IFH 219: Pixar’s Coco and the World of Animation with Carlos Moreno Jr.

Alex Ferrari 2:04
Today on the show, we have Carlos Moreno Jr. who is one of the stars of pics Rs, Coco. And one of my favorite films of the year you have not seen Coco, you should definitely watch it is by far one of my favorite films of 2017. And we talk a lot about animation about Pixar about how he's working. And then he's also a director and has a new short film that we're going to talk about as well. And he's involved with this insanely cool app as well, that he's going to be announcing as well. So it's a whole bunch of stuff that we talked about at Sundance. So again, thank you to media circus PR for helping us with the series of interviews, we have a few more left from my Sundance experience. And we're also joined by Kyle Navarro, who is a co writer and star of that short film that we're talking about pancetta so the episode is just pumped full of cool stuff. And we also get a bit emotional in this episode. So without any further ado, here's my conversation with Carlos Moreno Jr.

Welcome to the show, guys. I'd like to welcome

Carlos Moreno Jr. 3:09
Carlos Moreno Jr.

Kyle Devereaux. 3:10
Kyle Devereaux.

Alex Ferrari 3:11
And I want to have you guys on because you have a ton of stuff to talk about. Yeah, many different projects. But first I wanted to get into Coco is arguably my favorite film of the year. absolutely loved and we've never had anyone on the show that talks in that it's been in first of all his work to Pixar and going into animation process. So that must have been telling me what the experience like working behind the curtain?

Carlos Moreno Jr. 3:35
You never know. How is it gonna come out because you're there in a booth and the director is directing you like say this line say word. Can you elongate the word instead of just and it's and and different pitches and different sounds and characters for fun. Which ones were the most memorable? memorable is the porn man. And then I have the other the other funny little characters. Um,but four minutes

Alex Ferrari 4:06
Nice right and then so so do you just go on for a few days and that's it. How long were you there?

Carlos Moreno Jr. 4:12
A couple days a couple days. You know, it's a couple days and it's you act like a like an eight year old or a 10 year old so it's not really work. You just go out there and have fun

Alex Ferrari 4:21
And you recorded at Pixar?

Carlos Moreno Jr. 4:22
No, we recorded at Warner Brothers.

Alex Ferrari 4:25
Okay, so nice and the director was there with you and did you what do you what was your experience when you first started as a Latino?

Carlos Moreno Jr. 4:33
I cried man, I cried I saw my family there. I saw myself in there. I mean I play a little bit of guitar makes me want to go and pick up a guitar again. It's it's, it's it has that magical tone that universal theme that I think that's why people are really resonating with it. Which is family and love basically

Alex Ferrari 4:54
Family and love and it's a very very powerful from argueably one of my favorite Pixar movies of All time

Carlos Moreno Jr. 5:00
Thank you

Alex Ferrari 5:00
Really, really was good. Now do you do a lot of animation you like to do voiceovers?

Carlos Moreno Jr. 5:04
Um, I've done two other ones. But it's still kind of new for me. It was happy feet 2. That was fun get to play a little penguin. And then there was another one it's Legoland the movie that most of those responses to playing Lego lead a lot of little Legos that die in you know, have fun, because you have to make all these little voices. But there's nothing like, like, just being right there present and then you just, you know, commit whatever it is you just got to commit.

Alex Ferrari 5:38
And when when you got the call from assuming your agent say hey, you know, you're gonna be in a Pixar movie.

Carlos Moreno Jr. 5:42
I didn't know how to react. I was like what Disney because I used to work for Disney a long, long time ago doing that. So I was a tester test video games now now. Yeah, went away. It says yes. 97-98. So another good job if you can get it. Yeah, yeah, we stay as you sit down a lot. And it's not as glamorous as they think never been pigs. It kind of goes through the night because it's like full circle nine you went once you work with the mouse. And Mickey Mouse, the mouse.

Alex Ferrari 6:11
Yeah, I went to school in Orlando where the mouse was very present at all times. So talk about your new short, the new short film you did was, which is a name again.

Carlos Moreno Jr. 6:20
It's called panacea.

Alex Ferrari 6:21
So tell me a little bit about that. First of all, I heard there was a unique story of how it was even produced.

Carlos Moreno Jr. 6:25
Yes. Um, it's a short film is 20 minutes long. I'm Kyle. You're my buddy. We were working on a project. And we were sitting down and then I get a phone call. And he's like, Hey, he's my dp say, Hey, I have I have access to 20 Alexa, that's no, you're not going to say no to that. So. So I went like so what do you want me to do? He goes, can you shoot something like super fast and want it within a week? So that was a gift that they gave us? And then I just call Kyle? here next? Yeah, no. And let's see here, let's just write this thing. It turned out to be seven days. We had the Alexa on Friday was four or five days. And then Monday, when they return, it was another four or five days. So just that alone gave us the ability to rehearse a little bit. So we rehearsed the crap. We rehearsed a lot out of it, you can say crap. It's okay. But my other actors, Mike really didn't have that much time with them. It was just okay, we're all gonna get together, we're gonna rehearse for a couple of hours. And then let's just be I did give him the permission to just be present and not to shy away from from what the theme is. And it ended up being something I mean, it's quite special. I as I remember, I was editing. And I think it was a few hours later, or eight hours later, I would say, I started looking at it. And I started to cry. Because I saw my aunt in there. I saw my grandfather. Tell us a little about it. Yeah, it's it panacea. It's about dying with dignity. Every so often that that comes up in films, and it comes out and people news. So because of my aunt, that she went through something similar. When she passed, I will look in your eyes. All I could do is just hold her hand. And she was like, help me. Yeah. So it's very painful. But it's quite, it's quite beautiful at the same time. So we try to put a lot of humor into this. So it's not so heavy. And I think that's how people are resonating because they see themselves in this character. Or, you know, what we're going through with with this with this guy.

