Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: Coco

March 18, 2018

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Coco

Coco won Best Feature-Length Animated Film at this year’s Oscars, an award Pixar has won so many times that people sometimes refer to it as The Pixar Award. Did Coco deserve this award? Or have voters just become accustomed to voting for whatever Pixar movie came out that year?

The Movie

The film begins with Miguel Rivera telling us the history of his family. His great-great-grandmother, Imelda, had a husband, a musician, and a daughter, Coco. They were a happy family, as the husband would play music and they would sing and dance. However, the husband wanted to sing for the world, so he left to become famous and never returned. After that, she forbade music for her family. She also learned how to make shoes to support herself and her daughter and passed this skill along to daughter, who passed it along to her kids, and so on. It looks like Miguel will be the latest in a long line of cobblers, except for one problem. He really wants to be a musician.

The town where Miguel lives was the home of Mexico’s most famous singer, Ernesto de la Cruz. He really wants to take after Ernesto, but his grandmother, Elena, will protect the family’s no music policy, with violence if she has to. (Not against Miguel, but I pity any musician who crosses her path.) Despite the danger, Miguel has hidden away his own guitar that he practices, but only Dante, a street dog, has heard him play. Perhaps today will be different, as there’s a Día de Muertos talent contest he could enter; however, Abuelita Elena is very clear, Día de Muertos is a day about family and family only. They have to maintain the ofrenda, so their ancestors can come visit them.

On this day, thanks to Dante damaging part of the ofrenda, Miguel discovers part of the photo of Imelda and her family that was covered up for many, many years. Her husband’s guitar. It’s the same guitar Ernesto played. Ernesto was his great-great-grandfather. It’s a sign. He’s meant to be a musician. He jumps at the chance to tell his family, but it doesn’t go as he hoped it would. Not only does the family reject the idea of him becoming a musician, Elena destroys his guitar. Without a guitar, he can’t enter the talent show. Then it hits him, Ernesto’s mausoleum is in town and within it is his guitar. Ernesto always said, “Seize your moment!” and this looks like Miguel’s moment.

Here’s the thing, Miguel is grave robbing. He’s grave robbing on the Day of the Dead. This goes about as well as you would expect and he’s turned into a ghost of sorts. Living people can’t see him, but the ghosts of ancestors who came to visit can see him. So can Dante. Miguel’s ancestors figure Imelda will know what to do, but for some reason, she can’t cross over to the living world. Since she can’t come to Miguel, Miguel will come to her.

So with that, Miguel enters the Land of the Dead. Before he can even get there, he witnesses Hector trying to sneak into the land of the living, but no one put a picture of him on their ofrenda and no picture means you can’t cross the bridge. This is why Imelda can’t cross, because he took her picture when Dante damaged the ofrenda. Miguel and Imelda do meet, but we learn that Miguel is cursed for grave robbing. If he doesn’t get his family’s blessing, by sunrise, he will be stuck in the Land of the Dead forever. Imelda is willing to give her blessing, if he promises to give up music forever. Miguel’s first plan, lie about accepting that deal, doesn’t work and the rest of his family are too scared to defy Imedla, so Miguel moves on to plan B. He runs away. Ernesto is his great-great-grandfather. If Miguel can get his blessing, he can go home without giving up music. However, he will need help finding Ernesto. That’s when he overhears Hector trying to get out of trouble by claiming he know Ernesto. Miguel then makes a bargain with Hector. If Hector gets him to Ernesto, then Miguel will put up Hector’s Picture on their ofrenda.

It’s as simple as that.

Pixar’s track record with critics is nearly unparalleled, so in order to be one of the best in the company’s history, a movie has to be something special. Coco is something special. It hits every high mark that a Pixar film is expected to hit. It goes without saying that the film is a technical marvel. Pixar is arguably only one of two top tier animation studios left in Hollywood, the other being Disney Animation Studio. (DreamWorks Animation hasn’t made a lot of films lately. Meanwhile, Illumination Entertainment has made a lot of massive hits, but they don’t aim for groundbreaking in a technical sense.) The film simply looks amazing. It helps that we don’t see these elements of Mexican culture in movies very often, so it stands out even more.

If the film were just a technical marvel, but didn’t have a lot of heart, then it would be on par with the Cars films. Fortunately, that is not the case. If you don’t tear up at least a few times while watching Coco, then your heart is even harder than mine. That’s saying a lot, because when I see the elaborate ofrendas in this movie, I don’t think of family, or of a rich cultural heritage, I think “Fire hazard. Someone put out all of those damn candles before the house burns down!” The story of family bonds is universal, but the specifics here are different enough that the story doesn’t feel derivative. Finally, the music is amazing and I’m saying this as someone who has no connection to the culture. If you grew up with this music, the nostalgia will likely raise your appreciation of the movie to the next level.

The Extras

Extras begin with an audio commentary featuring the two directors, Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina, as well as one of the producers, Darla K. Anderson. Up next is a 2-minute short animated piece, with optional audio commentary. It was originally created as a “proof of concept” for the look of the film, but it turned out so well, that they included it here. Mi Familia is a 10-minute making of featurette with a focus on the inspirations for the movie. Up next is a six-minute look at Dante, the dog in the movie. How to Draw a Skeleton is exactly what it sounds like. This isn’t a bad collection of extras, and it is only the first disc.

There is also a second disc of extras. There are a ton of featurettes that have a total running time of close to 70 minutes. They include topics like the filmmakers trip to Mexico and other inspirations, the music of the movie, fashion, etc. This includes the latest Paths to Pixar, which interviews some Pixar filmmakers and how they got to where they are. There are also seven deleted scenes with a total running time of 33 minutes, including introduction. There’s an entire feature-length film’s worth of extras on the second disc.

The Verdict

Coco is Pick of the Week material and that’s before you consider the amazing extras on the 2-Disc Blu-ray. If you grew up in this culture, then it is beyond Pick of the Week.

Filed under: Video Review, Coco, Cars, Gael Garcia Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Alanna Ubach, Renee Victor, Frank Welker, Lee Unkrich, Darla Anderson, Adrian Molina, Anthony Gonzalez, Ana Ofelia Murguia