The Importance of 'Coco'

On Thanksgiving weekend 2017, Disney-Pixar released its nineteenth feature film. The film is called Coco, and unlike most its predecessors where talking toys, monsters, or fish are the central characters, this film revolves around human characters set in a small Mexican village. At the center of the story is Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez), a twelve year old who dreams of being a musician and emulating his favorite singer/guitarist Ernesto De La Cruz (Benjamin Bratt). Based on an incident that happened generations ago, Miguel is forbidden to play music by his family, particularly by his abuelita, or grandmother, Elena (Renee Victor) who pressures him to join the family business of shoe-making. On Dia De Los Muertos (or Day Of The Dead) Miguel is transported between the living world and the land of the dead, and finds himself on a journey that will eventually reunite him with his ancestors and the hero that he idolizes.

I don’t want to give any major plot points away in case anybody hasn’t seen it yet. What I can tell you is that this is definitely one of the best films that Pixar has ever made, and that’s saying something considering that their filmography has a brilliant track record. In no particular order, I would put Coco in my personal top five favorite Pixar films along with Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Wall-E, and Inside Out. However what separates Coco from those previously mentioned films, is that fact that the story revolves around people who actually exist in the world, and because of that, it automatically makes the film much more relatable. If you come from a Mexican background, or even if you don’t, there are messages and themes in this film that are so easy to relate to. Universal themes like the importance of family, and the power of music to unite the people.

I grew up in East L.A., which according to the 2010 census has a 96.7 percent Latino population. I saw a lot of my upbringing in this film, and even if they didn’t directly happen to me, it still represents the stories and elements within Mexican culture that are easy to recognize: the abuelita who uses her chankla, or sandal, as a threatening weapon, tributes to close family members who’ve passed on, and simply having large family gatherings during the holidays. There were a lot of elements of my life on display in this film. However some of it was also a great learning experience, or at the least, a refresher course. Growing up my family never celebrated Dia De Los Muertos. I never asked why nor did I really care, because the only thing on my mind around that time of year was dressing up and getting candy on Halloween. Of course, the holiday isn’t completely foreign to me. You don’t have to be Mexican to know what it is. If you’re someone who’s Catholic then you can relate it to All Saints' Day. But the concept of the holiday, which dates back for thousands of years before Columbus, is very simple. It revolves around remembering loved ones who’ve passed on. It’s a theme, like the film, that is universal.

I feel like this film, more so than any other film that has an all Latino cast, really put their heart and soul into getting it right. Getting a certain tone, a certain sound, and a certain look to the film that is so crucial, because had it not been done correctly, it would have come off as tacky or just plain insincere. However it didn’t always start off that way. Lee Unkrich, the director behind Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo and Toy Story 3 originally thought of the concept for this film back in 2010. Sadly Disney almost made a big mistake. When they decided that the film was going to center around Dia De Los Muertos, the studio decided to simply call the film—Dia De Los Muertos. This decision led to an attempt to trademark the name of the holiday for licensing purposes, i.e. selling various forms of merchandise to coincide with the film. As you can imagine, not a lot of people were happy with Disney trying to trademark such an important cultural holiday, and when I say a lot of people I specifically mean other Mexicans. Popular cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz helped lead an online petition that eventually lead to Disney abandoning the idea. He did so by shining a light on this attempted trademark from his website, and various social media platforms. He even created a character named “Muerto Mouse,” a large, scary-looking Godzilla-like cartoon portraying Mickey Mouse as a monstrous animal, instead of a fun-loving children’s character. What transpired from this campaign led Disney to make one of its smartest decisions for this movie; they hired Alcaraz as a “Cultural Consultant” on this film. I point this out because in years past most corporations would simply ignore the voices of the people who are voicing their frustrations. After all when you live in a capitalist society, money is the only thing that really matters, not historical and/or cultural accuracy. Now sure you can argue that it’s Disney-Pixar, so the film is probably going to make money no matter what. However I’m glad that they made the right decisions to make a film that will hopefully stay in people's hearts and minds like Toy Story instead of being an afterthought like The Good Dinosaur.

Overall, this film hits all its marks. As much as I’ve applauded this film for what’s being seen in front of the camera, I also must give the same praise for everyone behind the camera. The creators of the films such as Unkrich and co-writer/co-director Adrian Molina made a note to travel to various parts of Mexico to research the film and make sure that it would come off as authentic as possible. The score composed by Michael Giacchino was written in mind to have an orchestral sound while at the same time fusing it with more traditional Mexican music. He also co-wrote a few of the songs alongside with Molina and Disney writing team Robert and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. The cast is an all-star team of Mexican and Mexican-American actors. Gael Garcia Bernal, one of the most famous Mexican actors working today plays Hector, someone who Miguel meets in the land of the dead. Even Mexican-American legends who have smaller almost cameo-sized roles such as filmmaker Luis Valdez plays Miguel’s Tio Berto. Edward James Olmos who is arguably the greatest Mexican-American actor of all time plays a friend of Hector’s named Chicharron, and Cheech Marin who is arguably the greatest Mexican-American comedian of all time plays a corrections officer in the land of the dead. Even a deceased Frida Kahlo (Natalia Cordova Buckley) makes a cameo. The participation of this high profile cast proves that everyone knew that they were part of of something really special, and that they just wanted to be a part of the film—no matter how big or small their role may be.

Hopefully a film like Coco will be the tipping point that will lead to other films like it being made. In the age of #OscarSoWhite, the talks of diversity and inclusion has skyrocketed in recent years. For decades many conservative studio heads would make the argument that there simply wasn’t a large enough market to profit from a film that didn’t have a predominantly white cast, or in this particular case, an all Latino cast. A similar argument is that it wouldn’t be profitable in overseas markets such as China. Considering that it became the highest grossing film in Mexico clearly proves that myth to be flat out wrong, not to mention it has made over six hundred million dollars at the global box office. My hope is that Coco helps dismantle those outdated beliefs. The stress of profiting from the film really shouldn’t be too much of a concern with all of the success they’ve had. My hope is that Coco is seen not only as a revolutionary film of today, but the revolutionary film that leads to more great films to come in the not-too distant future.