Coco is a 2017 American 3Dcomputer-animatedfantasy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures.[10] Based on an original idea by Lee Unkrich, it is directed by him and co-directed by Adrian Molina.[11] The story follows a 12-year-old boy named Miguel Rivera who is accidentally transported to the land of the dead, where he seeks the help of his deceased musician great-great-grandfather to return him to his family among the living.
The concept for Coco is based on the Mexican holiday of the Day of the Dead. The film was scripted by Molina and Matthew Aldrich from a story by Unkrich, Jason Katz, Aldrich and Molina. Pixar began developing the animation in 2016; Unkrich and some of the film's crew visited Mexico for inspiration. Composer Michael Giacchino, who had worked on prior Pixar animated features, composed the score. The film's voice cast stars Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Alanna Ubach, Renée Victor, Ana Ofelia Murguía, and Edward James Olmos. Coco is the first-ever motion picture with a nine-figure budget to feature an all-Latino cast, with a cost of $175–200 million.[12]
Coco premiered on October 20, 2017 during the Morelia International Film Festival in Morelia, Mexico.[13] It was theatrically released in Mexico the following week, the weekend before Día de los Muertos, and became the highest-grossing film of all time in the country.[14][15][16][17] It was released in the United States on November 22, 2017 and was praised for its animation, vocal performances, music, emotional story, and respect for Mexican culture. It has grossed over $794 million worldwide.
In Santa Cecilia, Mexico, Imelda Rivera was the wife of a musician, who left her and their 3-year-old daughter Coco, to pursue a career in music. When he never returns, Imelda banishes music from her life and that of her family and opens a shoemaking family business.
Ninety-six years later, her great-great-grandson, 12-year-old Miguel, now lives with Coco and their family. He secretly dreams of becoming a musician like Ernesto de la Cruz, a popular actor and singer of Coco's generation. One day, Miguel inadvertently damages the picture frame holding a photo of Coco with her parents at the center of the family ofrenda and removes the photograph, discovering that his great-great-grandfather (whose face had been torn out) was holding Ernesto's famous guitar.
Concluding that Ernesto is his great-great-grandfather, Miguel leaves to enter a talent show for the Day of the Dead despite the objections of his grandmother Elena. He enters Ernesto's mausoleum and takes his guitar to use in the show, but becomes invisible to everyone in the village plaza. However, he can interact with his Xoloitzcuintli dog Dante and his skeletal dead relatives who are visiting from the Land of the Dead for the holiday. Taking him there, they realize that Imelda cannot visit, as Miguel removed her photo from the ofrenda. Discovering that he is cursed for stealing from the dead, Miguel must return to the Land of the Living before sunrise or he will become one of the dead; to do so, he must receive a blessing from a member of his family using an Aztec marigold petal that can undo the curse placed upon him when he stole Ernesto's guitar. Imelda offers Miguel a blessing but on the condition that he abandon his musical pursuits when he returns to the Land of the Living; Miguel refuses and attempts to seek Ernesto's blessing.
Miguel encounters Héctor, a down-on-his-luck skeleton who once played music with Ernesto and offers to help Miguel reach him. In return, Héctor asks Miguel to take his photo back to the Land of the Living so he can visit his daughter before she forgets him and he disappears completely. Upon learning he has other relatives, however, Héctor attempts to return Miguel to them, but Miguel escapes and infiltrates Ernesto's mansion, learning along the way that an old friendship between the two deteriorated before Héctor's death. Ernesto welcomes Miguel as his descendant, but Héctor confronts them, imploring Miguel to take his photo to the Land of the Living. After an argument between Ernesto and Héctor, Miguel soon realizes that Ernesto murdered Héctor using a poisoned drink and stole the songs Héctor had written, passing them off as his own to become famous.
To maintain his legacy, Ernesto steals the photo and has Miguel and Héctor thrown into a cenote pit. Miguel realizes that Héctor is his actual great-great-grandfather and that Coco is Héctor's daughter, the only living person who still remembers him. With the help of Dante – who turns into an alebrije – the dead Riveras find and rescue the duo. Miguel reveals that Héctor's decision to return home to Imelda and Coco resulted in his death, and Imelda and Héctor gradually reconcile. They infiltrate Ernesto's sunrise concert to retrieve Héctor's photo from Ernesto and his crimes are revealed to everyone. Ernesto is crushed by a falling church bell as in his previous life, but Héctor's photo falls into the water and disappears.
As the sun rises, Héctor is in danger of being forgotten by Coco and disappearing. Imelda and Héctor bless Miguel with no conditions attached so he can return to the Land of the Living, where he plays "Remember Me", a song Héctor wrote for her during her childhood. The song revitalizes her memory of Héctor, and she gives Miguel the torn-out piece of the photo from the ofrenda, which shows Héctor's face, and tells her family stories about her father, thus keeping the memory of him alive. Elena reconciles with Miguel, accepting music back into the family.
