Movies

Pixar Announces The All-Latino Voice Cast Of 'Coco'

Pixar Coco Voice Cast
By Ethan Anderton

This summer will bring Cars 3 to theaters, but it's just one of two new movies from Pixar Animation hitting the big screen this year. In fact, when Cars 3 arrives in theaters next week, it will come with a new trailer for Pixar's 2017 release, the music-infused, Mexican-inspired animated adventure Coco.

Ahead of the new trailer, Pixar Animation has announced the full, all-Latino voice cast for Coco. We already knew that newcomer Anthony Gonzales was voicing the lead character of Miguel, an aspiring musician living in a household that has banned music, believing it has cursed their family for generations. Following his heart and love of a famous, late musician named Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt), Miguel learns of an amazing link between him and his favorite musician that leads him to an adventure in the Land of the Dead.

The full Pixar Coco voice cast list reveals the many characters we'll encounter in both the lands of the living and the dead, and you can read all about them below.

Before we get to the cast list, we'll remind you of the story with this extended official synopsis:

Coco follows the secret musical ambitions of Miguel, who resides in a lively, loud Mexican village but comes from a family of shoemakers that may be the town's only music-hating household. For generations, the Riveras have banned music because they believe they've been cursed by it; as their family history goes, Miguel's great-grandfather abandoned his wife decades earlier to follow his own dreams of performing, leaving Imelda (Miguel's great-grandmother) to take control as the matriarch of the now-thriving Rivera line and declare music dead to the family forever.

But Miguel harbors a secret desire to seize his musical moment, inspired by his favorite singer of all time, the late Ernesto de la Cruz. It's only after Miguel discovers an amazing link between himself and De la Cruz that he takes action to emulate the famous singer and, in doing so, accidentally enters the Land of the Dead.

In the beautiful underworld, it's not long until Miguel encounters the souls of his own family — generations' worth of long-dead but no less vivacious Rivera ancestors, including great-grandmother Imelda. Still, given the opportunity to roam around the Land of the Dead, Miguel decides to track down De la Cruz himself. He teams up with another friendly (and skeletal) spirit — a trickster named Hector, — to find De la Cruz, earn his family's blessing to perform, and return to the Land of the Living before time runs out.

So without further adieu, let's meet the characters from the land of the living and the land of the dead.

Coco

The Land of the Living

  • Anthony Gonzales ("Ice Box," TNT's "The Last Ship") lends his voice to MIGUEL, a 12-year-old aspiring musician who struggles against his family's generations-old ban on music. When a magical mishap lands him in the Land of the Dead, Miguel seeks out his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz, to help him return to the Land of the Living before it's too late.
  • Ana Ofelia Murguía (Amazon's "Mozart in the Jungle," "Bandidas") voices Miguel's cherished great-grandmother MAMÁ COCO. She is very old and fragile, but that doesn't stop Miguel from sharing his daily adventures with her.
  • Renée Victor ("Weeds," "The Apostle") provides the authoritative voice of ABUELITA, Miguel's grandmother and the ultimate enforcer of the Rivera family's ban on music. She loves her family very much and will do anything to protect them. But when she gets angry, she wields a mean slipper.
  • Jaime Camil (CW's "Jane the Virgin," Disney Junior's "Elena of Avalor," "Secret Lives of Pets") is the voice of PAPÁ, Miguel's supportive father who hopes that someday Miguel will join him in the family shoemaking business.
  • Sofía Espinosa ("Gloria") provides the voice of Miguel's loving MAMÁ who gently encourages her son to embrace their family's traditions.
  • Luis Valdez ("Which Way Is Up," director "La Bamba" & "Cisco Kid") is the voice of TÍO BERTO, Miguel's uncle, a hard worker in the Rivera family shoemaking business.
  • Lombardo Boyar ("Happy Feet," TNT's "Murder in the First") lends his voice to a friendly MARIACHI who Miguel encounters in Santa Cecilia Plaza.

    • Coco

  • Gael García Bernal (Amazon's "Mozart in the Jungle") helps bring to life HECTOR, a charming trickster in the Land of the Dead who is forced to enlist help from Miguel to visit the Land of the Living.
  • Benjamin Bratt (FOX's "Star," "Doctor Strange") is the voice of Miguel's idol ERNESTO DE LA CRUZ, the most famous musician in the history of Mexico. Revered by fans worldwide until his untimely death, the charming and charismatic musician is even more beloved in the Land of the Dead.   
  • Edward James Olmos ("Blade Runner," "Stand and Deliver") lends his voice to CHICHARRÓN, a curmudgeonly friend of Hector's who is sadly being forgotten—an unfortunate condition in the Land of the Dead.
  • Alanna Ubach ("Meet the Fockers," Bravo's "Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce") provides the voice of MAMÁ IMELDA, Miguel's great-great-grandmother, the matriarch of the Rivera family and the founder of their successful shoemaking business. Miguel meets Mamá Imelda in the Land of the Dead and discovers she does not share his passion for music. 
  • Selene Luna ("My Bloody Valentine," "Celebrity Wife Swap") voices TÍA ROSITA, Miguel's late aunt who resides in the Land of the Dead.
  • Alfonso Arau ("Three Amigos," director/producer "Like Water for Chocolate," director "A Walk in the Clouds") is the voice of PAPÁ JULIO, Miguel's late great-grandfather who he meets in Land of the Dead.
  • Herbert Siguenza ("Larry Crowne," "Ben 10: Alien Swarm") lends his voice to both TÍO OSCAR and TÍO FELIPE, Miguel's late identical twin uncles who he meets in the Land of the Dead.
  • Octavio Solis playwright "Lydia, Santos & Santos") is the voice of an ARRIVAL AGENT in the Land of the Dead's Grand Central Station.
  • Gabriel Iglesias ("Planes," "The Nut Job," "The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature") provides the voice of the HEAD CLERK in the Land of the Dead's "Department of Family Reunions."
  • Cheech Marin ("Cars 3," "Tin Cup," CBS' "Nash Bridges") is the voice of a CORRECTIONS OFFICER in the Land of the Dead.
  • Blanca Araceli ("The Bridge") voices the EMCEE for a colorful talent show in the Land of the Dead.

    • Coco is directed by Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3) and co-directed by Adrian Molina (a story artist on Monsters University), and it seems to be tapping into the same kind of culturally influenced storytelling that made Moana feel so refreshing. There hasn't been much of a presence for Hispanic characters in animation, and this looks like it will pay tribute to their culture while also giving young Hispanic children characters to fall in love with that feel familiar to people in their own life.

    My only concern with Coco is that it shares some visual and narrative similarities with The Book of Life, which may keep it from feeling as refreshing as it otherwise might. But just being a Pixar movie should be enough to get audiences into theaters.

    We'll have a new Coco trailer soon, and the movie arrives in theaters on November 22. In the meantime, here's a new poster for the movie:

    Coco Poster

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