Pixar Reveals Cast And Plot Details On Their Newest Film

Pixar's Coco was announced in 2012, and since then, there's been very little information released [...]

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Pixar's Coco was announced in 2012, and since then, there's been very little information released about it. With films like Cars 3, The Incredibles 2, and Toy Story 4 on the horizon, Coco is one of the few standalone films you can expect to see from the award-winning animation studio. EW recently visited the Pixar campus and got plenty of details on what to expect from the story and some of the voice talent involved in the not-quite-musical film.

The film will follow Miguel, a small child living in a Mexican town who has secret ambitions to become a musician. Unfortunately, his family is really the only family in the town that hates music, considering former family members had disastrous results from chasing their musical dreams.

Miguel worships the late musician Ernesto de la Cruz (voiced by Benjamin Bratt), and when Miguel discovers a connection he has to the late singer, he decides to continue pursuing his passion, even though it leads him to the Land of the Dead.

While in the Land of the Dead, Miguel encounters the spirits of former family members who seek to guide him through his journey. Miguel also encounters Hector, a spirit voiced by Gael García Bernal, that helps him on his quest for glory.

Anthony Gonzalez will voice the 12-year-old Miguel, with Renée Victor portraying the role of Miguel's grandmother.

According to director Lee Unkrich, "It was important to us from day one that we had an all-Latino cast." Unkrich continued, "It focused us, and we ended up with a fantastic mix of people — some from Mexico and some from Los Angeles."

Bratt joined the cast early on, having a long legacy in Hollywood as an accomplished actor. However, Unkrich said it was a little trickier to get Bernal involved, admitting to EW, "Gael was someone we were considering early on, but I didn't know if I'd be able to sell him [to Pixar chief John Lasseter] because he's done so many films I've loved through the years, but he hadn't really done comedy."

Coco might not be considered a musical, but as you can tell from the plot description, music will play an integral role in the story. Gonzalez will do all his singing as Miguel, despite only being found to provide temporary vocal tracks. Unkrich confessed, "We actually had another kid doing scratch 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."

Coco will be released on November 22, 2017, but you can scratch your Pixar itch when Cars 3 races into theaters June 16, 2017.

[H/T EW]

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