Coco

Coco

We watched Up in the cinema and the opening sequence made us cry; with Coco, another Pixar film, it took until the finale for there to be tears rolling down my face, but chalk up another success for the Emeryville company. (Cars 3, on the other hand, was just a bit shit and never made anyone cry. See here for another film that made me weep)

I got Coco confused in my head with The Book Of Life (Dreamworld, Mexican Day of the Dead imagery) but it’s a more recent work with incredible production values – at times distracting, when you’re spending more time goggling at the beauty on screen and less paying attention to the plot – and a message about the importance of memory rather than Channing Tatum and Salma Hayek mucking about.

The hero, Miguel, wants to be a musician but his family (a bunch of old cobblers) have other plans. Cue a complicated sequence of events (never entirely explained) where Miguel ends up in the Mexican netherworld and for bureaucratic reasons can’t find his way home until his great grandad signs the chit to let him off. Thus a long journey with various plot twists (which my wife figured out a million miles before they were revealed) and a resolution where the dead and living parts of Miguel’s family are reconciled and he gets to play guitar. So there’s a happy ending, even if it made me weep.

There’s also some complicated theology that’s not been quite worked through here – why is Miguel’s great grandmother’s ghost apparently older than his great great grandmother’s ghost when she moves to the other side? And what’s Cheech from Cheech and Chong doing in a position of authority, even in the underworld? And could La Serpiente ever watch this film without crying in fear and terror throughout?

Who cares anyway? It looks gorgeous and makes grown men cry. Then again, so can 6 inch scarlet stiletto heels to the crotch. What was I saying, again?

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