(Dir. Lee Unkrich 2017) PG, seriously take your entire family to go see this. It's heartwarming and everyone will love it, adults and kids. Coco tells the story of a young boy, Miguel, who wants to be a musician. This wouldn't be a problem, except his great great grandfather walked out on his family to become a famous musician, leaving behind his wife and child to fend for themselves. His great great grandmother learned how to make shoes to support her family and banned music, traditions their family still follows. This film does an amazing job illustrating the give and take relationship of a family. Fighting one's own desires with what their family wants and what is best for them. What I love about this film, and what Disney has been trying to focus on for a while, has been focusing on family love and relationships instead of romance. Though, Coco does a much better job at this than Frozen. I actually waited a day to write the review on Coco because the last time I saw a Disney movie in theaters I loved this much it was Frozen. Then after I left the theaters and spent a day thinking about it, Frozen was filled with so many plot holes that no charming snowman could save it. Then they overplayed that snowman and it slowly became the WORST part... Nevermind I shouldn't get into that now. So, basically I was being careful and making sure I wasn't just caught up in post-movie euphoria. Coco still holds up and is an amazing film that is worth having to sit through a nearly half-hour Frozen short for. All I have to say about the short is that if you need to use the bathroom or refill your popcorn, go ahead and go during it. It lasts so much longer than you think it can. The only thing I could complain about with Coco was that the plot was a little predictable. Then again I'm not sure if that's because I grew up in a family that has a game where we try to see who can guess the ending/plot twists of a movie first. Either way, I didn't even mind knowing what the twist was going to be. Honestly, at a certain point I think they want the viewer to guess what the plot twist is going to be, they drop so many hints about it. When you figure it out it builds up this beautiful dramatic irony where you want Miguel to figure it out so bad. Usually I hate being left in suspense and just want to jump into the film myself to fix the characters problems, because man I have enough stress in my daily life, but the story in Coco was so beautiful that I didn't mind. The animation in this movie was absolutely stunning. Disney has come under a lot of fire lately because a lot of their faces look the same now that they've switched to their new animation style, but this movie does not have that problem at all. There's so much variation and you know what I think I'm just going to have to add extra photos to this post. It's just so beautiful, and the colors when he enters the land of the dead are stunning. I recently listened to an interview with Lee Unkrich and you cantle this movie was very much a labor of love for him. I mean, it took about seven years to complete which is insane to me because I can't commit to anything for more than a day. I think it does justice to the traditions of Dia de Los Muertos, of course this being said by someone with no familiarity with it at all so my word probably doesn't mean much. However, Gael Garcia Bernal was in the film and helped out so I believe he was likely very helpful in keeping it true to Mexican culture and values. Also I just need to take a moment to talk about how much I love Gael Garcia Bernal. The first movie I saw him in was No (Dir. Pablo Larrain 2013), and it was absolutely fantastic. I recommend everyone see it, but keep in mind it is rated R. If you couldn't tell from my whole review, I love this film. I can't wait until it comes out on DVD so I can watch it again, or maybe I'll just go back to the theater. It's seriously that good.
1 Comment
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Aubrey KirchhoffI'm just screaming into the void and somehow getting graded on it. Archives
April 2018
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