Coco
Dir: Lee Unkrich
2017
*****
Lee Unkrich had the idea behind Coco back in 2010 but it took him seven years to see it completed. Unfortunately for him, Jorge R. Gutierrez’s The Book Of Life came out in 2014 and once again, it looked as if Pixar was competing between other animation studios over the same story. How this seems to always happen is anyone’s guess, and I’m sorry to say that it was because of the similarities to The Book Of Life that I didn’t see Coco in the cinema. Once again, I missed out. I would love to see Coco on the big screen and for my money it is the most beautiful looking Pixar film to date. Unkrich had already made one the greatest animated films of all time (Toy Story 3) so I suppose it was no surprise that it would be good but in all honesty coco blew me away. Initially the film was to be about an American child, learning about his Mexican heritage, while dealing with the death of his mother. Thankfully Unkrich decided that this was the wrong approach and reformed the film to focus on a Mexican child instead. The Pixar team made several trips to Mexico to help define the characters and story of Coco. Unkrich said, "I'd seen it portrayed in folk art. It was something about the juxtaposition of skeletons with bright, festive colors that captured my imagination. It has led me down a winding path of discovery. And the more I learn about [el] Día de los Muertos, the more it affects me deeply." I feel this is apparent in the finished film. The story takes place in Santa Cecilia, Mexico, where 12-year-old Miguel dreams of being a musician, even though his family strictly forbids it. His great-great-grandmother Imelda was married to a man who left her and their 3-year-old daughter Coco to pursue a career in music, and when he never returned, Imelda banished music from her family's life and started a shoemaking business. Miguel now lives with the elderly Coco and their family, who are all shoemakers. He idolizes Ernesto de la Cruz, a famous musician, and secretly teaches himself to play guitar from Ernesto's old movies. On the Day of the Dead, Miguel accidentally damages the picture frame holding a photo of Coco with her parents on the family ofrenda and discovers a hidden section of the photograph showing his great-great-grandfather (whose face had been torn out) holding Ernesto's famous guitar. Concluding that Ernesto is his great-great-grandfather, Miguel leaves to enter a talent show for the Día de Los Muertos despite his family's objections. After his grandmother smashes his guitar, he breaks into Ernesto's mausoleum and takes his guitar that is hung over his grave to use in the show, but once he strums it, he becomes invisible to everyone in the village plaza. However, he can interact with his skeletal dead relatives who are visiting from the Land of the Dead for the holiday. Taking him back with them, they learn that Imelda cannot visit because Miguel removed her photo from the ofrenda. Miguel discovers that he is cursed for stealing from the dead, and must return to the Land of the Living before sunrise or he will become one of the dead; to do so, he must receive a blessing from a member of his family. Imelda offers Miguel a blessing, but on the condition that he abandon his musical pursuits. Miguel refuses and attempts to seek Ernesto's blessing instead. Miguel meets a character called Héctor who is trying to get to the land of the living but is continuously denied. Héctor, who claims to know Ernesto, offers to help Miguel reach him in return for Miguel taking his photo back with him, so that he might visit his daughter before she forgets him and he disappears completely. He helps Miguel enter a talent contest to win entry to Ernesto's mansion, but Miguel's family tracks him down, forcing him to flee. Miguel sneaks into the mansion, where Ernesto welcomes him as his descendant, but Héctor confronts them, again imploring Miguel to take his photo to the Land of the Living. Ernesto and Héctor renew an argument from their partnership in life, and Miguel realizes that when Héctor decided to leave the duo to return to his family, Ernesto killed him, then stole his guitar and songs, passing them off as his own to become famous. To protect his legacy, Ernesto seizes the photo, and has Miguel and Héctor thrown into a cenote pit. There, Miguel realizes that Héctor is his real great-great-grandfather, and that Coco is Héctor's daughter. Imelda and the family find and rescue the duo, and Miguel reveals the truth about Héctor's death. Imelda and Héctor gradually reconcile, and the family infiltrates Ernesto's sunrise concert to retrieve Héctor's photo. Ernesto's crimes are exposed to the audience, who jeer him as he is thrown out of the stadium and crushed by a giant bell, repeating the circumstances of his death, but the photo is lost. As the sun rises, Coco's life and memory are fading; Imelda and Héctor bless Miguel unconditionally so he can return to the Land of the Living. Miguel plays "Remember Me" – the song Héctor sung to Coco when she was young, and Coco brightens and sings along with Miguel, then gives him the torn-off piece of the family photo, which shows Héctor's face, and tells her family stories about her father, thus keeping his memory alive. Miguel's family reconciles with him and accepts music again. One year later, Miguel proudly presents the family ofrenda to his new baby sister, while Coco's letters from Héctor prove that Ernesto stole his songs, destroying Ernesto's legacy and causing Héctor to be rightfully honored in his place; Coco has since died, and her picture joins those of her family. In the Land of the Dead, Héctor and Imelda rekindle their romance and join Coco for a visit to the living, where Miguel sings and plays for his relatives, both living and dead. It is a truly heartwarming story although I’m astonished that Disney agreed to make a film that is essentially about death. It feels authentic too, which was also a relief. However, in 2013, Disney made a request to trademark the phrase "Día de los Muertos" for merchandising applications. This was met with huge criticism from the Mexican American community in the United States. More than 21,000 people signed a petition stating that the trademark was "cultural appropriation and exploitation at its worst.” A week later, Disney cancelled the attempt, with the official statement saying that the "trademark filing was intended to protect any title for our film and related activities. It has since been determined that the title of the film will change, and therefore we are withdrawing our trademark filing.” It is amazing to me how even a greedy company like Disney can still be so dumb and tasteless. Still, it is the film I love, not Disney executives. The voice work is superb, featuring Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Alanna Ubach, Renée Victor, Ana Ofelia Murguía, Cheech Marin and Edward James Olmos, with John Ratzenberger of course. I loved the story and the characters but the real magic was in the detail and the respectful exploration of the cultural tradition. I loved the inclusion of the Aztec marigold (known also as the Cempasúchil), the flower that is used in the tradition of Dia de Muertos in México to guide the deceased to the living. I loved the visualization of the spirit animals, especially the Xolo dog. In the movie the spirit of Frida Kahlo identifies Miguel's dog Dante as a Xolo (Xoloitzcuintli dog), which is a nice tribute to the real Frida. During the mid-20th century the Xolo breed began to decline in popularity. Frida and her husband, Diego Rivera, helped to save the breed by including the Xolo dog as part of their art. Thanks to Frida and Diego, the breed became known again to the world. It is these little details that really makes the film come alive and why I loved it from start to finish.