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Pre-release predictions
If Luisa and Enrique's second child is a boy, they'll name him Hector to honor Miguel's great-great-grandfather—but if the baby ends up being a girl, they'll name her Socorro (which is Mama Coco's real name) and they'll call her "Coco" as a pet name.
- The second child is a girl, so her name being Socorro/Coco is likely.
- Confirmed, in that the junior novelization of the movie reveals that Enrique and Luisa named their daughter "Socorro," and apparently even call her "Coco" as a nickname.
Coco will be Pixar's first musical film.
- All other Pixar movies out there merely have like one or two musical numbers, and that's about it (not to mention that the musical numbers in question are more or less real life songs that aren't actually sung by any of the characters). Coco, if the synopsis is anything to believe, features music as a plot point so I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up being a musical.
- At least three songs are already confimed, and all of them are sung by the cast.
- The film is not a musical. Characters just happen to sing when it is appropriate for a musician/singer to do so.
Manny Calavera will make a cameo in Coco
- Since Disney owns LucasArts properties now, and both are based on the Day of the Dead.
- Jossed.
The film will feature a monkey or multiple monkeys somewhere.
It IS directed by Lee Unkrich, after all, and monkeys are his Creator Thumbprint.- Confirmed. Frida Kahlo's alebrije is a monkey.
There will be a character who Prefers Going Barefoot.
Which makes the Riveras either dislike them or determined to make them a pair of shoes that they'll actually buy.- Despite being shoemakers and some characters being barefoot, the Riveras make no mention of anyone not wearing shoes nor do they make shoes for anyone in particular.
- Though some besides Abuelita Elena are shown to wear sandals.
- Héctor is a character who does not wear shoes and is disliked by the Rivera family's deceased matriarch Imelda. When Héctor and Imelda make up, he gets a new pair of shoes, possibly from her.
Ernesto de la Cruz will be Miguel's great-grandfather under a stage name and/or the villain.
That would make an excellent twist.- So, the latter would be a Broken Pedestal situation? Interesting.
- A Broken Pedestal story like that has been done by Pixar before.
- The latest trailer
explicitly says that Ernesto de la Cruz is Miguel's great-great-grandfather.- Miguel *believes* that Ernesto is his ancestor. Whether that's true or not is another matter....
- Jossed—it turns out that Hector is actually Miguel's great-great-grandfather, being the father of his great-grandmother, Mama Coco.
- However Ernesto de la Cruz is the villain.
There will be a reference to The Nightmare Before Christmas somewhere.
Although this movie's depiction of the afterlife seems radically different from Halloween Town, it would at least be cool to see a picture of Jack somewhere.- Jossed
Coco is the city of the dead.
That is the only thing not named yet, and the title must have some kind of significance.- Jossed. Coco is the name of Miguel's great-grandmother.
Coco is the name of the antagonist of the film.
The Coco is a ghostly monster from the folklore of many Hispanic cultures. While there is apparently a character named Coco, this is a coincidence that may cause in-universe confusion for Miguel.- Jossed. Coco is just his great-grandmother's name.
John Ratzenberger will voice a spirit that actually looks like John Ratzenberger
This is the perfect opportunity to have not just his voice but his face included as well.- The movie has just Mexican celebrities cameos on the Afterlife. So maybe not.
- Half-jossed; he voices a spirit that had braces on at the time of his death (I think).
Coco will be a Stealth Sequel to The Book of Life, with Jorge R. Gutierrez secretly involved.
Okay, probably not, but wouldn't that be really cool?- It would, but the film was being worked on before The Book of Life was even released.
- Ernesto de la Cruz would make a deal with Xibalba to get revenge on the Riveras, particularly Miguel, for destroying his (undeserved) reputation. Though due to Xibalba pulling a Heel–Face Turn at the end of The Book of Life, as well as being a Trickster God, the deal comes as a price Ernesto must do in order to give the Riveras a winning chance to stop Ernesto.
Coco takes place in the same universe as Spirited Away.
Just in Mexico rather than Japan.- A Crossover Ship with Chihiro is now imminent.
- Both Japan and Mexico are well-known for keeping shrines to their deceased ancestors...
- And China too.
Miguel is distantly related to Marco Diaz
Turns out that an appreciation for red hooded sweatshirts runs in the family. Great-grandmother Coco will die, and help Miguel return from the afterlife.
