History YMMV / Coco

** Coco's death and [[TogetherInHeaven reuniting with her parents in the afterlife]] in the epilogue becomes this following the death of her voice actress Ana Ofelia Murguía six years later.

* HeartwarmingInHindsight: Part of Miguel's plea for Mama Imelda to help retrieve Héctor's photo could apply to viewers who want to continue appreciating John Lasseter's contributions to animation, without condoning his behavior out of the spotlight.

** Ernesto would move heaven and earth for Héctor... but also [[IfICantHaveYou murder him for trying to go home to his wife]].
** [[https://youtu.be/dbOLr0N4yk8?t=1m49s This guy swooning at Ernesto('s song?) like the three women and his girlfriend.]]

* {{Narm}}: In the scene where Miguel and Héctor are thrown into the sinkhole, Héctor reveals Coco is his daughter, thus ''he'' is actually his great-great grandpa. Though this is a somewhat serious scene, when Miguel says, "Coco?", his lips sticking out expression makes him look like he's making a duckface.

* EvilIsSexy: Ernesto's human form is noticeably very handsome and well-groomed.

* ValuesDissonance: The film is set in a small town in rural Mexico, where interconnectivity between generations is treated very seriously and with the utmost respect. As such, given the choice between family and passions, "family comes first." The film ''does'' make it a point to show that elders can be wrong, but does so very gently, and the possibility of simply pursuing your dreams regardless of whether your grandmother (let alone your long dead great-great grandmother) approves is just not acceptable.

** Early reviews for this movie seems to indicate that it's a step in the right direction for Pixar, with critics saying that while it's a bit more familiar than Pixar's classic movies, it also has considerably more effort put into it than the most of their movies preceding it in the decade.

** Ernesto De La Cruz. One side thinks that he's a [[LoveToHate great villain]], or at the very least toleratable. The other thinks that he wasn't necessary as a character, thinking that Héctor dying by accident when he tried to return [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot would've been a stronger and more realistic story]]. However, the general reception is that he's one of the better-''executed'' Disney twist villains.

* RonTheDeathEater: Okay, so there's pretty much ''zero'' people in the fandom that think Ernesto [[DracoInLeatherPants was a darling little angel]] whose hand was forced into killing Héctor, but some people blame ''Imelda'' for it, their reasoning being that [[InsaneTrollLogic him wanting to go back to her and Coco was technically why he died.]] A good amount of Héctor fangirls also tend to vilify her for turning her back on him, despite her actions being perfectly reasonable [[FourthWallMyopia from her point of view]]. On the other hand, there's more than a few fanfics that make Ernesto [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil a vile rapist and abuser]] atop being a murderous scumbag. Even Héctor gets some hate from people who think AmbitionIsEvil and therefore traveling in hopes of advancing his musical career was ''morally wrong'', nearly as bad as deliberately skipping out on his family.

* RonTheDeathEater: Okay, so there's pretty much ''zero'' people in the fandom that think Ernesto [[DracoInLeatherPants was a darling little angel]] whose hand was forced into killing Héctor, but some people blame ''Imelda'' for it, their reasoning being that [[InsaneTrollLogic him wanting to go back to her and Coco was technically why he died.]] A good amount of Héctor fangirls also tend to vilify her for turning her back on him, despite her actions being perfectly reasonable [[FourthWallMyopia from her point of view.]] On the other hand, there's more than a few fanfics that make Ernesto [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil a vile rapist and abuser]] atop being a murderous scumbag. Even Héctor gets some hate from people who think AmbitionIsEvil and therefore traveling in hopes of advancing his musical career was ''morally wrong'', nearly as bad as deliberately skipping out on his family.

** The Rivera family, particularly Elena and Imelda, upholding the music ban for generations can be seen as cruel to many viewers. As a result, it's really satisfying to see Miguel refuses to put up with their unreasonable actions and stand up to them.

* CatharsisFactor: After all of the reprehensible crimes Ernesto committed for the sake of fame (murdering Hector to steal his music, causing Hector’s family to believe he abandoned them, and throwing Miguel off a roof) seeing him get exposed on stage, crushed by a bell for a second time, and be exposed as a fraud in the real world is one of the most cathartic villain downfalls in animated films.

* FriendlyFandoms: With ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'' due to both works being Pixar films which deal with young protagonists dealing with GenerationalTrauma.

* RealismInducedHorror: The thing that makes Ernesto de la Cruz such an effective villain is that he's a fairly realistic portrayal of a celebrity who uses their fame and public reputation to get away with doing horrible things, particularly how he murdered Héctor by giving him a poisoned tequila, none too dissimilar to how real murderers find clandestine ways to brag about what they have done.

* RealismInducedHorror: The thing that makes Ernesto de la Cruz such an effective villain is that he's a fairly realistic portrayal of a celebrity who uses their fame and public reputation to get away with doing horrible things, particularly how he murdered Héctor in one of his movies by giving him a poisoned tequila, none too dissimilar to how real murderers find clandestine ways to brag about what they have done.

