Coco co-director Ardian Molina told Remezcla that Pepita plays the part of a spiritual guide for the great-great grandmother of the film’s primary character, Miguel.
There will apparently be several other alebrijes in Coco, all made up of different combinations of animals.
Eventually, it was decided to make Pepita an alebrije as the filmmakers wanted to find a way to bring the traditional figures into the story, and doing so opened up the character in different ways.
Pepita is more than simply an interesting looking creation, however.