Dante

Dante is a character from the Disney/Pixar film Coco. He is a Xoloitzcuintle stray Miguel adopted as his pet and friend.

Appearance
Like most dogs of the Xoloitzcuintle breed, Dante is a skinny, almost hairless dog with wrinkled brown skin and long legs. He appears to be under-conditioned with a tear on his left ear, given the fact that he is a stray. He is often seen with his tongue sticking out, due to his missing teeth.

Much later after he helped Pepita and Imelda rescue Miguel and Hector from their exile in a cenote, Dante becomes an alebrije guardian and is revealed to gain wings smaller than Pepita's. This appearance retains Dante's body shape, although his skin became radically multicolored, his tongue turned blue, and his left and right eyes turned pink and yellow respectively. He would retain this appearance only in the Land of the Dead. When he returned to Santa Cecilia, he resumed his Xoloitzcuintle form.

Personality
Dante is extremely loyal to Miguel due to the the boy's kindness earlier in the movie and the Riveras as a whole. Dante has a weakness towards food as it led Miguel to embarrassing situations in the film. Although Dante is superficially goofy and simple-minded, it is shown that he is smarter than he looks. Throughout the film, he covertly guided Miguel to Héctor whenever the dog ran off or brought them together. However, these attempts were motivated by benevolent intentions. Dante was eager to help Miguel find who he was looking for, although being a dog, his actions came across as the dog being overly excited and random. Dante can also sense spirits and was therefore the only living creature to live in the Land of the Dead.

Dante's loyalty is demonstrated to be his most endearing quality. He can become extremely defensive for Miguel's well-being, as he tries to prevent Miguel from finding Ernesto de la Cruz after the boy tries to leave his family members and Hector; Dante being fully aware that this was not best for Miguel. While he is utmost loyal to his owner, Dante is very sensitive when people close to him hurt his feelings. However, his loyalty is proven when he never gives up looking for Miguel, allowing the Riveras to rescue Miguel later in the film. It was because of this that Miguel's acceptance and declaration of Dante revealed Dante's true nature as a spirit guide. The revelation highlighted that, despite the opposition he faces, Dante's relationship to the people he identifies as his family brings him to help them however he can.