The creative concept for CocoVR was to make the user an active participant in the luminous Land of the Dead, as featured in the film Coco. The piece explains the significance of the Mexican tradition then magically transports the user into the Land of the Dead. The piece then allows the user to explore and interact with the world with up to three other friends. We wanted the user(s) to be able to learn about the holiday, see never-before-seen footage and artwork all while moving thru the Land as if he/she is a participant in the world. The users gets to step inside, learn and interact with the magical world of Coco as if he or she was actually there. Of course, the end lets the user know that perhaps it was all just a dream and that of course, you are still in the Land of the Living.

CocoVR was a true collaboration between Pixar and Magnopus. A lot of time and effort early on was dedicated to determining the best methods for translating the gorgeous, highly-detailed characters and environments into a real-time, game engine-powered experience. The teams worked together to create new tools and pipelines to handle everything.

While much of the team was busy maximizing GPU cycles, others were focused on making sure it would be fun. A lot of the multi-user support and social mechanics were implemented in the earliest phase of rapid prototyping.

A longer-lasting realization was the value of everyone collaborating natively in VR. Teams from Pixar (Emeryville) and Magnopus (LA) were able to work side-by-side in VR, enabling better, faster creative decision making with immediate results.

While exact numbers are confidential, the film did more than 50% global box office than had been anticipated.

Total of about 100,000 unique users of the experience between Rift, Gear and the activation kiosks.

Users spent an average of 17 minutes (Rift) in the experience.

Estimated 80 million impressions generated by the Coco VR experience via press articles, exposure at festivals/film openings, downloads via the Oculus store.