Get ready for a long post. Sorry about the scrolling. I just feel the need to analyze this scene. I’ve said it before but it is one of my FAVORITE Coco scenes and is what inspired me to pursue animating.
I found an awesome site that has LOADS of screenshots of Coco in very nice quality. Which I got from another amazing Coco blogger @twilit-violet-one so special thanks for that!
Alright onto the scene dissection!
Imelda, “I want nothing to do with you! Not in life, not in death.”
Interesting about this one. You’d think she’d be angry but this face looks more hurt and sad then frustrated or angry. I like to think it’s because deep down she hates that she is saying this. Obviously she wants to say it and she means it. But we all know Hector is the love of her life. I think it pains her to think that Hector abandoned her. She loved him with all her heart and wanted him to stay and never leave. But when he did leave and never came back, it broke her heart, not out of anger necessarily but because it hurts her to think someone she loved so deeply could cause her that much pain.
I will be putting some bonus Hector screenshots in here too cuz OH MY FREAKING GOODNESS LOOK AT HOW SAD HE IS!!!! He is so dadgum sorry for what happened! He hates seeing her in so much pain ugh guys this is one of the frames that really gets me. If I stare too long I might just cry. But we can’t move on yet. You might be wondering Why doesn’t Imelda notice how sorry he is?! She says in this scene “How many times must I turn you away?” Which would imply that he had tried making contact with her since she died. She’s turned him away many times and I’m sure he was just as sorrowful looking before. She probably assumes that he is “cowaring” because of her yelling and not because he is actually sorry. We all know Imelda can be quite intimidating. She’s probably used to giving people these reactions 🤣 Ok sorry yes moving on.
Miguel, “He was trying to get me home. I didn’t wanna listen. But he was right. Nothing is more important than family.”
This is her face RIGHT after Miguel says “Nothing is more important than family.” The entire rest of his line before hand she still looks furious. I mean think about it. Miguel said “He was right” Imelda probably thought that Miguel was about to go on a long explanation as to why music is the most important thing. As soon as he says “Nothing is more important than family” she is SHOCKED. Like that is the last thing she expected Miguel to learn from Hector, the man she believed has put music before everything for nearly a century. She’s just properly confused. It doesn’t make any sense to her.
Miguel, “He’s part of our family.”
Imelda, “He left this family!”
At this point she still has no reason to believe that he would ever put family first. As she said, he left his family. Hence the anger rising again.
Miguel, “He tried to go home to you and Coco. But de la Cruz murdered him.”
She actually listens here! You can see in her face she’s truly listening and never suspected what had actually happened. She’s shocked and sad… again. Why is this shocking? If she has turned Hector away so many times in the past few decades, why hasn’t Hector told her that he died trying to come home? Even though Hector didn’t know he was murdered by Ernesto, he still thought he died by a bad chorizo. The thing is… Imelda is quite a force to be reckoned with. I highly doubt any interaction between the two of them in the land of the dead prior to this movie consisted of much conversationing. It probably mainly involved her yelling and throwing shoes at him. I don’t think she ever gave Hector the chance to explain himself. But NOW Imelda is hearing it from her great great grandson who just claimed Hector is putting family first. I think she’s a bit more curious and definitely more open to listening to Miguel rather than Hector himself.
No pictures for this next part but I still wanted to comment on the dialogue here.
Imelda, “And so what if it’s true?! You leave me alone with a child to raise and I’m just supposed to forgive you?”
This I think is one of the main lines people think she is being too harsh. But let’s just step in her Rivera shoes for a second here. She literally JUST found out that he was murdered… she doesn’t know when, how? or anything else. For all she knows he could’ve been gone on the road for 5 years before wanting to come home. Now of course we all know that wasn’t the case but my point is, this is all new information for her and for the past 100 years she has been angry that he left them for music. Just because he was murdered doesn’t change the fact that he still left and she still raised Coco on her own. Also I imagine it’s difficult to let go of a century of anger after hearing 1 sentence. I mean I’ve never been angry at someone for 100 years straight but I’d imagine it’s hard to get over.
Imelda, “You leave me alone with a child to raise and I’m just supposed to forgive you?”
That first pic man. That hurts. I feel that. Her empathy! Sadness! Surprise! Regret! How many emotions is this woman feeling in this ONE SHOT! I got to really break it down now.
Sadness- She is genuinely sad to see him this way. It looks like she’d cry to see him in that much pain. Her sadness proves that she DOES care for him. If she truly wanted him forgotten, seeing him fade wouldn’t be this emotional.
