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Coco: A Movie Review
The latest Pixar/Disney film is Coco, which tells the story of a boy who, on the Mexican Day of the Dead, accidentally transports himself in the world of the dead. He then must find his way home, encountering and working with his departed family to get back before sunrise, when he would find himself permanently trapped.
If you have seen the previews, then you should already be prepared for the quirky and colorful animation to come. I must confess that I had my doubts before seeing the movie, fearing that the animated skeletons would be little more than fodder for cheap gimmicks and gags, but the story rises far above that, using the animation merely as the vehicle through which a deeper story is told.
The film is very touching, even for a Pixar release, and I should warn you that there were many eyes that were far from dry by the end (including my own). Yes, this is a family film in the sense that the story is safe for children of all ages, but the story itself runs far deeper.
Some mild spoilers follow:
Miguel, the protagonist of the story, is the youngest scion of a family of shoemakers, and the family has had a generations-long prohibition on music of any form in their households. It seems Miguel’s great-great-grandfather, himself a talented musician, walked out on his wife and young daughter to seek fame and fortune, and he never returned. His wife, the family matriarch, in her grief, imposed the prohibition and turned her family’s efforts towards the making of shoes.
Though long-departed by the time of the movie, her prohibition is still rigorously enforced by her grand-daughter, who now rules the clan. Her mother, the eponymous Coco, the daughter Imelda, and the mystery musician (whose very face is torn from the family photos), is still alive, but quite senile and quiet now.
Miguel has inherited his great-grandfather’s love of music, though, and has secretly been making his own guitar and learning the songs of the village’s most famous musician — Ernesto De La Cruz, whose tomb and shrine are prominently featured in the town.
The film opens on the Day of the Dead, the one day of the year where the departed may cross back over into the land of the living and see their living families. The town is having a musical competition that evening in the square, while families everywhere are preparing shrines of their ancestors, to assist them in crossing back.
Miguel tries to sneak out of the house with his guitar, but accidentally dislodges Imelda’s photograph, in which he finds a clue that his missing ancestor may indeed be the famous Ernesto. When his grandmother smashes his guitar, Miguel breaks into Ernesto’s shrine to steal what he believes to be his great-great grandfather’s guitar, and his strumming of that guitar transports him into the spiritual world.
Here, in his panic, he is found by his departed family members, and they bring him back to the city of the dead as they do not know otherwise how to help him. Here he meets the formidable Imelda and learns that he requires her blessing to send him back home. She will only grant this blessing if he swears off music. As he cannot abide this, he runs off to find Ernesto and seek his blessing instead.
From here, the story takes Miguel, with the help of a pranksterish stranger, and a daft dog who somehow tagged along from the land of the living, on a quest to meet his idol in the teeming city of the dead. Along the way, he must prove to Imelda and himself that his love of music is legitimate and appropriate, and here too he learns that Coco holds the key to unraveling why his great-great-grandfather left in the first place, and why he never returned. I’ll not spoil it any further than that.
Suffice it to say that my family very much enjoyed the film, and many were the moistened eyes at the end, for it does indeed have a happy, and moreover, a satisfactory ending.
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Published in Entertainment
Just got back from seeing it — wonderful movie! The entire family loved it.
Hmm… I’ve got a 2 1/2 year old, we might try it…
It does look interesting. There was a movie out from another studio not too long ago, The Book of Life. It had a somewhat related theme.
My kids have seen that one, though I have not. I will ask them about it.
That looks terrible, Arahant. Demoted to count of cats, & that’s more than you deserve!
Whoever wrote that dialogue deserves oblivion.
Skip & tericristoph are right–this is a family is the most important thing there is movie. Also, it’s true that people will start crying–well, end up crying. Go see it.
It’s full of things worth considering the considering of which would tend to spoil surprises for people…
Which looks terrible? Coco? or The Book of Life? Why am I being blamed for either? I did not write or have any hand in the production of either. I merely brought up that there was a movie of similar theme recently.
The dialogue in the trailer for the movie you linked–it’s worth a whipping-
Well, I didn’t write it. I was merely bringing up the similar theme. I did not give any value judgments about the movie. Go whip the scriptwriters.
I was actually thinking of this one by Voltaire:
That was a beautiful and beautifully written review, my friend.
My family enjoyed Coco as well. I’d put it in the second rank of Pixar films. It pulls off an unexpected storyline in the fashion of Ratatouille, Up or WALL-E, but isn’t as tightly paced as those films (or my favorite Pixar film, The Incredibles). Coco would have been even better if it was 10 minutes shorter – those extra minutes were spent interminably ratcheting the pathos beyond reasonable levels, which detracted from, rather than enhanced, the catharsis of a happy ending. Don’t get me wrong, it’s worth seeing, but it isn’t quite Pixar at its best.