“Coco” (2017)

Coco

Grade: B+

Coco is a heartwarming 2017 Pixar film that is fun, entertaining and dazzling to look at in every frame — a worthy effort that embodies the spirit of the studio’s heyday (seven long years ago). Authentic and magical, with a hefty serving of sugary, sweet sentimentalism.

Directing:

Inspired by Mexican folk art and occasional references to Frida Kahlo, director Lee Unkrich and his talented team of Disney animators bring a sense of wonderment to Coco, recreating the Día de los Muertos as a surreal Spirited Away-inspired odyssey filled with friendly (and not-so-friendly) skeletons coming back to life. The film is a colorful visual treat — one of the studio’s most painterly productions.

Acting:

I can’t help it if I think Anthony Gonzalez, who plays 12-year-old Miguel, has a cloying voice that gets on my nerves. It made me annoyed, and I apologize. Personal preferences aside, Coco benefits from a talented and playful ensemble that includes Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt and Edward James Olmos at their dramatic and comedic best. Bernal, in particular, is the heart and soul of the film.

Writing:

Adrian Molina and Matthew Aldrich’s screenplay is filled with invention — how many films can successfully combine supernatural existential themes with a social commentary about the dark side of the music business? Throw in a shocking yet satisfying plot twist, and you’ve got a hit. Coco has all the hallmarks of classic Pixar, with a fully inhabited cinematic world worth getting lost in and an internal logic that is both fun and authentic. The film sets its own rules and then plays by them, as all good stories should.

I do, however, wish Coco was a little bit funnier. Latter-day Pixar tends to break the rules it set back in 2003 with Monsters, Inc: comedy comes before drama. The filmmakers are now chasing tears, not laughs.

Music:

Composer Michael Giacchino previously won an Academy Award for his work on Up (2009), so it’s only right that he returns for Pixar’s first “musical.” The songs throughout Coco are catchy and authentic, and the voice actors do quite well with the material. “Remember Me” is the big emotional wallop at the end, but I’m partial to “Everyone Knows Juanita,” especially when sung at a skeleton’s deathbed.

Ending (SPOILERS):

I found the film’s ending — in which Miguel returns to the land of the living to reunite great-grandma Coco with the memory of her long-missing father Héctor — a tad too sentimental, as if director Unkrich was trying too hard to get the audience to cry. Even still, it’s a crowd-pleasing conclusion in which everyone lives happily ever after, which is necessary in a children’s film that deals with the nature of death so openly.

“Hey, it happens to everyone eventually.” – Héctor

Why Coco gets a B+

Not on the level of 2000s-era Pixar classics like Monster’s, Inc. (2001) and Ratatouille (2007), but still one of the animation studio’s most inventive films of the 2010s. A cute kiddie film with splendid visuals, like The Good Dinosaur (2015).

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