Surprise- It’s as if she has never even thought about him facing the final death. I mean surely she must’ve known ripping his photo, banning music, and never talking about him would lead to him being forgotten? The mind is a curious thing. While she wanted to forget him and wanted her family to forget him, she never truly wanted to harm the person she loved! She wanted to forget the hurtful actions, not her love. But the only way to forget the pain was to snuff him out too. I think she’s surprised because she never wanted to face the truth that by banning his stories, she was killing the love of her life.
Regret- This goes with the surprise in a way. She didn’t want to ever imagine Hector facing the final death. She is now regretting all of her own actions that is leading him to be forgotten.
Also Hector again DADGUM GOODNESS YOUR EYES ARE TEARING THROUGH MY SOUL! HE LOOKS SO BROKEN!
Imelda, “I wanted to forget you. I wanted Coco to forget you too.”
I’d like to point out her shoulder blades here. First of all it’s pretty cool cuz usually you wouldn’t be able to notice them on a living person but since you can see through her ribs it’s easy to spot… that sentence though 🤣
The first pic where she’s “slouching” (lower shoulder blades) you can tell she’s “defeated” and feels awful about what happened and how she handled everything. I can’t even put it to words, you can see she is almost like shameful! And then the second pic she tightens her shoulders when she admits that she wanted to forget him! Like it’s painful for her to admit it and she doesn’t want to show it.
Hector, “This is my fault. Not yours. I’m sorry, Imelda.”
Wow k. So many things where do I start.
Picture one. I’d like to note here that Hector cut her off. She was going to keep talking after “I wanted Coco to forget you too.” but he interjected. She actually stopped talking and let HIM speak. This entire time has been Imelda and Miguel going back and forth and she finally let him speak! You know how huge that is? Like I said earlier, I doubt she has ever let him explain himself since he could have very well said “I tried coming home but I died because of food poisoning!” If she hasn’t let him say that, I doubt she has let him speak to her at all. He just interjected her and she is allowing him to talk. That first pic just screams regret and shame to me. She isn’t even looking him in the eye and it’s as if she’s pondering all that had truly happened and trying to process. Right there she can feel the blame and the fault of the situation. Why do you think Hector just said “This is my fault.” He can see she is blaming herself and taking the guilt. He said that to relieve HER pain.
Now a lot of people don’t like that Hector blames himself. and I get it. It’s not his fault that his best friend murdered him. But he was the one who left. He still walked out the door for music. And there was no way for Imelda to know that he died. What was she supposed to think? And even if after she died she found out that he died trying to return, there’d be no way to communicate with the land of the living. Imelda can’t just contact her living family like, ‘Hey Elena! It was all a big misunderstanding! You can play music and tell Hector’s stories now!” Imelda couldn’t physically have prevented Hector being forgotten. But it also isn’t Hector’s fault either. Yes, he left, but he tried fixing his mistake. We all know Ernesto is to blame here, you know he is the murderer and everything but it’s obvious Hector feels guilty for leaving in the first place and he doesn’t want Imelda taking the blame for any of it. {Which is so dadgum cute oh my goodness}
Picture two. This may very well be the first time Hector said he was sorry. Whether it was his fault or not, whether he thinks it’s his fault or not, he is sorry that Imelda was left alone. Judging by her surprised expression, I don’t think Hector has ever apologized to her before. She had always believed it was his fault but now she’s unsure. She’s blaming herself and still processing. This is a lot to take in. And still, his fault or not, she truly hears his apology. I don’t even know how to explain it but it’s almost like she is feeling the words.
And the third pic. She is sorry too. And still surprised and completely touched that he is apologizing. I mean the way he apologized too! You can see in HIS face and hear through HIS words how sorry he is and I think that Imelda feels bad for how sorry he feels. Otherwise I don’t think she’d look so sad.
Imelda, “I can’t forgive you.”
LOOK AT HOW FREAKING SAD SHE IS!!! It’s as if she wants to forgive him but she can’t and again, I can’t stress enough, OVER NINETY YEARS she believed he intentionally abandoned her and their daughter. Anger that long doesn’t just go away after a single minute and I think she feels sad about that. Real quick though, can you honestly imagine her jumping back into his arms right this second? We all know she does end up literally jumping into his arms after La Llorona but right now in this scene can you really picture her just being like “Oooooooh ok l get it now. Nah, it’s cool, I forgive you. Clean slate! You can just forget that I was angry for almost a century. We’re good.”
I’ve already made an ENTIRE post just about her “But I will help you.” Line but I am out of open slots for pictures and have probably effectively wrote your eyes out. But I hope you enjoyed it, if not at least found something interesting.
I would like to say one more thing! The amount of time and heart that was poured into this scene to give these characters such incredible emotion just stuns me. Truly, the people who worked on this scene need an oscar themselves and if I ever got the chance to meet them I would be incredibly awe struck because this scene took some serious skill. Thank you for being an inspiration!
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