|
| “ | SECURITY, AYUDAME!! | „ |
| ~ Ernesto calling his guards to stop the Rivera family. |
The Security Guards are the secondary antagonists of Pixar's 19th full-length animated feature film Coco.
They serve as enforcers for the famed singer Ernesto de la Cruz until the events of the film, where they did their best to preserve their boss' fame from being tarnished. They're also the Rivera family's opponents.
They were all voiced by Salvador Reyes in his first antagonistic role.
History[]
Working for Ernesto[]
Following Ernesto de la Cruz's death in 1942 after he was killed by a falling church bell during his last performance, Ernesto was revered by many of the citizens of the Land of the Dead due to his strong reputation.
Because of this, Ernesto continued to perform to the citizens of the Land of the Dead, supplied with his own mansion and a crew of security guards at his disposal. It later turned out that Ernesto had stolen all of the songs that he sang from his best friend Héctor Rivera after murdering him in 1921, and he entrusted his security guards to keep it as a secret from everyone else.
Main Events[]
When Miguel Rivera was sent to the Land of the Dead by accident, he conspired with Héctor (who is currently a lonely and forgotten jokester and is unaware of the true cause behind his death) to head over to Ernesto's mansion so that Miguel can receive Ernesto's blessing to go back to the Land of the Living with Héctor's photo.
However, one of the security guards refuses to let Miguel pass through to the entrance, resulting an annoyed Miguel having to convince the current winners of the band contest to sneak him in while Héctor disguises himself as the famed artist Frida Kahlo to get past the security with ease.
Just as Héctor and Miguel finally caught up to Ernesto as the latter is about to give Miguel his blessing, Héctor soon learns about the true cause of his death after watching one of Ernesto's films which bears several similarities of the argument he and Ernesto had before his death. Realizing that Ernesto murdered him to steal the songs and achieve the fame for himself, an angry Héctor attacks Ernesto, who calls in two of the security guards to stop him. Realizing now that sending Miguel back to the Land of the Living with Héctor's photo would raise questions about his legacy as a musician, Ernesto takes the photo and orders the guards to throw both Héctor and Miguel into a cenote pit where they cannot escape.
Eventually, Héctor and Miguel were able to escape thanks to Héctor's wife Imelda and her spirit guide Pepita, who were guided by Dante to them. Miguel then explains the events to his deceased relatives, who agree to help Héctor and Miguel recover the stolen photo and expose Ernesto's true colors. During Ernesto's sunrise show at a stadium, Miguel and his deceased relatives sneak in (with the help of the real Frida Kahlo) to recover Héctor's photo. However, they run over to Ernesto by accident, where Imelda angrily berates Ernesto for murdering Héctor and causing her family's grief. Unperturbed by this, Ernesto calls his security guards to detain Miguel and his relatives, forcing Miguel's relatives to fight back while Imelda accidentally ends up on stage after recovering Héctor's photo from Ernesto. Spotting Imelda on stage, Ernesto angrily orders his guards to stop her and steal back the photo.
Eventually, Imelda starts singing "La Llorona" while evading the security guards, which surprises her dead relatives and woos the entire audience, much to Ernesto's anger. Deciding to handle things in person, Ernesto comes in stage singing and tries to take the photo while trying to make everything seem as part of the show, leaving the security guards to watch the scene dumbfounded. Eventually, Ernesto was exposed with a recorded confession from a camera, leaving the horrified audience to jeer Ernesto for his actions.
It's unknown what has happened to the security guards following Ernesto's defeat as they were never seen again. However, they're more likely to be out of a job following Ernesto's defeat.
In the Pixar Popcorn short "A Day of the Life of the Dead", one of the security guards is seen doing exercises, which possibly means that unlike Ernesto, the guards possibly didn't suffer any consequences, but it's unlikely that they continued working for him.
Trivia[]
- One of the security guards happens to be a fan of real-life Mexican professional wrestler El Santo, to the point where they take a selfie together with his head.