Fantastical

Rating: 9/10 (23 April 2018)

The film Coco, a powerful movie made by Pixar about Latino culture specifically celebrating the Day of the Dead or Dia de los Muertos. In this review I will be comparing the traditions for the Day of the Dead shown in the movie, to real life traditions for the holiday.
When you start up the film, on of the first things that you are given information on is the ofrenda. It is explained to be an altar for the deceased of your family. In the film it is shown with all the pictures of the dead, flowers, candles, drinks and food placed around it. Compared to real life, this is very accurate. Based off what I found, ofrendas are usually accompanied by the dead members' favorite food/drink, their picture, candles and flowers called marigolds(Trecker, Jamie). Another common tradition is the use of wearing handmade masks to honor the dead(Trecker, Jamie). This however, is not found in the film. None of the living characters seem to wearing any masks at all. The main character at one point does end up having a "mask" from makeup, but that's the only time we see this tradition in the film. Early on in the film, during the evening of the Day of the Dead, we see a bunch of families and people going to the local cemetery to put up things for the dead when they visit in order to please and honor them. This is a very common tradition for the Day of the Dead in real life. People visit the dead's graves to lay things like their favorite food/drink(Epifanio Cortes Cedillo). The previous mentioned marigolds, are a strong symbol throughout the whole movie. In real life, the marigold is laid out for the dead in order to lead/guide them to their families home, and to the living world(Nutini, Hugo G). This is shown very strong in the movie as there is a scene where the main character runs from his home to the cemetery, and the whole way is followed by marigold pedals, so their family's deceased can find the way home. The marigold pedals are also shown as bridges for the dead to get from the land of the dead to the land of the living.
All in all, Coco is an excellent movie that represents the Day of the Dead's traditions very well, with very accurate representations of everything. Based of of how it compares to real life.