She looks very old and not too healthy, so she is likely to die sometime over the course of the movie. But if she dies, she ends up exactly where her great-grandson is trapped, and can help him return.- She is the key for someone to cross over but not Miguel. She does indeed pass away at some point in the movie.
- Sadly, she does die at the end of the film (offscreen), but fortunately AFTER Miguel returns and helps her remember her dad.
If there's anyone who can be considered a villain, it will be Great-grandma Imelda.
If what they say in this article is true, Imelda might offer Miguel the choice of either giving up music or stay in the afterlife forever. However, by the end of the movie (probably during a really tearjerking scene), she'll eventually do a Heel-Face Turn, come to terms with her husband, and send Miguel back with her blessing on his passion.- Confirmed, while she's not an actual villain, she does cause some of the conflict as her blessing (what Miguel needs to return to the land of the living) comes with a clause barring Miguel from playing an instrument ever again or he'll be sent back to the land of the dead. He refuses and decides to find another relative that'll bless him so he can come back.
- Word of God reveals that Imelda wasn't being serious when she said that he had to give up music, she only said it out of the anger and panic that came from her photo not being on the ofrenda. It's mentioned in the movie's extended novel that she breaks down and starts crying (after the scene where she sings to him) because she just wants to send him home.
- More jossed. Imelda's stubbornness and excessive reactions may drive a good deal of the plot, but there is a definite villain, and it is not her.
Post-Release WMG
Chicharrón
Chicharrón wrote "Everyone Knows Juanita".
Word of God confirmed he was a musician, and the song was inspired by his wife/some important woman in his life that he fancied.Chicharrón was the same man who dropped the bell on Ernesto De La Cruz
When the public realized he was responsible for killing one of the greatest musicians of the time, he was shunned and ostracized by his community. Chicharron spent the remainder of his life (and afterlife) wracked with guilt, continuing to play music only in solitude, while being forgotten more and more until finally fading. This would serve as yet another Tear Jerker, for had he been alive when Ernesto's true colors were revealed, perhaps he would have felt relief about what he's done.- Even if it wasn't Chicharron, that man is probably in the Land of the Dead, feeling remorse for killing him and then pride after the revelation that he deserved it.
Chicharrón committed suicide
The patch of tape on the top of his skull is very suspicious. It could be representative of what would have exploded if he placed a gun in his mouth.Chicharrón is the man who dropped the bell and he committed suicide
He was so shocked by what he'd done (killing the greatest Mexican musician/actor/star of all time) that he was Driven to Suicide, even though Ernesto's death was ruled an accident. Ironically, this contributed to him being forgotten, because he could have been remembered in infamy (but remembered still) as Ernesto's unwitting killer.After his final death, Chicharron ended up in the Great Beyond
This is where all the deceased go upon experiencing the final death. Dante
Dante was Héctor's dog when he was a kid.
He became his alebrije after he died and started guiding Miguel when Héctor grew on the verge of being completely forgotten. The reason Dante has tiny wings...
Is because he once tried to fly Hector over the bridge. Because this goes against the duties of an alebrije, the gods punished Dante by permanently shrinking his wings, making him unable to carry any soul again - which later proves sorely inconvenient when he attempts to save Miguel. Ernesto
Ernesto de la Cruz wrote the poisoning scene in the movie he starred in as a form of Evil Gloating.
- And also to avoid keeping the secret bottled up all his life.
- Hes also very un-creative to the point of having to kill Hector because he can't make music as well. He could have also done it simply because he couldn't come up with a better scene. Then simply changed it a little to make it evil gloating.
Ernesto de la Cruz used arsenic to kill Héctor.
It seems to fit the symptoms relatively well. It is swallowed. In a high enough dose, arsenic can kill quickly with the only real evidence being an inflamed stomach and perhaps arsenic in the digestive tract. But no one would look too closely.- During the period the flashbacks are set, arsenic was a relatively easy poison to purchase, all one had to do was go to a chemist and ask for rat poison. Death from acute arsenic poisoning can occur within hours of ingestion, and it's hard for a coroner to tell whether the poison was involved in a person's death, because the symptoms of arsenic poisoning are similar to those of food poisoning. What makes arsenic especially dangerous is that it doesn't have a taste or odour, so it's relatively easy to ingest without knowing it.
- Ingesting metallic elements such as arsenic, lead or mercury is certainly detectable in bones centuries after death, meaning that the Rivera's would be able to prove that Ernesto murdered him.
