It's easy to forget that "Coco" isn't the name of the main protagonist in the movie. The movie follows the story of Miguel, an aspiring Musician trying to navigate his love of music with his family who has banned it. However, 3/4ths of the way through the movie, the twist is revealed and you understand that Miguel's story has just been a vehicle to tell the story of Coco and more specifically, Hector's relationship with his daughter Coco.To sum up for those who don't care about spoilers or for those who don't remember the movie all that well, Miguel's 2x Great Grandfather (Hector), left his family in a small nowhere town to pursue his dream of becoming a Musician. Later, while on the road, he decides to give up this dream and return home to his family, but his bandmate kills him and steals his music because he's a terrible songwriter himself. Hector's wife, since abandoned, completely moves on from him and disavows her love for music and forbids it in her household. Her ancestors take up this tradition and Hector is forgotten by everyone, except for his now Elderly daughter Coco, who is quickly approaching death and her memory is all but gone.When this part of the story is revealed, it's only really touched on, because this narrative is about Miguel and the rest of the movie largely wraps up his plot line while still getting Hector and Coco back together one more time.But at no point in time does the movie really dwell on the absolute hell that Hector has gone through since his death. It's not clearly stated what age Coco is, but my assumption is that Hector has been in the Land of the Dead for 80-90 years.1.) He loses his family. This one is obvious, but it must be painful to finally realize that your goal of becoming a Musician isn't as important as the family you've left behind only to never get to tell your loved ones that you came back for them. To Imelda and Coco, he abandoned them, and never came back. Worse yet, Imelda refuses to talk to Hector in the Land of the Dead and because Hector doesn't learn until the film's events that Ernesto poisoned him, he doesn't have a scapegoat to blame. The love of his life is within spitting distance and she won't talk to him or let him justify his actions. Or worse yet, he attempted to explain and she wouldn't listen.2.) His music is stolen. From the time when Hector is killed, to the time with Ernesto is killed (~15-20 years) Hector must have come to terms with what had happened to him. But slowly, people who loved Ernesto's music begin to die off and start singing it all around him. Sure he could tell people that he wrote the lyrics, but they wouldn't believe him. Then when Ernesto joins the Land of the Dead, he gets to see his former bandmate get all the acclaim of being a popular musician and none of the credit.3.) Ernesto completely warped "Remember Me". Hector wrote "Remember Me" as a tribute to his daughter. A way for them to be together while he was apart. It's slow and mournful, but when Ernesto gets his hands on the lyrics, he makes it more upbeat and more of a smarmy lovesong. As Ernesto becomes popular in the land of the living, everyone living there sings it constantly. When Miguel proposes singing "Remember Me" at the talent show, Hector immediately bristles and writes it off as too popular, but in reality, he lives in a world where everyone he knows is constantly singing a song that he wrote for his daughter. It's also a constant reminder that he abandoned her and can't get back to her. He's being taunted by the song daily without anybody realizing it.4.) His sole thought is getting back to Coco. When we first meet Hector, he's seen scamming Skeleton TSA to try and cross the Flower Bridge on Dia De Muertos. We see him as a grifter, a scam-artist, low-life, liar who is just trying to scheme is way into the land of the living. It's not until later that we realize he's trying to get back to see Coco one last time. Coco is the only one who still remembers him and once she passes, he will pass away from the Land of the Dead as well, which means not only will he miss out on seeing her in the Land of the Living, but she won't see him when she gets to the Land of the Dead either.Which means that every year, for the last 80-90 years, Hector has been abandoned by everyone he loved (for some good reason) and is constantly reminded about his own failures. His only goal in (after)life is to spend 364 days of the year scheming a way to get across the bridge to see Coco, failing for a day and then back to the drawing board. And when we first meet him, he knows that his time is almost out.He reminds me of Sisyphus, pushing that boulder up the hill for 364 days of the year, only to have it all come rolling back down on him on Dia De Muertos. via /r/movies https://ift.tt/33wlPhs
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