Hey brother! Ben, I'm not gonna lie. When I first started seeing trailers for Coco, I was concerned about how we were ever going to fit it into the Pixar Theory. I mean a Pixar movie about a holiday that Celebrates a single culture? It's very real-world. I wasn't sure how that was gonna fit into this, like, grand Pixar universe But boy was I wrong! The answer is it fits in extremely well. Today, we discuss how Coco fits the Pixar Theory! Before we begin, let me just give a quick "welcome to the world" to my newborn son Luke who was born on November 29th he is awesome; I love him so much. The Pixar Theory-- if you somehow don't know or just mis-clicked this video-- is the idea that every single Pixar movie exists in the same universe on one giant timeline starting with The Good Dinosaur and ending with Monsters Inc...or Brave, depending on how you want to look at it (time travel). And if you'd like a quick refresher or a full recap of it, you can click on this card right here to see the playlist of how we think every single movie fits in. But today's question is "How does Coco fit the Pixar Theory?" First, we need to go over a few other established things that are believed in the Pixar Universe. Like for example, how, in the Pixar Theory, it is believed that human Emotions have the power to give life. This, for example, is how the toys are able to come to life. The Cars' previous owners are who they get their personalities from. This is how WALL-E becomes so unique, and heck! it's literally what the monsters are harvesting in Monsters Incorporated to run their cities! All of that is apparently accomplished by human emotion. But Coco changes that by focusing in on the other side of the same coin and reveals that it's not human emotion but human memory that gives life. And with that in mind, let's revisit Inside Out, where we get an up-close look at both memories and emotion when we get to go inside Riley's mind. Here's where we learned that in the Pixar Universe Memories are stored in people's minds in small orbs, and when those memories go bad and disappear, they're considered forgotten. But it's not just the orbs. It's also personalities or beings like Bing-Bong when he is forgotten. And with the release of Coco, Bing-Bong's death actually becomes really Important to the Pixar theory because he's forgotten just like the other memories, but unlike the other memories, he's not in some little orb tied to just one or two Emotions. He's a full character This is because, as far as Riley was concerned, Bing-Bong was real. So when he's forgotten, he dies. But again, he's not tied to a single emotion like the rest of the memories He is kept alive not by emotion, but just by memory. And so again, memory-- not Emotions-- is the real power humans have in the Pixar verse to keep things alive The same thing almost happens to Weezy in Toy Story 2. In WALL-E, literally the entire Earth is dying when, seven generations of humans later, the entire Surviving human race has forgotten about it, including the captain. {in clip}: "Define Earth." And yet, one little tiny plant grows. Do you know why that happens? I think it's because WALL-E is interacting so much with different human stuff and creating genuine memories again, Which kind of reinforces the entire message of that movie and kind of suggests that WALL-E is alive. Because seriously, on the entire planet, after 700 years of Eve probes, one plant happens to be found near the last moving thing on earth? {In clip} "Coincidence? I think not!" And, naturally, as soon as the humans begin to remember Earth again, lots of stuff begins to grow. In stark contrast to this however are the very non-human Cars. yes the Cars get their personalities from their previous owners, but at the end of the day, they are not humans; they are machines and therefore differ from them in one major way-- other than, you know, being cars-- and that is that the Cars, unlike humans, don't have an instinctual need to be remembered. Doc Hudson, for example, despite being super famous and talented, treats his legacy like garbage. He literally uses his Piston Cups as garbage cans. And Lightning, an even more famous racecar, is the exact same. He thinks it's cool that Sterling put together this whole like, museum of his accomplishments. But the moment he's confronted with the word "legacy," he dismisses it insisting that instead he only wants to race. And yes! by the way, I'm aware that WALL-E is a machine, too. But the difference is that the cars are not trying to honor humans or're even aware that they existed, whereas WALL-E loves remembering them. But anyway, back to humans and Instinctual need to keep things alive by remembering them. And also, by the way, I am NOT saying that is a real-life human thing, but just that in the Pixar Universe I really think it is a human instinct, and whether or not they realize it, that's an instinct because their memory is actually keeping things alive. Mr. Incredible is a great example of this-- or maybe I should really say Bob Parr is a great example of this. He spent his whole life acting as someone who would always be remembered. But once the Supers are outlawed and he can no longer be Mr. Incredible, he falls into a depression. He is afraid that if everyone forgets the old days, They'll also forget Mr. Incredible, and therefore, Mr. Incredible will cease to exist. Which brings us back to Coco, where the citizens