Son of Jaguar is a Google Spotline VR 360 short by Jorge Gutierrez of Book of Life fame, about an aging Mexican wrestler who lost a leg. Via Hollywood Reporter:
Google Spotlight Stories offered a preview of The Book of Life director Jorge Gutierrez’s first virtual-reality/360 short, titled Son of Jaguar, this week at CG conference SIGGRAPH. A release date hasn’t yet been announced.
“I was a VR skeptic, then I saw Patrick Osborne’s Pearl. It made me cry, and I had to do this,” the helmer confessed.
The result is a “super personal” eight-minute animated short with the themes of family and tradition.
Occurring on Mexico’s Day of the Dead (as did Book of Life), Son of Jaguar’s emotional story is set in the Mexican wrestling world and follows a family man and the son of famous wrestler Jaguar, who is going into the ring against Lord Calavera, despite having lost a leg in a prior match.
“Mexican wrestling is very much a tradition passed down from generation to generation, and there’s a legacy to live up to,” Gutierrez explained, adding that his original story was also inspired by traditional tales that his own father told him as a child.
Of the title character (whom he voiced), the director said, “In a weird way, that was me — I had autism, and my son has autism. The perception was, now life is going to be more difficult, and we have to make sacrifices. I wanted to take what is considered a weakness and make it a strength and use this as a positive.”