Coco (2017)
Directed by Lee Unkrich
Despite his family’s baffling generations-old ban on music, Miguel dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz. Desperate to prove his talent, Miguel finds himself in the stunning and colorful Land of the Dead following a mysterious chain of events. Along the way, he meets charming trickster Hector, and together, they set off on an extraordinary journey to unlock the real story behind Miguel's family history.
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Though undeniably gorgeous, none of this feels terribly original, from the film’s message to the look of the Mexican underworld, which so recently inspired another computer-animated feature, 2014’s “The Book of Life.”
Controversy struck again when fans of the film The Book of Life reacted to similarities between Coco and the 2014 brainchild of Mexican and Mexican-American writers and artists , accusing Disney of idea theft.
Basing a family feature around Mexico's annual Day of the Dead holiday is not entirely novelit was previously explored in 2014's well-meaning, ultimately forgettable " The Book of Life "but it has finally received the gloriously conceived, dramatically sound treatment it deserves.
Eventually, Miguel becomes convinced that de la Cruz is his great-great-grandfather, and through a hazy series of events that feel more inspired by “Back to the Future” than they do anything else, he’s spirited away into the Land of the Dead in order to find the guy and get his blessing.
For Mexican audiences — or those who live in California, Texas, or any place with a visible Latino presence — the cultural iconography of the Land of the Dead ought to look quite familiar, as Unkrich (who previously oversaw “Toy Story 3”) embraces and incorporates the customs and folklore of Día de Muertos into the very fabric of the film.
Even the direst and darkest moments in the studio’s oeuvre— Inside Out’s tribute to the ubiquity of sadness, The Good Dinosaur’s patchwork tapestry of trauma, or the inferno that nearly consumed our mass-produced compatriots raw at the end of Toy Story 3 —have been filtered through its grander milieu: one wholesome, happy, and humane.
The set-up is as labored as it sounds, “Toy Story 3” director Lee Unkrich and co-director Adrian Molina do everything they can to bring us into this world with the same kind of succinct grace that gave “WALL-E” and “Up” such instant power.
Director Lee Unkrich (who previously helmed Toy Story 3) and his creative team did extensive research into Mexican culture — specifically, the tradition of Día de Muertos (or Day of the Dead), which is an annual celebration and commemoration of deceased family members.
Not only does the Disney outfit’s 19th feature, co-directed by Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina, emerge as Pixar’s most original effort since Inside Out, it’s also among its most emotionally resonant, touching on themes of belonging common to Finding Dory and the Unkrich-directed Toy Story 3.
Bajo el mando de Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3) y su co-director Adrián Molina, Coco será un deleite visual para todo el público.
Or when that director isn’t Brad Bird, who took more than a decade to return to the most obvious sequel-bait franchise in Pixar’s stable, The Incredibles.
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After reuniting with his relatives (who live on in skeleton form, rendered in such a way that they’re far less scary than anything in Tim Burton’s ghoulish “The Nightmare Before Christmas” ensemble), Miguel is torn between obeying his family and trying to find Ernesto, whom he’s come to believe was the wannabe musician who abandoned his family so many generations before.
It doesn’t reach the emotional heights of stand-alones like Up or WALL-E, either.
The set-up is as labored as it sounds, “Toy Story 3” director Lee Unkrich and co-director Adrian Molina do everything they can to bring us into this world with the same kind of succinct grace that gave “WALL-E” and “Up” such instant power.
En la Tierra de los muertos, por ejemplo, se perciben rasgos similares a los que vimos en el aeropuerto de Toy Story o en el almacén de puertas de Monsters, Inc.; la nostalgia, con TV antigua de por medio, remita a WALL·E (2008).
Coco’s worst-case scenario would be 2015’s poorly received The Good Dinosaur, which only grossed about $332 million worldwide, but decent word-of-mouth should save this new film from a similar fate.
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In direct violation of the Rivera family rule, Miguel has taught himself to play the guitar, spending virtually every free moment studying the work of local singing legend Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt), who died young and handsome, leaving behind a trove of classic songs and black-and-white films — of which Miguel has memorized every line, look and lyric, singing along with his best-loved ballad, “Remember Me,” on his handmade instrument.