One of Disneyland Resort's new holiday offerings is a show featuring the young guitar-playing character Miguel from “Coco.” But it's ultimately rooted in a culture and history that long predates the 2017 film.
The show's director, Tobi Longo, was inspired by her childhood, family roots, and cultural heritage to work with her peers to bring the mariachi-centered performance to life. In turn, its main influence was not the Disney/Pixar film, but Las Posadas. The latter (think of a festive procession that travels through the community) are traditionally held in Mexico between December 16 and 24. In its purest form, Las Posadas represents the biblical story of Joseph and Mary and their search for refuge in the time of Jesus. ' birth.
Disney's performance deviates from religious tunes. But some of the key touchstones (a mix of music and stories, a children's center with candles) are present. The weekday afternoon show, officially called “A Musical Christmas with Mariachi Alegría of Disneyland and Miguel,” is part of this year's expanded programming for Disney California Adventure's Holiday Festival, now a nearly decade-long tradition that centers their events in cultures. that represent Disney movies more than the movies themselves.
While the guitar-playing Miguel character from “Coco” appears in a new Disneyland Resort Christmas show, the performance is simply inspired by the world of the film, rather than retelling its narrative.
(Joshua Sudock/Disneyland Resort)
In that sense, Festival of Holidays capitalizes on Disneyland's original mission, that is, to present an aspirational vision of society that looks both at the world beyond its doors and at the fantasies housed within them.
Longo, asked about the inspiration behind the show, spoke of her upbringing.
“My grandfather was going to be a priest at the San Gabriel Mission, he met my grandmother and he didn't take that path,” Longo says. “But my family participated in Las Posadas, and in San Gabriel there was a blue line painted on the ground and everyone followed it, and it was a great tradition for the Mexican Catholic community. I always dressed up as an angel and had a small candle.
“I remember beautiful lanterns and candles and people processing and acting out different characters from the Christmas story,” Longo continues. “So when they talked about singing and having a procession, I thought, 'Wouldn't it be beautiful if we were inspired by that?'”
Dancers holding glowing star-shaped lanterns lead a musical ride to the main hub of Disney California Adventure. There, a storyteller and singer welcomes and delights guests with tales of how different Latin countries present stories of Santa Claus or, say, the joy of unwrapping a tamale.
Popular Christmas carols – “Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town,” “Jingle Bells” – are presented bilingually, and as the performance builds up to an appearance by Miguel, the climax is a serene, candlelit rendition of “ Silent Night”, with audience participation. What was a moment ago festive theme park fare becomes something more reflective, while giving a slight nod to the more spiritual underpinnings of the festivities.
“Raise the children and give them a candle. “I was wondering if that would be controllable.” says Longo. “But the children get involved and are almost hypnotized by the candle. It turned out to be very sweet, but fun and lively, and it kind of teaches people a little bit about Mexican culture and its traditions during the Christmas season.”
This approach has become a mission of the Festival of Holidays.
(Christian Thompson/Disneyland Resort)
Disney, says Susana Tubert, the resort's creative director of live entertainment, has significantly increased the number of acts it presents for the event, which runs through Jan. 6. Musical groups play jazz, klezmer, reggae, polka, gospel and more. While the holidays strive to reflect Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and other cultural traditions, this year it delves deeper into Southern California's Filipino and Aztec communities.
It's doubling down on diverse and inclusive programming, making the Festival of Holidays feel timely, lively and even risky, especially when Disneyland could simply lean on its popular movies and fairy tales and avoid the sometimes politicized scrutiny that can come with programming. multicultural.
It is a reflection of an approach that has been taking place across the resort. In recent years, Walt Disney Co. has been taking a broad view of its theme parks, looking for places to increase diversity or eliminate outdated stereotypes. See, for example, the recent change from Splash Mountain to Tiana's Bayou Adventure, or modifications to classics like Jungle Cruise to bring the attraction to modern sensibilities. Coming soon: An update to Disneyland's Peter Pan's Flight to remove Native American caricatures.
“Representation…I think is very important,” says Disneyland's Paul David Bryant, who helps orchestrate the Festival of Holidays, focusing primarily on its musical performances.
“And I think that's exactly what we're looking for here at Disneyland Resort,” he continues. “We want to make sure that when I, you or Tobi walk into the park, hopefully we can see someone who looks like us. We are a small world. It makes me feel good when I go out and see all these different cultures. When I go out and see a Kwanzaa group singing R&B that sounds like gospel and talks about a Disney tune, it takes me on a trip.”
A journey, Bryant adds, to broaden and open guests' worldview. “You can go in and come out knowing more than you knew,” he says.
This year, for the Holiday Festival, there are three exclusive shows. The mariachi performance is joined by a new weekday afternoon story that uses the songs from “Encanto,” only reframing them into one about the frenetic festivities in preparation for Christmas. He does so alluding to the film's Colombian influences.
The two new entertainment offers are added to the already traditional “Long live Christmas!” street parade with the Three Caballeros led by Donald Duck. “Long live Christmas!” Held on weekends, it serves as a folkloric event that from start to finish is a boisterous celebration of Latin art and music, featuring folkloric dancers and mariachis, as well as 12-foot-tall mojiganga puppets, i.e. marionettes of paper on a large scale. mache sculptures.
The new Christmas daytime show “Mirabel's Gifts of the Season” culminates with a grand cumbia finale.
(Disneyland Resort)
“Mirabel's Gifts of the Season” continues with a big cumbia finale, with an actor playing “Encanto” protagonist Mirabel trying to teach the audience some dance moves. Throughout, the show humorously captures the hectic nature of decorating and cooking for a Christmas gathering, and the characters sometimes have to make the most of something, like a hastily constructed Christmas tree.
While several songs from the film are used, the performance is not a repeat of the same. The show even tries to re-center the melodies, like using “All of You” as a borderline Christmas candle-lighting ballad.
“Colombia is one of the founding houses of magical realism in Latin America,” says Tubert. “So even the fact that Mirabel makes this little tree out of sticks and sees it as her Christmas tree is part of that poetry of the everyday that makes magical realism what it is. Let's go there. We take Colombia and say, 'What makes this authentic?' “Our dialect coach is giving us perfect accents for Colombia.”
“Mirabel's Gifts of the Season” program director Linda Love Simmons says Tubert challenges the team to think beyond simply creating a performance that serves as a reference to the film, even as she acknowledges that audiences would probably be happy to simply sing the songs they know. . Tubert points out: “It would be the easiest option to sing, but that's already on Disney+.”
“At first I thought, 'Let's sing,' Simmons confesses. “Susana and I say, 'We can do better.'
“Susana always tells me: 'You're a better storyteller than that.' So it makes me go deeper. … We do a lot of research and a lot of elaboration. But the most important thing is that we wanted to create a feeling: when people see it, they identify with the characters and feel something. That's what we can do intrinsically in musical theater. Normally everything at a theme park is like 'Quick!' But three-quarters of the way there, we turned it all the way down and sang 'All of You' and passed around a candle.”
The Holiday Festival lasts only a few weeks, but it's also having an impact on Disneyland all year long. Tubert, for example, says the mariachi band that leads the “Coco” show, Disneyland's Mariachi Alegría, will stay on after the holiday season. Expect them to be part of the resort's musical offerings, he jokes.
“This is part of the tapestry of diversity that Disneyland represents,” Tubert says. “This is who we are.”
