Coco and Book of Life: How Two Stories of Dia de los Muertos Can Work Together

Before Lalo Alcaraz became a cultural consultant on Coco, he criticized Disney's trademarking actions through this cartoon.

By Emmanuel Gundran
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Since its very early production and onward, Coco (Unkrich 2017) has been a controversial film for Disney to make. Disney started production on Coco as early as 2013, when they tried to copyright ‘Dia de los Muertos’ for a list of goods and services. However, many criticized the decision, including Mexican political cartoonist, Lalo Alcaraz. He led the backlash against Disney’s corporate actions, even drawing a cartoon titled ‘Muerto Mouse’ which depicted Mickey Mouse as a giant, skeletal monster and had the subtitle “It’s coming to trademark your cultura!”. Eventually, Pixar hired Alcaraz onto Coco as a creative/cultural consultant to repair relationships with the Latino community.

​While this was one hurdle that Disney managed to overcome, there was also the problem of Coco being too similar in concept and story to Book of Life (Gutierrez 2014), another film that’s centered around Dia de los Muertos. Journalists and movie-goers alike noticed and took to the web to voice their criticisms. One writer for the website Cartoon Brew expresses his distaste for a “white Jewish gentleman” like Lee Unkrich directing a film “rooted in a centuries-old Mexican tradition.” He further accuses Unkrich of wanting to “appropriate Mexican culture for the purpose of boosting an American corporation’s bottomline.” However, after Coco was released in November 2017, it received rave reviews from fans and critics alike and reached $744.9 million in the box office. The film’s release calmed many of those who feared it would blow up in disaster. Despite the controversies surrounding it, Coco proves that it can not only coexist with Book of Life as a film about Dia de los Muertos, but also that both films supplement each other with Mexican culture.

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Coco is a film about a boy named Miguel who wants to honor the memory of his ancestor Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt), a famous singer and guitarist. When his family bans music from the household, Miguel travels to the Land of the Dead to find de la Cruz and prove that he is his worthy successor. Along his journey, he meets Héctor (Gael Garcia Bernal), a bumbling trickster whose family is slowly forgetting him. Once his family forgets him, his soul would fade away. The only memory left of who he was is kept in a photo of himself in life. Thus, not only must Miguel find his ancestor, he needs to make sure Miguel does not fade away and left to be forgotten.

Miguel's shrine dedicated to Ernesto de la Cruz, who he believes is his ancestor.

One aspect of Coco that sets it apart from Book of Life is the specific parts of Mexican culture that are portrayed and reinterpreted. Both films deal with the idea of being remembered and forgotten, but it is treated different between them. In Coco, when a person dies and is sent to the Land of the Dead, their soul is kept their as a skeleton until they are no longer remembered. Dia de los Muertos honors the dead because their souls never truly die, as long as people continue to remember those who are gone. Book of Life also shows this important aspect of the culture, but in a different way. In that film, two gods rule over the Land of the Remembered and the Land of the Forgotten: La Muerte (Kate de Castillo) and Xibalba (Ron Perlman) respectively. These gods play with people’s lives, even making bets with each other that involve mortal souls. They also pull souls into and out of their respective realms at will. The process of a person’s soul living on in the after-life works similarly in Coco, but Book of Life emphasizes the supernatural, as the god’s conflict with each other is one of the central points of the film.

Though memories keep souls alive in the after-life, Xibalba and La Muerte can interfere whenever they please.

While Coco and Book of Life deal with a young protagonist fighting against his family’s expectations, they deal with different struggles along the way that gives each of them a distinct journey. Manolo (Diego Luna), the protagonist of Book of Life, wants to break away from his family’s bullfighting tradition to be a musician. Miguel (Anthony Gonzales), from Coco, also wants to be a musician and break from his family’s shoe-shining tradition. Their conflicts, however, are different. Manolo loses the love of his life Maria (Zoe Saldana) to his childhood friend Joaquin (Channing Tatum), who is a successful bullfighter. Joaquin has achieved what Manolo feels his family expects of him. Miguel, however, has tension with his family because music has been banned from their house. After de la Cruz left the family to play music, Miguel’s great-great-grandmother Imelda (Alanna Ubach) was left without a husband, and her daughter Coco (Ana Ofelia Murguía) was left without a father. For Miguel’s family, becoming a musician meant pursuing personal fame and abandoning everything and everyone else. The film deals a lot with the conflict that Miguel’s ancestor created and how it would be resolved through his journey. By the end of both films, Miguel and Manolo learn different lessons about family and expectations. While Manolo learns to follow his heart and be the person who he wants to be, Miguel learns that true family can never be forgotten.

Both Miguel and Manolo share a passion for music, but their passions each take them on wildly different journeys.

These films have strong similarities and subtle differences between each other, but they are able to coexist with how they create a more complete picture of what Mexican culture is like. Both show how life never ends after the body dies, but include different details on how. Coco shows that the souls of those dead live on as long as they are remembered and the tragic death of a soul after all their friends and family have forgotten them. It also shows the traditions practiced by Mexicans, such as bringing food and setting up shrines, called ofrendas, honoring family members who have passed. Book of Life adds to the spiritual aspect by having the two gods who watch over the realms of the remembered and forgotten. It shows that higher powers have control over the souls of the dead. In Mexican culture, Santa Muerte, who the goddess La Muerte was likely based on, is a female deity who takes the form of a skeleton in robes and oversees the souls of the living and dead. Those who pray and offer gifts to her can have their requests granted, such as asking for the soul of a loved one to return or praying “for a holy death.” (Ramirez, 2007)

While Coco struggled early on in its production, it was able to provide a more complete picture of Mexican culture along with Book of Life and craft a unique, heart-felt story about family and forgiveness.

Sources Cited:

Amidi, Amid. "Pixar Announces Day of the Dead Film 'Coco'" Cartoon Brew.  https://www.cartoonbrew.com/pixar/pixar-announces-day-of-the-dead-film-coco-117684.html

Ramirez, Margaret. "'Saint Death' Comes to Chicago" Chicago Tribune. ​http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/death-chicago-08-story.html