Even though Ernesto is not Miguel's great-great grandfather, he does have descendants through an unrecognized illegitimate child or even more.
- Given the truth about how he climbed his way to stardom, it's doubtful that they would want claim relations with the man. However, given that Ernesto acts as a Shadow Archetype for Hector, it would be a good contrast to show the former being a deadbeat dad to his illegitimate children, who he probably never knew existed, while the latter was a devoted father to Coco and after death tried to find a way to get back to her.
Ernesto experienced his final death via being killed from getting crushed by a bell for the second time.
- If he didn't survive it the first time, then there's no doubt that he didn't survive the second time. Would be a pretty impressive Karmic Death.
- Jossed. Word of God mentions that Ernesto is still "alive" despite having the bell fall on him a second time.
Ernesto completely misunderstood Miguel's ancestry.
Ernesto spends all the last third of the movie thinking Miguel is his descendant, and nobody bothers to correct him at any given point. However, he seems startled and rather disgusted at the notion that the kid is related to Héctor, because the only logical way for both statements to be true is that Ernesto had unknowingly hooked up with his friend's daughter! Think of it: he was a famous singer with younger fans swooning over him, he was well aware that his late friend had a daughter, she would be about 20 at the peak of his fame, and he is implied to be quite the player. As far as Ernesto knows, a quick meeting between the two with unexpected results is within the realms of possibility, which would make Héctor his sorta kinda father-in-law. Of course, Imelda would sooner let Coco attend World War Two than a music concert, rendering this train of thought derailed and smashed agains a wall, but Ernesto has no way of knowing that.- Or Ernesto thought one of his illegitimate sons married Coco; or that one of his grandkids started a family with a child of Coco's; or that a great-grandkid of his got involved with a grandchild of Coco's.
Ernesto never came back to Santa Cecilia.
After leaving with Héctor (and killing him midway their tour), Ernesto tried his luck in bigger cities like Ciudad de Mexico and became a star... But he never actually played in Plaza del Mariachi in Santa Cecilia, like the movie keeps pointing out. A few things to consider here:- The scenes we see with Ernesto playing on the plaza and the bus looked extremely idilic, with people dazzeled with his music, fawning over him and whatnot. Those scenes are more likely the way Ernesto depicted his beginings to his fans and the press, a charming from rags to riches story, or even a documentary on himself he filmed when he was already famous in order to rewrite his life story and avoid gossip magazines digging up his past and finding some leads about an old singing partner he never spoke of.
- To elaborate further, those two moments couldn't have been truly been real-life depictions of his youth, since we know for a fact Ernesto and Héctor played as a duo before they left Santa Cecilia (he was always alone on those shots), and the whole reason he left town was to become famous, which he did (so he wouldn't need to play on the streets and public transport after that).
- When Miguel asks him if he regreted leaving "everything" behind, he and Ernesto have two different things in mind: Miguel is thinking of his supposed wife and child, since he still believe him to be his great-great-grandfather; but Ernesto had no such commitment, so what little grief he felt for leaving his "family", that was supposedly ment to be his parents (and possible siblings). No one would get remotely emotional over leaving those behind, especially if one was pursuing a life-long dream, because nothing was actually keeping him away from them... unless he actually never came back to see them again.
- And finally, why wouldn't he come back to Santa Cecilia? Maybe he was too self-absorbed to think back of his hometown, maybe he thought such a ragtag place was too little for his ego, maybe he was focused on his career and kept posponing his plans to swing by, only to be unexpectedly crushed onstage... But the one thing that might have kept him from setting foot on that town was, in all likelihood, Imelda. She surely must have known of him, his friendship with Héctor and their tour from which her husband never came back, so Ernesto was afraid to go anywhere near her lest she started asking questions. It was immensely fortunate for him that she assumed Héctor abandoned them and thus banished music from her life, or else she suredly would have heard of Ernesto's rise to stardom and would have wanted to know why her good-for-nothing husband wasn't next to him.
Ernesto never fathered any children.
Which is why he's so shocked at first that he has a great-great grandson, because he's sure that's impossible. However, being image conscious, he decides to attach the "living boy that everyone is talking about" to himself by playing out the misunderstanding as true. Ernesto's bastardized version of "Remember Me" was meant to be a Take That! / Self-Deprecation towards the Rewritten Pop Versions of various Disney songs.
