Coco - movie review

Coco

Plot: Aspiring musician Miguel, confronted with his family's ancestral ban on music, enters the Land of the Dead to find his great-great-grandfather, a legendary singer.
Cast: Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt
Director: Lee Unkrich
Certificate: PG (mild threat, violence)
Runtime: 1hr 45 mins
Release Date: Friday 19th January 2018

Pixar love to emotionally destroy their audience. I honestly think they get off on it. Up broke your heart within the first five minutes. Inside Out played with your emotions in a film literally focused on emotions. Monsters, Inc. always gets me at the end and Toy Story 3 never fails to have me bawling as the credits roll. However, it's in their most recent venture with Coco that I think Pixar have made their most heartfelt and emotional film to date. Set during Dia De Los Muertos, Coco follows young Miguel, an aspiring musician who is banned from playing music within his family but after being magically transported to the Land Of The Dead, Miguel must reconnect with his ancestors and keep his passion of music alive. So get out your Kleenex and start wiping away the tears because Coco is another slam dunk for Pixar.

Funnily enough, that's how I look when I spend too long in the bath.

Unorthodox though it may be, I'm going to discuss the negatives for Coco first so I can then focus on my overwhelming positivity. Coco is a very good film and proves that Pixar aren't selling out to the Cars franchise, but it does have a fair share of flaws that some might be overlooking. Is Coco one of Pixar's best? No, but with such a stacked repertoire, it's hard to always reach the top. Firstly, Pixar are renowned for their humour and how it can appeal to both kids and adults alike but Coco isn't as funny as previous Pixar films. There were a couple of good chortles from myself but most of the laughs resorted to a slight chuckle. Also, and if I'm being honest, I found the first two acts of Coco fairly basic and unoriginal in terms of the plot. The actual concept is highly original and that's what still make the film feel fresh and inventive but as you peel away the animation, Coco's plot is something we've seen before. It's the tale of someone having a passion for something he's not allowed to have and has to go on a journey to prove himself to others. Setting it in the Land Of The Dead is what gives Coco a special little spark but that didn't stop me knowing the motions the film was running through. My final negative is more addressed to the promotion of the film, particularly of how the film was billed. When Coco was first announced and whenever it would be spoken about in giant press conferences and conventions, Coco was going to be Pixar's first musical. Personally, I think that Coco isn't much of a musical but more of a film that contains music. It's really only until we get halfway through before it gives us our first major musical number and whilst Coco makes up for it with emotional storytelling, part of me was hoping for more music because when the songs hit, they are incredible. Those are however, my only negatives. The rest of Coco is a perfect embodiment of Pixar firing on all cylinders with the only flaws relating to a story that we've seen before and it not having as many musical numbers as I expected. Relating to my comments regarding the first two acts of Coco and how they play out in a very typical fashion, the final act of Coco is very different. The emotion is skyrocketed, tensions are raised and the stakes are at an all time high and the only reason the final act works so well are the connections we've formed with the characters. Miguel (voiced by an enigmatic Anthony Gonzalez), is an easily relatable protagonist due to his upbeat attitude and incredible desire that we have all shared at one point in our lives. He's an easy character to root for partly due to his well natured intentions but also because of the family surrounding him. One of the highest praises that I can give Coco was that it informed me about Mexican culture and their beliefs without every feeling like a history lesson. The exposition came very natural and surprised me at the level of detail and research that went into accurately depicting the Land of the Dead and the lore behind it.

This guy's got the right idea; grab the alcohol while you can.

FACT: When Miguel is walking down the streets at the beginning of the movie, you can spot piñatas of some Pixar characters: Buzz Lightyear, Woody and Mike Wazowski among others.

Music plays an integral part to Coco in more ways than one. Not only is it relevant to the plot of the story but the score and musical numbers are terrifically realised. Ever since seeing the film, I cannot get specific songs out of my head, one in particular that can still send shivers across my spine and start to fill my tear ducts. Speaking of tears, I alluded earlier in the review that Pixar have a knack of ripping out your heart and showing it to you on a silver platter. Coco is no different and as the final act dawned, some revelations were made and the emotion really hit a personal note for me, my tears would not stop flowing until I made a break for the toilets as the credits rolled. All I can say is Thank GOD that I saw this in 3D so I could use the glasses to mask the tears. Complex themes and conditions are discussed in Coco without ever labelling it as such which keeps the mystery aloof for the kids but for everyone else, certain events may hit a raw nerve. When one of my friends asked me how emotional Coco was, my exact response was to imagine the opening five minutes of Up and stretch that out to last half an hour. These emotional encounters, combined with the pulsating music, make Coco not a simple watch but a worthwhile one. If you're planning on taking the kids, just know that it doesn't necessarily sugarcoat a lot of difficult themes and you may be having some fairly morbid questions thrown your way on the journey home however, I feel like this is an important movie for people to see either to inform youngsters about passing away or introduce us to Mexican customs we did not understand. A pleasant surprise within Coco is the excellent voicework from the entire cast. Gonzalez leads the way but it's stars such as Benjamin Bratt and Gael García Bernal who make a significant impression in their respective roles. Coco also includes an interesting villain who makes some choices that are relatively dark for a Pixar film. This antagonist is not to be trifled with because when you're not batting an eyelid over murdering a child, that's when you've hit a level that there's no coming back from even if you are played by Sam Rockwell (see my Three Billboards review to understand that joke). And then of course, there's the element that we continually seem to be praising for each Pixar film; the animation. On a technical aspect, Coco is the best animated movie of the year (including films of 2017). When set in the real world in Mexico, the streets and surroundings look photo realistic. I could have sworn that Pixar shot the film in a real Mexican village and placed animated characters over the top. However, when the action transitions into the Land of the Dead, colour fills the screen and the world we're introduced to suggests that the title of 'Dead' is but a title only.

The headless guitarist strikes again.

God dammit Pixar. You always know how to tug my heartstrings. Personally, Coco deals with some themes that I can relate to. The notion of loving family is something I hold dear to my heart and to see it represented beautifully on screen fills me with joy. It does have some narrative flaws that I can't overlook and didn't quite deliver on the quantity of a musical I was hoping for but as the phrase suggests; sometimes it's more about quality over quantity. Coco is quality defined.

My Verdict: 8.5/10

What did you think of Coco? What Pixar movie made you cry the most? Sound off in the comments below.

If you like what you've seen here don't forget to share this with everyone you know, comment below and check out my other reviews. Thanks for reading!!

Follow the official Luke's Reviews Facebook page: fb.me/LukeStapley26
Follow me on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/LukeStapley1