The path of the migrant in 3D Animation

Interculturality, sociocultural identity, and racism in Coco (2017)

Abstract

Here we will deal with a topic that has been widely addressed by political and social studies. It is about the migration route, understood as the unfortunate tribulations that a migrant from any region of the world has to undergo in order to overcome the fearsome difficulties they face when leaving their familiar place of origin to arrive elsewhere. In this new place they are seen as different and alien. Migrants face the animosity of society, the hardships of misery, the exploitation that desolates them, and the racism that subdues them. Interculturality, sociocultural identity and racism concur in the representation of these migratory processes. The convergence of these particular concepts is what guides my sociocultural analysis of the three-dimensional animated film Coco, released in October 2017 at the Morelia International Film Festival. This audiovisual production was declared “a love letter to Mexico” both by its two directors Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina, as well as by its producer Darla K. Anderson. The media repeated this statement over and over again, but that does not make it true. An analysis using a critical and historical approach reveals the sociohistorical content that is expressed in the historical, dramatic, and technical constructions of Coco’s characters, places, costumes, and situations.