Pixar's Latest Triumph

Rating: Null/10 (20 February 2018)

When I went to see Disney Pixar's latest release 'Coco' I didn't really know what to expect. Some cute film about a boy who likes music but whose family don't, but learns through finding his dead ancestors that family values are important too? And without doing the film an injustice, this is essentially what it is about. But it is so well done that you forget the message is so simple. Pixar has garnered a reputation for making children's films with simple concepts, both interesting and engaging to adults as well as children. Right from his 1995 debut smash 'Toy Story', which is in essence a story about a kid's toys coming to life when he's not around, director/producer John Lasseter knew the last thing he wanted to do was insult the audience's intelligence, and turned a very childish concept into an incredibly entertaining, almost edgy comedy. 'Coco' is no exception to Pixar's rule of treating the audience as if they are adults (which, let's face it, a lot of them now are). The plot is fairly simple: A 12-year-old Mexican boy called Miguel loves music; he spends a lot of time in the Plaza where the musicians all play and his hero is an old 1930s musician and film star called Ernesto de la Cruz, who came from Miguel's home town, but his family despises music. His great-great grandfather had been a musician and had abandoned his wife and daughter to pursue a career in music, leading to his wife having to start up a shoe-making business in order to support them. She also banned music from ever entering her house again. Miguel's great-grandmother, Coco, the daughter of the musician, is still alive, but suffers from (implied) Alzheimer's. This is a brave move to make in a children's film, but it treats the subject as being part of ordinary family life, embracing both the tragedy and comedy of it, without dwelling on it too much, which I really like, and I think adds depth to the film. Miguel is a likable enough hero, but cleverly the film doesn't really focus too much on him, but more on the rest of the world, and especially the adults in his life, giving it a more mature feel. The movie really starts on the Mexican 'Day of the Dead', a festival that celebrates dead ancestors, when pictures of the departed are put up on a shrine and candles lighted around them. On this day, Miguel is told by a musician he is shining the shoes for in the Plaza, to take part in the 'Day of the Dead' talent show, taking place later that night, if he wants to perform. Miguel has never played in public before, however, and so is hesitant to take part. That is until his family find he has been spending time with musicians and ban him from ever going back again, instead telling him he needs to work in the family shoe-making business. When Miguel goes to visit the shrine to his ancestors he accidentally smashes the frame of a photograph depicting his great-great grandmother Imelda, her daughter Coco, and his great-great grandfather, whose head has been ripped from the photo. When he picks up the photo, he finds that a part had been folded back that shows his great-great grandfather is holding the famous guitar of Ernesto de la Cruz. Miguel then realises Ernesto de la Cruz must be his ancestor, and he is destined to be a musician. Miguel tells them he loves music and wants to play at the talent show, whereupon his grandmother finds his beloved guitar and smashes it. This is a pretty intense scene, as it goes from being about a boy rebelling against his well-meaning family, into revealing the almost militant defence of Imelda's memory by her family. Miguel runs off to the shrine of Ernesto de la Cruz where he attempts to borrow his famous guitar in order to play at the talent show. However, because he is stealing the property of a dead man he is transported into the Land of the Dead. Here he encounters his dead ancestors who are coming to visit their family, on the one day they are able to. He is taken to his great-great grandmother Imelda, as she is having difficulty getting across to the realm of the living, because Miguel accidentally knocked her photo off the shrine. It is revealed that the dead cannot cross over to the living world on the 'Day of the Dead' if no one puts their photo up. Miguel is told he will only be able to get back home if one of his dead family give him a blessing, but it must be done before sunrise or he will be stuck in the Land of the Dead forever. Imelda offers to give him the blessing but will only do so on the condition that he never plays music again, and if he does he will immediately be transported back. Miguel runs away from his dead family also, in order to get a blessing from Ernesto de la Cruz, who he knows will not include the condition of never being able to play music. He comes across a man called Héctor who says he used to play with de la Cruz and will help find him, as long as when Miguel gets home he will put up a photo of Héctor, enabling him to get to the land of the living, as no one ever puts his picture up. And so ensues the main adventure of the film in which Miguel learns to appreciate his family, both living and dead, but also his family learn to appreciate music. As I say though, it is all done without insulting anyone's intelligence, and a few rather amusing Frida Kahlo jokes. Interestingly, it is also a film that warns against hero- worship, whether it be Miguel's worship of his music idol, or his family's worship of Imelda who banned music, giving the impression that neither the child or the adults are in the right or the wrong, which makes the film more interesting. As I say, rather than the focus being solely Miguel, it concentrates on the adults in his life: especially his dead ancestors, giving them all a point of view. It shows the great-great grandmother's pain at being abandoned by her husband, and her resolve to never let music ruin her family again, without completely justifying the 'cult' that Miguel's family have become to her memory. And it of course has a villain, who manages to be a 'surprise' villain enough to satisfy Disney and Pixar's latest trend of not letting them be the centre of the conflict, without losing the ability to be a genuine threat; in fact the villain's actions are surprisingly dark for a children's film but without making them unrealistically evil. The only thing is that the plot-twist is a little bit too predictable, and for quite a bit of the film I was waiting for it to be revealed, so the story could move along, but there are other twists I didn't predict so that did keep me guessing, and stopped the story getting dull and obvious. If there's one thing I would have liked to have seen it's the edgy comedy that really put Pixar on the map, the type of cultural references and nudge-wink to the audience that appears in 'Toy Story' and 'Toy Story 2' and isn't really here. The comedy is definitely more Disney standard than Pixar, but it has some funny moments and it doesn't stop it from being a good film. It does have some of the incredibly heart-warming and moving moments that Pixar does so well though, much better than Disney, as we have seen in films like 'Up' and 'Toy Story 2', and it is a film full of heart. Another thing I loved was how rich it was in Mexican culture and setting, explaining the culture enough for unfamiliar audiences to understand it without spelling it out too much, and clogging up the story. Despite it being CGI, the Mexican setting is very beautiful, and the other thing I suppose is that because so much of it is set in the Land of the Dead we don't see as much of it as I would like, but I suppose that reflects Miguel's own desperation to get home, and the Land of the Dead is well animated too, although it isn't as aesthetically pleasing as the scenes set in the little Mexican town. The music is very pretty too, with some lovely Mexican influences, and although it isn't particularly memorable, it is very nice to listen to. All in all, 'Coco' is another Pixar triumph with an engaging storyline and very memorable and relatable characters.