Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios revealed Coco concept art, plot and voice cast.
The film’s voice cast features Anthony Gonzalez as Miguel, Benjamin Bratt as Ernesto de la Cruz, Gael García Bernal as Hector, Renée Victor as Abuelita.
Coco concept art
Official Synopsis:
“Coco follows the secret musical ambitions of 12-year-old Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez), who resides in a lively, loud Mexican village but comes from a family of shoemakers that may be the town’s only music-hating household.
For generations, the Riveras have banned music because they believe they’ve been cursed by it; as their family history goes, Miguel’s great-grandfather abandoned his wife decades earlier to follow his own dreams of performing, leaving Imelda (Renée Victor), Miguel’s great-grandmother, to take control as the matriarch of the now-thriving Rivera line and declare music dead to the family forever.
But Miguel harbors a secret desire to seize his musical moment, inspired by his favorite singer of all time, the late Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt).
It’s only after Miguel discovers an amazing link between himself and De la Cruz that he takes action to emulate the famous singer and, in doing so, accidentally enters the Land of the Dead.
In the beautiful underworld, it’s not long until Miguel encounters the souls of his own family — generations’ worth of long-dead but no less vivacious Rivera ancestors, including great-grandmother Imelda.
Still, given the opportunity to roam around the Land of the Dead, Miguel decides to track down De la Cruz himself. He teams up with another friendly (and skeletal) spirit — a trickster named Hector, voiced by Gael Garcia Bernal — to find De la Cruz, earn his family’s blessing to perform, and return to the Land of the Living before time runs out.”
Also, if you’re worried that Pixar is just co-opting Mexican culture to make a quick buck, fear not. The studio invested in heavily to make sure that they were respectful and inclusive according to Vanity Fair:
Additionally, Coco writer Adrian Molina assures that the studio made sure that they were respectful and inclusive of Mexican culture:
“Working alongside Solís, Aviles, and Alcaraz (among others) was crucial to getting Coco right. It opened up a great conversation—to be able to meet with people—because we understood there was such a responsibility.
The great thing about it is that when we talk with our consultants—or even in my experience coming from a Mexican background—it creates a conversation of what the celebration means to them,” told Vanity Fair.
He adds, “It’s also part of larger effort on Disney’s part to craft more inclusive stories and get as much cultural input as possible; after decades of telling stories about other cultures with varying levels of accuracy, Disney is now pushing hard to get it right.”
Directed by Lee Unkrich with Adrian Molina, who also wrote the screenplay for the iflm.
Produced by Pixar Animation Studios’ Darla K. Anderson.
Coco is scheduled to be released on November 22, 2017.
Source: ew.com (via ohmy.disney.com)