November is awfully far away for Disney-Pixar fans who are already eagerly awaiting their next feature, the Day of the Dead–themed Coco. Fortunately, the studios have seen fit to throw us a bone with this new animated short. Coco’s protagonist is a young Mexican boy named Miguel, who dreams of being a musician despite his family’s generations-old ban on music, but the star here is his furry companion, a nibble-eared, long-tongued Xolo named Dante, who gets up to all kinds of mischief in pursuit of an appetizing-looking bone.
Disney and Pixar have created some of the most beloved canine characters of all time, from Pluto to Up’s Dug to Tramp from Lady and the Tramp. Man’s best friend is such a staple for the studios that even other animals (like Maximus, the horse from Tangled) and inanimate objects (the footstool from Beauty and the Beast) tend to take on the characteristics of dogs. Roguish, slobbering Dante certainly seems worthy of joining their ranks, and his love of bones is sure to be a recurring joke in the film’s Land of the Dead, which is awash with an endless supply of skeletons.
Coco romps into theaters Nov. 22.
