He secretly idolizes Ernesto de la Cruz, a famous musician who died decades earlier and teaches himself to play guitar from Ernesto's old films. Miguel now lives with the elderly Coco and their family, including Miguel's parents and his abuelita, who are all shoemakers. His great-great-grandmother Imelda was married to a man who left her and their daughter Coco to pursue a career in music, and when he never returned, Imelda banished music from her family's life before starting a shoemaking business. In Santa Cecilia, Mexico, Miguel dreams of becoming a musician, even though his family strictly forbids it. The film was chosen by the National Board of Review as the Best Animated Film of 2017. Coco received two awards at the 90th Academy Awards, and numerous accolades. It grossed over $807 million worldwide, becoming the 16th highest-grossing animated film ever at the time of its release. The film was praised for its animation, voice acting, music, visuals, emotional story, and respect for Mexican culture.
It was theatrically released in Mexico the following week, the weekend before Día de Muertos, and in the United States on November 22, 2017. With a cost of $175–225 million, Coco is the first film with a nine-figure budget to feature an all-Latino principal cast.Ĭoco premiered on October 20, 2017, during the Morelia International Film Festival in Morelia, Mexico. Composer Michael Giacchino, who had worked on prior Pixar animated features, composed the score. Pixar began developing the animation in 2016 Unkrich and some of the film's crew visited Mexico for research. The film was scripted by Molina and Matthew Aldrich from a story by Unkrich, Jason Katz, Aldrich, and Molina. The concept for Coco is inspired by the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead.
The story follows a 12-year-old boy named Miguel 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 and to reverse his family's ban on music. The film's voice cast stars Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Alanna Ubach, Renée Victor, Ana Ofelia Murguía and Edward James Olmos. Based on an original idea by Lee Unkrich, it is directed by him and co-directed by Adrian Molina. Coco is a 2017 American computer-animated fantasy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures.