♪♪ Remember me. ♪♪

Coco (2017)

8.8/10 on IMDb
97% on Rotten Tomatoes

Chloe's thoughts: Signed, sealed, and recommended by Chloe;
Watch it in cinemas;
I'm buying the DVD

Watch it if you: Are a fan of Pixar movies;
Disliked the last 3 Pixar movies and want to see Pixar doing good movies again;
Want a fun movie that kids would enjoy;
Want a deep and mature story that adults can also really enjoy;
Want to see some great colourful animation
Miguel comes from a long line of music-hating shoemakers, yet wishes he could pursue a life of music despite his family's prejudice. One day, he accidentally enters the Land of the Dead, where he must explore his familial roots before he can go back to the Land of the Living.

I saw a teaser trailer for this ages ago and then proceeded to forget what it was really about, but knew I wanted to watch it. Lately, though, I noticed there's hardly any marketing for this movie, I haven't even seen a single trailer for this when watching any movie in the cinemas, and sure that might be because I haven't seen any kids' movies, but I've seen some comedies and family-centred movies (like Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)), and still didn't see any trailers. I've also spoken to a few people who haven't even heard of this movie.

Having said that, I'm really sad that the marketing for this isn't that great, because it is a great movie! It's your typical Pixar movie with a heartwrenching story, great music and beautiful animation.

Before I start my review on this movie, I will mention two things that aren't about the actual movie:

1. I was at first annoyed there was no Pixar short film that played in front of this film, since there's always a short film played. But then I later read that apparently there was some 22 minute Frozen short revolving around Olaf (the most annoying character of Frozen tbh) which was so long and annoying that people kept complaining and all cinemas (across the world I think) ended up not playing it anymore. I'm super glad I didn't have to sit through a 22 minute Frozen short.
   
2. There's an animated movie called The Book of Life (2014) that apparently people were worried this movie would be too similar to, since they both deal with someone in Mexico entering the Land of the Dead. I haven't seen The Book of Life, but people who have seen both have stated that they aren't similar at all except for involving the Land of the Dead.
   

Okay, having said all that, the thing that took my breath away in this movie was its stunning animation. It's no news to us that Pixar is amazing, but seriously the animation here was beautiful, and managed to capture that wonderful essence of magic.

In fact, the Land of the Dead looked way more lively than the Land of the Living! The animation here is so vibrant and colourful, when you first see it, it honestly blows you away. One thing that I read online was that the Land of the Dead, which has cities being built on top of each other, start off with pyramids at the base, then colonial architecture, and then it continues all the way up until there are modern buildings, and it's still undergoing construction. It's such a cool concept!

And apparently Mexico and Mexican culture related to the Day of the Dead is represented really well in this film. It's so nice looking at other cultures in a Hollywood movie, and it's nice to not be getting crappy diversity movies just for the sake of having diversity movies. Here, the Mexican tradition is not just a setting, but it's a huge plot driver, and adds to the overall message of the movie as well.

And as to the message, there are so many feels here as well, typical of a Pixar movie. It's a great message for kids, and there is a plot twist here that I won't say too much about, but I really did not expect that plot twist at all. (Covering this as a spoiler because if someone knows it's unexpected, they might actually end up guessing the plot twist when watching the movie because in hindsight I guess it's not that unexpected.)

Lastly, the songs are not the best, but they are made really nice because of the lyrics in them, and because of the meaning and emotion behind the words.

Overall, this movie was really touching. It's great to see Pixar return to form with this after mediocres such as The Good Dinosaur (2015) and (oh dear) Cars 3. With this great story on family ties, Pixar is bringing back it's heartwrenching stories with beautiful animation that we all fell in love with. It's a great movie for kids but it's also very mature and deep, so it's enjoyable for adults as well.

A few (spoilery) side notes:

• Alzheimer's sucks yo!
  
• I didn't notice this before but Héctor has a gold tooth, and Ernesto's guitar also has a gold tooth coloured in on it