Coco · reception & legacy

How Coco has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

An instant hit in 2017 — two Oscars, rapturous reviews — but its stature has only grown: it's now the consensus pick for Pixar's best film of the sequel-heavy late 2010s, and in Mexico it became the highest-grossing film in the country's history.

What's debated

Film fans still relitigate whether Pixar owed a debt to Jorge Gutierrez's The Book of Life (2014), the earlier Día de los Muertos animated film — a debate sharpened by Disney's ill-fated 2013 attempt to trademark 'Día de los Muertos' for the movie's marketing.

Its footprint

'Remember Me' became a modern Disney standard, 'un poco loco' entered the lexicon, and the film is shorthand online for a guaranteed cry — 'I don't cry at movies, except Coco' is practically its own genre of Letterboxd review.

Where it stands

A lock on 'best Pixar' rankings and one of the highest-rated animated films on Letterboxd — less a cult object than an immediate canon entry.