It was quite surprising that Disney-Pixar premiered Coco (2017), a film that celebrates Mexican culture, at the height of Trump’s first presidency when he was demonizing Mexican immigrants. Given this puzzling timing, I analyze how Coco managed to be read as a politicized and pro-Mexican film while simultaneously positioning itself as just another fantastical Pixar movie that white conservative viewers could enjoy. By exploring interviews with the film’s directors and cultural consultants, examining the reception of the film in trade journals and newspapers, and making a textual analysis of the film, I argue that Disney was able to garner applause from its politically diverse audience through a praxis of placing “Mexican Easter eggs” in the film. These covert nods to Mexican culture could be grasped only by audiences well-versed in Mexicanidad. Using this subversive tactic, Disney managed to appease Mexican and Mexican American viewers as well as white conservative audiences and thus increase its profit. I interrogate how media conglomerates perform diversity and inclusion, practices that masquerade as forms of allyship yet ultimately serve these corporations’ bottom line. The essay contributes to scholarship on Disney, children’s media, the film industry, and critical whiteness.
Kelly Ferguson (Thu,) studied this question.