Question: If Ernesto stole Hector's guitar, why wasn't he cursed too?
FleetCommand
16th Jul 2019
Coco (2017)
16th Dec 2017
Coco (2017)
Question: When you look at Abuelita's ofrenda, the bottom row has more pictures of family members. Where were they during Día de Los Muertos? They couldn't have gone to the true afterlife since they were on the ofrenda right?
Answer: I believe they are in-laws. Hector said when trying to cross the petal bridge when impersonating Frida that he was probably on lots of ofrendas. So they could be visiting other family ofrendas. Also we saw that the riveira family didn't cross the bridge all at once as the twins came later so they possibly crossed over before the Miguel situation happened. Also when they went back to see Mama Imelda, they went back to an office where a lot of people were being held up like it was customs. So they also possibly could have affairs to sort out before being able to cross. But as the Riveira family made no attempt to contact them when looking for Miguel as they needed a family's blessing I would stick to the assumption that they are in-laws.
Answer: They simply didn't appear on the screen, and the film wasn't about them. That's all. By the way: "Abuelita" means "grandmother" in Spanish. The character's first name was Elena. (You probably know her last name was Rivera).
Answer: These other ancestors may only be faces on the family's altar. Their photographs may still be put up, but if there are no anecdotes to remember them by, their names and faces may not be strong enough to count as being remembered.
9th Mar 2018
Coco (2017)
Question: Why didn't Miguel become cursed when he stole the chicken leg off the grave offering? Is that when Dante became cursed, since technically he ate the chicken leg so he stole it? Or is Dante just a spirit guide the whole time?
Answer: The chicken leg didn't belong to a dead person. Its legal owner was alive and well. The spirit of dead do not take possession of the offering. They take a spiritual copy of it.The legal owner of the guitar, however, was dead.
Answer: Miguel became cursed not just because he stole an offering, but because he stole from his family. Dante is always a spirit guide.
Answer: Clearly intent has something to do with it. When Miguel took the chicken leg, he wasn't intentionally "stealing" it. When he took the guitar, he knows he's stealing it. His intention is to borrow it, but he knows what he's doing is wrong.
24th Jan 2018
Coco (2017)
Question: Why didn't the aunts just tell Miguel that Ernesto De La Cruz wasn't his grandfather when Miguel was rambling about it when he entered the Land of the Dead?
Answer: The aunts may not actually know. Because his ancestor hated him so much, she may have talked about him very little in both the real world and the afterlife.
Answer: Because Miguel didn't unambiguously talk about his wrong assumption. In other words, he never said, "my grand-grandfather and Imelda's husband, Ernesto de la Cruz" (which is wrong). He only called him grand-grandfather and Imelda simply referred to him as a good-for-nothing musician. The aunts, uncles and the grandfather Julio all knew about Hector, as can be inferred from the reunion scene.
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Answer: The criteria for being cursed were never accurately established in the film. All we have is the words of the specialist: "You're cursed. [...] Dia de Los Muertos is the day of giving to the dead! You stole from the dead!" This seems to imply that the act of theft must have taken place on Dia de Los Muertos and the owner of the stolen object must have been dead.
FleetCommand