Psycho's Movie Reviews #248: Coco (2017)

Coco is a 2017 American computer-animated fantasy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Based on an original idea by Lee Unkrich, it is directed by him and co-directed by Adrian Molina. The film's voice cast stars Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Alanna Ubach, Renée Victor, Ana Ofelia Murguía and Edward James Olmos. The story follows a 12-year-old boy named Miguel who is accidentally transported to the Land of the Dead, where he seeks the help of his deceased musician great-great-grandfather to return him to his family among the living and to reverse his family's ban on music.

The concept for Coco is inspired by the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead. The film was scripted by Molina and Matthew Aldrich from a story by Unkrich, Jason Katz, Aldrich, and Molina. Pixar began developing the animation in 2016; Unkrich and some of the film's crew visited Mexico for research. Composer Michael Giacchino, who had worked on prior Pixar animated features, composed the score. With a cost of $175–225 million, Coco is the first film with a nine-figure budget to feature an all-Latino principal cast.

Coco premiered on October 20, 2017, during the Morelia International Film Festival in Morelia, Mexico. It was theatrically released in Mexico the following week, the weekend before Día de Muertos, and in the United States on November 22, 2017. The film was praised for its animation, voice acting, music, visuals, emotional story, and respect for Mexican culture. It grossed over $807 million worldwide, becoming the 16th highest-grossing animated film ever at the time of its release. Recipient of several accolades, Coco was chosen by the National Board of Review as the Best Animated Film of 2017. The film won two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song ("Remember Me"). It also won Best Animated Film at the BAFTA Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Critic's Choice Movie Awards, and Annie Awards.

Plot

In Santa Cecilia, Mexico, Miguel dreams of becoming a musician, even though his family strictly forbids it. His great-great-grandmother Imelda was married to a man who left her and their daughter Coco to pursue a career in music, and when he never returned, Imelda banished music from her family's life before starting a shoemaking business.

Miguel now lives with the elderly Coco and their family, including Miguel's parents and his abuelita, who are all shoemakers. He secretly idolizes Ernesto de la Cruz, a famous musician who died decades earlier, and teaches himself to play guitar from Ernesto's old films. On the Day of the Dead, Miguel accidentally damages the picture frame that holds a photo of Coco with her mother on the family ofrenda, discovering that a hidden section of the photograph shows his great-great-grandfather holding Ernesto's famous guitar. Concluding that Ernesto is his great-great-grandfather, an inspired Miguel leaves to enter a talent show for Day of the Dead despite his family's objections.

Breaking into Ernesto's mausoleum, Miguel takes his guitar 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, since Miguel accidentally 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 on the condition he end his dream of becoming a musician, but Miguel refuses and resolves to seek Ernesto's blessing instead. He meets Héctor, who declares that he knows Ernesto, offering to help him reach him in return for Miguel taking his photo back with him, so that he might visit his daughter before she forgets him, causing him to disappear completely. Héctor helps Miguel enter a talent competition 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 poisoned him, then stole his guitar along with his songs, passing them off as his own to become famous. To protect his legacy, Ernesto seizes the photo and has his security guards throw Miguel and Héctor into a cenote pit. There, Miguel realizes that Héctor is his real great-great-grandfather, and that Coco is Héctor's daughter.

After Imelda and the family rescue the duo, Miguel reveals the truth about Héctor's death. Imelda and Héctor reconcile, and the family infiltrates Ernesto's concert to retrieve Héctor's photo. Ernesto's crimes are exposed to the audience, who jeer at him as he is thrown out of the stadium, then crushed by a giant bell in the same manner that he originally died. In the chaos, however, Héctor's photograph is lost. As the sun rises, Coco's life and memory are fading; Imelda and Héctor bless Miguel, so that he can return to the Land of the Living. After Miguel plays "Remember Me", Coco brightens and sings along with Miguel. She reveals that she had saved the torn-off piece of the family photo with Héctor's face on it, then tells her family stories about her father, thus saving his memory as well as his existence in the Land of the Dead. Miguel's family reconciles with him, ending the ban on music.

