Disclaimer: This blog is purely recreational and not for profit. Any material, including images and/or video footage, is property of their respective companies, unless stated otherwise. The author claims no ownership of this material. The opinions expressed therein reflect those of the author and are not to be viewed as factual documentation.
{As this is a new film, I will try hard to avoid spoilers!}
After a couple of months’ delay, Pixar’s nineteenth animated feature, Coco, has finally come to the UK. I’ve been looking forward to this one for over a year and I managed to catch it last weekend about a week after it came out – it certainly didn’t disappoint. Directed by Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina and featuring music by Michael Giacchino, Coco tells the story of twelve-year-old Miguel Rivera, a Mexican lad with a dream of becoming a famous musician. The trouble is, his family are totally against any and all types of music because of a long-standing grudge against one of Miguel’s great-great-grandfathers, who they believe abandoned the family in pursuit of the same goal. Set around the traditional Mexican holiday of Día de Muertos, the film follows Miguel’s attempts to reconcile his passion with his family’s blessing, during which he learns a great deal about them and his own heritage.
Oh, just a heads up – I haven’t seen Reel FX Creative Studios/Fox’s The Book of Life (2014) which this film has been getting so many comparisons with, so I can’t comment on any similarities. From what I understand from other critics’ reviews, the resemblance is only skin-deep; they share only a setting, a holiday and a few basic story elements. Coco is most definitely not a “rip-off” of the earlier film. As well as Book of Life, I also haven’t seen Olaf’s Frozen Adventure, the controversially long “short” which prefaced the initial screenings of Coco before being removed in the wake of the backlash (it wasn’t shown in my screening). That will have to wait for another time!
I’ll begin by saying that this was (in my opinion anyway) a huge step up from Pixar’s other recent efforts; it’s the first non-sequel since The Good Dinosaur (2015). Finding Dory was alright, if not a patch on the original, while Cars 3 was better than the notorious Cars 2 but was never going to be anything groundbreaking. In this lively and moving exploration of Mexican culture, we get what I think is the best Pixar film since Inside Out (2015), and perhaps even since Toy Story 3 (2010).
The film stars young Anthony Gonzalez in the lead role of Miguel, with the supporting cast including Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Alanna Ubach, Renée Victor, Ana Ofelia Murguía and Edward James Olmos. This is apparently the first-ever film with a nine-digit budget to feature an all-Latino cast – cool! The voice work in this film is really on-point, with Gonzalez and Bernal standing out as the highlights; both of them deliver exceptionally energetic, heartfelt performances and they share a warm chemistry which makes the film’s climactic scenes all the more powerful (no spoilers, I promise). Among the other actors, much-deserved credit also goes to the octogenarian Ana Ofelia Murguía, who provides a wonderfully understated performance as the film’s title character, Mamá Coco. I can’t go too much into her role without giving away major plot points, but suffice it to say that her character is at the emotional centre of the entire film and Murguía handles the responsibility with admirable skill and quiet power.
As you would expect from Pixar, the animation is top-notch. The realism and detail in every frame is what sets their films apart from the general schlock I saw in some of the trailers before Coco began; the prologue, for example, was done in a 2D style intended to reflect the designs of papel picado, a type of traditional tissue-paper art. The designs of the Land of the Dead are absolutely breathtaking in their scale and eye-popping use of colour – you could sit staring at these backgrounds for half an hour and still keep finding new details to admire, they’re just glorious. And then there are the character designs, all marvelously inventive; it’s a testament to the artists’ skills that they’re able to invest skeletons with such distinct personalities, as well as keeping their designs consistent with the skeletons’ “living” forms. It can’t have been easy animating characters without organs or facial features, but the Pixar team pulls it off with aplomb and the skeletons are all bursting with comic energy – I especially liked one great moment where Miguel is attempting to imitate his friend Héctor’s bone-jangling walk. Héctor irritably tells him that skeletons don’t walk that way, only for Miguel to quip, “That’s how you walk!”
Somewhat unusually for a Pixar film, Coco is also notable for having some excellent music. Not that Pixar films haven’t had some great scores, but when it comes to songs, they generally leave that to Disney – this is the closest they’ve come yet to making a musical. Much like Moana (2016), Coco’s music incorporates a lot of Mexican instrumentation, motifs and cultural heritage, even featuring lyrics in Spanish to add to the authenticity and immersion of the setting. All sorts of genres are covered, from mariachi and son jarocho to banda, ranchera, huapango and modern Mexican EDM, blending together to create a rich musical tapestry of sound unique to this film. My favourite song had to be Un Poco Loco, sung as a duet by Miguel and Héctor at a talent show. It’s incredibly fun and catchy and I’ve been humming it for days now! I also loved the way the traditional La Llorona was staged and performed, creating a perfect mixture of comedy and drama. Of course, Remember Me is the one that’s probably going to win the Best Original Song Oscar and let’s be honest, it deserves it simply for the emotional punch that it gives the ending – it’s pure Pixar magic. It’s the film’s theme and crops up several times throughout, but after starting out huge and bombastic, it’s gradually stripped back and toned down into something simpler and much realer. If you’ve already seen the film, you’ll know what I mean; if you haven’t, well… take tissues when you go.
