Deep Dive Pixar: Wes Looks at Coco

You know, it feels like it’s been a long time since we covered something that was actually animated. We should probably fix that. With that in mind, welcome everyone to Deep Dive Pixar, the ghostly ancestor of Deep Dive Disney where today we’ll be looking at Coco. Truth be told, I kind of have mixed feelings about this one. While there were some aspects to it that were done perfectly, putting tears in my eyes and a smile on my face, but other aspects were incredibly head-tilting and felt like a way to artificially and unrealistically force out the plot. We’ll get to all that when we get into the body of the article, but for the moment, let’s get into the main story for Coco. Long ago in Mexico, a man left his family to pursue his dream of becoming a musician. Distraught at being abandoned by her husband, Imelda Rivera banned all music from her family home and went into the shoemaking business, her entire family doing the same for several generations. In the present day, we meet our main character, Miguel, a twelve-year-old boy who loves his family, particularly his elderly great grandmother Mama Coco. But, against the anti-music traditions of his family, Miguel dreams of being a musician like his idol, Ernesto De La Cruz, considered the greatest musician of all time until the day of his death. When Miguel finds evidence that points to his long lost and much maligned Great Great Grandfather being De La Cruz himself, Miguel decides to embrace his destiny and play on stage at the Dia De Los Muertos talent show in the town square. However, when Miguel’s family finds out, they pull a Triton on him and smash his guitar. Desperate, Miguel steals the guitar of Ernesto De La Cruz, on display in a local museum. This turns out to be a terrible idea since on Dia De Los Muertos, stealing from the dead curses you to cross over into the other side until he can get his family’s blessing to return to world of the living. Miguel’s dead family members hate music just as much as his living ancestors and refuse to let Miguel cross over unless he swears off music for good, a condition Miguel cannot accept. So, his only option is his alleged Great Great Grandfather, Ernesto De La Cruz. So, with the help of another dead soul named Hector who’s in danger of being forgotten permanently due to no one putting up his photo on the ofrenda for Day of the Dead (apparently, that’s the only way spirits can cross over into the mortal world, and if there’s no one alive who remembers you, you disappear forever) Miguel must find De La Cruz before sunrise or else he’ll be stuck in the land of the dead forever. While far from perfect in my opinion, it’s a fun movie with a lot of heart to it. Let’s take a look at Coco.

Main Character:

Miguel is instantly relatable to anyone who’s ever felt like the black sheep of their own family. Being a music lover in a family that apparently hates music so much they won’t even let him blow on the top of a glass bottle will do that I guess. We’ll get into Miguel’s family life in one of the later sections. Miguel himself is a very likable character. A little impulsive maybe, but determined to follow his dreams. You can understand why he’d want to believe that De La Cruz is his ancestor since he’s so drastically different from his own family that it only makes sense that he’d feel a kinship with someone like more like him, even before he knew of their supposed relationship. I do appreciate that it’s made clear that Miguel loves his family, and feels especially close to his elderly Great Grandmother, Mama Coco, but can only be pushed so far. Music is the only thing that makes him feel joy and even if his family forbids it, he’s going to fight to keep it in his life. I actually really like that. Not too much else to say about Miguel, he’s your typical lovable kid in a Disney movie.

Villain:

Another movie, another twist villain, and a fairly obvious one at that. Anyone with half a braincell likely figured out that Hector was actually Miguel’s real Great Great Grandfather and from there, it’s not exactly a stretch to figure out that Ernesto De La Cruz is actually the villain. At least this time around, we get a believable reason for Ernesto concealing his true, villainous nature. He’s a big celebrity and cares deeply about maintaining his image, so anything that threatens that, namely a little kid who can take the knowledge that he poisoned his best friend and stole all the songs he wrote to further his career, has to go. I feel as though he’d be a lot more interesting if they made the twist far less predictable, but as is, he’s just kind of there to be the villain because… I guess we need a villain. Not the worst, but far from the best.

Side Characters:

I’m going to get this out of the way right now, Miguel’s family really got under my skin, and it has everything to do with their bullshit anti-music mentality. Now, I get it, Mama Imelda was left by her deadbeat musician husband and music only reminded her of her pain. Fair enough. But, to force this on all future generations, that’s kind of fucked up. I understand the importance of tradition in a family structure, but there’s following tradition, and cult-like adherence to it to the point where anyone who deviates from tradition is punished for it. For a movie that’s supposed to be about the importance of family, they sure went out of their way to make Miguel’s family pretty unlikable. They have this bullshit excuse of it being for his own good, but that doesn’t even make sense. Here’s the thing, family tradition can be important, and I completely understand encouraging the next generation to follow in the footsteps of the previous, but if someone tries to break the mold, the family should still be supportive. For example, my mother, father and brother are all teachers. I personally had no interest in that career path and my family said that they’d encourage me no matter what I chose to do. They wouldn’t have done something so horrible as destroy Miguel’s treasured guitar or worse, condemn him to an eternity in the afterlife unless he renounces his dream, even after they learn that it’s the only thing that makes him happy. So yeah, fuck the Rivera family, even if they do have a cool as hell pet spirit jaguar dragon thing.

