
Check out the animated lyric video.
Natalia Cordova-Buckley is getting her Frida on…
The 34-year-old Mexican actress makes a cameo appearance as the voice of legendary Mexican artist Frida Kahlo in the English language-version of Disney/Pixar’s animated film Coco.
The film, which features Benjamin Bratt, Gael Garcia Bernal, Edward James Olmos, and Anthony Gonzalez, follows Miguel, who through a mysterious and otherworldly chain of events, meets charming trickster Héctor (Bernal), and, together, they set off on an adventure of music and mystery, resulting in the most unusual family reunion.
The pic is directed by Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3), co-directed by Adrian Molina and produced by Darla K. Anderson.
It screened at the Morelia Film Festival in Mexico and will open in U.S. theaters November 22.
Cordova-Buckley is best known in the U.S. for her role on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Gael García Bernal is celebrating animantion…
The Animation is Film Festival has announced its full slate of films for their upcoming event, with a sneak peek of the 38-year-old Mexican actor’s upcoming film Coco scheduled for the week.
The sneak peek of Coco will take place at 11:00 am on Sunday, October 22nd
The story follows a 12-year-old boy named Miguel (voiced by Anthony Gonzalez) who sets off a chain of events relating to a century-old mystery, leading to an extraordinary family reunion. Garcia Bernal voices the character of Hector, a charming trickster in the Land of the Dead who must enlist Miguel’s help to visit the Land of the Living.
The fest will feature 12 films in competition and will include director Q&As, special events, short film programs, and a VR lounge.
Animation is Film aims to fill a gap in the market by establishing the world-class animation festival in the country, with its home in the world capital of filmmaking. The festival embraces the highest aspirations of animation as a cinematic art form on par with live action filmmaking and will be vocal advocate for filmmakers who push the boundaries of their work to the fullest range of expression that the medium is capable of.
Films set to screen premieres include The Breadwinner, Mary and the Witch’s Flower, Big Fish and Begonia, as well as special screenings of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pixar’s The Incredibles.
Here’s the full slate of programming below.
AIF 2017 FILMS IN COMPETITION
The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales
US Premiere
Saturday, October 21st at 1:30PM
Followed by Q&A with directors Patrick Imbert and Benjamin Renner, Patrick Imbert, Benjamin Renner, France, 2017
Recommended for ages 8+
Big Fish and Begonia
World Premiere – English Language Version
Sunday, October 22nd at 11:00AM Liang Xua, Zhang Chun, China, 2016
Recommended for ages 8+
Birdboy: The Forgotten Children
West Coast Premiere
Saturday, October 21st at 4:15PM
Followed by Q&A with directors Alberto Vázquez and Pedro Rivero
Alberto Vázquez, Pedro Rivero, Spain, 2015
Recommended for ages 14+
The Breadwinner
US Premiere – Opening Night Film
Friday, October 20th at 7:00PM
Followed by Q&A with director Nora Twomeyd. Nora Twomey, Ireland/Canada/Luxembourg, 2017
Recommended for ages 11+
Fireworks, Should We See it From the Side or the Bottom
North American Premiere – Opening Night Film
Friday, October 20th at 9:30PM
Noboyuki Takeuchi, Akiyuki Shinbo, Japan, 2017
Recommended for ages 8+
Lu Over the Wall
US Premiere
Sunday, October 22nd at 2:15PM
Masaaki Yuasa, Japan, 2017
Recommended for ages 8+
Mary and the Witch’s Flower
North American Premiere – English Language Version
Sunday, October 22nd at 5:15PM
Followed by Q&A with director Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Hiromasa Yonebayashi, Japan, 2017
Recommended for ages 6+
Mutafukaz
West Coast Premiere
Saturday, October 21st at 7:00PM
Guillaume Renard and Shoujirou Nishimi, France/Japan, 2017
Recommended for ages 17+
Night is Short, Walk on Girl
US Premiere
Sunday, October 22nd at 8:00PM
Masaaki Yuasa, Japan, 2017
Recommended for ages 14+
Tehran Taboo
North American Premiere
Sunday, October 22nd at 5:15PM
Followed by Q&A with director Ali Soozandeh
Ali Soozandeh, Germany, 2017
Recommended for ages 17+
Tropical Virus
World Premiere
Saturday, October 21st at 7:00PM
Followed by Q&A with director Santiago Caicedo
Santiago Caicedo, Colombia, 2017
Recommended for ages 14+
Zombillenium
North American Premiere
Saturday, October 21st at 4:15PM
