Review- Coco

Coco is Pixar's newest film and hot damn, they are still fully on track. The setting is Mexico on the Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) and is about a young boy called Miguel who suddenly finds himself in the Land of the Dead. He has to receive a blessing from his family to return back to the mortal realm before sunrise or he will be stuck there forever. In doing so, Miguel finds himself with a skeleton called Hector who is at risk of being forgotten in the living world. The story isn't exactly going to make waves for revolutionising animated storytelling but it does what it wants to do well. Plus, there's one plot element that I thought I had called from the very first trailer but the film managed to subvert that in a way I didn't see coming at all so bravo for that.

Acting is always a little harder to talk about in animated films, especially one like this where most of the actors aren't big name celebs but essentially, all the vocal performances are fantastic, hitting all the right notes they need to. I think I'll start by focussing on the two actors who I'm familiar with. Playing the legendary Ernesto de la Cruz is Benjamin Bratt. He helps add depth to a character whose position in the movie is simply one of myth and I never heard his voice and thought of other characters he'd played. Of more interest to me is the great Gael Garcia Bernal, who is a major part of two of the three greatest Mexican movies ever made (those being Amores Perros and the astounding Y Tu Mama Tambien) and plays Hector, a skeleton in the land of the dead who just wants to be remembered one last time in order to return to the land of the living. His performance is full of compassion and I just love that dude so I'm delighted that he's in a movie this big. The most important performance though is that of Anthony Gonzalez, playing the lead boy Miguel. He injects a heart into his voice that is rather lovely and I am consistently impressed that Disney find such talented people at such a young age.

As an animated film, I have no choice to talk about the actual animation of this film, not that it's as much of a chore as I made it sound. From a technical perspective, I would say it's on a similar level to The Good Dinosaur from two years ago which was at almost photorealistic levels of animation. The difference with Coco though is that 1. It's a better film and 2. It uses that base of impressive technical achievement to craft a fictional world that is astonishingly beautiful. With every single long shot or establishing shot, I got shivers. Every single time. That animation helps create a world that, while fantastical, is still believable, allowing for an even deeper emotional connection. Speaking of, this is yet another Pixar film that packs an emotional punch. At first I wasn't expecting it to but the power snuck up on me and as I approached the end, a single tear rolled. I thought "huh, neat, the film really got to me" and about five minutes later I was weeping happy tears. I don't know how they did it but Coco just struck me hard to the core of my soul and tore me open. In a good way.

If you're a parent, you've probably already decided to take your kids to go see this film and I can tell you you're making an excellent choice. For everyone else though, Coco is still a film very much worth seeing. The animation is beautiful, the emotion is pure and every other aspect is a delight too. I can easily recommend Coco and will happily give it a