Coco: An ESL Movie Resource for Cultural Learning, Halloween and Día de los Muertos Activities

 Coco is a visually beautiful and emotionally engaging animated film from Disney and Pixar that provides an excellent opportunity for ESL teachers to combine English language learning with culture, family, music, traditions and storytelling. Released in 2017 and directed by Lee Unkrich, the movie follows Miguel Rivera, a young boy who dreams of becoming a musician despite his family's long-standing ban on music. During the Mexican celebration of Día de los Muertos, Miguel unexpectedly enters the Land of the Dead and begins a journey to discover more about his family and his ancestors.

For ESL students, Coco offers authentic opportunities to develop vocabulary, comprehension, speaking and writing skills while exploring Mexican culture and traditions. Pixar's filmmakers conducted extensive research in Mexico, visiting communities, museums, markets, workshops and other locations to understand local traditions, music, food and family life.

Why Use Coco in Your ESL Lessons?

High Student Engagement

Coco is an excellent choice for High Student Engagement because it combines adventure, humor, music, family relationships and fantasy. Miguel's journey is easy for students to follow while providing plenty of opportunities to discuss dreams, personal identity, friendship, family expectations and difficult choices. The colorful Land of the Dead and memorable characters can also encourage students to describe people, places and events in English.

The movie's strong musical element is particularly useful for ESL classes. Music can introduce vocabulary related to instruments, performances, emotions and entertainment while encouraging students to talk about their own favorite songs and musicians. Pixar describes music as central to the film's story and character development.

Halloween Activities

Although Coco is not simply a Halloween movie, its skeleton characters, supernatural setting and Land of the Dead make it an engaging choice for Halloween Activities. Teachers can use the movie to expand Halloween vocabulary beyond traditional ghosts, witches and monsters while introducing students to a different cultural perspective on death and remembrance.

The film can also encourage discussions about how Halloween and other autumn traditions are celebrated in different countries. This makes Coco especially useful for ESL students who enjoy seasonal lessons but are also interested in discovering international traditions.

“El Día de los Muertos” Activities

Coco provides an excellent introduction to Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. The film presents traditions involving family remembrance, photographs, ofrendas, marigolds and connections between generations. Pixar explains that the filmmakers observed paths of marigold petals leading toward family ofrendas containing photographs, favorite foods and special objects intended to help guide loved ones home.

This gives teachers the opportunity to create cultural activities in which students research Día de los Muertos, compare it with traditions in their own countries, describe an imaginary ofrenda, or discuss how different cultures remember people who have died. These activities can develop vocabulary while encouraging respectful cultural awareness.

Latino Friendly ESL Classes

Coco can also support Latino Friendly ESL Classes by bringing Mexican culture, family traditions, Spanish-language expressions, music, food and cultural imagery into the classroom. The movie can help Latino students see aspects of their cultural heritage represented in an internationally popular film while giving students from other backgrounds an opportunity to learn about Mexican traditions.

It is particularly valuable to approach these activities as opportunities for cultural learning rather than presenting one film as a complete representation of Mexican or Latino culture. Pixar's production team researched different parts of Mexico, including Mexico City, Morelia, Oaxaca and Guanajuato, while developing the movie's settings.

Cultural Activities

Coco is ideal for Cultural Activities because it opens the door to discussions about family, traditions, music, celebrations, food, art and remembrance. Students can investigate Mexican traditions, compare family celebrations across cultures and explore how different societies understand relationships between the living and those who have passed away.

The film's colorful visual world can also inspire activities about Mexican folk art. For example, students can investigate alebrijes, the brightly colored fantastical creatures that appear in the movie. Pixar explains that alebrijes are traditional Mexican folk art and that the filmmakers incorporated them into the story as spirit guides.

ESL Teaching Resources for Coco

A comprehensive ESL Movie Guide on Coco can transform the film into a complete English learning experience before, during and after viewing. The guide can begin with a General Information section where students record important movie details such as the film title, release year, director, genre, setting, main characters and other basic information. This gives learners useful practice with movie-related vocabulary and helps them become familiar with the film before watching it.

The next section can focus on New Vocabulary Learned. Students can identify unfamiliar words and expressions from the movie, write their meanings and use selected vocabulary in their own sentences. Words connected with family, music, traditions, emotions, death, memory and celebrations can provide particularly useful vocabulary for intermediate and advanced ESL learners.

A Characters' Description section can then ask students to describe Miguel, Héctor, Mamá Imelda, Ernesto de la Cruz, Mamá Coco and other important characters. Students can describe their appearance, personality, relationships, goals and actions while supporting their descriptions with evidence from the movie. Pixar identifies Miguel as a 12-year-old aspiring musician, while Héctor is a charming trickster who wants to cross the marigold bridge into the Land of the Living.

The Movie Guide can also include a Movie Timeline in which students are given important scenes from Coco and asked to put them in chronological order. This is an excellent activity for developing reading comprehension, sequencing language and understanding of narrative structure. Students can practice expressions such as first, then, after that, later, meanwhile and finally while reconstructing Miguel's journey.

Another section can be dedicated to Your Favourite Scene. Students can choose one scene from the movie, describe what happens and explain why they liked it. This encourages personal expression while providing meaningful practice with past-tense verbs, descriptive vocabulary and opinion language. Students might choose a musical performance, an emotional family moment, Miguel's arrival in the Land of the Dead or another memorable scene.

The Movie Review section can give students the opportunity to evaluate Coco after watching it. They can discuss the story, animation, characters, music, cultural elements and emotional impact before giving the movie their own rating. This creates an authentic writing task in which students practice expressing opinions, supporting arguments and making recommendations.

Finally, the ESL Movie Guide can include a creative Diary Writing Activity. Students can imagine that they are a character they personally liked and write three diary pages describing three different scenes from the movie from that character's perspective. They can explain what happened, describe their feelings, reflect on their relationships with other characters and imagine what they were thinking at important moments. This activity combines creative writing, character analysis, narrative language and emotional vocabulary while encouraging students to engage more deeply with Coco.

Overall, Coco is a powerful ESL movie resource because it combines engaging storytelling with language learning, music, family themes and cultural exploration. Its connections with Halloween Activities, Día de los Muertos Activities, Latino Friendly ESL Classes and Cultural Activities make it particularly useful during the autumn season, while its themes of family, memory, identity and following your dreams make it suitable for ESL classrooms throughout the year.

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