Closet Conservative Movie Review – Disney/Pixar’s “Coco”
Disney’s/Pixar’s newest movie, Coco, is great for all ages and all cultures. It’s moving, beautiful, musical, funny, and wonderfully non-political.
Coco Movie Review
by
Closet Conservative
“One of the best Pixar movies – EVER”
Pixar’s team has done it again: They have upped their own very high bar in producing animated movies that are funny, moving, creative, and outright genius in the movement they create on screen.
Occasionally when traveling with my wife and two daughters, we make up lists of things we like. On a number of occasions after we see the newest Pixar Movie, we rate our all-time favorites Pixar flicks. Making up our top three we occasionally have a few cross overs that we all love (Toy Story, Up, Ratatouille…), but more often than not we have our own personal favorites that are unique to our own tastes. (I love Cars, my wife loves Monsters, my kids love Finding Nemo.) Over the weekend we all saw together Coco, the newest Pixar animation movie. As we exited the theater, with tears running town our faces, we all looked at each other and confirmed we may have found a NEW Favorite PIXAR movie of all time.
It’s hard to imagine the movie not touching an emotional chord with adults (I saw the movie with my 80 year old mother, as well as with my wife and my 20 and 23 year old daughters), but the movie truly does have the smarts and laughs for those of all ages. The colors, the sentimental theme of “remembering our relatives who had passed away”, all centered around the Mexican tradition of the “Day of the Dead” (Dia de los Muertos) make for a movie that brings a wonderful history of one culture to the rest of there world through common sentiments.
The protagonist in the movie is a 12-year-old boy living in a small Mexican town. The tradition of “The Day of the Dead” is still celebrated, and the drama in HIS family is NOT REMEMBERING the great-great grandfather who one day abandoned his family to pursue his passion in music. As the generations have passed, the story of the musician who once abandoned the family has grown to pain and resentment. He is a man whom all the relatives want to erase from their memories. Without giving away some very heartwarming and tear jerking twists, I will only say that the Boy goes to the LAND OF THE DEAD, in search of a man who can bring music to the boy’s life, and later to help erase the pain of a family who at one time felt abandoned.
There are folk songs from old Mexico which are cute, fun, and frequently mixed in with Spanish and English. If one understands some basic Spanish or has some knowledge of Mexican History, there are some hilarious inside jokes and bonus highlights. If one has no knowledge of Spanish, or the Day of the Dead tradition, this will be the most entertaining 90 minute history lesson you will ever have.
There was one moment in the movie where a typical Hollywood movie could have veered political, and made it’s Left Wing leanings known. It happened when one of the “dead” characters has to make a border crossing in the after life, and clearly implied he had to “sneak by immigration control”. However, in this smart apolitical story, it steered clear of making an obnoxious rap on any politicians or policies, and simply went for harmless laughs….
(FYI: My wife is a native of Mexico and the entire rest of her family STILL live in Mexico…. I’ve gotten three reviews from two bothers-in-laws, a sister in law, and two 12 year old nephews who wrote, in Spanish, how much they loved the movie, and pointed out how pleased they were that a Hollywood movie as taken a special Mexican tradition, and treated it with such heart and respect.)
Take a mother or father to Coco, AND take your kids – young and old alike.
