Coco

I don't trust anyone who dislikes this film. Coco is a beautiful outing from Pixar and the one I find to be their very best. From the premise it doesn't sound like anything that different from your typical family film. A young boy wants to follow his dreams againts his parents wishes? Gee, I wonder when I heard that one before... And he has an animal sidekick and he's going to sing about his dreams? Are you sure this is a Pixar and not a Disney film? But there's something, and I can't quite put it into words, that makes this particular film special. Like REALLY special. You can easily point out to some cliches I pointed to mockingly myself but really, do they matter with a script that works this well? It sets up everything you need to know about the characters and why should you care in the first 10 minutes. With the amount of plotlines it could have easily become convoluted but it never does and you always understand the motivations of every character. Surprisingly mature for a "kids movie" too with the whole film dealing with death but it never becomes too depressing for a family film. Far from it. Except for a few, pretty funny might I add, slapstick jokes it never feels the need to cater especially too kids but it doesn't allienate them either. It's a film for everyone really in every sense of the word. Even 7 years later, this is still the best looking Pixar film to date. It's pure eye candy and I think the animators and the crew working on this film really had a lot of fun especially when it comes to the movement of the skeletons. This is the only Pixar musical and most of the songs are so full of energy and catchy which fits the Land of the Dead feeling like a non-stop aftelife party -while a handful of the songs are a bit slower and really tug your hearstrings. Heck, even the main song "Remember me " has like a decent amount of varations and each and every one of them is used in a different context. It never felt like they were desperately forcing a song to be a hit like "Let it Go" in Frozen, while I'll give it credit with all my hatred for "Let it Go" it still had plot relevance but what's crazy acomplished here is that Coco, because of it's story, feels like a perfect film to be a musical and not only that characters don't suddenly feel the need to sing "just because" but it makes sense within the story (outside of Proud Corazon which STILL has some context when it's played while Hector's meeting Coco and his family finally accepts Miguel as a musician). Also a bit ironic I mention Frozen since a nearly 30 minute Frozen short about Olaf and the magic of Christmas played before Coco - a film about Día de Muertos FROM A DIFFERENT STUDIO. WHY DISNEY??!! If they want to milk every possible Pixar film there is, I can see a film that explores Miguel's struggle to become a sucessful musician but we really don't need it. The film feels very self contained and it actually shows that too much fame can really get to the head, we shouldn't idolise anyone and appreciate our family because no family is perfect but everyone's is unique and they're more important than some may think. ALSO MEXICAN CULTURE. It still made my cry on my 4th watch. If you haven't seen this film, do yourself a favor. This is a modern classic that actually qualifies for my top 10 of all time. If someday I'll find a better way to express my feelings stay tuned but for now that is all. If you thought Pixar's golden years are gone, you aren't far from the truth BUT seriously missing out if you haven't seen Coco, Soul or even Luca. This film proves Pixar can still make AMAZING films nowdays, or you know Elemental instead....