Only two members of Miguel’s family get a pass from me. The first is Hector, Miguel’s real Great Great Grandfather. I actually like how Hector starts off as a comic relief sidekick and then slowly evolves into a more serious character. He’s a lovable weirdo who wants to go out in to the mortal world, but can’t because no one puts his photo on their ofrenda. I actually like the bit where he tries to leave dressed as Frida Kahlo. Oh, by the way, Frida Kahlo is actually in this movie and I don’t know enough about her work to know if this depiction is a parody or an homage. In any case, I rather liked Hector and his relationship with Miguel was actually really cute. I especially love the back and forth between him and Imelda.

Then, there’s Mama Coco, Hector’s daughter and Miguel’s great grandmother. Coco is elderly to the point where she’s having a tough time remembering things. Even so, she seems to love spending time with her great grandson, even dressing up like a Luchadora for him. The reason I like Coco so much is because she hit close to home. See, before my own grandmother passed away, she was battling Alzheimer’s disease and had difficulty of her own remembering things. It was really hard to watch one of the most intelligent and quick-witted people I knew deteriorate like that. It’s not dwelled upon, but Miguel is definitely going through something similar. I’ll admit, the moment of lucidity we get from Mama Coco at the end really got me in the feels as it reminded me of one of the last times I saw my own grandmother, and she was actually able to remember my name. It wasn’t much, but it was a nice reminder that my grandma was still in there.

Before we move on, I just want to acknowledge a brief cameo from legendary masked wrestler, El Santo, one of the most celebrated Luchadores of all time. As someone who’s as big a fan of Mexican Lucha Libre as I am, I had to mention the reference.

Songs:

Naturally, as a film that focusses so heavily on music, the music in this bad boy is really good. It’s a lot of Mariachi music, which is expected for a story that takes place in Mexico and the songs are pretty solid, even if some of them blend together a lit. I actually loved the scene where Miguel performs Un Poco Loco, which is his first public performance and a big moment for him.

Everyone Knows Juanita is also a fun little number about an ugly girl who is still the object of affection for the singer, which Hector plays for a friend before he ceases to exist as a result of being permanently forgotten.

The biggest song in the film is called Remember Me and it’s performed three times in three different ways. There’s De La Cruz’s version, which is this big, overblown and artificial sounding number that, in De La Cruz fashion, sounds like a love letter to himself. There’s Hector’s version, which we learn was actually written for his daughter, Coco, as something for her to remember him by when he goes away to start his music career. As for Miguel’s version, we’ll save that for the next section. It’s actually a pretty solid song and it’s interesting seeing it from different perspectives.

And my favorite song in the movie is actually the grand finale, Proud Corazon. The song just hits you in just the right feels. It’s just nice that after all we’ve been through that Miguel is finally allowed by his family to live his dream and gets to perform a really catchy number for his family, both living and dead, which finally feels whole for the first time in a very long time.

Memorable Scenes:

Before we get to the big scene I really like the opening scene where Miguel narrates his family's backstory that's told entirely through Day of the Dead decorations. (I have no idea if those things have a proper name in Mexico as I couldn't find anything in my research.)

That said, I absolutely have to talk about the scene where Miguel plays for Mama Coco. At this point, Mama Coco is the only one left alive who remembers Hector and with her declining mental state, that’s unlikely to last much longer. Miguel has lost Hector’s photo thanks to De La Cruz, so his only hope is to play Remember Me for her in the hopes that it will spark something, no matter how minor. Miguel plays his heart out, despite the objections of his family, and with tears in his eyes, he gets Mama Coco to sing along, leading to her moment of lucidity and remembering her father. It’s a simple scene, but it’s easily one of the most powerful, especially if you’ve ever had a relative with similar issues.

Story:

At its core, Coco is a story about family and the importance thereof. Personally, I don’t think it always presents that message as well as it could, I refer you to my rant about the Rivera’s fanatical hatred of all things musical for evidence of that, but when it hits the mark, it hits it just right. I already talked about the comparison between Coco and my own grandmother, but I also want to take this time to note that, as those of you who read my Big Hero Six article may know, I very recently lost someone very close to me, my uncle as it happens. And, coincidence of coincidence, the day I watched Coco was the day we laid his remains to rest. A lot of us spoke about what he meant to us, but someone said something about how the memories of him keep him alive in our hearts. It sounds a little sappy when I type it out, but it’s a powerful message for those and fits in nicely with the overall message of this film. That being, familial love, when said family is truly loving, has the power to transcend anything, even the grave. Our loved ones are always with us, no matter what happens.

The Dark Disney Factor:

I mean, this movie takes place primarily in the afterlife, a disturbing concept in and of itself, not helped by the fact that everyone there has no skin! That’s a little creepy, but credit to the art department for making them look more fun than scary. No, where the creep factor comes in is what happens to Miguel the longer he spends in the land of the dead. See, it’s established early on that Miguel will be trapped in the afterlife forever if he doesn’t get back to the mortal world by sunrise. This is shown when Miguel’s hands, and later other parts of his body, start turning skeletal. It’s actually pretty disturbing to watch Miguel slowly losing his skin over time.

Final Thoughts: This is a powerful movie with some great scenes. Not every aspect of it hits the mark in my opinion, but like I said, what it gets right, it does incredibly well. The characters, for the most part, are likable, the music is beautiful, the atmosphere is breathtaking and all around, the movie is just a ton of fun that will hit you in the feels. Next time, we stay on Pixar as we look at the long awaited followup to what is, in my opinion, Pixar's absolute best film. Join me next time when we dive into Incredibles II.