Like Coco is packed with small details that enhance the viewing experience and also foreshadowed some of the movie’s most important moments, and there’s one that reveals the truth about Ernesto de la Cruz (voiced by Benjamin Bratt). Pixar has explored different cultures in its movies, and in 2017, it took the audience to Santa Cecilia, México, and to Land of the Dead to celebrate the Day of the Dead with Coco, directed by Lee Unkrich and co-directed by Adrian Molina.
Coco introduced viewers to Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez), a 12-year-old boy who dreams of becoming a musician like his idol Ernesto de la Cruz – however, music has been forbidden in his family. On the Day of the Dead, as the family sets up their "ofrenda", Miguel makes a big discovery about his family tree, triggering an argument with his family and prompting him to break into Ernesto’s mausoleum. Miguel takes his guitar and strums it, taking him to the Land of the Dead, where he becomes trapped and must find a way back before he becomes one of the dead. There, Miguel makes a huge discovery about Ernesto de la Cruz, who he believed was his relative, and this twist was actually hidden in plain sight in Ernesto’s guitar.
Coco: How Miguel’s Guitar Foreshadowed Ernesto de la Cruz’s Twist
An important object in Coco is the guitar that was played by Ernesto de la Cruz and thus was kept in his mausoleum. Miguel believed Ernesto was his great-great-grandfather as he found a hidden section of a photograph that showed Mamá Imelda, Mamá Coco as a child, and Miguel’s great-great-grandfather, though the head had been torn from the photo. Miguel’s great-great-grandfather is holding Ernesto’s guitar in the photo, leading Miguel to believe his idol was also his relative. Once in the Land of the Dead, Miguel learned the truth: Ernesto had a music partner, Héctor (Gael García Bernal), but when the latter wanted to break up the act and go back home, Ernesto poisoned him, stole his guitar and songs, and ed them off as his own.
The twist of Miguel’s new friend Héctor actually being his great-great-grandfather was a surprise to Miguel and viewers, but it was actually revealed as soon as the guitar was shown in detail. The guitar is decorated with a sugar skull and other details that make it unmistakable, and it also has a grinning-skill headstock. This skull happens to have one tooth painted gold, just like Héctor, who has one gold tooth. Miguel even added this special detail to his very own guitar, but just like the audience, he didn’t connect the dots of the guitar having this very specific detail and his friend Héctor also having a gold tooth.
How Coco Hinted At Ernesto de la Cruz’s Truth
The guitar with the gold tooth is not the only hint at the truth about Ernesto de la Cruz in Coco. Coco is a visual and musical spectacle, and with so many things happening all the time, all these fun little details tend to slip.
