OVP: Coco (2017)

Film: Coco (2017)
Stars: Anthony Gonzalez, Gael Garcia Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Alanna Ubach, Edward James Olmos
Director: Lee Unkrich
Oscar History: 2 nominations/2 wins (Best Original Song-"Remember Me," Animated Feature Film*)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

Occasionally at this time of year, it feels a bit like I'm checking boxes and not always enjoying all of the films that I'm seeing.  I blame the Oscars as much for inspiring this season as depriving me of the joy of it, with so many titles contending for AMPAS attention that it's hard to get to all of them without it becoming a laundry list.  And yet, just when I feel a lull coming on, I'm jolted awake by a reminder that more than pretty much anything else in my life, I love the movies.  Genuinely, there's few things that make me happier and more moved than a truly successful and surprising experience sitting in a darkened theater, and that was what I had recently with Coco, the latest from Pixar, a movie house that was once filled with wonder, but has become dusty with sequels in recent years.  Despite an initially small marketing campaign (perhaps because they knew word-of-mouth would sell their jewel), Coco has become the best kind of box office hit-one that genuinely deserves it.

(Spoliers Ahead) The movie centers around a young man named Miguel (Gonzalez) who wishes nothing more than to be a singer and musician.  The problem is that his family, thanks to his great-great-grandmother's being abandoned by a man who wished to become a performer, shuns music in any way, so he must hide his clandestine passion (the premise is arguably the most ludicrous part, so don't abandon me yet).  Miguel pines to be as great as Ernesto de la Cruz (Bratt), the most famous Mexican singer of all-time, and has a secret shrine built to him in the attic of their shoe workshop.  Set in the backdrop of the Day of the Dead celebration, after Miguel's cloaked shame is found out he runs to the mausoleum that houses Ernesto's famed guitar in hopes of borrowing it to play at the festival, to prove to his family that he should be allowed to play his music.  In strumming the guitar, though, he makes it into the world of the dead, seeing those who are out in celebration with their living family members, and sets out into the world of the dead in hopes of finding Ernesto, whom he believes to be his grandfather.

I don't want to spend too much time detailing the plot here (that's what Wikipedia is for), but you don''t have to have seen a lot of Pixar to figure out that Ernesto is the bad guy and that the kindly musician Hector (Garcia Bernal) is in fact his real great-great grandfather, but plot twists aren't really the point for Pixar, and they certainly aren't here.  Instead, it's focused on heart, joy, and finding one's self; that's the central tenet of the movie studio's finest work like Finding Nemo, WALL-E, and the Toy Story Trilogy, and it's there where Coco discovers its voice.  Miguel, ably played by Gonzalez, is someone that's so easy to root for, but it's in looking at the lack of permanence in a mortal existence where Coco finds its true center.  We see Hector, trying to get back to see the daughter he abandoned one last time, a now nearly completely senile old woman whom he still sees as his baby, hope that somehow he is remembered from beyond the grave again and can return.  It's shocking how moving this is, even if you see it coming-the movie is so brisk and well-paced that even by its end you want more time with these characters, which makes even slight supporting arcs hard to dismiss (like those involving the titular Mama Coco).  I don't know that I've ever seen a film explain a parent's love for an aging child in quite the way that this movie gets across, and it struck a chord in me.  It doesn't feel like grounds for an animated film, but then again neither did Up.

And oh, the animation and music is a blessing.  Seriously-there are scenes in the film where I probably annoyed the person sitting two seats away from me as I audibly muttered "wow."  The combinations of neon orange, pink, and orchid as a color motif, particularly when first unveiling the marigold bridge and the world of the dead, is spellbinding, some of Pixar's most luxurious and opulent animation (and lord knows that's saying something).  And the music is sublime.  Though it's played a role in some other films, this is really the first musical that Pixar has done, and it's intoxicating.  Obviously the central "Remember Me" is a beautiful love ballad (and the movie smartly employs it in different ways depending on the singer), but really there's not a miss in the movie, with the playful "Un Poco Loco" a delightfully spry mid-film segment and even the repurposing of the classic "La Llorona" into a climactic duet is inspired.

Honestly, though, this as a whole is a movie that I can't get over how much I loved it.  I had no expectation of it being so good, and felt like when Pixar was hiding it it would turn into The Good Dinosaur.  Instead, it's certainly the best movie the studio has produced since Toy Story 3, and one of the most joyous experiences I've had at a movie theater in eons.  Catch it over the holidays with your family-you won't be disappointed.