Coco
Coco (2017)
Directed by Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina
Story by Lee Unkrich, Jason Katz, Matthew Aldrich
and Adrian Molina
Screenplay by Matthew Aldrich and Adrian Molina
Rated PG
I have to state this right off the bat. Pixar’s Coco is a wonderful movie. Very few movies this year have consistently entertained, surprised and entranced me as much as this one has. It is bursting at the seams with imagination, humor, and superb storytelling. If Cars 3 from earlier this year left those who saw it with a gigantic “meh” face leaving the screening, then Coco will surely have them leave with smiles on their faces or even a few tears in their eyes.
The story centers on Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez) who lives in a family that has completely banned music due to the fact that his Great-Great Grandfather left his family behind to pursue a career in music and never returned. The family has since gone in the business of making shoes and has stuck with it since. Miguel on the other hand has an attachment to music and aspires to become like his idol Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt) who was an extremely popular singer-songwriter in Mexico. On Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead), Miguel ends up damaging a picture frame with his Great-Great Grandmother and discovers in the part of the photo that was folded that de la Cruz may be his Great-Great Grandfather and thus tries to enter a talent competition taking place in the town square. He ends up being transported to the land of the dead when he tries to borrow de la Cruz’s guitar (his own got destroyed by a family member prior to this). With the help of another occupant of the land of the dead named Hector (Gael Garcia Bernal) Miguel hopes to get a party where de la Cruz is at and get his blessing while avoiding his relatives in the land of the dead who want to send him back while promising to avoid music.
As usual I will not go into spoilers but I would also advise that those who intend to see it should also avoid advertisements for this film as well and go into it as blind as possible and to let the film surprise you. It’s not that the ads give away any plot points or anything like that but the ads don’t really do the film any justice.
As is usual with the best of Pixar’s films, Coco features a wonderful and colorful cast of characters. Of course we have Miguel who acts and behaves as a child would, naturally grows throughout the story and is also not a bad singer. Seriously, if that actually is Anthony Gonzalez doing his own singing in this film he’s really good.
You have Hector who befriends Miguel and is constantly trying to find his way to the land of the living by any means necessary to avoid being forgotten entirely. You also have his family on both sides who mean well and just want what they feel is the best for Miguel. His grandmothers on both sides, particularly is Great-Great Grandmother Imelda, are a hoot and despite their rough exteriors have the best of intentions and are really soft of heart. There are tons of other characters both major and minor but to talk about them more would only spoil the story. What I can add is that the vocal performances from everyone involved are just about perfect.
The story also lovingly shows aspects of Mexican culture and they are fully integrated into the story. Day of the Dead is particularly in focus. Day of the Dead is a holiday that focuses on gatherings of friends and family to pray for those who have died and to help them on their spiritual journey. They encourage visits from the souls of the departed by making altars for them complete with photographs, their favorite foods, etc. and they use cempasuchil petals a lot during the celebration. Using this holiday as a backdrop this film hammers home the importance of remembering family that has passed on and keeping kinships with family that are still with us. Now there have been plenty of films that have done something like this but Coco is not overwrought, melodramatic or corny. All the laughs, touching moments and thrills are all earned and all serve the story. This film conveys its message effectively and doesn’t lay it on too thick.
And of course I can’t leave out how gorgeous this film looks and this is definitely an area where Pixar excels. All the characters, alive or dead, and environments are rendered in perfectly earnest detail. The land of the dead in particular is bright, colorful and is the perfect setting for an adventure. Before the movie started, the directors and producer briefly took us behind the scenes on one of the scenes for the land of the dead. They talked about the level of detail they took in crafting the buildings and such. You don't see everything that they built (as they went into an insane amount of detail for the ins and outs of the buildings, their contents etc.) but just by watching the final product you can believe the care that the filmmakers took to craft this film. There are tons of skeletons walking around but they are not scary or even done in the macabre fashion of Tim Burton. The visuals are family friendly without having to make things too cute or remove any possible menace.
Apart from the tiniest nitpick where I felt a bit more could have been done with the antagonist, I really have no complaints with this one. Coco is yet another hit in Pixar’s already impressive library. In a year of unimpressive family fare such as Despicable Me 3 or the much maligned The Emoji Movie, Coco stands out above them all. This films earns my highest recommendation and is one of the best films of the year.
