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Meet Pepita: Mama Imelda's Fiercely Loyal Spirit Guide in 'Coco'

Flying through the sky in the Land of the Dead is the fiercesome, Pepita, the spirit guide of Mama Imelda. With eagle wings and talons, a lizard-like tail, horns from a ram and the face of a jaguar, Pepita is quite a creature to behold. Inspired by traditional Mexican folk art called, alebrijes, the Coco team set to create a number of spirit animals within the Land of the Dead.

The origin of the alebrijie dates back to 1936 when Pedro Linares, a 30-year old pinata maker fell ill and had a wild dream that was made up of brightly colored fantasy-like animals, donkeys with wings, snakes with chicken feet, etc. Once he awoke the artist created the first alebrije,which was created out of paper mache, it wasn't until years later that the art form was reinterpreted into wood carvings. To date, the alebrijes are carved with a special type of wood from the Mexican state of Oaxaca called copal, a soft formable wood that allows for easy carving and manipulation.

Character Artist, Alonso Martinez shared his extensive alebrije collection with the Coco team and as they prepared their research for these magical creatures, it was decided that the team would pay homage to the traditional folk art and include the graphical nature of the alebrijes onto each animal. With the look of the spirit guides underway, the team was faced with a unique challenge while creating Pepita – how would they make her feel agile, yet have