Like Celine Dion's version of "Beauty and the Beast", or Peabo Bryson and Regina Bell's version of "A Whole New World", which usually tend to be considered a joke amongst fans.]] Ernesto has been dealt with Xibalba.
Being unable to off himself in a place where he is now universally despised and being kept alive thanks to the scorn he receives in the living world is truly a Fate Worse than Death. Ernesto De La Cruz will spiral into Despair Event Horizon and his prayers will lead to Xibalba himself transporting him to the Land of the Forgotten (or maybe the Land of the Cursed). Ernesto wanted to be famous so he could live forever in the afterlife.
Ernesto didn't want fame and fortune for the sake of fame and fortune; he wanted eternal life, and so long as you're remembered as a musical legend, it will be practically impossible to be forgotten as he would acquire newer fans fascinated with the classic matriachi genre from each passing century, and beloved at that. Unfortunately for him he was exposed as a fraud and will be remembered such, which would make his afterlife much less enjoyable as everyone now wants nothing to do with him. Ernesto didn't believe in afterlife until his death.
That's why he didn't mind using Hector's death as inspiration for a movie scene. He and Hector were the only ones who could connect the dots and Hector was already dead. Ernesto planned on killing Héctor all along.
Héctor just got homesick faster then expected, no one just has poison laying around,unless they plan to use it, Ernesto is an egotist,He did not want Héctor soaking up the spotlight with him,or sending "his" money back to Imelda and Coco, he most likely would have waited till Héctor wrote more songs,then poisoned him.Going by the facts that skeletons have great regeneration abilities, presence in the Land of the Dead is tied solely to memory, and no one is willing to get him out of the bell that is likely too heavy for him to move and too lacking in interior space for him to pull himself together, Ernesto won't find it worth the effort to try to escape or do anything when he will be forever shunned by the others. It at least gives him the same peace of mind as if he suffered his final death. Ernesto originally wanted to die with his friend.
Why else did he take a small sip of the poisoned drink himself?- And a possible reason why he initially wanted to die with his friend is that, if he cannot be famous in life, that at least their deaths would bring them fame posthumously.
Alternatively, Ernesto was just plain suicidal at first.
Ernesto found a way to kill himself
In the Land of the Dead, where everyone is a skeleton whose continued existence depends on the memories of people who knew them in the living world, and is otherwise immortal, it would appear at first glance that there is no way out for someone like Ernesto who is now to face eternal scorn for his actions. But what about the flower bridges that materialize once every year? What would happen if someone were to jump off the bridge? Would they fall into the seemingly endless abyss below or simply fade awaynote ?- Or if the immortality rules extend here, whoever jumps off the bridge will shortly re-materialize back where they started, yet another kick in the face for Ernesto.
Ernesto is a serial killer.
Ernesto killed with ease and no remorse. Usually, humans do not react well to killing their own species, Ernesto seemed to be overly calm and prepared for this. As if he had done it before. John Lasseter based Ernesto after himself
- Considering John Lasseter's ousting for sexual harassment, this seems worryingly likely. Just like Ernesto, Lasseter was an undeniably talented artist mistreated his collaborators, stole credit, and acted sexist towards women but was still viewed as a hero by children. However, Ernesto was undone when he created a villainous character who did the same things he did...and maybe Lasseter did the same thing, either to gloat or to assuage his guilt.
Héctor
Héctor made the shoes he wears at the end of the film.
- After reconnecting with Imelda and the family, he wanted to show support for the family business, so he asked her to teach him how to make shoes and makes himself a new pair.
The two photos in the movie aren't the only photos of Héctor that still exist.
- Come on, seriously though there's bound to be more than just two photos of him that still exist and according to the book, Coco hid numerous things from her mother inside the attic because she, and later Miguel, were the only ones who knew about it. So it's possible that she hid her father's belongings in there as well, and when her mother died and she got older, she decided to keep the letters and the photo piece in her room where she could easily access them.
- Not likely. Weare talking about 1920's or before, photography was a very young (and expensive) art. People only went to have their photograph taken on very special occasions, most usualy as family portraits. Hell, what's strange is that Héctor should have such a casual picture like the one he shows Miguel!
- Actually it wasn't, from February 1900 (Ironically 10 months before Héctor was even born) onward cameras were available to the general public for $1 (equivalent to $29 in 2017). That's why it isn't surprising to see that Héctor has a casual photo of himself.
