Pixar reveals first details of Day of the Dead movie Coco

Pixar has three major sequels on the horizon, but today the legendary studio dropped the first major details regarding its next original film.

‘Coco’ is a fantastical adventure inspired by and set during the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.

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As revealed by Entertainment Weekly, the film is about a 12-year-old boy called Miguel (played by newcomer Anthony Gonzalez) who harbours musical ambitions despite his family of shoe-makers hating music.

Miguel discovers that his great-great-grandfather abandoned his wife long ago to follow a similar dream, leaving Miguel’s great-great-grandmother (pictured above, with the lead) as the family matriarch. It certainly explains the family’s hatred of music.

Inspired by his favourite singer, the late Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt), Miguel seeks to realise his dream, but inadvertently ends up in the Land of the Dead. In this Mexican underworld, he encounters his ancestors and De La Cruz, before embarking on a journey to return to the Land of the Living and earn his family’s blessing to become a musician.

‘Coco’ is being directed by ‘Toy Story 3’s Lee Unkrick and first time director (but Pixar regular) Adrian Molina, who also wrote the script.

“It was important to us from day one that we had an all-Latino cast,” Unkrich told EW. “It focused us, and we ended up with a fantastic mix of people — some from Mexico and some from Los Angeles.”

On the film’s young star Gonzalez, Unkrick said: “We actually had another kid doing scratch [early recordings] for Miguel who’s now 17 or 18, which should tell you how long we’ve been working on the movie, but his voice changed long ago, and it was actually in trying to find a new voice for the scratch that we found Anthony,” said Unkrich.

Right now ‘Coco’ is the only original Pixar film in production to be named (two others are set for 2020). ‘Cars 3’ (June 2017), ‘The Incredibles 2’ (June 2018) and ‘Toy Story 4’ (June 2019) are the sequels Pixar currently has in production.

‘Coco’ is set for release on 8 December 2017.