The most exciting announcement for Pixar fans during the big animation panel at the 2015 D23 Expo yesterday was probably the official announcement of Lee Unkrich’ Dia de los Muertos movie, Coco. Pixar officially announced the film, its title, plot, and some exciting footage.

Coco has been in development for quite a few years now. We first discovered about it as Pixar’s Untitled Movie About Dia de los Muertos a few years back. Later, that title got changed into Untitled Lee Unkrich Film, and now it’s officially titled Coco. It was not yet revealed who or what the title means though. The film is described as the celebration of a lifetime, where the discovery of a generations-old mystery leads to a most extraordinary and surprising family reunion.

The film will focus on the Mexican Dia de los Muertos celebration, which celebrates loved ones who have passed away. The main character of the film is a spirited 12-year-old boy named Miguel, who somehow finds himself in the realm of the dead. “As artists and filmmakers, we couldn’t help but be drawn to the striking visuals of Dia de los Muertos,” said Unkrich and Anderson at the panel. “But it was the celebration’s core themes of family, remembrance and connection across generations that resonated within and truly inspired us. Dia de los Muertos is as singular as the Mexican culture, while at the same time, completely universal in its message.

“In our story,” they continued, “the celebration of Dia de los Muertos serves as the perfect backdrop for our main character to ask where he comes from, what his place is within his family, and how families stay woven together across time through the simple act of remembrance.”

The panel’s attendees were also shown some early concept designs and a diorama which featured a first look at how this film might eventually turn out when it hits theaters in 2017. The artists at Pixar are still working very hard on designing the colorful look of the film and the Dia de los Muertos celebration, so all the shown designs and footage can still change over the course of the next two years, but the preview was already very well received by the attending fans.

The shown clip started in a Mexican graveyard lit by candlelight where people were showing their respects to their loved ones that are no longer upon them. The camera moved away from the graveyard into a colorfully decorated street filled with dancing skeletons; the scene ends with a skeleton mariachi band playing a song and one of the skeleton’s face falls off to reveal Miguel in disguise. One of the other skeletons jaw falls off from astonishment and Miguel picks it up to hand it back.

Pixar’s Coco is set to open in theaters fall 2017.

What do you think of this announcement? Are you looking forward to Coco?

Edited by: Kelly Conley