One year later, Miguel presents the family ofrenda (which now includes the deceased Coco) to his new baby sister Socorro. Coco's collected letters from Héctor prove that Ernesto stole his songs, destroying Ernesto's legacy and allowing Héctor to be rightfully honored in his place. In the Land of the Dead, Héctor and Imelda rekindle their romance, joining Coco for a visit to the living, where Miguel in a mariachi attire disguise sings and plays for his relatives, both living and dead.

Production

Development

Lee Unkrich first pitched an idea for the film in 2010, when Toy Story 3, which he also directed, was released. Initially the film was to be about an American child, learning about his Mexican heritage, while dealing with the death of his mother. Eventually, the team decided that this was the wrong approach and reformed the film to focus on a Mexican child instead. Of the original version, Unkrich noted that it "reflected the fact that none of us at the time were from Mexico." The fact that the film depicted "a real culture" caused anxiety for Unkrich, who "felt an enormous responsibility on his shoulders to do it right."

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 colours 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." The team found it difficult working with skeletal creatures, as they lacked any muscular system, and as such had to be animated differently from their human counterparts. Coco also took inspiration from Hayao Miyazaki's anime films Spirited Away (2001) and Howl's Moving Castle (2004) as well as the action film John Wick (2014).

In 2013, Disney made a request to trademark the phrase "Día de los Muertos" for merchandising applications. This was met with criticism from the Mexican American community in the United States. Lalo Alcaraz, a Mexican-American cartoonist, drew a film poster titled Muerto Mouse, depicting a skeletal Godzilla-sized Mickey Mouse with the byline "It's coming to trademark your cultura." More than 21,000 people signed a petition on Change.org 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." In 2015, Pixar hired Alcaraz to consult on the film, joining playwright Octavio Solis and former CEO of the Mexican Heritage Corp. Marcela Davison Aviles, to form a cultural consultant group.

Story

Unkrich found writing the script "the toughest nut to crack". Earlier versions of the film had different universe rules regarding how Miguel (originally called Marco) would get back from the land of the dead; in one case he physically had to run across the bridge. In one version of the story, his family is cursed with singing when trying to speak, which was included as a technique to add music to a story where music is banned.

Casting

Coco is the first motion picture with a nine-figure budget to feature an all-Latino cast, with a cost of $175–200 million. Gonzalez first auditioned for the role of Miguel when he was nine and was finalized in the role two years later. Speaking of his character, Gonzalez said: "Miguel and I both know the importance of following our dream and we know the importance of following our tradition, so that's something that I connected with Miguel a lot". During the film's pre-production, Miguel was originally set to be voiced by a child named Emilio Fuentes, who was removed from the role after his voice deepened due to puberty over the course of the film's production.

In 2016, the Coco team made an official announcement about the cast, which revealed that Gael Garcia Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Renée Victor, and Anthony Gonzalez would voice the characters. Bratt, who voiced De la Cruz, was "moved" when he realized that Disney-Pixar wanted to make a film on Latin culture. Disney officials closely monitored Bernal's movements and expressions while he voiced the characters and used their input for animating Héctor.

Bratt voiced Ernesto De la Cruz, a character who he described as "the Mexican Frank Sinatra"; "a larger than life persona". On the advice of the filmmakers, Bratt watched videos of equivalent Mexican actors including Jorge Negrete and Pedro Infante. Bratt found the character similar to his father in physical appearance, "swagger and confidence", and worked in the film as a tribute to him. The character Mama Imelda's voice was provided by Alanna Ubach. Ubach felt that the film "is giving respect to one quality that all Latin families across the universe do have in common, and that is giving respect and prioritizing the importance of family". Mama Imelda's voice was influenced by Ubach's tía Flora, who was a "profound influence in her life". Ubach felt her tía was the family's matriarch, and dedicated the film to her tía.

A cameo appearance was made by Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D actress Natalia Cordova-Buckley as Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Unkrich stated that Cordova-Buckley's "role in Coco pays homage to Ms. Kahlo, her work and the people of Mexico who love her". Unkrich also stated that it was a struggle to find a role in the film for John Ratzenberger, who is not Latino but had voiced a character in every Pixar film. As Unkrich did not want to break Pixar's tradition, Ratzenberger was given a minor role with one word.

