All the movie feels
Pixar’s latest release, ‘Coco,’ was so good, our critic had tears in his eyes.
I cried.
Well, sort of. “Wept” is probably closer to the mark. Or maybe “teared up” — I was in public after all.
However you want to phrase it, “Coco” worked on me in ways I hadn’t expected. Yes, the latest Pixar offering involves a journey to the Land of the Dead, which by definition requires people to, you know, die. That’s always sad.
But there’s joy here, particularly in the animation and the cinematography; the Land of the Dead is a beautiful place, which is kind of comforting. The story isn’t quite up to the standards set by the look of the film, but it’s close enough to make you... well, you know.
Miguel (voice of Anthony Gonzalez) is a boy who wants to be a musician. One problem: His great-great-grandfather left his wife and young daughter to become a traveling troubadour. The family has banned music ever since, leaving Miguel to sneak around, singing and playing guitar. He also sneaks down to the town square in the Mexican village where he lives, where a statue stands of the town’s most-famous resident (and Miguel’s hero), the late, great singer Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt).
Miguel’s grandmother (Renee Victor) is the family enforcer; when she finds Miguel’s hidden guitar she goes all Pete Townshend and smashes it to bits. (He had planned to skip the family’s Dia de Los Muertos celebration for a talent show.) He runs off to de la Cruz’s mausoleum, where he finds that when he strums his guitar, he is transported to the Land of the Dead.
And what a place it is. The colors are vibrant, popping to life (irony, heh). Miguel recognizes his ancestors from the photos his family places on an altar during Dia de Los Muertos. Guess what: They hate music, too. Miguel can’t cross back over to the land of the living unless he gets their blessing, but they aren’t offering it unless he promises to abandon music. That’s not happening.
Somewhere along the line Miguel becomes convinced that de la Cruz — rich and famous even in death — is his greatgreat-grandfather, the musician who left his family all those generations ago. Perhaps de la Cruz would give Miguel his blessing. But first he has to get to him.
Luckily, he runs into Hector (Gael Garcia Bernal, who’s fantastic), a skeleton claiming to know the singer. But he wants something in return. According to the laws of the Land of the Dead, you exist there only as long as someone among the living remembers you. When they forget you, much like Madame Bovary, you cease to exist. Hector is fading fast. He wants Miguel to ensure that someone will place his photo on an ofrenda, or altar.
It’s pretty serious stuff, really, but there is some goofy humor and catchy musical numbers to lighten the mood. A street mutt named Dante (get it?) that Miguel befriended on the living side accompanies him on his journey.
There are twists and turns along the way, some clearly designed to wring tears from the audience. Without saying too much, those weren’t what got me. A small touch, a kind of grace note, is what did me in. Keep an eye out.
It’s of course welcome to have a major studio film offer such inclusion, and to incorporate a holiday not everyone in theUnited States will be familiar with.
Does the movie traffic in cultural appropriation? Not really — it doesn’t transfer the culture but instead sets its story inside it.
Does the fact that Disney, which owns Pixar, tried to copyright the phrase “Dia de los Muertos” in 2013 cheapen that? Um, yeah, a little (the studio backed down after an outcry). But when has Disney, for all the delight it’s given us, ever not been about the bottom line?
Is the movie too similar to the 2014 film “The Book of Life?” No, both are enjoyable in their own way, though you wish Pixar might have come up with some other forbidden occupation for Miguel.
Besides, this one made me cry.