Alex Ferrari 8:41
And what did you think when he called us like we haven't Alexa?

Kyle Devereaux. 8:45
Well, I was sitting next to him. When I got the call. We were working on something. Sure. And you don't know Carlos, like, I don't know, Carlos. Carlos gets up. He's like, what are we gonna do? Come down, we'll figure this out. We'll come up with something to just, you know, sit on it. Don't worry too much about it. So we finished what we were doing at the house. And then the next day he called me He's like, you know, I watched this episode of vice. And I think I have some videos. We can, you know, something hit home with him. And he told me the whole story. I ended up watching the episode myself. And you know, we end up meeting up putting together a script that just went from there.

Alex Ferrari 9:24
And now there's an app that's involved.

Carlos Moreno Jr. 9:26
Yes. Sure. So once I mean, no, bro panacea. I have a friend of mine. His name is mo Ramirez. So Matt, Mel had talked to me about this idea, this app, which is called the legacy app. And it's basically videos, messages that you have that you can record yourself, and then whenever you want, you can send those messages long after you passed. So they're quite something you know, they're special areas. Because you know, the first thing when we leave or someone leaves us, what do you do? You go to the phone and you look through the pictures and you want to go, you want to get as much information. So he told me about this. And I said, Hey, Mel, um, what is it now? I say, hey, Mel, can I use the app so that we could, you know, put it in this film? I think it's, it'll kind of round everything up. And then this kid right over here, right after we shot he goes, dude, we should let record it. And we should record me talking to my loved ones and leaving these messages, because I'm no longer there. So the messages, I think one of them was my 50th birthday, my character. So it's, you know, 3020 years from now? Yes. So, um, so it kind of came together. So perfect. And it's just, it's just the beauty of it. So you, you you feel for this character, because it's only 22 minutes, but I, we, we get you in 22 minutes, you feel in 22 minutes, you laugh and 22 minutes, and then legacy helped help with the production and the legacy. Once I showed him what I had, excuse me, immediately, I got a call. It's like, we would like to help you know, push it out there to festivals, I think people need to see this film. And I felt very, very blessed. And I told Kyle is like, here we go. We're going to festivals with this. And it's been, it's been really, really great to get the feedback of the people are watching this. I've had held a woman in my arms crying like for like 45 seconds, just tearing and saying how? how special this one and how beautiful and how meaningful it is. And on a filmmaking and business side. I mean, you basically you're using your film as a content marketing, but do not be preachy about it? No, no, that's the best. That is the best kind of that is the best kind of marketing. You can do. Yes, because it hits an emotional cue. Yes, with the audience, and you're not being preachy or anything. Exactly. And it's really interesting how Coco has that theme, you know, then I have this panacea. No, no, no, I'm going What is going on? So I think the universe is that you're heading in the right path, Carlos. And hopefully you guys learn. So we're super excited to be here. I couldn't ask any more?

Alex Ferrari 12:18
Yeah, dude, I feel you feel I feel you, man. Now, I want to ask you one last question. If you had, if you were to give one piece of advice to filmmakers, just starting out in the business, what would it be?

Carlos Moreno Jr. 12:30
Don't give up. Try. Keep going at it. Have your voice. Your important.

Kyle Devereaux. 12:40
Honestly, it's you know, if you have that in your mind, you want to do it just just start. Just go. And don't be afraid to make mistakes along the way. Because honestly, starting is just is probably the hardest part. And just, you know, keep going and learn from your mistakes. And

Carlos Moreno Jr. 12:59
And the support is very important.

Kyle Devereaux. 13:01
Exactly.

Carlos Moreno Jr. 13:02
We wouldn't be here without support legacy app. And friends and families. I mean, it's it's quite easy to do. So I'm here. We're here to stay. We're here to do more.

Alex Ferrari 13:12
Yeah. And help as many people as you can. Give is as much as you can

Carlos Moreno Jr. 13:17
The more you give the more you get without even wanting be of service or your service.

Alex Ferrari 13:22
Thank you guys. Thank you so much for being on the show. Man.

Carlos Moreno Jr. 13:25
Thank you so much.

Alex Ferrari 13:26
Pleasure, guys.

Carlos Moreno Jr. 13:27
We'll keep we'll see you soon.

Alex Ferrari 13:28
Absolutely. Thanks. I told you this was a kind of emotional one without question. Karl's just doing some amazing stuff, and I definitely advise you guys to check out his short. And again, if you've not seen Coco, please do yourself a favor and watch an amazing story told so, so beautifully. It is probably one of Pixar his best films. If you're interested in getting links to anything we talked about. In this episode, head over to the show notes at indiefilmhustle.com/219. I got a bunch more stuff coming guys. Thank you for your patience. You will get a new episode next week. But you've got a throwback tomorrow. And hopefully in March I will go back to my regular scheduled programming of two new episodes a week. But it is a bit nutty. And you will understand why soon enough. So as always keep that also going keep that dream alive and I'll talk to you soon.