Rowan Reviews and Verity’s Views On The Pixar film Coco
My review of Coco (2017)
I watched this on New Year’s Day. It was my third time watching it. I have been a huge fan of Pixar animated films since I was a little girl.
My sister was home during Christmas, and we watched this film cuddled together under a blanket on New Years Day.
Summary of the film no major spoilers
Coco is about a boy named Miguel who (despite his family’s multigenerational ban of music) longs to become an accomplished musician like the famous late artist Ernesto de la Cruz . His family does not approve of this dream, so he decides to try to win a talent show competition to prove his talent. He suddenly ends up in the vibrant and mysterious land of the dead after stealing the guitar of Ernesto de la Cruz. While in the world of the dead he meets a mischievous man named Hector and together they set out to unlock the real story behind Miguel's family’s history with music…
What I liked
The colour palette for this film is gorgeous. I particularly love the bridge which separates the Land of the Living from the Land of the Dead -even though I am not a big fan of the colour orange (my favourite colour is blue). I also love the vibrant colours of the spirit guides as well. My mum who also watched Coco with us said it looked like someone’s creative colouring book art. There is so much detail to the artwork.
I also really liked Dante, which is based off Mexico's national dog, the Xoloitzcuintli. I love dogs, I have two at home (Frankie and Lottie) and I thought Dante was extremely cute.
The setting and culture of the film was very intriguing to me. I was interested in finding out what the overall opinion of the film was in Mexico. I found out that it did very well at the box office and is one of the highest grossing film just behind Avengers Infinity War and Avengers Endgame. It also received incredibly positive reviews from Mexican critics.
Constructive criticism
This is quite hard for me to think of things I did not like, as I thought this was a brilliant film. However, no film is absolutely perfect. I would say that as is common with quite a few films some of the supporting characters did not feel very well developed at times. Despite this, I understand it is hard to flesh out all characters given how long the film is and what the story of the film focuses mostly on.
Verity’s thoughts on the film and her ranking
It’s so exciting to be writing my thoughts on the first review for Rowan’s blog! I first saw the film Coco in the cinema whilst I was away working on a long job. It had been a while since I’d been home, and I can remember finding the film’s themes of family, music and memory really moving.
I agree with Rowan, the film looks so beautiful and the colour palette and sense of place is very vivid and all-encompassing. All the characters are sympathetic (except one!) and there’s a good deal of humour (especially from the dog, Dante, but maybe we just think that because we love dogs!). The music is gorgeous, since watching it on New Year’s Day the songs keep popping into my head and bouncing round my brain, which is obviously a sign of some very catchy tunes! Furthermore, one of the film’s major themes is memory, who we remember and why. Overall, Coco succeeds in being very memorable film indeed 👏 👏 👏
Conclusion and my ranking
I love this film as I think it has so much heart and is so pleasing to the eyes with the stunning visuals. Towards the end it made my sister and I cry. I love the songs and music. I would give the film a nine out of ten. It is one of my top ten favourite Pixar films.
My Top 10 Pixar Films
Up: number one and one of my all-time favourite films
Toy Story 3
Toy Story 2
Toy Story
Finding Nemo
Wall-e
Coco
The Incredibles
Inside Out
A Bugs life
Hello, World!