Animation

On April 13, 2016, Unkrich announced that they had begun work on the animation. The film's writer, Adrian Molina, was promoted to co-director in late 2016. Unkrich said that Pixar wanted "to have as much contrast between" the Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead and that many techniques were used to differentiate the worlds. Colour was one: "Given the holiday and the iconography, Pixar knew the Land of the Dead had to be a visually vibrant and colourful place, so they deliberately designed Santa Cecilia to be more muted" said Unkrich.

According to Harley Jessup, the film's production designer, Santa Cecilia is based on real Mexican villages, as the production team "stayed grounded in reality in the Land of the Living". Chris Bernardi, the film's set supervisor, said that the town was made small so Miguel could feel confined. Bert Berry, the film's art director, said that aged building materials were used to depict Santa Cecilia "as an older charming city". According to Unkrich, Miguel's guitar playing is authentic, as they "videotaped musicians playing each song or melody and strapped GoPros on their guitars" to use as a reference. For the scene in which Miguel plays music in his secret hideout, the filmmakers used "very elegant, lyrical camera moves" and "gentle drifts and slow arcing moves around Miguel as he plays his guitar with very shallow depth of field to enhance the beauty of the soft-focus foreground candles".

Christian Hoffman, the film's character supervisor, said that all of the details in Mama Coco's face were not modelled. Instead, his team used special software to design separate layers of detail, which were then added to her face with a shader. The character's model was made with higher resolution to get all the wrinkles right, according to Hoffman. Pixar used some Xolo dogs to use as reference for the character Dante, while a tentacle from Finding Dory's Hank was used for his tongue.

Jessup called the Marigold petal bridge that connects both worlds "elegant and magical". Michael K. O'Brien, the film's effects supervisor, called it "a huge technical challenge" for the animation team, but referred to it as something "so visually exciting with petals dripping from it; it was a massive artistic undertaking. The production team wanted it to glow — to feel alive". The scenes in which Miguel takes a few petals off of the bridge and in which Hector sinks into the bridge were given more effects and special art direction.

For the Land of the Dead, Unkrich did not want "to have just a free-for-all, wacky world", wanting instead to add logic and be "ever-expanding because new residents would arrive regularly". Jessup said that the animation team wanted the Land of the Dead "to be a vibrant explosion of colour" when Miguel arrives. Jessup also said that "Lee Unkrich described a vertical world of towers, contrasting with the flatness of Santa Cecilia. The lights and reflections are dazzling and there's a crazy transportation system that connects it all. The costume colours are much more vibrant than in the Land of the Living, where the animation team tried to stay grounded in reality. They really went all out in the Land of the Dead to make it a reflection of the holiday". According to David Ryu, the film's supervising technical director, the animation team "figured out a way to introduce a single light — but give it a million points" for the scenes on the outside in the Land of the Dead: "The renderer sees it as one light, but we see a million lights".

According to art director Daniel Arraiga, the animators "had to figure out how to give the skeletons personality without skin, muscles, noses or even lips" and that they "played with shapes and did a lot of paintings. They sculpted and studied skulls from every angle to figure out where they could add appeal and charm". Global technology supervisor J.D. Northrup was hired early in the film's production in order to avoid potential issues in the film's animation process. Northrup said that "Each of the skeletons' pieces had to be independent so the complexity of the rig and the stress that it puts on the pipeline were something like we've never seen before." Northrup was also tasked with simplifying the skeleton's elements to render the skeleton crowds. In order to create the skeletons, several additional controls were used, as they "needed to move in ways that humans don't," according to character modelling and articulation lead Michael Honse. Honse said that the bones were a particular problem, stating that "there was a lot of back-and-forth with animation to get it right," but found "really cool ways" to move the skeletons.

Music and Soundtrack

The film's score was composed by Michael Giacchino. Germaine Franco, Adrian Molina, Robert Lopez, and Kristen Anderson-Lopez wrote the songs. Recording for the score began on August 14, 2017. The score was released on November 10, 2017.

Originally, the film was meant to be a "break-into-song" musical. Lopez and Anderson-Lopez had written many more songs for the film than what ended up in the released version; one piece that survived in storyboard until late into the production was an expository song that explained the Mexican holiday to viewers to begin the film. In another song, Miguel's mother explains the tradition of shoe-making in their family, and how this means he is not allowed to pursue music. Plans for the film to be a full musical film were scrapped following early test screenings.

