What would you do if you were stuck on an airplane that was still waiting to take off? Most would probably say they'd be checking and/or responding to social media, and in the case of Pixar legend and co-director of Coco, Lee Unkrich, that's exactly how part of today's schedule was spent. And as sure as Luxo Jr. stamps out the 'I' in the studio logo, a well-versed fan of the studio's asked Unkrich about a familiar habit of his: hiding Easter eggs referencing his favorite film, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, in his films. The director responded with the following count of in-jokes to look for in his latest film:
There you have it, easter egg hunters: there are three nods to The Shining within Coco's numerous frames of excellence. And that's on top of the ones we previously spotted and reported on ourselves when the film opened in late November. While we're not terribly sure where these three hidden references are hiding, or what they may be, we do know that the sliding scale of difficulty makes sure that audiences of all ages can play along in this new round of homage spotting (provided you're old enough to have seen The Shining).
If you ask us, this is just another excuse to see Coco yet again in a theater, and we're certainly not the only ones in favor of repeated viewings. With the film topping the box office for the past three weeks, Disney/Pixar's latest has been chugging along with solid results. Even without the promise of three Shining related goodies just waiting to be spotted the heartwarming musical adventure has been winning over audiences with memorable numbers such as the linchpin known as "Remember Me". But teasing us loyal Pixar fans through Twitter with one more thing we might have missed in our first viewings is the right way to make us look again with a closer eye.
As you can tell by the way it's been discussed, Lee Unkrich hasn't only just started inserting references to The Shining in his work. The pattern goes all the way back to Pixar's first film, Toy Story. If you go back to the 1995 classic, you'll see that the carpeting in the house of the bully, Sid, is the exact same pattern that The Overlook Hotel had in its hallways. Surely, the easiest reference in Coco would be something that obvious, but the two harder references are going to be the real challenges. And if we can't spot them during our next run-through, there's always home video!
Coco is in theaters now, with some territories, like Australia, waiting for the film to open.
