Animated ‘love letter to Mexico’ follows a young boy as he travels to the mythical Land of the Dead after finding an enchanted guitar

Pixar has unveiled the first trailer for its newest animated film, Coco.

Described by director Lee Unkrich (Up, Toy Story 3) as “a love-letter to Mexico” Coco follows Miguel, a young boy captivated by the musicianship of dead guitar player Ernesto de la Cruz. When he breaks into Ernesto’s mausoleum and touches his enchanted guitar, Miguel finds himself whisked off into the Land of the Dead and a journey into his family history. Gael Garcia Bernal and Benjamin Bratt are among those providing the voice work.

The trailer shows the events that lead up to Miguel’s journey to the Land of the Dead, with a tantalising glimpse of what might meet him there. The film draws on the imagery of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), the annual Mexican holiday celebrated at the end of October.

Hopes will be high for Coco, which will be Pixar’s first original project since 2015’s The Good Dinosaur. In recent years the studio has focused largely on sequels. Last year brought Finding Dory, the follow-up to Finding Nemo, while in June Pixar will release the third film of their critically maligned but commercially successful Cars franchise. After Coco Pixar’s slate will not feature an original feature until 2020, with the studio releasing Toy Story 4 and a second Incredibles film in the interim.

However, Coco’s production has not been without its difficulties. In 2013 Pixar’s parent company Disney attempted to trademark “Dia de los Muertos”, the original title of the film, for merchandising purposes. The move prompted online protests, with the company accused of cultural appropriation. In response Disney elected to drop the trademark of the name and change the title to Coco. Pixar later hired Mexican political cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz, one of the most vocal critics of the trademark attempt, as part of the film’s animation team.

Coco is released in cinemas on 22 November in the US, and 8 December in the UK.