Coco. (PG.)
Directed by Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina
Starring Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Alanna Ubach, Renée Victor and Jaime Camil. 105 mins
A film about the Mexican holiday Día de Los Muertos, Day of the Dead, has been in the works at Pixar since the turn of the decade. The time taken has probably been fortuitous as it has emerged at a time when reviewers and audiences in North America are keen to show they embrace other cultures and people south of the unwalled border. It has been the biggest film in Mexican history, and critical and audience approval is through the roof. For them, it ranks up with Pixar's greatest classics. Personally, I wouldn't fancy its chances in a struggle between The Good Dinosaur and Brave as the least energised or inventive Pixar film that doesn't have a number in its title.
It's a new and novel location but the same old Pixar formula; which is particularly disappointing as prior to this I'm not sure I had ever accepted that Pixar worked to a formula. It has little of the humour or visual wonder you associate with their films. This time tears are its main objectives and it hunts them down relentlessly, primarily by repeating the same gimmick used in Inside Out. There, the big emotional scene was Bing Bong, the imaginary childhood friend, dying when he is finally forgotten, and Coco is built on regurgitations of that idea: in the afterlife, people only exist as long as someone living remembers them.
I wish I could have been more enthusiastic about this because the company has given me some of my happiest cinema experiences, and because I didn't get to use my “You should Coco,” recommendation at the end of the review.
Directed by Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina
Starring Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Alanna Ubach, Renée Victor and Jaime Camil. 105 mins
A film about the Mexican holiday Día de Los Muertos, Day of the Dead, has been in the works at Pixar since the turn of the decade. The time taken has probably been fortuitous as it has emerged at a time when reviewers and audiences in North America are keen to show they embrace other cultures and people south of the unwalled border. It has been the biggest film in Mexican history, and critical and audience approval is through the roof. For them, it ranks up with Pixar's greatest classics. Personally, I wouldn't fancy its chances in a struggle between The Good Dinosaur and Brave as the least energised or inventive Pixar film that doesn't have a number in its title.
It's a new and novel location but the same old Pixar formula; which is particularly disappointing as prior to this I'm not sure I had ever accepted that Pixar worked to a formula. It has little of the humour or visual wonder you associate with their films. This time tears are its main objectives and it hunts them down relentlessly, primarily by repeating the same gimmick used in Inside Out. There, the big emotional scene was Bing Bong, the imaginary childhood friend, dying when he is finally forgotten, and Coco is built on regurgitations of that idea: in the afterlife, people only exist as long as someone living remembers them.
I wish I could have been more enthusiastic about this because the company has given me some of my happiest cinema experiences, and because I didn't get to use my “You should Coco,” recommendation at the end of the review.
