Colorful, joy filled and heartwarming

Rating: 8/10 (12 March 2020)

"Coco" can be described as a celebration. It celebrates family, Mexican culture, and finding yourself. And it is a beautiful piece of animation. Animation and story wise. Lee Unkrich's Coco follows the 12-year old Miguel who dreams of becoming a musician against his entire family's will. When he arrives to the Land of the Dead, he meets his great-great grandfather and asks for his help. "Coco" is filled with warmth, and it is very emotional at times. Anthony Gonzales and Gael García Bernal, voicing Miguel and Héctor respectively, portrays the film's two main characters with a lot of heart and it's hard not to love the duo and their troublesome journey to find appreciation for each other. The inspiration for the film is, unsurprisingly, the Mexican tradition of Día de los Muertos, and the animation crew has done an incredible work in transitioning the traditional festivities and its atmosphere to the big screen. I would argue that "Coco" is the most brilliantly animated Pixar film to date. An issue I've had with computer animated films are their lack of originality in design and esthetics, when compared to traditional animation. But "Coco" brings you nothing but the best. With several unexpected twists and turns (I never thought Ernesto would NOT be Miguel's ancestor) in the overlaying wonderful story, spices up with a joyous soundtrack and astonishingly brilliant animation and visuals, "Coco" is a fantastic film for all ages.