Near classic Pixar with terrific music and a deep and moving message on memory

Rating: 9/10 (1 December 2017)

Coco is a very, very good movie that earns its heart about two-thirds of the way in - a little later than one may be used to given this is the director of Up - and has imagination pouring in every little mark of animation and detail. It's also the rare movie by this studio to be an animated musical, of a sort, and it is ingrained in the DNA of the thing- I thought it would be about something as simple (and still important) as music. That would have been enough. I got more than that, chiefly an inquiry through drama about what memory means in existential terms. Yeah, I didn't expect that quite either, but then again it IS the land of the dead we're dealing with here.
It is one thing to think deeply about what a life means and the death that everyone faces. The real terror is not having anything beyond this plane of existence; this world of the undead skeletons snd spirit animals is comforting ultimately since, naturally, there is a place after we die that we can reunite with others and be merry and so on. But what if you are gone and... That is it? Mexican culture (and this goes for other cultures too) has another idea about the afterlife, hence the Day of the Dead (Dios lis muertos), than we typically think of. But functionally it is this version of heaven that is a bit, uh, funkier, cooler, more colorful, less uh... White.
The main conflict is deceptive here. I think what keeps it from full greatness for me is that Miguel is a bit too typical of one of these animated characters, or just in any of these "I wanna do this with my life" "No you can't! Family!" "Bah! No!" Etc stories. Just this past summer the underrated Patti Cakes had that basic premise in gritty rap. This also has to include, as these stories do, the old "dont meet your heroes" maxim, in this case with Ernesto De La Cruz, the Mexican equivalent of an Elvis. So while one might think this is where the movie will be going, what throws the plot an excellent monkey wrench is Hector, a gangly undead guy who comes on like he'll be another in a long line of helpful but, again, conventional comedic side kicks (this world's Genie).
The power of Coco, past its inspired look and immersive world and its solid aims at humor (ie the wonderful surrealistic scene where the female assistant to De La Cruz makes her Dali-style sets), is that Hector, not Miguel, is the heart of the movie. It should be too jammed full of revelations by the end of the second act (and like other Pixae, this *is* very 3-act structure, and thats fine, they know how to do it well), maybe taking its cues slightly from Telenovelas for dramatic emphasis. But without revealing too much, as you should go in knowing little story reveal wise as pissible, Hector emphasizes the main song of the movie, "Remember Me," and it makes a profound point. Memory is for the living after all - why have a cemetery at all or a memorial like done every Day of the Dead otherwise - and it's another one of those times like Inside Out where a characters existence carries total, paramount importance.
Oh, and if you don't cry (as my wife did), you'll smile, genuinely, from the commitment to its emotional outreach. Coco isn't in my top grouping of Pixar films but it's only due to a minor feeling of familiarity. Its strengths are no less though than classic Pixar: amazing and deeply- drawn characters, unforgettable designs, and that is about something at a time when a lot of animation storytellers think having characters dance and tart is enough. This wants you to laugh and cry and sometimes be genuinely surprised, and if you buy the soundtrack that's icing on the cake.