Coco

And so, everyone, we've finally arrived at the latest Pixar movie and one of my most anticipated movies of last year. As I said, the reason it's this late is because it literally just arrived to where I live today, so I had to wait until now to do this review. But, now, I finally got to see it and here's my review. And, yes, this will have a non-spoiler part for the first half of the review, then I'll do a spoiler part with a warning. So don't worry, if you don't want it spoiled, that'll have a part for itself. And, yeah, after a kinda disappointing bump in the road for Pixar with Cars 3 that came out last year, this was such a huge step up. I was very surprised with how much I liked this because, before seeing it, I thought it was going to be really good and really emotional from what I was hearing from reviews. And, while it was definitely all that, there was a lot more to it than I ever imagined. This is one of the most emotional movies I've seen in a while. But, when you're talking about a Pixar movie, what do you really expect? It's not perfect though, but, a lot of this is just fantastic. But first, what's the story? It opens up with a back story of a Mexican man who loved music and even abandoned his family to pursue his dream. Then we see a young boy named Miguel who loves music and wants to grow up playing it, but his family forbids music and says he should do what they do and make shoes for a living. But, somewhere, he keeps going to a hideout that he made dedicated to a famous musician he's always looked up to named Ernesto de la Cruz. And, one day, when there's a music festival on, he decides he wants to join and use a guitar he made himself. But, when his family finds out, especially his grandmother, they say he can't. When he sees there's a guitar inside the building where Ernesto is buried, he decides to use it. But, as soon as he uses it for the first time, he teleports into the land of the dead. There, he meets the other members of his family who are all dead. Now, he has to find a way back before a time limit. And I'll stop right there. There's a lot more to the story than that, I promise. There is so much to talk about here and it's kinda hard to talk about this without the spoilers, but, I'll try. Obviously, as to be expected from Pixar, this animation is phenomenal. It's some of the best I've ever seen. Not the best. (For me, the best looking animated movie I've ever seen is Moana.) But, still. This is top-notch Pixar animation. The characters are also all really likeable. Miguel is the classic kind of character who learns about what family really is, but there's still more to him to make him seem unique. And the rest are all likeable. One of my favourite characters in the movie is Hector.

He's the main person who helps Miguel get back. Not only is he pretty funny, but he also adds a lot of heart to the movie I didn't expect at all. There's something that happens to him that really surprised me. And I liked that. And with the rest of the characters, there's not one that I thought was a waste of time, all of them were great and I thought the main villain was pretty intimidating. I obviously won't give away who the villain is. Probably the thing I loved the most about this movie was the heart of it. This is easily one of the most emotional Pixar movies ever. I'll save that much for the spoilers, but, yeah, a lot of this is really emotional. Especially the last 10-15 minutes. Now, I just want say something else here, this film was directed by Lee Unkrich, the director of Toy Story 3 and the co-director of Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc. And he really brings his a-game to this. This is one of the best directed animated movies I've seen in a while. By comparison, I'd say this is his second best behind Toy Story 3. And with him being one for the biggest heads at Pixar, he did a great job here. This is also a movie that's not all that fast. It's kinda slow paced. But that's good because it helps make the characters feel more interesting and helps make the story more engaging. Something else I really liked was the music and the songs. They're all centred around Mexican music with spectacular singing and a great score. Another thing I liked here, I liked how clever they used the title. It actually has a reason to be called Coco and I really liked it, especially, again the ending, which helped explain it. I also found myself getting really invested in these characters and their dilemmas. All that was really interesting and I enjoyed a lot of it. Also, I thought the Pizza Planet truck Easter Egg here was pretty funny. These Pixar movies always have a Pizza Planet truck in them and I really liked the one  here. And quick last thing I liked here, I thought the actually twist part, like the villain revealed was really surprising and I had no idea it was coming. Especially the scene that came right after that. Now, as far as any negatives, there's not a lot, but there are a few. Firstly, and probably the biggest, is that I found the story, while really well told, can seem kinda formulaic. Like, some of this stuff we see here, it reminded me a lot of other Disney and Pixar movies. Especially Brave and Moana. I'll get into that in the spoilers, but I thought the comparisons between them all were noticeable. Second, I thought the characters, while, again, I really like and I was interested in them, didn't have the most intriguing stories with them. I know I said I found their dilemmas interesting and I thought they had investing personalities, but, at points, it can feel like they're going through an arc that's been done before. I'm not saying that that's a bad thing, but, it can feel like the character's arcs are kinda going through a samey thing that we've done before. And last thing here isn't really a negative, I guess, it's just kind of a personal thing. When I was going into this movie, I was obviously super hyped for it. And I mean SUPER hyped. Just because it's another Pixar movie and I'm always excited for one of those even if the end result isn't fantastic. But, when walking out of this film, even though I really enjoyed it and really, really liked it, I didn't have the same love for it or appreciation for that I had for other animated movies I've seen lately, mainly Moana. But, I'm sure once I see it more times, I'll begin to develop the same appreciation. So, in conclusion, for the non-spoiler part of the review, I thought Coco was really fantastic. It's not totally perfect and I don't know if I'd put it in my top 5 Pixar movies, but it's still great to see Pixar represent this culture like this and that was great for me to see. Definitely see this if you're interested. As far as my top 10 movies of 2017, I'd put this between the Lego Batman Movie and Logan. And so, that's my non-spoiler review of Coco. Thank you all for reading, I hope you all liked this and please comment down below to tell me what you think. Okay, now we're going into the spoilers. If you haven't seen this yet, go see it and then read the rest of this.
Spoilers:
Okay, first, I want to talk about that big twist. Where it's revealed that Ernesto is actually the villain and that Hector is actually Miguel's great, great grandfather. That was the part that I didn't see coming and it really surprised me. And it was really touching. Especially the part where we see about how the dead actually stay dead forever with how if a person who's alive begins to forget you, you begin to disappear forever. And I really thought the ending with Coco remembering Hector and Miguel helping was really powerful and sad. That other part where I said this movie was starting to remind me of Moana was at the start where Miguel's family told him that music is forbidden and his grandmother destroyed the guitar he made. That reminded me a lot of that opening scene of Moana with Moana's dad forbidding her to go out onto the ocean. And, obviously, the fact that music is a passion he has, but, his family wants him to do something else. I also thought the scene where Miguel's family talked to him about family was really touching. That was a really beautiful ending. And then the actual ending with them having their celebration was really nice. I'd say, probably the funniest part was Ernesto's skeleton getting beaten the same way he was actually killed. That made me and the whole audience laugh. And, so everyone, that's really all the spoilers for Coco. Thank you all for reading, definitely see it if you haven't, or, even if you have, see it again, and please comment down below to tell me what you think.