Mama Coco Alzheimer's

Part one: “Coco”

Most films are about memory in one way or another. In the case of the Disney Pixar film, “Coco”, it is about the memories that are forgotten. This is the first Disney movie that focuses on the Mexican culture and exposes an array of viewers to Dia de los Muertos, the celebration of those who have passed which is an important holiday to many. This movie also incorporates a ƒform of Alzheimer's, a communication disorder that is primarily found in the elderly. Incorporating Alzheimer's into this film is significant because according to the Alzheimer's Association 2010 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures report, “Hispanics are about one and one-half times as likely to have Alzheimer's or other dementias as older whites”. The

film Coco incorporates Alzheimer’s into the plot because with good intentions because it furthers the story line without promoting stereotypes or using clinical inaccuracy.
Movie Plot
The movie is centered around a 12 year old named Miguel River, who has a passion for music despite the fact that his family despises music because Mama Coco, their great grandmother’s father abandoned them to pursue his musical career. Since the family was still upset about this situation, they refused to put his picture on the ofrenda, the altar where the Rivera family keep pictures of their late relatives along with offerings for the Day of the Dead which is the timeframe of the movie.
Mama Coco shows signs of a form of Alzheimer's from the beginning of the movie which is the reason why we do not know much about her father. In the beginning of the movie, we only see fragments of the picture with the father in it because it was broken in pieces and Miguel is convinced that Mama Coco’s father is Elvis Presley, aka Ernesto de la Cruz, a famous musician that he worships and has his own dreams of being just like him. Although he has no proof, he holds onto the family picture that is torn where his great great grandfather would be, which at the beginning of the movie is a mystery. When he decides to enter a local music show, his grandmother becomes so angry that she smashes his guitar and he goes on a venture to find a new one. He decides to visit the grave of Ernesto de la Cruz and takes his sacred guitar, which causes him to become cursed and is transported to the Land of the Dead. As soon as he gets there, he is informed that unless he gets a blessing from one of his family members, he will not return to the real world. His great-great grandmother, who was married to the musician who left the family agrees to grant him the blessing on the condition that he will never play music and instead he decides to go find Ernesto de la Cruz. Towards the beginning of Miguel’s time in the Land of the Dead, he meets a guy named Hector who is desperately trying to have a family member remember him and put him up on the alter. Hector joined Miguel on his journey to find Ernesto de la Cruz and as the journey comes to an end, the audience realizes that Hector’s time is running out and if he is not recognized in the real world by the end of the Day of the Dead celebration, he will be forced to cross over and will never see his daughter ever again.
Towards the end of the movie, we learn that Ernesto de la Cruz is not his great-great grandfather, Hector is. We also learn that Ernesto de la Cruz stole Hector’s music and killed him and because Miguel knows this information, Ernesto de la Cruz tries to keep him from returning to the real world. At Ernesto de la Cruz’s concert, he is exposed and Miguel escapes and gets to go home. Although Miguel loses the picture in the Land of the Dead, he sings the iconic song “Remember Me” to Mama Coco and her memory of him is restored and his memory lives on. They also changed the history of Ernesto de la Cruzand and exposes the fact that he was a liar and is replaced by Hector in the memorial. The movie ends with Hector being celebrated during the Day of the Dead and the movie flashes forward to when Mama Coco passes away and is reunited with her father in the Land of the Dead and they cross the bridge together to celebrate with their living family.
The choice to use Alzheimer's
The author or screenwriter chose to give Mama Coco Alzheimer's to give the movie a realistic conflict and create an emotional appeal.

