Coco

Pixar has a special talent for making movies that just find a way to tug at the heartstrings. From their earliest picture involving talking toys to their latest adventures into the human soul itself, Pixar taps into that wonderful balance of child-like energy and adult atmosphere to create something wholesome, engaging, visually and emotionally creative, and incredibly timeless (unless it’s about sentient cars). They don’t always succeed, but their pros definitely outweigh their cons, and Coco was one that rekindled that special feeling back into the limelight. In Mexico on the eve of the Day of the Dead, a young boy named Miguel (voiced by Anthony Gonzalez) wishes to become a musician but is prevented by his family due to their hatred of anything musical after a past relative abandoned the family for it. Discovering that this past relative could have been the famous deceased singer, Ernesto de la Cruz (voiced by Benjamin Bratt), Miguel tries to discover the truth behind his heritage, but ultimately (and honestly quite randomly) finds himself stuck in the world of the dead. In this new environment with his deceased relatives, Miguel hopes to find Ernesto to get his blessing to return to the living world as a musician and requires the help from Hector (voiced by Gael Garcia Bernal), another undead who wishes to get a chance to visit the land of the living, to get it done. Released in 2017 and directed by long-time Pixar members, Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina, Coco was a fantastic success upon release. Despite the usual Pixar issue of the trailer’s not looking the best, Coco provides a wonderfully touching experience with rich culture, endearing characters, beautiful visuals, and outstanding music. Even in the list of their biggest hits, Coco is easily one of the greatest films they’ve made.

What’s bizarre about the way the movie handles its narrative is that in terms of the individual pieces, they are really bad tropes. Even by typical movie standards, the basic set-up for the film features elements that are usually awful in kids’ media; a kid loving something that is deemed forbidden by a family member, the family hates something irrationally and refuses to let the kid do said thing, a twist Disney bad guy, etc, it all sounds awful and ripe for failure, but with ingenious writing and handling, it makes it work fantastically well. It most likely comes down to how the film structures these cliches to the point where they aren’t annoyingly unrealistic, and they actually work in the context of the film’s story and ideas. How the movie ties together the themes of familial connections, the importance of balancing personal desire against expected restrictions, and the strength and almost magical feeling that comes through music, it all fits perfectly together, and nothing feels out of place or wrong for this narrative. It’s perfectly paced in that regard; it doesn’t waste too much on set-up, yet everything that needs to be known gets through to the audience incredibly quickly because of the pretty basic framework it has. This allows for the movie to strengthen itself through its visuals, its culture, its characters and its emotional drive, this movie is bound to make everybody cry at least once during the viewing and any film that can do that even through multiple viewings, knows how hit people emotionally in the best way. Probably one of the only faults with the narrative is the specifics of how certain things work; it’s a movie that really runs with its heart and despite having a lot of steps and rules, it doesn’t really rely on being intricate with its explanations (it never does really explain how he managed to get to the land of the dead in the first place), but when that’s literally the only complaint, that’s a good sign.

Every character in this movie is very likeable, very well voice-acted and has a great design. The mixture between the characters in the living world and the world of the dead means that they’re a lot of characters to work with, but the ones of focus get their appropriate screen time and it also benefits from all of them just being so charming. Miguel is a good lead, Hector is wonderfully charming with great animation showing how his body contorts and unravels on occasion, Miguel’s relatives (both living and dead) are very well written to the point where they almost act as the opposing force for the film, yet aren’t even bad people, they just have a mindset that is strict and unmoving, but they are also incredibly friendly and loving, it makes the trope far less annoying and it works much better because of it, also helped out by great vocal performances from people like Alanna Ubach, Renée Victor and Ana Ofelia Murguia. Even the way the villain is handled is far more interesting than most surprise Disney villains have been in more recent years; it works within the established narrative and the manner in which certain actions are taken are uncomfortably real and cold with their results. Without giving anything away, a specific death scene is handled in such a quiet way that it is legitimately chilling in how it plays out (despite death being pretty prevalent in this film). Having an all Latino-based cast and crew really helps bring life to this environment and to this world they create for the film, it feels more natural, honest, and respectful to their original culture.

The movie already looked pretty fantastic from the trailers previously shown, but with Pixar having a habit of creating beautiful looking films, it needed something more to stand out, and this movie’s delivery of such splendid culture really helps bring this movie to life, along with some great 3D animation. The gentle, warm and homely palette of the living world works as wonderful contrast to the brightly toned and dramatically bright and lively area of the land of the dead, which is also fantastically designed, feeling like an (ironically) living environment with a ton of fun details and elements. It’s not drastically different from the living world, but it feels different. All the characters are very well detailed and constructed; from the skeletal remains of those no longer living still featuring distinctive aspects and facial expressions, to the tiniest details present on the living characters even down to the pours on the skin; it looks amazing and that’s even ignoring the splash of Mexican culture adding this great new coat of paint to an environment. The handling of the music for the film feels like a unique aspect of the film’s story all in itself because its arguably one of the most fantastic ways Disney has ever utilized it. This isn’t just from the score by the ever-impressive Michael Giacchino, but also song writing couple, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, who really help make the music come to life in a very impactful way. The movie isn’t a musical and doesn’t feature that spontaneous Broadway-type energy where they just start singing, instead it acts just like someone playing a song on the street; it feels more natural, yet it still feels integral to the movie, not just in what the songs represent, but also in how they use certain songs. The direction and journey that the song Remember Me takes in this movie is absolutely perfect; starting off as a large bombastic show-tune for the world to see against what it was originally intended for works so fantastically with the themes of the movie and provides a beautiful payoff.

Honestly, when really the only awful thing about this movie is that it had to content with movies like The Boss Baby and Ferdinand for Best Picture says something, because it stands that even by Pixar’s standards, this movie stands especially high as one of their best crowning achievements. Everything that should work for a great Pixar film is here; it has elements for kids and adults, it has the more grown-up environment and atmosphere, but still mixed in with the typical child-like enjoyments, its well-acted, the characters are incredibly likeable, its looks amazing, the songs are fantastic, it’s a timeless film that mixes in some amazing Mexican culture, what’s not to like. It has the workings of a classic and judging by how something like Soul took a similar approach to its own creation, its already being used as a tool to shape others stories, that’s the sign of a true gem. Definitely check this one out and see why this is going to be film worth remembering.