Following the 90th Academy Awards ceremony, where "Remember Me" won the award for Best Original Song, the album broke the top 40 on the Billboard 200 charts, jumping from 120 to 39, where it peaked before dropping to 64. In the week of March 8, the Miguel version of "Remember Me" gained 1.58 million plays via online streaming, according to the Nielsen Music.

All music is composed by Michael Giacchino.

Release/Reception/Box Office

Coco was released in Mexico on October 27, 2017, the weekend before Día de los Muertos. The film was released in the United States on November 22, 2017, in 3D, during the Thanksgiving weekend, and three weeks after Día de los Muertos, and in the United Kingdom on January 19, 2018. The film was released in a crowded market, preceded by Thor: Ragnarok, Justice League and another animated film, The Star, and followed by Star Wars: The Last Jedi and another animated film, Ferdinand, three weeks after Thanksgiving. It is one of the three Disney film productions being released in the November–December corridor.

Coco was accompanied in theatres by Walt Disney Animation Studios' 21-minute featurette Olaf's Frozen Adventure as a limited time offering, featuring the characters from Frozen, making Coco the first Pixar film not to be accompanied by a Pixar short in theatres since their first film, Toy Story, in 1995. The film also has its own VR game, being Pixar's first VR development.

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97% based on 351 reviews, with an average rating of 8.30/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Coco's rich visual pleasures are matched by a thoughtful narrative that takes a family-friendly—and deeply affecting—approach to questions of culture, family, life, and death." It was the site's highest-rated animated film and ninth highest-rated wide release of 2017. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100, based on 48 critics, indicating "universal acclaim." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale, one of fewer than 90 films in the history of the service to receive such a score; it was also the sixth Pixar film to earn the rating – the previous being Up in 2009. It also earned a 95% positive score, including a rare five-out-of-five rating, from filmgoers on PostTrak, along with a 76% "definite recommend".

Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter said, "At every imaginative juncture, the filmmakers (the screenplay is credited to Pixar veteran Molina and Matthew Aldrich) create a richly woven tapestry of comprehensively researched storytelling, fully dimensional characters, clever touches both tender and amusingly macabre, and vivid, beautifully textured visuals." Robert Abele of TheWrap praised the film, saying: "If an animated movie is going to offer children a way to process death, it's hard to envision a more spirited, touching and breezily entertaining example than Coco." In his review for Variety, Peter Debruge wrote, "In any case, it works: Coco's creators clearly had the perfect ending in mind before they'd nailed down all the other details, and though the movie drags in places, and features a few too many childish gags... the story's sincere emotional resolution earns the sobs it's sure to inspire." Debruge also described the film as "An effective yet hardly exceptional addition to the Pixar oeuvre." Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film four out of four, writing that "There's a touch of Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki in the film's matter-of-fact depiction of the dead interacting with the living, as well as its portrayal of certain creatures" such as Dante and Pepita. He concluded his review by stating, "I had some minor quibbles about Coco while I was watching it, but I can't remember what they were. This film is a classic."

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone rated the film 3.5 out of four, calling it a "loving tribute to Mexican culture", while praising the animation, vocal performances (particularly of Gonzalez, García Bernal, and Bratt), and its emotional and thematic tone and depth. The Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips called the film "vividly good, beautifully animated", praising Giacchino's musical score and the songs, as well drawing a comparison to the emotional tone of Inside Out. A. O. Scott of The New York Times praised the film as "a time-tested tune with captivating originality and flair, and with roving, playful pop-culture erudition", and called the film's cultural vibe "inclusive" and "a 21st-century Disney hallmark". Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times found the film to be "full of life" and deemed it "a bouncy and heart-tugging adventure", while lauding the vocal performances as "fantastic" and "first-rate". Brian Truitt of USA Today described the film as "effervescent, clever and thoughtful," calling it one of "Pixar's most gorgeously animated outings", and "the most musical Pixar film, with a host of catchy tunes". Stephen Whitty of the Newark Star-Ledger wrote that the backgrounds "have a vibrancy, and its atmosphere carries a warmth. And even after it's done, both linger, just a bit—like a perfectly struck guitar chord".