Followed by Q&A with director Alexis Ducord
Arthur de Pins & Alexis Ducord, France, 2017
Recommended for ages 8+
AIF SPECIAL SCREENINGS AND EVENTS
OUTLANDISH LANDS: SURREAL STUDIO SHORTS FROM THE 1930s
Saturday, October 21st at 11:00AM
Various Directors, USA, 75 min
Recommended for ages 8+
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 80th Anniversary Screening
Saturday, October 21st at 11:00AM
David Hand, USA, 1937
Recommended for ages 5+
Mind Game
Saturday, October 21st at 9:30PM
Masaaki Yuasa, Japan, 2004
Recommended for ages 17+
Disney Pixar’s The Incredibles plus a sneak peek of the upcoming Coco
Sunday, October 22nd at 11:00AM
Followed by Q&A with Producer John Walker
Brad Bird, USA, 2004
Recommended for ages 5+
The Lego Batman Movie
Sunday, October 22nd at 2:15PM
Followed by Q&A with Filmmakers
Chris McKay, USA, 2017
Recommended for ages 5+
VR FLICKER LOUNGE
Saturday & Sunday, October 21st & 22nd from 12:00pm to 7:00pm
Various titles including the LA premieres of the latest Google Spotlights Stories, Jorge Gutierrez’s Son of Jaguar and Scot Stafford and Chromosphere’s Sonaria
Programmed and presented by Animation is Film and Google Spotlight Stories
Recommended for all ages
Aloe Blacc is getting animated…
The 37-year-old Panamanian American singer-songwriter has been added to the voice cast of Netflix’s animated musical series Beat Bugs.
There’s no word yet on Blacc’s role/participation on the kids show inspired by the songs of The Beatles.
The series follows five best friends who together discover life’s most important lessons in an overgrown suburban backyard. The Beat Bugs live out these childhood adventures to the words and music of The Beatles.
“Because I’m able to tell [the story] through streaming episodes, you’re able to engage in cinematic storytelling,” says creator Josh Wakely. “To do Pixar-level storytelling was really the intention from the beginning.”
Beat Bugs incorporates more than 50 songs from the John Lennon/Paul McCartney ‘Northern Songs’ catalog and features covers by P!nk, Eddie Vedder, James Corden, Regina Spektor, Of Monsters and Men, The Shins, Chris Cornell, Rod Stewart, Jennifer Hudson, Robbie Williams, Tori Kelly and Sia.
Beat Bugs will premiere its 13-episode first season globally on August 3 on Netflix, and Season 2 on November 18.
Mexico’s El Dia de los Muertos celebration is getting the Pixar treatment.
Pixar has revealed plans to release a new film, Coco, about Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebration, helmed by Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich and producer Darla Anderson.
The duo unveiled a first look at the film’s protagonist, a teen named Miguel, and showed a film clip of a musical celebration at Disney’s D23.
Unkrich learned more about Dia De Los Muertos through the artwork for the holiday, which begins on October 31 and ends of November 2. His appreciation for the colorful skeleton folk art led to his emotional investment in the holiday, which Unkrich described as a sort of “big family reunion between the living and the dead.”
The premise of the story comes from a simple question: “What if you could meet your long dead family members?” For research, Unkrich traveled to Mexico to see how the holiday was celebrated in different places, meeting many families and experiencing the traditions with them.
Described as “breathtaking, beautiful, and fun” by John Lasseter and “emotional” by Unkrich, Coco follows Miguel, who sets off a chain of events relating to a century-old mystery.
The official story description is: “Coco is the celebration of a lifetime, where the discovery of a generations-old mystery leads to a most extraordinary and surprising family reunion.”
Pixar has not set a release date for Coco yet.
Raymond Ochoa will have you seeing green in his next project…
Diney–Pixar has released the latest trailer for The Good Dinosaur, which features the 13-year-old Latino actor as part of the voice cast.
The animated film follows the story of a misfit prehistoric creature who bonds with a human toddler.
The Good Dinosaur takes place in an alternate past in which the event that wiped out all large life forms at the tail end of the Cretaceous period never happened. As a result, dinosaurs survived well into the Pleistocene era. What follows is an epic journey through this world from the perspective of an Apatosaurus named Arlo (Ochoa) and his unlikely cave-boy pal Spot (Jack Bright). As they travel, Arlo learns to confront his fears and become what he’s capable of being.
