Editor in Chief

The Story of Coco: Finding Miguel's Passion

Adrian Molina Coco Pixar

“Pixar movies are always meant to be.”

Director Lee Unkrich and Co-Director Adrian Molina during a Coco art review on February 18, 2016 at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, Calif. (Photo by Deborah Coleman / Pixar)


A truer statement can’t be made about the animation studio and its films. During my August visit, learning about the upcoming Coco through various presentations proved to be immensely rewarding as well as informative. Co-director Adrian Molina and lead story artist Dean Kelly led the presentation for The Story of Coco.

COCO – Concept art by Armand Baltazar and John Nevarez. ©2017 Disney•Pixar. All Rights Reserved.


Research is always a necessary component to Pixar films, and in some cases, research trips too. As with 2012’s Brave, with Scotland as the destination, the film crew traveled to Mexico in order to make the film and its depiction of Dia de Los Muertos as authentic as possible. They studied the customs of the holiday and found that the traditions were built into the film on a fundamental level.

Members of the Latino community visit Pixar Animation Studios on May 12, 2016, for a roundtable session with Coco filmmakers. (Photo: Virginia Mae Rollison / Pixar)


The initial seed of the film was planted in 2011. The basic premise was that of a boy trapped in the Land of the Dead. Like the most bold of ideas, this was one story that could only be told through the vibrant medium of animation. The one major challenge that arose was communicating Miguel’s passion for music. As Molina pointed out, Pixar artists could relate to Miguel. That passion for something he loves is what they feel innately. Molina added a personal touch to the film, drawing on his own experiences as a young boy fascinated by animation.
Molina used to watch old Disney shows that explained the process of animation. He recorded them painstakingly and watched them repeatedly, teaching himself before the age of the internet. This personal touch informed Miguel’s own journey. He has a VHS tape of Ernesto de La Cruz interviews and clips that he watches often and in secret, away from his family. Once this touch was added, the response from the brain trust meetings were more favorable and enthusiastic. The story team overcame the hurdle of making Miguel’s desire palpable to the audience.

COCO – Concept art by Zaruhi Galstyan. ©2017 Disney•Pixar. All Rights Reserved.


Music is the air Miguel breathes. He’s not meant to join the family business. In fact, Coco mirrors another Pixar film, La Luna. The struggle for him to pursue his passion against family tradition is sure to play out just as beautifully.

Last modified: September 9, 2017

Simoa (Elliefredricksen) is Editor in Chief of Upcoming Pixar and an aspiring Pixar heroine. She joined Upcoming Pixar in 2014 and is always excited to see how her favorite animation studio changes and grows.

Privacy Notice
The Pixar Planet Network uses cookies to help improve your experience. By using our website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Read more
Save & Close
Accept all
Decline all
Show details Hide details
Cookie declaration
About cookies
Performance
Targeting
Unclassified
Performance cookies are used to see how visitors use the website, eg. analytics cookies. Those cookies cannot be used to directly identify a certain visitor.
Cookie report
Name Domain Expiration Description
_ga .pixarplanet.com 2 years This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics - which is a significant update to Google's more commonly used analytics service. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports. By default it is set to expire after 2 years, although this is customisable by website owners.
Targeting cookies are used to identify visitors between different websites, eg. content partners, banner networks. Those cookies may be used by companies to build a profile of visitor interests or show relevant ads on other websites.
Cookie report
Name Domain Expiration Description
__gads .pixarplanet.com 1 year This cookie is associated with the DoubleClick for Publishers service from Google. Its purpose is to do with the showing of adverts on the site, for which the owner may earn some revenue.
IDE .doubleclick.net 1 year This cookie carries out information about how the end user uses the website and any advertising that the end user may have seen before visiting the said website.
DSID .doubleclick.net 1 hour This cookie is set to note your specific user identity. It contains a hashed/encrypted unique ID.
KTPCACOOKIE .pubmatic.com 1 day This cookie is generally provided by pubmatic.com and is used for advertising purposes.
mc .quantserve.com 1 year 1 month This cookie is usually provided by Quantserve to track anonymous information about how website visitors use the site.
KADUSERCOOKIE .pubmatic.com 3 months This cookie is generally provided by pubmatic.com and is used for advertising purposes.
CMID .casalemedia.com 1 year These cookies are linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
CMPS .casalemedia.com 3 months These cookies are linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
CMPRO .casalemedia.com 3 months These cookies are linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
na_tc .addthis.com 1 year 1 month Social Media sharing tracking cookie.
uid .addthis.com 1 year 1 month This cookie provides a uniquely assigned, machine-generated user ID and gathers data about activity on the website. This data may be sent to a 3rd party for analysis and reporting.
ouid .addthis.com 1 year 1 month Social Media sharing tracking cookie.
rlas3 .rlcdn.com 1 year This cookie is generally provided by rlcdn.com and is used for advertising purposes.
uuid .innovid.com 3 months This cookie is used to optimize ad relevance by collecting visitor data from multiple websites – this exchange of visitor data is normally provided by a third-party data-center or ad-exchange.
Unclassified cookies are cookies that do not belong to any other category or are in the process of categorization.
Cookie report
Name Domain Expiration Description
i .openx.net 1 year
_ga_X3MG8FKSZL .pixarplanet.com 2 years
d .quantserve.com 3 months
na_id .addthis.com 1 year 1 month
na_rn .dlx.addthis.com 1 month
na_sr .dlx.addthis.com 1 month
na_srp .dlx.addthis.com 1 minute
na_sc_e .dlx.addthis.com 1 month
pxrc .rlcdn.com 2 months
CMST .casalemedia.com 1 day
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. Websites use cookies to help users navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. Cookies that are required for the website to operate properly are allowed to be set without your permission. All other cookies need to be approved before they can be set in the browser. You can change your consent to cookie usage at any time on our Privacy Policy page.
Cookies consent ID:
Cookie report created by Cookie-Script
×