of Mexico, at least, have leaned in to their biological instincts so much that they have actually created a pathway for their dead but remembered relatives to cross back over and receive gifts from them. So, as a refresher, how it works in Coco is that on Dia de los Muertos, if your family puts a picture of you on their ofrenda, you are able to cross back into the real world They won't be able to see you, but you can do it and you can accept their offerings. Which is great, but the picture is only important in terms of getting back. Whether or not there's a picture of you up, you get to continue existing in the Land of the Dead as long as anyone just remembers that you existed. But once the last memory of you in the real world fades, so do you in the Land of the Dead where you experience a "final death," which is what happens - Hector's friend Chicharrón. Sadly, we don't have footage of it yet But I can't help but notice how similar it was to Bing-Bong's death in Inside Out. And I think that's because these two things are not dissimilar at all. While the memory of Bing-Bong existed solely in Riley's mind, the Land of the Dead seems to be the collective conscious memory of the entire country of Mexico, which is why I don't think it is any coincidence that the city they live in looks remarkably like the inside of the human mind in Inside Out and kind of functions the same way. The difference is that the citizens of the Land of the Dead don't have to rely on just a single person to remember them, but can instead rely on many people throughout many generations. Basically, as long as a single memory orb of you exists in any living person's mind anywhere, you get to continue on living as a skeleton. Coco, in a way, offers the most transparent view of everything the Pixar Theory is about and built on: memory and emotions. Because the act of actively remembering somebody is maybe the most important theme across all Pixar movies. And that's important, because I think it starts to reveal the purpose of the Pixar Theory and the "why" of it all. Because how everything fits into the Pixar Theory is endlessly entertaining and we love talking about it here, but to continue calling it a "theory" at this point almost feels like the wrong word. It seems more like a game or a challenge. People are constantly telling me that they have broken or disproved the Pixar Theory, and my response to every single one of those people is "You don't get it." Because the goal is to make it work. If you've broken it or disproven it, You haven't done that at all; you've just uncovered a plot hole that the Theory needs to be adjusted to explain so we can better understand this universe that Pixar has built. So why the word "theory" at all? Well, that's because what we've been asking so long is, "Is Pixar doing this intentionally? Are they actually making a big expanded Universe?" That's the "Theory" you're asking about. But the real question I think Coco starts to answer is "why?" Like, what is Pixar's studio goal? and time and time again, they answer it: the goal is to be remembered, to encourage you to look to where you came from as a guide for the future Because as long as something isn't forgotten It's not really dead. I mean it's literally in every single Pixar movie We've covered a lot, but hey! let's go ahead and cover the rest. In Up, Carl is tortured by the memory of having lost his wife But saved by remembering who she was and how she would have wanted him to live. And when I say Carl is tortured by the loss of his wife, I mean we are ALL tortured by the loss of Ellie! (groans) Arlo's self-imposed guilt over his father's death and the belief that he'll never make his father proud controls him the whole movie until the ghost of his father appears to him and tells him he's him and more. Dory is pretty on the nose. I mean, her whole character is literally about memory, and her parents in particular may as well have stopped existing until she remembers them. It's a very, like, sad but relatable real-life kind of situation where, like, Dory could have been looking directly at her parents, but because she doesn't remember them it's like they don't exist. And then of course there's Brave, the glue that holds the entire Pixar Theory together, where the Witch-- a.k.a. Boo-- has spent her entire life in servitude and in search of the greatest memory she ever had: Sully. God, Boo as the witch honestly makes even more sense when you consider all of this because it's like the cruel irony of her memory keeping her going! Her always looking back at this time But Sully is, of course, from the future. But there you go, Ben. that is how Coco fits into and explains the Pixar Theory. If you have seen Coco, make sure you leave any Easter eggs you have found in the Towel Section down below! We found quite a few ourselves. These socks are amazing! Guys, as always, thanks for watching. Please leave a like in the video if you haven't already, and subscribe to not miss any future Pixar action from us. if you'd like to see the story of how my son was born, you can check out this video right here over on my new a weekly vlog channel. Or if you'd like the entire Pixar Theory explained, then click on this little playlist right here And it'll take you through the whole thing. But Ben, that's all got for you today, man. I will see you in another life, brother.
I don't know how many times I cried in this movie.