One year later, Miguel proudly presents the family ofrenda – including the restored photo of Héctor and Imelda – to his new baby sister Socorro as Elena adds a photo of the now-deceased Coco. Letters kept by Coco contain evidence that Ernesto stole Héctor's songs. As a result, Ernesto's legacy is destroyed, and the community honors Héctor instead. In the Land of the Dead, Héctor and Imelda join Coco for a visit to the living Riveras as Miguel sings and plays for his dead and living relatives.
Gael García Bernal as Héctor, a charming trickster in the Land of the Dead who enlists Miguel to help him visit the Land of the Living, and is later revealed to be Miguel's great-great-grandfather, Imelda's husband, Coco's father and the patriarch of the Rivera family.[11]
Bernal also voices Héctor in the Spanish version.[21]
Benjamin Bratt as Ernesto de la Cruz, the most famous musician in the history of Mexico and Miguel's idol. Revered by fans worldwide until his untimely death, the charming and charismatic musician is even more beloved in the Land of the Dead.[11][22]
Antonio Sol provides de la Cruz's singing voice, except for "Remember Me".[23]
Alanna Ubach as Mamá Imelda Rivera, Miguel's late great-great-grandmother, Héctor's wife, Coco's mother and the matriarch of the Rivera family.[20]
Renée Victor as Elena Rivera, Miguel's grandmother ("Abuelita") who strictly enforces the ban on music that is the legacy of her grandmother.[11]
Ana Ofelia Murguía as Mamá Socorro "Coco" Rivera, Miguel's great-grandmother and the daughter of Héctor and Imelda.[24]
Edward James Olmos as Chicharrón, a friend of Héctor's who is forgotten in the Land of the Dead.[20]
Alfonso Arau as Papá Julio Rivera, Miguel's late great-grandfather and Coco's husband.[20]
Arau also voices Papá Julio in the Spanish version.[21]
Selene Luna as Tía Rosita Rivera, Miguel's late great-grandaunt, and Julio's sister.[20]
Dyana Ortellí as Tía Victoria Rivera, Miguel's late grandaunt, and Elena's sister.[20]
Herbert Sigüenza as Tíos Oscar and Felipe Rivera, Miguel’s late identical twin great-great-granduncles.[20]
Jaime Camil as Papá Enrique Rivera, Miguel's father and Elena's son.[20]
Sofía Espinosa as Mamá Luisa Rivera, Miguel's mother. She is pregnant with her second child during the events of the movie.[20]
Espinosa also voices Mamá Luisa in the Spanish version.[21]
Reyes also voices the Security Guard in the Spanish version.[21]
John Ratzenberger as Juan Ortodoncia,[26] a skeleton in the Land of the Dead with bad teeth.
Production
Development
Lee Unkrich (pictured in 2009) first conceptualized Coco in 2010
Lee Unkrich first pitched an idea for the film in 2010, when Toy Story 3, which he also directed, was released.[11] Initially the film was to be about an American child, learning about his Mexican heritage, while dealing with the death of his mother. Eventually the team realized that this was the wrong approach and reformed the film to focus on a Mexican child instead.[27] Of the original version, Unkrich noted that it "reflected the fact that none of us at the time were from Mexico."[27] The fact that the film depicted "a real culture" caused anxiety for Unkrich, who "felt an enormous responsibility on [his] shoulders to do it right."[27]
The Pixar team made several trips to Mexico to help define the characters and story of Coco. Unkrich said, "I'd seen it portrayed in folk art. It was something about the juxtaposition of skeletons with bright, festive colors that captured my imagination. It has led me down a winding path of discovery. And the more I learn about [el] Día de los Muertos, the more it affects me deeply."[28] The team found it difficult working with skeletal creatures, as they lacked any muscular system, and as such had to be animated differently from their human counterparts.[29]Coco also took inspiration from Hayao Miyazaki's anime films Spirited Away (2001) and Howl's Moving Castle (2004) as well as the action filmJohn Wick (2014).[30]
Casting
In 2016, the Coco team made an official announcement about the cast, which revealed that Gael Garcia Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Renée Victor, and Anthony Gonzalez would voice the characters.[31]
Filming
On April 13, 2016, Unkrich announced that they had begun work on the animation.[32] The film's writer, Adrian Molina, was promoted to co-director in late 2016.[11]
Disney made a request to trademark the phrase "Día de los Muertos" for merchandising applications. This was met with criticism from the Mexican American community in the United States.[33]Lalo Alcaraz, a Mexican American cartoonist, drew a film poster titled "Muerto Mouse", depicting a skeletal Godzilla-sized Mickey Mouse with the byline "It's coming to trademark your cultura."[34] More than 21,000 people signed a petition on Change.org stating that the trademark was "cultural appropriation and exploitation at its worst."[33] A week later, Disney cancelled the attempt, with the official statement saying that the "trademark filing was intended to protect any title for our film and related activities. It has since been determined that the title of the film will change, and therefore we are withdrawing our trademark filing."[35] In 2015, Pixar hired Alcaraz to consult on the film,[34] joining playwright Octavio Solis and former CEO of the Mexican Heritage Corp. Marcela Davison Aviles, to form a cultural consultant group.[11]
