The movie Coco is presenting a
portrayal of life after death which is directly inspired by the Mexican tradition of Dia de los Muertos with the importance of music and memory.In Coco, the title character is actually the elderly great-grandmother of our protagonist, a 12-year-old boy called Miguel Rivera. Miguel’s family are shoemakers who have a particular aversion to music, because Coco’s father was a musician who abandoned his family when he was very young. His picture has been removed from
the ofrenda, the altar where the Rivera family keep pictures of their late relatives
along with offerings for the Day of the Dead.
Miguel comes to believe that his great-great grandfather was actually Ernesto de la Cruz, his personal hero who grew up in the same hometown, and takes this as confirmation of his destiny as a musician. But when he steals Ernesto’s guitar from his mausoleum, he becomes cursed and is
transported to the Land of the Dead until
he receives his late family’s blessing to
return to the living.
That’s the basic plot, but there’s a reason why the film isn’t called Miguel. We learn early on that the title character is afflicted by dementia, and she represents the real
emotional stakes in the film. Science has shown that music stays with people who have the illness longer than other memories, and by the absence of music in the house where she lives, she has forgotten her father.
Over in the Land of the Dead, we’re told that the skeletal souls that go on after they pass away can fade away forever if nobody alive remembers them in the Land of the Living. Miguel tries to make his way to Ernesto to get his blessing with the help of Hector, a scruffy chancer who is also on the verge of being forgotten, in order to save his own life and restore his great-great grandfather on the ofrenda. But in due course, Miguel realises that Hector is his real ancestor and he is the original author of all the songs that Ernesto sang. We also realise that Ernesto killed Hector for taking his songs.

Thankyou!!.