Coco (2017)

Written by CinemaSerf on September 2, 2023

Budding guitarist "Miguel" is puzzled by his family's long-established ban on anything musical. To him it just doesn't make any sense at all especially as, generations ago, his family were at the top of that very game. Determined to get to the bottom of that mystery so he can emulate the legendary heart-throb "Ernesto" (a cross between Julio Iglesias and Justin Bieber), he finds that serendipity takes an hand in things. On the Day of the Dead, he manages to get himself transported to the the vibrant and surprisingly lively land of the dead where he encounters the slightly mischievous "Hector" who promises to guide him to his great, great grand-father, find the truth and enable him to return home to a family that will, once again, embrace music. He has to get a move on though, as he only has the hours of darkness to fulfil his quest - so the race is on. Meantime some of his other, long deceased, family are also on his trail bent on returning him home without his music. To be honest, I found the underlying tale of loyalty and family to be just a bit overly-sentimental at times, but the quality and vivacity of the animation is a class apart - huge great eyes and smiles that tell the story so much better than words ever could. The story marries the musical with the dastardly and mysterious nicely with a well written script and a quickly paced storyline that is really quite entertaining. This works better on a big screen - it really shows the animators art off to best effect and, luckily, this has plenty for the adult audience too with some engagingly quirky characters.