Lee Unkrich

Lee Unkrich has been throwing references to The Shining into Pixar’s movies for years, and you bet he managed to squeeze a few into his latest.

A new clip and featurette shows how extensive research trips to Mexico helped the artists at Pixar to create their latest animated feature.

Pixar’s upcoming musical Coco is one of the most anticipated animated movies of the year. The movie will give the House of Mouse their first Latino star in a story about family and Mexican culture. In a typical Friday Disney news release, the studio has unveiled a new poster for the upcoming movie.

Disney’s currently riding a wave of buzz for their latest release Moana, a delightful Polynesian adventure that ticks all the most essential boxes for the Mouse House: precocious princess, lovable animal sidekick, well-placed showtunes, the whole nine yards. With Disney fever at a relative high, there’s no better time for the happiest PR department on Earth to start drumming up enthusiasm for their next original project, a Pixar Animation production that sounds like it’ll be catnip for anyone charmed by the return to form of Moana. And what’s more, this feature will continue its predecessor’s mission to introduce even more diversity to the Disney/Pixar racial palette.

The development and production process for most animated films is often long, leaving us waiting for years between the initial announcement and the finished product. Pixar’s next original film (and the only one on their schedule that isn’t a sequel) is no exception. We first learned about Coco back in 2012, and now, four years later, with a fall 2017 release on the horizon, Pixar’s new film is officially on a roll — Gael Garcia Bernal and Benjamin Bratt have joined the voice cast, and the studio has revealed some intriguing plot details, along with a new piece of concept art.

Last year, 20th Century Fox released its animated Dia de los Muertos-themed film, The Book of Life, and now Pixar is prepping its own animated film rooted in the Mexican holiday tradition. As revealed at last night’s animation panel at D23, the movie is officially titled Coco, and Pixar has offered up the first plot details as well as the official poster.

When Pixar was a new and unknown company, it broke from the Disney mold by making feature length animated movies that specifically weren’t musicals. Nowadays, their template has become the norm. Every animation studio is trying to make emotionally satisfying stories filled with compelling characters (with mixed success, of course). Well, leave it to Pixar to sail against the winds they created. According to the latest rumors, Pixar is working on its first musical.