The film originally was slated for summer 2014, but it weathered a director change and got an entirely new voice cast.
Peter Sohn makes his feature directorial debut here, having helmed Partly Cloudy, the 2009 Pixar short that played in theaters before the studio’s hit feature Up. Riding high on the success of Pixar’s Inside Out, Disney sends The Good Dinosaur into theaters November 25, the day before Thanksgiving.
Raymond Ochoa has earned a Dino-mite gig…
Disney-Pixar has unveiled the all-new cast of The Good Dinosaur, with the 13-year-old Latino actor voicing the character of Arlo, an Apatosaurus who is separated from his family when he falls into a raging river and is swept hundreds of miles away.
He comes across Spot (Jack Bright), a human cave-boy orphan with whom he forms a bond as he attempts to get home.
The new cast also includes Jeffrey Wright as Arlo’s dad, Poppa; Steve Zahn as a pterodactyl named Thunderclap; AJ Buckley as Nash, a T-rex; Anna Paquin as Ramsey the T-rex; Sam Elliott as a tough T-rex named Butch and Marcus Scribner as Arlo’s brother Buck.
The long-in-the-works animated film will hit theaters Thanksgiving week.
Originally set for release in summer 2014, the film has seen a number of obstacles since its original voice cast was unveiled at Disney’s D23 in August 2013. Raising Hope’s Lucas Neff was set as Arlo, with John Lithgow as Poppa, Frances McDormand as Momma and Bill Hader, Judy Greer and Neil Patrick Harris as Arlo’s siblings.
But just five weeks later, Disney announced that it had pushed Good Dinosaur back a year and a half as rookie feature director Pete Sohn stepped in for the departed Bob Peterson.
Ochoa, the younger brother of actor Ryan Ochoa, is best known for his roles in 10 Items or Less, Merry Christmas and Drake and Josh.
It’s time for a little higher education for Alfred Molina and Aubrey Plaza…
Disney and Pixar have released the final trailer for Monsters University, which features the 60-year-old Spanish actor and the 28-year-old half-Puerto Rican actress as part of incoming class of 2013.
The prequel to Monsters, Inc. focuses on Mike (Billy Crystal) and Sulley (John Goodman) as they study to become “scarers.”
Along with Molina, Plaza, Crystal and Goodman, the voice cast Steve Buscemi, Helen Mirren, Dave Foley, Sean P. Hayes, Charlie Day, Nathan Fillion, John Krasinski and Bonnie Hunt.
Directed by Dan Scanlon, Monsters University opens nationwide on June 21.
He played the villainous Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2… And, now Alfred Molina will be portraying a more animated monster.
The 59-year-old half-Spanish actor, who recently starred in TNT’s medical drama Monday Mornings, is lending his voice to Disney/Pixar’s Monsters University, which just saw its international trailer released.
Molina will voice the character of Professor Knight in the prequel to Monsters, Inc., which focuses on Mike (Billy Crystal) and Sulley (John Goodman) as they study to become “scarers.”
In addition to Molina, the film introduces Helen Mirren’s Dean Hardscrabble. Steve Buscemi, John Krasinski and Nathan Fillion also star.
Monsters University opens in the U.S. on June 21.
Guillermo del Toro’s latest animated project should be making its way to the big screen next fall…
Fox Animation Studios has reportedly signed on to make the 48-year-old Mexican filmmaker and Reel FX‘s adventure Book of Life, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Fox will release the film, which del Toro is producing, in the United States on October 10, 2014.
Originally titled Day of the Dead, after the famous Mexican celebration, the films’s title has been changed to Book of Life (Pixar has its own Day of the Dead project in the works).
Latin-themed projects are in hot demand; Hispanics are the most avid moviegoers in the U.S., while animated family fare can do huge business throughout Latin America.
del Toro and Fox are keeping mum on the exact details of the film, but the Mexican filmmaker did personally Mexican animator and filmmaker Jorge R. Gutierrez to direct Book of Life. Gutierrez’s credits include Nickelodeon‘s award-winning animated television series El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera.
del Toro is currently in post-production on Pacific Rim, a film he directed for Legendary Pictures. Warner Bros. will release Pacific Rim on July 12, 2013.