- Not likely. Weare talking about 1920's or before, photography was a very young (and expensive) art. People only went to have their photograph taken on very special occasions, most usualy as family portraits. Hell, what's strange is that Héctor should have such a casual picture like the one he shows Miguel!
Héctor wrote "The World Es Mi Familia" for Ernesto.
Héctor admitted that singing to the world was never his dream, but Ernesto's. We know that Ernesto was not good at writing his own songs, so Ernesto may have never publicly sang anything he wrote. Héctor wrote this song about Ernesto, likely for Ernesto to perform when they were on the road. Héctor and Imelda reunited when Imelda died, and it didn't go well.
Judging by the cold greeting Imelda had given Héctor when she came to rescue Miguel - and didn't look surprised to see him - the two possibly had a reunion long before the events of the film. Perhaps they were on the verge of reconciliation upon Imelda seeing Héctor dead at a young age, until he explained how he died. After all, "I ate a bad chorizo" would sound very inadequate indeed, and was probably the reason for his exile from the rest of the family even in death.- Sorta jossed, Imelda never really let Héctor get close enough to her to realise that he died at an extremely early age.
Everything Hector borrowed from Chicharrón he used in various, increasingly desperate attempts to get over the flower bridge.
He tried to drive over using the van, asked a remembered skeleton to carry the femur over to see if remembered skeletons could carry forgotten ones, did roughly the same with the mini-fridge except he hid inside to see if being in an object would change things, used the napkins to cover the camera in the hopes that'd trick it, and used the lasso, along with various other bits of rope collected elsewhere, to try and lasso the other side and swing across.Each attempt failed and either the objects were destroyed in the process or they were confiscated like the Frida costume, so he wasn't able to return them. Héctor was a reincarnation of Nuka
One was a Tragic Villain, the other was a Tragic Hero, and their struggles were similar. Nuka was neglected by his family. Héctor would later be forgotten by his due to unfortunate circumstances. Thankfully, Héctor's fate turned out differently. Also both characters are thin and disheveled in appearance - complete with a little goatee. Héctor has his photo because he was buried with it
His family never got notified of his death so he was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave far away from home. The first year, the petals left by other people allowed him to come to that cemetery and take the photo (or its "spirit duplicate"), but they were not enought to get him to his family. He was banned from the Land of the Living only after the real photo decayed beyond recognition.- Somewhat confirmed; Word of God has stated that Héctor has a picture of himself in the afterlife because he had it with him when he died, so this is possible.
Imelda
Pepita was Imelda's pet cat during her lifetime.
The two seem to share a really strong bond. We see Pepita entering the world of the living in the form of a cat at the end.- Confirmed.
Imelda will give her husbands bullies a severe boot thrashing
Think about how funny it would be to see the ones who teased Héctor for choking on chorizo (a food, but also a a slang term for male genitals) getting chased around by Imelda for making such a crude joke against "the love of her life" The Land of the Dead
Once Dia de Muertos ends, the flower bridges connecting the two worlds start to wither as the sun rises, then they all fall into the abyss like waterfalls where they finally fade away.
Those who have no one left to remember them ends up in Heaven, the "final death" indeed.
- It is certainly the more pleasant interpretation.
- Unless that person ends up in Hell.
- Or gets reborn.
- Or ends up in the Land of the Forgotten.
- Or ends up in the ancestor tree.
The City of the Dead is built upon the ruins of Mictlan
- The layered structure of the City of the Dead is impossible to miss. The logic behind it seems obvious: as older people are forgotten by the living and disappear, their domiciles in the Land of the Dead become literal ghost towns and newly arriving ghosts construct their own homes on top of them (perhaps tearing them down for material in some places, which would explain the ramshackle appearance of even some of the better looking buildings, as well as the rampant Schizo Tech). As society evolves, so do the beliefs and values of the newly arrived dead, and so they develop the culture of the City of the Dead, change its architecture, and give it its present character. The "towers" we see for most of the movie are quite tall: there are clouds obscuring their bottoms, and we never really find out where those lie. We do, however, notice crumbling remains of Aztec and even Mayan architecture in some places, which become more prominent the further down one travels (one of the deeper parts has entire pyramids!). Is it possible that, if one were to travel far enough down from the vibrant, inviting towers of the modern Mexican afterlife, they might find evidence of a much, much less pleasant one in the ruins of the Aztec Mictlan? Dust hanging in the air within endless hallways, ancient blood caking the steps of stone pyramids? Heck, going by this interpretation, diving even further into the depths of the underworld might bring one to the (thankfully, almost certainly vacant) Black Halls of Xibalba.
