A heartwarming tale of family love and bonds beyond the gap of death

Rating: 8/10 (25 July 2018)

A young boy's desire to play music leads him to find out the secrets of his family's fractured ancestry in the most unlikely of places - the Land of the Dead.

Set during the Mexican Day of the Dead festivities, Coco sees a young boy, Miguel, travel to the Land of the Dead in what is easily Pixar's most visually vibrant film to date with bright set pieces in both the celebrating living and the surreal arrangement of buildings in the dead's realm.
The opening 10-15 minutes of near constant narration is the biggest issue in what is an otherwise immaculate film from Pixar. To introduce such a complex world and set of rules, exposition is the order of the day and Coco is slow to get moving. This was also the case with the opening of Inside Out but Wall-E managed to introduce a wholly different world with minimal effort. Once established, and 12-year-old Miguel is transported to the Land of the Dead, the film is nothing short of a joyful and emotional journey through a genuinely interesting story intrinsically linked to a culture which holds family and loved ones so dear.
As in many a Pixar caper, you can never quite predict when the emotional gut punches are going to hit - and believe me, there are more than a couple here - you only know it when you're in the middle of a scene and suddenly a tear rolls down your cheek (I dare you not to cry during the final scenes between the young Miguel and Mama Coco).

The story moves along at a slow pace to begin with but picks up once Miguel meets his skeletal relatives and goes at full whack through the final act before it takes its time to wrap up the loose ends and leave you with an incredibly satisfying tear running down your cheek (or else you're not human!). Likewise, in typical Pixar fashion, the twists and turns in the plot seem plainly obvious in hindsight but when it's moving at the pace that Coco does, you never get a chance to second guess what'll happen next.
It's arguably the studio's most controversial 100 minutes to date as well - not everyone was enamoured with the idea of introducing death to a young audience when the film was first announced. However, the message that's trying to get across is that no-one truly dies if they are remembered by those who loved them in life and cherish their memories in death. Just expect a few soul-searching and ancestral-based questions from your little ones in the days following them watching it.
To be this deliberately life-affirming but equally obsessed with death (even today, a bizarrely taboo topic of discussion) is a tricky high wire for any film to pull off. Coco, in no small way, nails it.

Best Quote: "You don't have to forgive him, but we shouldn't forget him!"