Although the movie does not give us a clear enough character development of Mama Coco to figure out what exact form of Alzheimer's she has, they give hints from the beginning that she is dealing with the communication disorder. Her absence of memory raises the stakes of the movie, especially towards the end because there is added pressure on Miguel to keep Hector’s memory alive. Within the first five minutes of the movie, Miguel says hello to Mama Coco and she calls him the wrong name and Miguel goes on to talk about the fact that because she doesn’t have the greatest memory , he can tell her everything. They use her communication disorder in this case to help introduce the plot of the movie and mention her disorder in a professional way. In this particular Disney film ,they make the fact that she has Alzheimer's clear with a 30 second scene without actually saying it. By doing it so quickly, they prevent the scene from digging into stereotypes. They did chose a cliche thing to forget, but it isn’t something that would play too much into stereotypes because it is common to forget people’s names. This is a much better approach to it than in other Disney movies such as Finding Nemo. The character Dory clearly has some form of a memory loss disorder and they use it to enhance the comedic side of the film which comes off as offensive to those who struggle with memory loss. Another way they incorporate Mama Coco’s Alzheimer's into the movie is the progression of Hector’s time in the Land of the Dead. Because Hector died when Mama Coco was younger, she is the only person alive who has any memory of him. As Hector begins to become weaker and it is clear that his time is beginning to run out, this is also an indicator that Mama Coco’s ability to remember is deteriorating. This is something that would not be evident throughout the movie

unless one was looking for signs of Alzheimer's. Disney did a good job of incorporating the Alzheimer's without overdoing it and only mentioning it in scenes that it would either explain a situation or up the stakes. The last thirty minutes of the movie is where Mama Coco’s Alzheimer's plays the most important role. When Miguel returns to the real world, he rushes home with a mission to keep Hector’s spirit alive in the Land of the Dead and clear his name. When he first gets back home, his grandmother tries to prevent him from going to Mama Coco and then he begins to sing to her “Remember Me” with hope that it will trigger her memory. This is when the emotional stakes are highest in the movie and the viewers anticipate that she will not remember and he will never be remember again because it is evident that she has Alzheimer's. When he comes up to her, she has a sad look on her face and as he begins to sing, she begins to light up. This is the only time in the movie where the stereotype that people with Alzheimer's do not have any memory at all is evident. The most emotional part of this scene is when Mama Coco begins to sing along to the song, in this moment it is evident that she still has at least memory of the song and the scene changes to the rest of the family members being driven to tears because her memory of her father is coming back. Once they finish singing the song, Mama Coco pulls out a notebook and talks about how she kept every single letter and poem he ever wrote to her. The peak of this scene is when Mama Coco pulls out the other part of the picture that shows Hector which tells the audience that even after all of this time and even despite the fact that she has Alzheimer's, she knew who her father was. She then goes to go on about how her papa was a musician and him and his mother used to sing beautiful music which shows that the song went beyond Mama Coco’s ability to acknowledge his existence, she even had a memory to go along with it. It can be assumed that she kept this a secret because Miguel’s passion for music sparked because he believed he was related to Ernesto de la Cruz. This scene would not have been possible if the director and screenwriter chose not to give Mama Coco Alzheimer's. The effects of her communication disorder drove this scene to be so powerful and emotional, and it also brought up a fact about Alzheimer's that many people do not know about. It has been discovered that in some cases that music can help those with Alzheimer's and this scene did a spectacular job of introducing this fact to viewers. This scene is one of the reasons why “Coco” is one of Disney’s best work and is a perfect transition for the ending scenes. After this scene, we discover that they put up the picture with Hector just in time. The final scene transitions into the celebration of the Day of the Dead, although it is not clear if it was within the same timeframe or a future celebration, they show Mama Coco’s picture on the alter as well, which signifies her own death. They show Mama Coco reuniting with her family in the Land of the Dead. This final scene reiterates the theme of the importance of memory and promotes Dia de los Muertos. Not only was this movie important in the aspect that it talked about Alzheimer's, but it promoted a culture that is not recognized enough.
One impressive aspect of this movie was the fact that there was not any misleading or inaccurate information about Alzheimer's. They made it evident that Mama Coco had Alzheimer's in a way that even a younger audience would understand that she has memory issues that affected the plot of the film. They chose to use an older character to have Alzheimer's which is medically accurate because in majority of cases, Alzheimer's develops in the elderly community. It is very uncommon to see it in other age groups but people can develop early onset and in most cases they can slow the progression of memory loss. The movie shows typical examples of memory loss such as forgetting names and having a very small retention rate of things they are told but it never goes in depth enough for it to become extremely inaccurate. As previously mentioned, they bring up the concept that music can help trigger memory which is medically accurate even though those who lack extensive knowledge of Alzheimer's would know. This movie represent Alzheimer's in a way that is not harmful and makes it easier to comprehend for younger audiences which is Disney’s main focus.