Coco
Coco is the latest offering from Disney Pixar and follows Miguel, a young Mexican boy as he tries to follow his dreams of becoming a famous musician. Now Pixars offerings over recent years have been up and down. You get the highs of Inside Out and then the lows of the Good Dinosaur and Cars 3 so the studio that was once a solid hitter has seen better days.
Speaking from a structural point of view, the first two thirds of this movie also fall victim to some of the more recent Pixar film flaws. Narratively speaking in the early parts of this movie it feels like the story is trying to hit too many themes of family, death, remembrance and doing what makes you happy. A lot of the first act feels like some severe pinball motions of being bashed around in the story whilst characters are being moved into place for the story to properly begin. Big moments in the story are based off of some reveals that to anyone who isn't a young child would spot instantly which left me almost shouting at the screen trying to tell the characters how to move the story along. I realise the main target audience is young children but the thing with Pixar movies in the past is that they are not only excellent children's films but also excellent films in general so I was left feeling a bit short changed for most of Coco's runtime.
However in the final act the movie chooses to home into the better themes of the movie thus far, death and remembrance, and delivers a real emotional gut punch of a finale. The song "Remember Me" is almost a sure fire winner for best song at the Oscars in a couple of weeks time.
Throughout its got to be said though that Coco has some of the most stunning visuals of any Pixar movie to date. It's realisation of the after-life is just beautiful and if that's what is waiting for us on the other side it serves to make death a lot less terrifying a thought.
In conclusion Coco gets off to a rough start, trying to hit way too many themes and the narrative structure of the opening two acts does leave you feeling like you've been bashed around a lot but Coco has some stunning visuals and over the course of its runtime it does home in on the right theme and delivers a satisfying and emotional ending.
Coco gets a B from me.
Speaking from a structural point of view, the first two thirds of this movie also fall victim to some of the more recent Pixar film flaws. Narratively speaking in the early parts of this movie it feels like the story is trying to hit too many themes of family, death, remembrance and doing what makes you happy. A lot of the first act feels like some severe pinball motions of being bashed around in the story whilst characters are being moved into place for the story to properly begin. Big moments in the story are based off of some reveals that to anyone who isn't a young child would spot instantly which left me almost shouting at the screen trying to tell the characters how to move the story along. I realise the main target audience is young children but the thing with Pixar movies in the past is that they are not only excellent children's films but also excellent films in general so I was left feeling a bit short changed for most of Coco's runtime.
However in the final act the movie chooses to home into the better themes of the movie thus far, death and remembrance, and delivers a real emotional gut punch of a finale. The song "Remember Me" is almost a sure fire winner for best song at the Oscars in a couple of weeks time.
Throughout its got to be said though that Coco has some of the most stunning visuals of any Pixar movie to date. It's realisation of the after-life is just beautiful and if that's what is waiting for us on the other side it serves to make death a lot less terrifying a thought.
In conclusion Coco gets off to a rough start, trying to hit way too many themes and the narrative structure of the opening two acts does leave you feeling like you've been bashed around a lot but Coco has some stunning visuals and over the course of its runtime it does home in on the right theme and delivers a satisfying and emotional ending.
Coco gets a B from me.
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