Coco Review

Rating: 9/10 (23 April 2018)

Overview: If you enjoy family films, made up of stunning visuals, and a well written family friendly storyline; then Coco may be the movie for you. This film is based around the importance of family values and acceptance amongst your family and community. These factors can have an impact on a person's development. If you enjoy movies that are based around family traditions and culture, this is also a good movie to watch as you are immersed into a story that not only explains the Latino culture, but it also gives you many beautiful representations of what the people of this culture believe in.
Visuals: Personally, I rather enjoyed the film Coco. The artwork was very well done; the contrast of the light and dark, and the vibrant colors alongside the darker contrasting colors were very well done. Not only do the designs look beautiful, but the creators were able to emphasize specific scenes and objects by doing this. If you are a sucker for digital creations and animations like I am, then I would highly recommend this film for that factor alone. I found that when comparing the objects from the movies to the real world, they were able to catch its characteristics very thoroughly, and at a very professional level.
Storyline: When it comes to a films storyline, then it is important to include as much specific, and relevant information to the storyline. In order to contribute to the depth of the story's characters, and events taking place. Without these details being included, the story can be very confusing to those watching the movie. I'm going to be honest with you, I was in fact confused during many events taking place within Coco. However, I am able to conclude that this was just due to me not having much experience, and/or knowledge about the Latino culture beforehand. With doing more research on the Latino culture after watching Coco, I was able to learn that this movie is rather accurate in its family and cultural value aspects. With all of the amazing representations of the culture, I highly suggest it.
Family Values/Culture: Are you looking for a good family movie that expresses the great importance for family bonds and values? Do you want a movie about the importance of family elders and tradition that you're able to enjoy with your loved ones? If you answered yes to any of these, then Coco is the movie for you. Coco is expressed at a very large level to be based around family values, relationships, and cultural norms.
Most of the representations within Coco are accurate including the importance of dancing and music amongst families of the Latino culture. However, due to previous events that happened within the main character's family's past, dancing is forbidden. Miguel, who is the main character that the perspective of the story follows loves music and dancing. "Dancing is a very important part of their culture and everyone is expected to know how to and dance along with the family" (4 Culture) In the movie Coco, while this is true for everyone else around them, their family is excluded from this.
Something expressed within the movie was the great importance of elders. "Grandparents typically play a large role in the grandchildren's upbringing. This helps them learn important life lessons." (Latino) Miguel's grandmother is an excellent example of this because she proves to be, on many occasions, the head of the household. The only aspect of their culture that could really counter this would be the value of women within their culture. While women are an important role, "They are responsible for teaching Latino children culture and religion, and teaching them how to be responsible and to be able to care for their family along with the community." (Carteret) However, along with that, "Men are placed over women and given rights that are otherwise denied to women." (Clark) These two aspects are not well represented within the film. I would argue that they even represented the opposites of both of these.
While these can "...change depending on the area..." (Carteret) as Coco was not based in an outside country such as America, these aspects of the culture remain rather constant. In the past, "Women have had less authority, rights, and influence within the family and their culture within the original areas. However, this has often changed within other countries after migration." (Garcia) If you look at the movie through this perspective, it could very well be interpreted that Coco did not take place within Mexico, but there is no mention of this during the film. While we didn't get a very good look into the man or father of the household, typically the father "plays the role of respect and authority. The traditional view on manhood is strongly influenced by machismo... men should be strong, brave, and honorable, and they should also provide for their families." (Clark) This may be relevant or seen in one or two scenes, but for the most par the man's role within a Latino family is left out of the story. Which is still alright as there were so many other cultural representations throughout the film.
As a whole, "While Americans can be seen more as being "task-oriented," Latinos tend to be more focused on relationships. Family and community participation is very important to their culture." (Carteret) With this being said, the importance of gender roles in some areas have become less of a priority which can also be an example of why Coco could be considered very accurate even in this instance. It is very important to remember that within the Latino culture, family is the most important. Very often, "Family needs come before individual needs and this is evident in Latino's desire to center many activities around the extended family." (Ramirez) SPOILER: One of these examples is when Miguel's family finally decides that maybe music isn't so bad, and that he should be aloud to pursue it to his heart's desire. Within both the culture and Coco, the families "...take pride in their family values and worth." (4 Culture) This definitely shows the great importance of the culture, and how they strive to stay and work together.
Another important aspect within the culture that is greatly expressed throughout the film is the existence of extended families. "Extended families could be large as couples could have 10-12 children, even after the 70s, having five children was considered modern and a sign of contraceptive use. In addition to the children, at least two sets of grandparents and sometimes even more family members (children and spouses) lived within one household." (Garcia) This was largely represented within Coco because Miguel's family was so large consisting of all of the cultural expectations. All of the family members had roles to play within the family and this helped them not only work together for the family, but also their family business. Though, when watching the film we weren't able to get to know many of the family members as some of them had little to no lines, I am able to conclude that the presence of 'family comes before individual needs is very present. With so much representation of the culture and family values included within the film Coco, it is no doubt that this a movie worth watching.
Concluding Thoughts: For all of these reasons, I highly suggest that if you are looking for a good family movie, with many amazing visuals, a well developed storyline, along with the importance of family values and culture, that you give Coco a try, This movie has allowed me to immerse myself into the lives of a Latino family in a way that I don't need to know much about the culture before watching, which makes it an easy, yet enjoyable, movie to watch for all ages.