* RealismInducedHorror: The thing that makes Ernesto such an effective villain is that he’s a fairly realistic portrayal of a celebrity who uses their fame and public reputation to get away with doing horrible things. The fact that the movie came out around the start of the #[=MeToo=] movement only makes this more profound.

* RealismInducedHorror: The thing that makes Ernesto such an effective villain is that he’s a fairly realistic portrayal of a celebrity who uses their fame and public reputation to get away with doing horrible things. The fact that the movie came out around the start of the #MeToo movement only makes this more profound.

** After the PR disaster that was the Day of the Dead trademark claim which initially left a sour taste in Mexican audiences' mouths, the movie has an almost HundredPercentAdorationRating in Mexico thanks to how much the movie is TruthInTelevision and the [[ShownTheirWork amount of research put into it]].

----

* {{Applicability}}: Much has been written about the (presumed unintentional given ProductionLeadTime) topicality of a story about discovering one's favorite celebrity is secretly a horrible person, as the film came out amidst revelations that the American entertainment industry had been covering up decades of sexual abuse by prominent people.

* RealismInducedHorror: One of the most disturbing scenes in the film has no supernatural elements whatsoever (unless you count the frame story of Héctor recalling it). It's just a completely realistic portrayal of a man poisoning his "friend" to death in cold blood motivated by nothing but petty greed and jealousy.

* MoralEventHorizon: Ernesto de la Cruz crosses over when he kills Héctor with poison and takes credit for all of his work in order to make himself a big celebrity, ''[[SpeakIllOfTheDead even stealthily bragging about his murder in one of his movies]]'', without showing any remorse decades later. He crosses this even further when he imprisons "his great-great grandson" Miguel in a cenote pit, knowing he will die at sunrise. Later he even tosses Miguel off of the Sunrise Spectacular building to prevent him from revealing his immoral deeds to the Land of the Living.

* CatharsisFactor: Everything that Ernesto goes through after TheReveal of his murder of Héctor, given how he is a '''big''' time HateSink and had been a KarmaHoudini for almost 100 years.

** TheReveal (the beloved Ernesto de la Cruz is actually a fraud and murderer) is a lot harder to swallow after Pixar founder/CEO and hero to many aspiring animators Creator/JohnLasseter took a leave of absence, and ultimately resigned at the end of the next year, following reports of his history of sexual misconduct and mistreatment of female and minority employees. Even worse, it occurred ''one day'' before the movie was released! And not just Lasseter. The movie came out within a period of accusations of sexual misconduct committed by much respected and famous actors and other film/television industry big shots that destroyed fans' passion for them and/or their work, much like how Ernesto's actions being revealed to the public almost instantly turned his fans against him. Additionally, reportedly John Lasseter stole the idea and credit for ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'' from Jorgen Klubien, an animator who was friends with Lasseter at [=CalArts=] and later Pixar, [[KickedUpstairs and booted Klubien to script-writing]] before removing him from the film altogether. The parallels to Héctor, Héctor's friendship with Ernesto de la Cruz, and how Cruz ultimately threw Héctor, his best friend, under the bus in order to steal Héctor's idea and went on to fame and glory are eerie.

* {{Applicability}}: Much has been written about the (presumed unintentional given AnimationLeadTime) topicality of a story about discovering one's favorite celebrity is secretly a horrible person, as the film came out amidst revelations that the American entertainment industry had been covering up decades of sexual abuse by prominent people.

* HeartwarmingInHindsight:
** Part of Miguel's plea for Mama Imelda to help retrieve Héctor's photo could apply to viewers who want to continue appreciating John Lasseter's contributions to animation, without condoning his behavior out of the spotlight.

** Miguel and Héctor's performance is definitely this. Given that both are strangers (later revealed to be great-great grandson and great-great grandfather) yet perform so well together will bring a smile to everyone's face.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** When the movie was still in the planning stages, Disney attempted to trademark the name "Day of the Dead" which miffed a lot of people. In response to the backlash, Pixar changed the title of the film, removing the need for said trademark. They subsequently hired Mexican-American cartoonist [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalo_Alcaraz Lalo Alcaraz]] ([[HireTheCritic who led the social media backlash in the first place]]) as a consultant on the film, alongside noted playwright [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octavio_Solis Octavio Solis]] and Mexican Heritage Corp CEO [[http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/12/pixar-coco-gael-garcia-bernal-dia-de-los-muertos-miguel Marcela Davison Aviles]].
** The promotion of Latino co-writer [[https://twitter.com/AdrianTheMolina Adrian Molina]] to co-director after people complained about a white man directing a film about Mexico.

* CriticalResearchFailure: Not the final film, where Pixar has ShownTheirWork, but the [[WhatCouldHaveBeen earlier plotline]] about a Mexican American boy discovering the holiday in the aftermath of his mother's death and learning to let her go and move on with his life. As admitted by Lee Unkrich, this is the ''opposite'' of what the Day of the Dead is about, and was due to ValuesDissonance caused by the fact that none of the people originally involved with the movie were Mexican or Hispanic.