De La Cruz Plaza was renamed post timeskip...
To "Rivera Plaza." After what Miguel's family revealed to the whole Land of the Dead, of course they wouldn't want to keep a murderer's name on a landmark. The government from the land of the living has a some sort of presence in the land of the dead
- It would be statistically improbable for Miguel to be literally the first ever living person in all these centuries to appear in the land of the dead, and he even managed to teleport there twice. The land of the dead itself seems to be rather knowledgeable on what to do in such a situation: all the citizens are clueless and shocked, but some clerk has no problem identifying the reason why Miguel was able to cross over and even casually explains a rather specific ritual of how to send him back.
- There is obviously some sort of structure present in the land of the dead: it has bureaucracy, paperwork, even customs and their ofrenda identification, so it wouldn't be weird to conclude that the dead have a some sort of government operating. All of that in itself involves documentation that is obviously easy to create in the dead office, but might be a source of trouble in many boring civil/criminal cases: from whatever we saw in the movie, it really seems like the land of the dead is your typical paperwork-heavy bureaucracy. What if a woman files for a divorce saying her husband cheated on her and demands half of all their stuff, but the husband claims they were never married in the first place: nobody dies with a marriage certificate on them, and their ofrendas/family might also indicate absolutely nothing, or not exist at all. They just got together in the land of the dead claiming they were married back on the other side - nobody would question that until petty disputes arrive. I also doubt that the ~mysterious magic of the dead~ works with the ~wonders of jurisdiction~(although that would be hilarious). There would obviously be issues on a higher level that are even more boring and specific to get into and that look quite hard to sort out being only limited to what the world of the dead provides. Therefore it wouldn't be all too farfetched to assume that they do have a some sort of limited connection to the authorities from the land of the living. Obviously other people besides Miguel have visited and returned: a few of them might have been government officials who then later set up a secret small department that deals with whatever there is on the other side: keep them up with the boring stuff, support those ofrenda-detecting machines on their end (those contraptions should be an entire WMG on their own), also maybe secretly making sure they keep up their whatever influence because what government wouldn't want that. The only thing that ensures all of this works at the bare minimum is the fact that the Day of The Dead might be literally the only day a year when both sides can properly interact, thus they are still rather separate entities.
If the dead don't return from the Land of the Living before sunrise, they become ghosts
When Miguel was stuck in the Land of the Dead, he slowly started turning into a skeleton, and the other residents feared him simply for being a living boy. Likewise, if someone deceased gets stuck in the living realm, they regain their mortal appearance but don't exactly come back to life. They become ghosts; apparitions in the eyes of people who see them. They remain lost in the living world until the next Dia De Los Muertos when they can cross over again. The Land of the Dead is actually Catholic Purgatory
Just a simple WMG. Maybe I'll think about the evidence. The guy that looks like Skrillex had some music by him put on his ofrenda and became a fan ever since retrieving it.
- Nice little idea.
- Considering Skrillex doesn't live in Mexico and is still alive (unlike the other real person cameos in this movie, such as Frida Kahlo), this is a possible explanation as to what he's doing in the Land of the Dead.
None of the members of Los Chachalacos knew each other in life.
