A couple of weeks back, Pixar released the first trailer for ‘Coco’, an upcoming animated movie inspired by  Día de Muertos or the Day of the Dead. ‘Coco’ will follow Miguel, a 12-year old boy who dreams of becoming a musician, even though his family has a generation-old ban on music. Accompanied by a dog called Dante, Miguel ends up in the Land Of The Dead, desperate to prove his talent. 

Now, Pixar has released a short film to introduce us to the cute and really hungry doggie Dante, who is basically Miguel’s sidekick. Called ‘Dante’s Lunch’, this short comes from Lee Unkrich, who also directed ‘Toy Story 3’, and it serves as an early animation test for Unkrich’s team. 

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He loved how it turned out so much that he wanted to share it “as a little appetizer until the movie comes out.”

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With the movie being set in Mexico, it’s appropriate that Dante is a Xolo, a Mexican hairless dog that’s the country’s national canine. Xolos are genetically prone to losing teeth, that usually results in their tongues lolling out of their mouths, so the creators also wanted to incorporate that into the character. 

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“We thought we would kind of embrace that and make it part of Dante’s character,” Unkrich explained. “So his tongue is almost its own character, separate from him.”

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A Pixar short has become an essential for every feature film and this one is a little too adorable. Even though we have to wait a few months for this exciting movie, by the looks of it, it’ll be well worth the wait.