Coco grossed $210.5million in the United States and Canada, and $597.4million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $807.8million.

Budget $175–225million

Box office $807.8million

My Review

Have always loved Pixar, and really like to love most of their films (all three 'Cars' films and 'The Good Dinosaur' are my least favourites, and although the second 'Cars' had a lot of problems for me the third one is the only less than average one).

As for favourites, they are all three 'Toy Story' films, 'Inside Out' and 'Up', love 'Wall-E' and 'Finding Nemo' as well. After seeing 'Coco' yesterday, hearing nothing but great things about it and seeing the near-universal critical acclaim, from personal opinion (and many others it seems) it is right up there with the Pixar masterpieces. Would go as far to say it is easily their best since 'Inside Out', which is saying a lot since the films between that and this were lesser Pixar efforts (enjoyed 'Finding Dory' though, though it is a long way from being one of Pixar's best).

'Coco' is one of the longest Pixar films, clocking in at nearly two hours, but it sure didn't feel like it. Seeing it in the cinema, the audience was a quite large one, if on a side note not as many as thought. With it being a family film, the weekend and that it was only released three days ago, part of me was thinking it would be sold out. Throughout everybody, children and adults alike, was laughing, in awe and crying. It is also a different Pixar film, with a unique setting and that it is more music/song-oriented, and has replaced 'Inside Out' as their most mature and in depth, with themes that are remarkably daring and relevant.

Lets talk about what is so brilliant about 'Coco'. The film is a triumph when it comes to visuals, one of Pixar's best-looking easily. The animation throughout is absolutely spectacular, whether in the real world or the Land of the Dead. The colours are so vibrant and atmospheric and there is so much gorgeous detailing in the backgrounds, nuances in the way the characters look and the skeletal designs and movements have amazing dexterity that is both clever and ghoulish.

Just as triumphant is the music. Michael Giacchino's score is one of his best and most multi-layered, capturing the spirit of Mexico in a way that's celebratory. The songs are similarly infectious, "Remember Me" is not just a beautiful song but it has a great, upbeat message and adds a lot to the story.

The writing has so much spirit, poignancy and entertainment value. The jokes are sophisticated and amusing, neither childish or repetitive to me and Dante is both adorable and funny, and the emotional elements are truly heartfelt, especially in the last act. The story is bright and breezy in pacing, despite the fairly long length one doesn't feel it. The Mexican culture and family values were clearly comprehensively researched and the film feels like a warm, fun and heartfelt tribute and celebration to culture, family, music and even Latino cinema in the Golden Age (the latter proving crucial to the revelation of a major plot twist).

Not since 'Inside Out' has a Pixar film made me laugh and bring tears to my eyes as much as 'Coco' did, not since 'Paddington 2' has a film's ending leave me sobbing. The relationship between Hector and Miguel has a huge amount of heart and complexity, one can understand the point of view of the Rivera family (living and dead) and the macabre elements are very imaginatively realised.

The twists in particularly the last act keep coming, mostly unexpected and all very clever. Some elements of the reveal with Ernesto were not that surprising (Pixar have done similar and it is fairly clichéd, my one slight criticism with 'Coco' but found it easy to overlook) but none of it was guessable too early and it was extremely well done and tense regardless.

All the characters are fully formed and have strengths and flaws. Hector was the most fully rounded and provided the most heart and a lot of us are likely to find ourselves in Miguel and his aspirations. Imelda is also memorable as a character and the chemistry between all the characters is realised beautifully too.

Voice acting is first rate, especially the remarkably multi-faceted contribution from Gael García Bernal as Hector. Anthony Gonzalez also voices with spirit and emotion, Alanna Ubach achieves a balance to Imelda of not wanting to get on the wrong side of her and having a caring side and Benjamin Bratt shows a side that one is surprised is in him.

In summary, truly amazing and a celebration of a lifetime. One of the most deserving recipients of a perfect score in a while. 10/10

{I'm sorry though, everyone may say 'Remember Me' is the best song from the film, buuut... NO, to me the best song in this film - howbeit underrated much - is 'La Llorona'. And nobody can change my mind - I so wish it was longer!!!}