The marketing bandwagon for Pixar’s 2017 films has already roared off the starting grid with a marvelously dark and portentous trailer for Cars 3, due out in June this year. However there is, for only the second time in their history, another film on its way from the Emeryville animation studio in the next twelve months. Coco is directed by Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina and is inspired by the Mexican holiday the Day of the Dead, itself inspiration for 2014’s The Book of Life and the much-loved LucasArts adventure game Grim Fandango.
Reuniting with his Toy Story 3 producer Darla K. Anderson, Unkrich’s new film will tell the tale of a 12 year-old boy (voiced by Anthony Gonzalez) who comes across the guitar of fabled musician Ernesto de la Cruz (played by Benjamin Bratt). Miguel uses the magic in the legendary instrument to open a door to the Land of the Dead in a search for de la Cruz.
The first official image from Coco came over the holiday break and can be seen below.
Coco Movie Image
We had a previous glimpse of our hero in the D23 presentation last year, which featured Miguel in a more relaxed pose…
Unkrich told Entertainment Weekly over the recent holiday more about the film and how it was important for the director not to plow up the bones of the dead by going over old ground.
“The day John Lasseter gave the thumbs up for this movie, I immediately felt this huge weight drop onto my shoulders because I knew that we were doing something different than we had ever made at the studio and that for the first time, we were going to have this enormous responsibility to do right by this culture and not lapse into stereotype or cliché,”
The first trailer should be coming along soon, although we may have to wait until the dust has settled on the not-really-all-that-much-awaited Cars threequel, who revealed some of their new characters earlier today.
