In 2017, Disney released Coco, which has been met with overwhelmingly positive reviews and is also award-winning. Though initially, the production had some issues when Disney tried to trademark “Dia de los muertos,” it has attempted to be as culturally sensitive as possible. This cultural sensitivity has greatly paid off in the great reception from Latinos, particularly viewers with Mexican heritage. In fact, Coco has now become the highest grossing movie of all time in Mexico.

    This critical and financial success is indicative of the quality of the movie. With the critics’ and worldwide audience’s approval of the movie, it is clear that Coco is a good movie and a good story, and its success in Mexico also supports its story-telling. And Coco’s reception in Mexico indicates that it contains a relatable and nuanced portrayal of Mexican culture and heritage. So how did this movie come to be so well-received by everyone, but particularly the group that it represents, especially when Disney has made missteps in the past?

    First, look at the characters:

    This picture shows a wide variety of characters represented. Nowhere is there a drug dealer, maid, or handyman. They are humans with obvious personalities and complex relationships. Though the movie emphasizes family, and there is a stereotype and cultural association with Mexican culture and family, the context of the movie, that it is targeted to kids and supposed to be “family friendly” is important to note. There has also been no visible outcry against the presence of the theme; it has been well-received.

    In addition to the characters in the movie, it is important to note the casting of the voices.

    The cast is almost entirely Latino. The main character, Miguel, is voiced by Anthony Gonzalez, a 12 year old voice actor with Mexican heritage. There are also famous Latino actors such as Gael Garcia Bernal and Jaime Camil as well as many Latina actresses like Renee Victor, Sofia Espinosa, and Ana Ofelia Murguia. Unlike Disney’s 2000 movie, The Emperor’s New Groove, which had a mostly white cast despite all of the characters being Peruvian, and Zootopia, a movie about racism, which also had a mostly white cast, Coco is inclusive not only through the animated faces on-screen but through the actors themselves. This is important because it is more culturally sensitive, and it gives Latinx actors visibility in an industry that is disproportionately white.

    But Coco’s biggest accomplishment is that it deeply resonates with Chicano, Mexican, and Mexican-American people whose culture is being represented. Many people have expressed joy at seeing an accurate and relatable movie that subverts stereotypes and makes Latinx people- particularly those with Mexican heritage- visible in a humanizing way.

However, Coco is not the first Disney movie with all Latinx characters. In 2000, Disney premiered The Emperor’s New Groove, a movie that is set in a “mythical mountain kingdom” but is clearly designed to look like the Incan Empire in Peru due to the appearance of the characters, setting, and the fact that the main character is “Kuzco,” named after Cuzco, the capital city of the Incas.

Unlike Coco, or even Beverly Hills Chihuahua, The Emperor’s New Groove is not about the culture of its setting; the setting just so happens to be Peru. The fact that the characters are Incan is in the background and is never explicitly addressed in the movie. Disney’s approach to the Latinidad of the characters is similar to the one that they utilize for Star Wars characters: the identity is just there. Though that works in movies where there are characters of various identities, it’s important to note that there are still questions of historical accuracy. According to Helaine Silverman in her critical article, “Groovin’ to Ancient Peru,” the movie isn’t presenting history, nor does it pretend to. This intention is clear in the anachronisms and Americanized characters in the movie. Unlike Coco, it is clear that there was not as much effort put into the research of the culture being represented in The Emperor’s New Groove. The characters of The Emperor’s New Groove, like Coco, are not simply racial or ethnic stereotypes or caricatures due to the necessity of the characters to have more depth for the sake of the story. The fact that the characters are all Latinx forces the moviemakers to dedicate more time to those characters instead of finding a white protagonist to designate the agency.
    There are still problems with The Emperor’s New Groove, mostly due to the fact that the cast of voice actors for the movie is almost entirely white and doesn't have any Peruvian- or even Latinx- actors. Due to the exclusion of minorities, particularly Latinx people, in Hollywood, it is important for the roles of Latinx characters to go to Latinx actors. Coco does not have this issue of whitewashing the roles.