Multi-talented animation creator Jorge Gutierrez has always injected Hispanic culture into his work throughout his career. This is seen heavily in 2014's The Book of Life, and its shared-universe successor, Maya and the Three, a limited series that premiered on Netflix in 2022.
At last week's Annecy Film Festival, Gutierrez teased a third entry in his universe that will also be aimed primarily at Latin audiences and is coming as part of his newly signed deal with Netflix, as the streamer wanted to re-up with him after the success of last year's Maya and the Three. The animator, director, producer, writer, and voice actor also promised a new project is on the way titled I, Chihuahua, which Gutierrez says is "basically a Street Fighter movie about a little Mexican Chihuahua dog who wants to be a Mexican wrestler.”
Gutierrez was recently the first to be featured in The Hollywood Reporter's Kids' Entertainment Power List series. In his chat, he breaks down why he thinks diverse projects like his are so important and why the inclusion of storytellers from different parts of the world contributes to making today the "Golden Age of animation".
You can check out what the creator had to say on diversity as well as his Autism and how it affects his characters below.
“Representing Mexican culture and representing Mexican American culture and representing Latin America in animation, that’s always been my inspiration. And then how to make that universal has been my lifelong journey. Hopefully, it allows people, and kids specifically, to look at the world and go, ‘Not only does that look like me, but it was made by someone who looks like me.’ That I didn’t have growing up.
I believe for a lot of Hispanic and Latino kids, the biggest obstacle to going into animation and the arts starts at home because there’s not a lot of examples of success. I’m really invested in giving this next generation and these future generations a symbol and go, ‘We can do this. You can do it.’ That’s my hope.
I really believe the golden era is right now. And what I mean by that is for the first time in the history of our medium, people from everywhere are getting the opportunities, and to me that’s the real golden era.
I was diagnosed [with Autism] because my son is on the spectrum. As soon as I got diagnosed, it really opened up a lot of stuff. And so a lot of my work deals with outsiders and deals with people who don’t belong and try to become not only strong enough inside to go on these journeys, but it kind of comes down to the choices they make for the bigger good. And I think that’s been my whole life.
When people ask me, ‘Are your characters autistic?’ I always say, ‘Well, they’re based on my struggles in my life. So, yeah, they are.’”
What do you guys think of these comments by Gutierrez? Do you agree that this is the Golden Era of animation or do you think that has long since passed? Regardless of your take, share your thoughts in the comments section as always!
The Book of Life is currently streaming on HBO Max, Maya and the Three streams on Netflix, and there is no release date yet for I, Chihuahua.