Been mulling this movie over since i saw it this last Tuesday, i had the chance to see it again on Friday and i still loved it. Coincidentally that theater had the Spanish dub of the movie, in the moment i was pretty dismissive of it but now i’m thinking i’d like to see it fully performed in its native tongue so i’m looking forward to getting the Blu-ray down the line.
Anyway i’ve been hoping to see a thread on here discussing the movie but i don’t think i saw one and would like to see opinions and thoughts from other people
Short form: I really loved it. It’s vibrant, it’s beautiful, it’s richly designed, and the music is terrific.
Its basic story is classic Disney / movie / etc: you have your protagonist, your macguffin, a twist you’ll see a mile away if you’ve seen a bunch of movies, etc. That’s not taking away from the movie, it’s just saying that it’s a fresh take on a classic formula.
One thing I really loved is that the songs are all not only great, but important. They aren’t just songs stuck in because hey, songs! but each song is a huge turning point for a character or a deeply felt moment.
My Mexican friends are jubilant that Disney/Pixar has made a film so deeply steeped in their culture and lovingly respectful as well. And like Grey_Devil, after hearing bits of the soundtrack in their native Spanish, I really want to see the film in a Spanish dub; the lyrics and voices just flow so much better.
I haven’t seen it yet but I am having a hard time not feeling that Pixar took a riff on Book of Life from a couple years back which was a fantastic film. Book of Life wasn’t a box office hit because OFC it doesn’t carry the Disney/Pixar brand to it. But it was one of the best animated films in the last five years.
I am hoping that Coco is not a clone because that would be super disappointing.
A few thoughts:
• Coco was in development well before Book of Life.
• Besides the Día de los Muertos theme, the two movies have nothing at all to do with each other, in terms of style, plot, or characters.
• Jorge Gutierrez has been very vocal about his support of Coco.
I thoroughly enjoyed Coco and think it was well done, but saying it and The Book of LIfe had “nothing at all to do with each other in terms of plot or characters” is a bit of overstatement.
Both films center around a young male protagonist from a Mexican village who longs to become a guitar player instead of pursuing the trade his family had pursued for generations. He soon finds himself reunited with long-dead ancestors in the Land of the Dead, where he is thrown into a race against time to return to the land of the living and protect those he cares about from being forgotten.
Also, the bad guy dies under a giant bell.
I’m not accusing Coco of ripping off The Book of Life, but there are certainly more than a few parallels.
I’d say that there’s a bit of a difference between a movie featuring an 11-year old boy and a grown man, whether they’re both Mexican musicians or not. But I do see your point.
For what it’s worth, the item in your spoiler text was, I believe, a tip of the hat from the director of Coco to the director of Book of Life, if I’m remembering correctly.
I haven’t seen Book of Life myself, but i’m also not the kind of person willing to give Pixar a pass based on name alone. I had no expectations of the movie going in and it really won me over quickly.
The biggest criticism i can give has nothing to do with the movie itself. There’s a seriously, obnoxiously long Frozen short before the movie. It’s maybe 15-20 minutes and it’s just too much. Also i was expecting the typical Pixar short in front of the movie and instead i got what is essentially a long ad for Frozen 2. Also Frozen isn’t even a Pixar movie so the inclusion really did not sit well with me. The “short” itself is ok i guess, but again… it’s too long.
Yeah, Disney essentially put a full-length Christmas special in front of the film; anyone expecting a quick Frozen short is going to be really frustrated sitting through it. They actually removed it from Mexican showings after public complaints. My guess is that Disney was hedging their bets with a movie about skeletons and thought that tacking a Frozen featurette on would bring in little girls.
Well, when I saw Coco, a few families with girls walked out right after the Frozen featurette ended, so I guess some people are desperate enough to pay full price for their girls to see more Frozen stuff.
The second time i saw it i saw a couple of families get up and leave mid-short, likely to either ask for a refund or see if they were in the wrong theater Heard a lot of grumbling about the length of the short both times i saw it.
Disney: Hey, here’s a big-budget family film celebrating Mexican culture!
Mexico: ¡Maravilloso!
Disney: But first, please enjoy this 21-minute long “short” about the whitest people you’ve ever seen talking about their Christmas traditions. Like, supernaturally white people.
Also i avoided trailers from Coco, mainly because i had zero interest in the movie up until the last second so i had no real expectations. I kind of knew vaguely what the story was but beyond that i was in the dark about a lot of it. Pretty glad everything was a surprise to me.
Also the second viewing was at a theater that i presume sees a lot of minorities (Justice league and Coco were both being shown dubbed in spanish on some screens), and there are some Hispanic jokes that got huge laughs out of the audience vs the first time i saw it was with a primarily white audience at a nicer theater and i was the only one laughing out loud at most of the jokes. Really makes a big difference having the crowd really into the movie, at the end of the second time i saw it the audience were clapping by the time the credits started rolling.
The first trailers were vague enough to show how beautiful the movie was going to be; when the second one hit, I saw an article that said “new trailer gives away most of the story!” so I avoided everything to do with the film until I saw it, and I’m quite glad I did.
Side note: before the movie came out, I heard rumors that the ‘boat ride’ at the Mexico pavilion at EPCOT (currently a Three Caballeros themed thing) may become a Coco ride if the movie does well enough. Having seen it, I now certainly hope so.
The most amazing thing about the Three Caballeros is that Walt Disney managed to make a film about Latin America that manages to mostly hold up after over 70 years (at least the cultural/ethnic stuff, less so for the sexist stuff).
Other mid-century attempts at ethnic avian inclusion have not weathered the test of time nearly as well.
Heard a lot of grumbling about the length of the short both times i saw it.