Pixar are known for their skillful handling of emotionally sensitive material and Coco is definitely up there with their best, at least in some moments. The story is a beautifully presented call for familial unity, reminding audiences to cherish their loved ones and to never forget them, a theme encapsulated in a warm climactic scene with Miguel’s whole family gathered together in one room, listening to the stories of his great-grandmother. I loved the way Mamá Coco was handled; despite her age and senility, the family treats her with love and respect, including Miguel – it was so touching to see him telling her stories and playing with her, even when she couldn’t really join him in his enthusiasm. So many animated films fall back on the tired cliché of making elderly characters into “senile old bat” stereotypes, so this made a refreshing change.
I will say that the midsection of the film is one of its few weaknesses; it does start to feel just a tad bloated and over-complicated at times, but the writers do a good job of keeping you up to speed as things progress. One thing that really helped was that they don’t rely too heavily on the predictable gags that a skeleton cast offer – some of the trailers for Coco made it seem like it was going to be really childish (why must animated films always be marketed like this?). There are gags, of course, but most of them are well-done and genuinely funny. For me, the weakest aspect of the comedy was the character of Dante, a Xolo street dog who acts as Miguel’s animal sidekick – I know most love him and that’s fine, but I’ve just never cared for these slapsticky characters myself and I quickly got tired of his antics as the film progressed. That said, I hugely enjoyed the small role played by Frida Kahlo, presented as a kind of egotistical artist who helps Miguel out during his visit to the Land of the Dead. Some of her lines, provided by Natalia Cordova-Buckley, had me in stitches – “The dancers… are all me!” has to be my favourite.
Now, I won’t spoil it, but the story of Coco also features a “twist” towards the end which was surprisingly bold in its execution, if not entirely unexpected. Although I did guess the direction they were going in about halfway through, I was still quite shocked at the dark story behind the moment; indeed, while the tone is generally kept light, the nature of the subject matter might make the film unsuitable for very young children (i.e. under-fives), as it’s filled with references to death and dying.
On the whole, though, Coco would be a great experience for older children, as well as anyone else who has ever lost a loved one in their lives. It’s very thoughtful and mature, teaching us about the importance of communication and understanding. Miguel learns why his family so despises music only after truly listening to them, but they also learn why it’s so important for him to live his dream by doing the same. Above all, the film champions the theme of family togetherness, as Miguel must learn to put his family’s needs before his own interests while Imelda learns to put her family’s happiness before a personal grudge.
Coco has been received with joy by audiences all over the world and is now the most successful film in Mexico’s history, with Mexicans praising it for its accurate and engaging depiction of their culture. Much like Moana, the film works because it manages the careful balancing act of educating and entertaining its audiences, inspiring enthusiasm to learn more about Mexico and Día de Muertos (upon looking it up myself, I learned that the holiday was recently inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO… the more you know). The film has already won a Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature and is among the nominees for the same award at the upcoming 90th Academy Awards, alongside the likes of Loving Vincent (another great film) and The Breadwinner (which I plan to see when it reaches the UK in May). These latter two will likely prove too obscure to secure the award, and when you consider that there was no Disney offering last year and the other competitors are The Boss Baby and Ferdinand… yeah, I think this is pretty much a one-horse race.
If you haven’t seen Coco yet, I urge you to do so – and be sure to take your family along with you when you do. Coco es una obra maestra!
By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47613889 – credit for poster
Feeling Animated 
I just watched both the original and the Latin Spanish dubs of the film, and I enjoyed it immensely!
Speaking as someone who is afraid of dying (there, I said it!), I was kinda freaked out by the idea of the “second death,” but I was comforted somewhat by the fact that the story was resolved by the way that Hector’s memory was revived at the end.
In all honesty, I think that the film’s main theme is basically identical to the ancient Egyptian belief that “to speak the name of the dead is to make them live again.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad you enjoyed it! It’s a gorgeous film, and I was so happy to see Pixar move away from the sequels for a moment – nobody beats Pixar when they’re being original.
LikeLike