Pixar is back!

Rating: 10/10 (7 January 2018)

Coco is the latest from Pixar, starring Anthony Gonzalez, Gael Garcia Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Alanna Ubach and a string of many others, and is directed by Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina.
It tells the (in some ways familiar) story of Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez), whose family upbringing revolves heavily around shoe making, and the business of shoe sales being the career path of all family members and many generations. Miguel, however, dreams of being a musician and breaking out in the arts, much to the strict disapproval of his family. He looks up to his idol, legendary musician, Ernesto De La Cruz (Benjamin Bratt), playing the classical Mexican-infused sounds of the 30s and 40s. Along the way to achieving this dream, Miguel finds himself in The Land of the Dead, where he meets a series of deceased skeletal characters, such as Hector (Gale Garcia Bernal), Mama Imelda (Alanna Ubach) and Ernesto De La Cruz himself (Benjamin Bratt), all of whom were involved in Miguel's past and/or family in some way.
So this is a film where I deliberately don't want to give away too much of the plot and the twists and turns within, because there are some surprises thrown into this very tightly written screenplay, helmed by directors Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina and two others. Usually a bad sign when there's more than a few writing credits (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Coco succeeds for a number of reasons.
As mentioned, parts of the story will be familiar to many, but this is an example of when it's the details of the film that truly make it, as opposed to the overall general big picture. To quote Roger Ebert, "it's not about what it's about, it's about how it's about it". In common storytelling, there's only very few general story outlines we here from synopsis to synopsis, movie to movie, but it's the details and variations of those storylines that truly make a film. Examples are tone, pacing, dialogue, music, performance, world building, sound design, editing, themes and infinite other styles and subtexts. In the case of Coco, the pace and charm and wit and energy behind the, in theory, familiar storyline and themes are what makes it.
This truly is a wonderful, uplifting and entertaining piece by Pixar. The directions the story takes, as is the case with most original Pixar films, is complex and thematic. It deals with memory, death, dementia, passion, drive, family values, rebellion and more, while still remaining accessible and child friendly, unlike Inside Out, which I know is an unpopular opinion. But most of all Coco is damn fun! The colours simply explode and radiate, and the animation of the character, world, production design and environment is truly arresting and detailed, without feeling overloaded and bloated.
There's bits in the beginning that were reminding me of a less traumatising/horrifying, and more Disneyified Spirited Away, in a "innocent character suddenly finds themselves thrown into an unfamiliar parallel universe full of the macabre" kind of way.
I think my few flaws with the film are simply that it could've been a little funnier. All throughout there's fun slapstick, such as feral yet charming dog is so excited that it's drooping tongue wraps around its head, and skeletons being able to pull themselves apart and change body shapes etc, which would have been an animator's dream to create. I didn't find that there were memorable laugh out loud jokes, such as the sloths, or The Godfather throwback in Zootopia, or many other hilarious scenes you come away from gawking about from other Pixar works, such as Monsters Inc, the Toy Stories and The Incredibles. There's also things revolving around the story which I don't want to give away, but just very minor nitpicks surrounding tiny character decisions/reactions/motivations that perhaps don't quite click perfectly in place.
Overall Coco is a movie I could recommend to anyone and everyone over the age of 5, it's the most emotional I think I've ever been in a Pixar film, there's true beauty and charm behind it, the story and characters are all very engaging, the voice acting and singing/music is beautiful, particularly from the talents of Anthony Gonzalez, look out for him in the future. It's paced excellently, the 103 minutes fly by, and the songs are simply lovely.