I'm In Love With The 'Coco' - Disney/Pixar Has Another Masterpiece On Their Hands

***There will be NO SPOILERS in this blog. Enjoy!***

Welcome back to Rob’s Monday Morning Movie Review! Today we’re venturing into the land of the dead for the day of the dead and talking about Disney/Pixar’s latest, Coco! I went to see this movie last night, and I wasn’t really in the mood to see a movie, but once I journeyed into the afterlife with Miguel (and his trusty sidekick Dante) I couldn’t have been more glad I was there.

Before Coco, a short-film played as tradition with Disney/Pixar, and this one was a Frozen holiday story! I’ve seen some hate for this online and I’d like to say I’m not down with the revisionist history that Frozen isn’t fucking awesome. Moana over Frozen, but they’re both near ten outta ten animated movies. This short was definitely aimed towards smaller children, so much so that it was apparent (seems like an “Uh, ya think?” but it’s usually not with these movies!) but never took away from the gentle-hearted tale they were telling about traditions. Adele Dazeem‘s voice also just slices me like butter and she could make me cry by singing the A-B-C’s, so any chance to listen to those pipes is a pleasure. Did I cry during this short? Who knows. Maybe. What’s it to you?

Despite his family’s generations-old ban on music, young Miguel dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol Ernesto de la Cruz. Desperate to prove his talent, Miguel finds himself in the stunning and colorful Land of the Dead. After meeting a charming trickster named Héctor, the two new friends embark on an extraordinary journey to unlock the real story behind Miguel’s family history.

Man, where do I even start with this movie? The humor? The animation? The music? The storytelling? The characters? I’m honestly at a loss here. While I wrote last week that I was looking forward to this (after not hearing about it until it became the highest grossing film of all time in Mexico), I never expected I’d love it as much as I did. It’s pretty undoubtedly one of the best movies of the year, and you could tell it would be within five or ten minutes of the title screen. The first time Miguel picks up a guitar and plays it, the animation was so gorgeous my jaw hit the floor. Coco obviously never aims for realism, but you sometimes forget that what you’re watching is a cartoon because everything is just flawlessly beautiful.

The story arc of every single character in this flick is perfectly crafted. My opinion of so many changed drastically in the hour and forty-nine minutes Coco runs…some for better, some for worse, all for the better of the film’s narrative. Miguel, our hero in this story, is one of the most likable protagonists in any medium I’ve seen in a long time. His passion for music seeps through the screen and his family’s distaste for it is baffling when you see this kid’s enthusiasm for playing a six string. I had to hold myself back from screaming “JUST LET THE KID PLAY GUITAR FOR FUCK’S SAKE!” at the Sunday night showing I attended more times than I’d like to admit.

Miguel’s (really dumb) animal sidekick, a staple of most Disney/Pixar movies, was awesome. He looked kinda like a greyhound and was named Dante, which was actually the name of my Italian greyhound we had to put down back in February, so I was broke down into a puddle the first time the pup’s name was revealed but I got over it and found myself constantly wanting more of him on the screen.

It’s a bit hard to talk about anyone else in the movie – Hector, Ernesto de la Cruz, or Miguel’s family – without revealing anything story-wise, because this movie is an absolute roller coaster of not knowing who we like or trust moment-to-moment. Pixar’s had to have been working with some crazy kind of Jedi mind trick for the past few years due to this. All of their movies follow roughly the same formula, but the viewer is ALWAYS kept on their toes and NOTHING is predictable. I don’t understand it one bit, but I’m so glad to have been on the ride so many times.

The two big factors that help drive the narrative are humor and music, and both are knocked out of the park. There wasn’t a joke that didn’t land, there wasn’t a song that didn’t bang. “Remember Me” could very well be among the Disney classics, with a MUCH different feel than all of them.

Overall, this was a big steamy pile of shit that I wasted some hard earned money on. LOLjk,,,,,,, obviously. Coco is one of the best movies of the year, living up to the extremely high bar set by films that preceded it and blasting past it. I wrote this review as vaguely as possible when it comes to plot details on purpose, because I knew next to nothing going in and I think it’s best seen the same way.

GO *clap emoji* SEE *clap emoji* THIS *clap emoji* MOVIE *clap emoji*.

I hope Coco makes all the money in the world. It deserves it. Kudos to writers Lee Unkrich, Jason Katz, Matthew Aldrich, and Adrian Molina for filling my heart with joy this week.

Oh, and here’s a picture of my dog, Dante. He was so friggin’ awkward, it made me crack up. I miss him every day.