None of them were even professional musicians; some of them played an instrument as a hobby, and some of them only started to play in the afterlife. Somehow, they all met up in the Land of the Dead and started playing together (and doing brilliantly at it, since over half the audience at the Battle of the Bands already knew who they were).Alternatively, Los Chachalacos died in a plane or Bus Crash during a tour
Victoria died from a vitamin deficiency
It would offer more insight to her "vitamins are a real thing" line and how she died so young. Only people who were unhappy in life get an Alebrije, and the Alebrije is more powerful the more unhappy they were
That's why Imelda's Alebrije is massive, Miguel's and Frida's is small, and no other main character (Ernesto, Hector, the other Riveras) has one in sight.- Ernesto has 3 chihuahuas
The photos aren't necessary to bring back the Spirits, just the act of remembering them by leaving specific ofrendas, votive candles, etc
Three reasons:1) The tradition existed before photography.2) Héctor was technically in the Rivera altar every year (just without his face) but the Riveras were not adknowledging him, so simply having his photo didn't work for him.3) Coco's mind deteriorated more quickly in the last year, so while Imelda's photo was placed on the altar she wasn't given another ofrenda to her memory, which would have been Coco's job. Or Elena simply forgot to do it., etc Economy in the Land of the Death is heavily influenced by the ofrendas taken back by the Spirits
That's why the forgotten are also the poorest and live in slums, because they have no outside income. The celebrated are the richest because they get new stuff from all over the country (as shown by the piles of food and guitars at Ernesto's place) and they sell it for profit.The ruler of the Land of the Dead is Santa Muerte
This would also tie neatly in with the idea that the Land of the Dead was once Mictlan, and its ruler being Mictlantecuhtli, as Santa Muerte is believed to be a Christianised form of her. As the nature of the afterlife changed, so did its ruler, who adapted characteristics ascribed to her newest subjects for ease of interaction. It should also be noted that Santa Muerte was also believed to be male, which would also provide a role for Mictecacihuatl.How you physically appear in the Land of the Dead depends on how you are remembered by those in the living world.
Beyond fitting in with the film's themes, this would explain why Coco appeared very elderly in the Land of the Dead while no other deceased member of the Riveras did, even though Imelda has been confirmed by Word of God to have died sometime in her early seventies. The reason for this may have to do with how Imelda's photo on the living Riveras' ofrenda is of her from her early twenties, and due to that being the age in which they remember her, her look in the Land of the Dead (hair, facial features) mirrors that. The same may thus apply to Coco and her ofrenda photo by the end of the movie. As such, this may shed some light on the circumstances (or possibly even consequences, but that's for another time) of a Final Death—when there's nobody to remember you or how you ever appeared in the living world, there's no suitable form which you can take in the Land of the Dead. This may also explain why Miguel's idea of taking Chicarron's memory with him back to the living world wouldn't have worked, as he never had an idea of how Chicarron appeared as a living person, or of anything he might have done. (Note that a photo, while not an exact necessity for an ofrenda as stated in an above WMG, would still give the living a frame of reference that the appearance of those in the Land of the Dead would reflect.) Miguel
Mictlantecuhtli cursed Miguel.
This coincides with the theory that the Land of the Dead was once Mictlan. The original rulers, the God Couple Mictlantecuhtli and Mictecacihuatl, took the evolving of their realm with grace, since the Dead governing themselves meant their Gods had fewer responsibilities. Now they mainly use their power and authority to punish anyone who makes serious transgressions. One of which is grave robbing, which Miguel ran afoul of. This would make the speculation that Miguel's adventure had the residual effect of seeing the ghosts a case of Touched by Vorlons.Miguel goes on to learn how to make shoes.
And why wouldn't he? It's the family tradition (something he's learned to respect in a major way); now that his family has accepted music again, it's not incompatible with him continuing to practice and perform in his free time, and it's something to fall back on if his musical career doesn't work out, or if he decides it's not worth leaving his family for. Miguel will greatly resemble Hector when he gets older
Miguel has already restored the Rivera family's long-lost musical roots. By the time he's in his 20s (the age Hector was when last living), he will look physically similar to Hector and live out Hector's legacy in honor of him.- This a nice idea, although I personally suspect Miguel takes after his great-grandfather Julio, at least, face-wise (we only see living Julio in the ofrenda's photo, but they seem to share a similar rounder nose, rather than Hector's pointy one). This would also explain why Coco mistakes Miguel for Julio, and would also explain why Elena seems to dot more on him than on his cousins; he reminds her of her "papá".
- There is no evidence that Miguel can see the dead relatives at the end of the film. He never looks at them directly. He just knows they are there, same as the rest of the family.
- If this is true, this would be an interesting idea for a sequel.
Miguel is the great-great grandson of Hector AND Ernesto.
Santa Cecilia
The vandals on Ernesto's memorial had their original message replaced.
- They were originally fans of him, and were rather pissed off. The signpost was hurriedly changed to "FORGET YOU" by authorities who quietly agreed with the original message, but decided to be more polite and clever.
The Riveras put the "Forget You" sign on Ernesto's mausoleum.
- The letters proved to them and to Mexico that Héctor was the real songwriter and not Ernesto. Since Hector was their long-lost family member, they probably decided to get leverage at Ernesto. Miguel could've been the one that wrote the words on the sign, and got his family to help put it up at Ernesto's gravesite.
