Review of Coco (2017) by Charlie P — 29 Mar 2018

Miguel Rivera (Anthony Gonzalez), is a young boy who has a deep passion for music, despite living with a shoe-making family that despises it for causing the husband of their most important ancestor, Mama Imelda (Alanna Ubach) to seemingly abandon his family. Miguel shortly discovers that the identity of his great-great grandfather could be the most famous musician in all Mexico, Ernesto De La Cruz (Benjamin Bratt) and through a series of events he ends up in the Land of the Dead on the night of Día de Muertos (The Day of the Dead) in which if he doesn't receive a blessing from one of his departed family members, he will end up dead himself. With Imelda and the rest of his departed family not willing to send him back unless he gives up music forever, Miguel is forced to team up with a smooth-talking skeleton named Hector (Gael García Bernal), to see if he can find Ernesto and convince him to send him back home...

Although Coco isn't the first mainstream animated film to focus on Mexico's famous holiday where families come together to remember and celebrate the lives of their deceased relatives with that honor going to 2014's underrated gem Book of Life, Lee Unkrich, seven years after his outstanding debut with Toy Story 3, brings both Mexico's traditions and folklore to breathtaking life with one of the most beautiful looking films in Pixar Animation Studio's library.

The Land of the Dead, while being a more modernized take on the Mexican afterlife when compared to Book of Life's fairy tale atmosphere, is stunning to look at, with the best examples being the outstanding character animation such as appealing skeletons with eyeballs and the shape-shifting alebrije creatures and the screenplays deep respect for Mexican culture which explains to audiences the importance of Mexican family traditions and the concepts of the most interesting aspects of the holiday such as ofrendas being vital for the deceased to visit the land of the living and the deep importance of being remembered.

It's true that this film does contain numerous tropes present in other Pixar films, with the most obvious examples being Ratatouille and Brave, But Coco's beautiful animation, impressive voice-acting that's surprisingly not overtaken by celebrity voices when compared to other mainstream animated films, its deep respect for Mexican culture, outstanding use of music and it's willingness to address death in a positive light like the best of Tim Burton's filmography, makes this, along with 2015's Inside Out, the strongest Pixar film of the 2010's.