Coco was released in Mexico on October 27, 2017, the weekend before Día de los Muertos. The film was released in the United States on November 22, 2017, during the Thanksgiving weekend, and three weeks after Día de los Muertos, and in the United Kingdom on January 19, 2018.[40] The film was released in a crowded market, preceded by Thor: Ragnarok, Justice League and another animated film, The Star, and followed by Star Wars: The Last Jedi and another animated film, Ferdinand three weeks after Thanksgiving. It is one of the three Disney film productions being released in the November–December corridor.[41] It is the second Pixar offering of the year, following Cars 3, with 2017 being the second year Pixar released two films, after 2015 (with Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur).[42][43][44] The film was accompanied in theaters by Walt Disney Animation Studios' 21-minute featurette Olaf's Frozen Adventure as a limited time offering,[45] featuring the characters from Frozen, making Coco the first Pixar film not to be accompanied by a Pixar short in theaters since their first film, Toy Story, in 1995.[46]
Marketing
The first teaser trailer was released on March 15, 2017, two days before Disney's Beauty and the Beast opened worldwide.[41] The teaser trailer introduced the basic concept of the film, while highlighting its focus on music.[47] Scott Mendelson of Forbes praised the trailer as "a terrific old-school Pixar sell, mostly consisting of a single sequence and offering just the barest hint of what's to come."[41] The film's themes and imagery drew comparison to another animated film that centered around Día de Muertos, The Book of Life (2014).[47][48] A two-minute short film, titled Dante's Lunch—A Short Tail, was released online on March 29, 2017. It introduces the film's supporting character, a Xoloitzcuintle named Dante. The short was created early in the animation process by Unkrich and his team to have a better sense of the character.[49] The first official trailer was released on June 7, 2017,[50] followed by a second trailer on September 13.[51] The film was marketed extensively in Mexico, including traditional wall-painted advertising usually used for local events and never for films.[citation needed]Cinépolis, a movie chain in the country, held a contest for dubbing a character in the film,[52] and another movie chain[which?] held a contest to become an interviewer for the cast and crew of the film.[53]
The film will also have its own VR game, being Pixar's first VR development.[54]
As of April 15, 2018[update], Coco has grossed $209.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $580.3 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $790 million.[9]
United States and Canada
In the United States and Canada, Coco was projected to gross $55–65 million from 3,987 theaters in its first five days, including around $40 million in its opening weekend.[56] It made $2.3 million from Tuesday night previews, landing between Disney's previous two November releases Moana ($2.6 million) and The Good Dinosaur ($1.3 million), and $13.2 million on its first day. It went on to debut to $50.8 million (including a five-day total of $72.9 million), finishing first at the box office.[57] It was the 4th-biggest Thanksgiving opening weekend ever, behind fellow animated films Frozen, Moana and Toy Story 2.[6] In its second weekend, the film dropped by 46% to $27.5 million, a smaller drop than Moana, Frozen, Tangled, and The Good Dinosaur, and again topping the box office.[58][59] It topped the box office once again in its third weekend, dropping by 33% and grossing $18.5 million, a similar hold to Moana.[60] It became the fourth film of 2017 to top the box office three times, following Split, The Fate of the Furious and The Hitman's Bodyguard, before being overtaken by Disney's own Star Wars: The Last Jedi and another animated film, Ferdinand, in its fourth weekend.[61][62]
It fell to number six in its fifth weekend, due to competition from three new releases—Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Pitch Perfect 3, and The Greatest Showman—despite a small drop again; it grossed $2.8 million on Christmas Day.[63] On the holiday week of December 22–28, the film finished at number six with a gross of $16.3 million, which was 6% up from the previous week, despite losing over 1,000 theaters.[64] It finished at number six in its sixth weekend, going up 39% and 87%, respectively, during the three-day[65] and four-day weekends;[66] it grossed $2.6 million on New Year's Day.[67] It fell outside the top 10 in its eighth weekend (which included Martin Luther King Jr. Day), dropping 38% and 14% respectively, during the three-day[68] and four-day weekends.[69]
Other countries
Coco was released in Mexico on October 27, nearly a month before its release in the United States. It grossed $9.3 million on its opening weekend, the biggest opening weekend for an original animated film and the biggest debut for an animated film outside of the summer movie season in the market.[70] In its second weekend, it earned another $10.8 million, a 12% increase over its first weekend, bringing its total to $28 million. It became the fastest ten-day grosser ever for an animated feature in Mexico, as well as the biggest original animated release ever in the territory.[71][72] It dropped by 23% in its third weekend, grossing $8.4 million. That brought its total to MX$792 million (US$41.4 million), making it the highest-grossing animated film and the second-highest grossing film of all time in Mexico, behind Disney's own The Avengers, in local currency.[73] A few days later, on November 15, it passed The Avengers to become the highest-grossing film in the Mexican market.[14][15][16][17]