Héctor might have finally been acknowledged as the real author of Ernesto's songs but it'll take time until his family receives any money
.- Lawyers working for whoever inherited Ernesto's estate are still delaying the lawsuit by the time the epilogue takes place.
Miguel's cousins were secretly musicians all along.
Just like Miguel himself, they were sneaky about it and kept their instruments hidden. They made fun of him to protect their own secrets and throw suspicion off themselves. This would explain how they learned to play so well after only a year had passed.- While it does take considerable time to proficiently play an instrument, it is possible for people to be at least adequate musicians within a year. Although it wouldn't be too outlandish to assume that Miguel's cousins thought the music ban was slightly unreasonable.
The music ban was NOT absolute, even before Miguel helped abolish it.
- The ban was only limited to anywhere right near the Rivera's house. Not like they can do anything about music all over town.
Coco was the one who tore out Héctor's face from the family photo.
But it was not out of malice because she had two ways of benefiting from this action. First, she would be able to hold onto some trace of her father after her mother purged all trace of him from her life. Second, she did it to trick Imelda into thinking that she was just as mad at her father as her mother was. Imelda had to give her approval to Coco's action despite apparently having no way of restoring Héctor's face, and she expressed her "approval" by folding the guitar out of view.- That is actually a really interesting WMG.
Sequels
If a sequel is ever made, the focus will shift to a new protagonist
Who do I propose it could be though? Coco, as in his younger sister.Santa Cecilia/The Land of the Dead will appear in a future Kingdom Hearts entry.
Although it can't be in Kingdom Hearts III due to Big Hero 6 being a last-minute entry, Coco appears to be really popular in Japan and Square Enix might be taking note of that. Plus, the movie's themes of memories and keeping those you love in your heart are also major themes of the Kingdom Hearts storyline, so it would fit perfectly in a future game! Imagine defending Imelda from a swarm of Ernesto-controlled Heartless as she tries to get Héctor's photo during the La Llorona scene. (And maybe different rhythm game controls?) other
Coco is secretly a loose Mexican retelling of the singing bone
After reading the singing bone by brothers Grimm, I just happen to realized that the singing bone parallel coco with few differences: - there are two men who are like brothers(Ernesto and Hector, The brothers from the singing bone)
- The older man murdered the younger man for selfish reasons(Ernesto murdered Hector so he could Steal his guitar and songbook and become a famous musician, the older brother murdered his younger brother so he could steal his spear and the boar and become a King)
- The older man succeed and become famous and rich without everyone knowing what became of the murdered younger man(Ernesto succeed to become a musician and became famous even at death, the older brother succeed to become a King and is loved by all as a hero)
- Years later, a person found a instrument that is connected to the murdered younger man(Hector's descendant Miguel found his guitar at Ernesto's tomb, the shepherd found the bone of the dead brother under the bridge and carved it into a flute)
- The person play the haunted instrument and supernatural occurs(Miguel strummed the guitar and end up in land of the dead, the shepherd blew the bone-flute and the bone begin to sing)
- The ghost of the murdered younger man reveal to the person of how he is murdered and stolen(Hector later realised he is poisoned and reveal to Miguel that ernesto murdered him and stole his songs, the dead brother sung to the shepherd by revealing of how he is murdered and stolen by his older brother)
- The person exposed the older man to the audience by revealing his dark secret(Ernesto's dark secret is exposed in the camera by Hector, The older brother's dark secret is exposed when the shepherd blew the haunted bone-flute)
- With his murderous secret exposed, the older man is punished while the younger man had his happy ending(Ernesto become forgotten and isolated while Hector finally become remembered and reunited his family, the older brother is executed and hanged while the younger brother is now happily buried in a graveyard and rests in peace)
Characters parallels:
Ernesto de la cruz=the older brother
Hector Rivera=the younger brother
Miguel rivera=the shepherd
the guitar=the bone flute
The new Coco scene in Mickey's Philharmagic is set before the movie's epilogue.
Dante is an alebrije, but Hector still looks worse for wear, whereas in the epilogue, his clothes were new/mended and he wore shoes. Best guess is that Miguel managed to find a way back to the Land of the Dead to check on him, and they got together to sing a song.
Miguel and/or Abel defaced Ernesto's masouleum
After the truth came out of De la Cruz's crimes came out of course, since noone would blame em.
