Deadtime Stories with Mariachi Goose and Friends

Short Animated Musical | USA | English, Spanish, and Spanglish | TRT: 11:02 minutes

Deadtime Stories with Mariachi Goose and Friends is Act II in the animated Xican@ opera, Imperial Silence, a genre-bending mariachi musical that fuses satire, political allegory, and Día de los Muertos aesthetics into a bold, irreverent narrative. Set during the longest day of the year in the mystical land of Muertolandia, the story unfolds as a surreal and subversive reimagining of classic nursery tales—where the dead have risen not to haunt, but to challenge the living myths of empire. 

At the heart of the tale lies the tragic fall of Humpty Mariachi Dumpty, a spectral superstar egg set to debut his huapango hit, Quisiera Vivir, at the Gran Solstice concert, a fundraiser for the infamous Great Wall. But before he can take the stage, destiny cracks wide open. Enter Jill, a fiercely independent heroine, who begins the day on a hill and ends it transformed in the depths of Abuela’s house. Along the way, she confronts the absurdities of El Kingdom and steps into her power as Little Dead Riding Hood, reshaping the rules of the storybook world.

The film features a familiar yet delightfully twisted ensemble: Jack and Jill, Rapunzel, the Three Blind Mice (riding low), So White and the Seven Deadly Dwarves, and a diva Big Bad Wolf with an operatic flair. Together, they populate a universe that blends Spanglish, satire, music video aesthetics, and layered cultural critique.

Through original songs ranging from boleros to bossa nova to Xican@ rap, the narrative riffs on themes of identity, erasure, resistance, and rebirth—delivered with biting humor and musical flourish. With animated sequences that dance between music video and mythic fable, Deadtime Stories is both a Día de los Muertos tribute and a satirical wake for the fairy tales that scaffold empire.

A dead urban tale for your inner adolescent. Immature audiences only.

Director’s Statement: Deadtime Stories with Mariachi Goose and Friends

There are stories we grow up believing—nursery rhymes whispered to us before sleep, with melodies so familiar we forget to question their meaning. These early tales planted archetypes in our imagination long before we had the tools to question them. We accepted their logic: that wells belong on hills, that girls fall down, and that wolves are always bad. But what happens when we grow up and begin to interrogate these stories—not just for their plot holes, but for their moral codes, gender dynamics, and hidden agendas?

Deadtime Stories with Mariachi Goose and Friends is an animated re-examination of the stories we’ve been handed. Set in Muertolandia on the longest day of the year, this second act of our animated Xican@ opera Imperial Silence dives headfirst into the absurdity and beauty of inherited mythologies. We don’t just retell fairy tales—we unbury them, decolonize them, and, occasionally, reanimate them with a mariachi soundtrack and a sharper sense of humor.

At the center of this tale is Jill, who no longer climbs hills on someone else’s errand. When Jack gets fresh, she knocks the crown off his head and takes destiny into her own hands. Her journey—part revolution, part teenage rebellion—leads her through forests, into therapist offices, and all the way to La Casa de Abuela, where she overhears a twisted version of Little Red Riding Hood and transforms into Little Dead Riding Hood. Armed with cookies and clarity, she’s no longer afraid of cross-dressing wolves with fragile egos.

Meanwhile, in a parallel storyline of heartbreak and political subversion, we meet Humpty Mariachi Dumpty, a sensitive, yolk-hearted egg with a voice that could melt concrete. Just before he’s set to perform his huapango hit at a concert on the Great Wall—a fundraiser, no less—he’s accused of stepping out with the King’s daughter. The King doesn’t take heartbreak lightly. Arrests are made. Performances are interrupted. And Humpty sings his truth anyway:

Quisiera vivir mi vida con quien yo quiera / Pero siento controlado por otro ser...
(I wish to live my life with whom I choose / But I feel controlled by another...)

We designed Deadtime Stories as both homage and satire—a Día de los Muertos offering that critiques patriarchal fairytales, capitalist spectacles, and the state surveillance of joy. The animation dances between music video and cautionary tale, packed with cross-dressing wolves, radical sisterhoods, haunted eggs, and dead mice with attitude. All of it plays out in Spanglish, boleros, Xican@ rap, and unapologetic visual flair.

At its core, this animation is about reclaiming narrative power. We do not aim to sanitize fairy tales for modern audiences. We aim to liberate them. Because sometimes, a girl needs to decide for herself whether or not to fetch the water—or burn down the hill entirely.

— John Jota Leaños & Sean Levon Nash