In China, Coco finished number one at the weekend box office, with a three-day total of $18.2 million, making it the second-highest opening ever for a Disney or Pixar animated release in that market, behind Zootopia.[74][75] After seeing increases each weekday on its first week,[76] the film increased by 148% on its second weekend, bringing its total to $75.6 million in the market.[59][77] It dropped by 21% in its third weekend, finishing first once again and grossing $35 million.[78] The film fell to number three in its fourth weekend, due to competition from two new domestic releases, grossing an additional $17.1 million.[79]Coco's success in China came as a surprise to most box office analysts who were projecting a gross of $30–40 million. By its second weekend, it had become the highest-grossing Pixar release ever in China, nearly doubling previous record-holder Finding Dory, and by its fifth weekend, it had surpassed Despicable Me 3 to become the second highest-grossing animated movie of all time in the country, behind Zootopia.[80][81] As of March 5, 2018, the film's largest markets were China ($189.2 million), Mexico ($57.8 million), France ($32.8 million), South Korea ($25.7 million), the United Kingdom ($23.1 million), Spain ($20.7 million), Argentina ($14.8 million), Italy ($14.2 million) and Germany ($12.1 million).[82][83] The movie was released in Japan, its final market, on March 16, 2018.
Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97% based on 273 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Coco's rich visual pleasures are matched by a thoughtful narrative that takes a family-friendly—and deeply affecting—approach to questions of culture, family, life, and death."[84] It was the site's highest-rated animated film and ninth highest-rated wide release of 2017.[85][86] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100, based on 48 critics, indicating "universal acclaim."[87] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale, one of fewer than 80 films in the history of the service to receive such a score; it was also the sixth Pixar film to earn the rating – the previous being Up in 2009.[6] It also earned a 95% positive score, including a rare five-out-of-five rating, from filmgoers on PostTrak, along with a 76% "definite recommend".[58]
Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter said, "At every imaginative juncture, the filmmakers (the screenplay is credited to Pixar veteran Molina and Matthew Aldrich) create a richly woven tapestry of comprehensively researched storytelling, fully dimensional characters, clever touches both tender and amusingly macabre, and vivid, beautifully textured visuals."[88] Robert Abele of TheWrap praised the film, saying: "If an animated movie is going to offer children a way to process death, it's hard to envision a more spirited, touching and breezily entertaining example than Coco."[89] In his review for Variety, Peter Debruge wrote, "In any case, it works: Coco's creators clearly had the perfect ending in mind before they'd nailed down all the other details, and though the movie drags in places, and features a few too many childish gags... the story's sincere emotional resolution earns the sobs it's sure to inspire." Debruge also described the film as "[An] effective yet hardly exceptional addition to the Pixar oeuvre."[90]Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film four out of four, writing that "There's a touch of Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki in the film's matter-of-fact depiction of the dead interacting with the living, as well as its portrayal of certain creatures" such as Dante and Pepita. He concluded his review by stating, "I had some minor quibbles about [Coco] while I was watching it, but I can't remember what they were. This film is a classic."[91]
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone rated the film 3.5 out of four, calling it a "loving tribute to Mexican culture", while praising the animation, vocal performances (particularly of Gonzalez, García Bernal, and Bratt), and its emotional and thematic tone and depth.[92] The Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips called the film "vividly good, beautifully animated", praising Giacchino's musical score and the songs, as well drawing a comparison to the emotional tone of Inside Out.[93]A. O. Scott of The New York Times praised the film as "a time-tested tune with captivating originality and flair, and with roving, playful pop-culture erudition", and called the film's cultural vibe "inclusive" and "a 21st-century Disney hallmark".[94]Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times found the film to be "full of life" and deemed it "a bouncy and heart-tugging adventure", while lauding the vocal performances as "fantastic" and "first-rate".[95] Brian Truitt of USA Today described the film as "effervescent, clever and thoughtful," calling it one of "Pixar's most gorgeously animated outings", and "the most musical Pixar film, with a host of catchy tunes".[96] Stephen Whitty of the Newark Star-Ledger wrote that the backgrounds "have a vibrancy, and its atmosphere carries a warmth. And even after it's done, both linger, just a bit—like a perfectly struck guitar chord".[97]
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