Pixar Pint #19: Coco

Sandwiched between two cash grab sequels is perhaps Pixar's most creative film ever.

Welcome back to Pixar Pints, our two-summer-long journey through all 26 Pixar films in release order.

Coco was a landmark film for Latin America. It was the first film of any kind, much less animation, to have a budget of at least $100 million and feature an all-Latino main cast. In Mexico, it had the highest-grossing opening weekend of any animated film to date and went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time in the country.¹

Less importantly, it was the first film Pixar first released in a market that was not the United States. Coco debuted at Morelia International Film Festival in Mexico on October 20, 2017. That in itself wasn’t new; Up, Toy Story 3, Monsters University, Inside Out, and The Good Dinosaur had all previously debuted outside the United States.² What was new was that Pixar then released the movie in the entire Mexican market a week later, almost a month before they released it in the United States.

How lucky was Mexico to get this film a month early?

Let’s get into it.

Coco quick facts

Release date: October 27, 2017 (Mexico) / November 22, 2017 (United States) | Director: Lee Unkrich | Music: Michael Giacchino

Starring: Anthony Gonzalez (Miguel), Gael García Bernal (Héctor), Benjamin Bratt (Ernesto de la Cruz), Alanna Ubach (Mamá Imelda), Renée Victor (Abuelita Elena), Ana Ofelia Murguía (Mamá Coco)

John Ratzenberger as: Juan Ortodoncia

Budget: $175-225 million | Box office: $814.3 million

Academy Awards: Won Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song (“Remember Me”)

Eli

This is the first time I’d seen this movie.

Aesthetic: 9/10 | It’s such a love letter to Mexican culture in a way that suggests actual research and care were put into its presentation. The stark contrast between the relatively monotone real world and the extravagantly vibrant Land of the Dead is both visually appealing and thematically appropriate. This also extends to the character designs; the human designs are very grounded—almost photoreal in some cases—in contrast to the cartoonishly fantastical skeletons in the Land of the Dead. And that's without even mentioning the vividness of the alebrijes! My only gripe (however minor) is that, for as cool as the Land of the Dead looks, the plot of the movie demands that it only be shown at night, so a lot of it just looks the same.

Animation: 10/10 | I really can’t pick any holes here. The subtle-but-necessary differentiations in how the humans and skeletons were animated deserves high praise. As with Brave, Pixar’s first foray into the mystic, the magical effects and animations are truly enthralling and enchanting.

Story: 10/10 | Man, this thing is just woven together so seamlessly. I’m almost at a loss for words for how many messages, storylines, and character arcs they stitch together in a perfectly sensical way that resolves almost everything at once. More than that, it’s just a super fun and interesting story to watch; it’s been a while since the events of a Pixar movie drew me in like this and left me on the edge of my seat for what was going to happen next. And the twist is done perfectly! All of the pieces are there if you’re paying close enough attention and yet it still hits so hard. I’m being vague on purpose because my words really can’t do this film justice; it must be experienced.

Characters: 10/10 | Miguel learns so much over the course of this movie and the best parts are that 1) it all feels like it happened because of his own actions, and 2) all of those actions make sense within the context of the story. All of the marks of a dysfunctional family are present at the beginning of the movie: the elder who rules with an iron fist despite having frankly delusional motivations, the child protagonist whose emotional needs are going largely ignored, and the father who clearly wants to side with the child but is often overruled. Imelda and Abuelita’s matriarchy dominating the family dynamic gives the movie an air of gender diversity despite most of the primary characters being male. Miguel, Héctor, and Imelda all being naturally talented musicians and having to repress their musical expression for different reasons is great writing, and the resolution to this storyline is both touching and inspiring. Ernesto is just the right level of sociopathic to make sense in context. If there’s one complaint I have, it’s that Miguel might be a little too precocious for the age of 12, but I think his actions and words still mostly track based on what he goes through over the course of his early life and throughout this movie.

Acting: 10/10 | There’s not a bad acting performance in this film, and some of the actors are also evidently very talented singers. Everyone sells their character perfectly.

Music: 10/10 | It’s not easy to create original songs for a kids’ movie that still sound like authentic, era-appropriate Mexican ranchera tunes, but these guys did it and they’re catchy as hell; "Un Poco Loco" was still stuck in my head when I woke up the next morning. This is the first Pixar movie in which music has been a key cog in the plot and they injected enough of it to clearly enhance the experience but not enough that it overstays its welcome. I love everything about this soundtrack.

Final score: 10/10 | I’ll be honest: when I started Pixar Pints, I thought Toy Story 2 was going to be my #1 film all the way. I’m glad to be wrong. This is pretty close to a perfect movie.

Leah

Aesthetic: 10/10 | Gorgeous movie! The land of the dead is fantastical. Shout out to the alebrije character designs for being so colorful and creative. Pepita was my favorite, she was so pretty. The skeleton character designs were culturally inspired and aesthetically appealing. I also liked the real world setting; it provided a nice contrast and helped us understand Miguel.

Animation: 10/10 | Pixar animation does it again. The characters’ movements showed so much about their personalities, and kudos for animating the alebrije in a way that looks natural.

Story: 10/10 | It’s been a while since one of these movies totally immersed me in the story but Coco pulled it off. I love the way the plot is structured. This movie has a few “twists” but the foreshadowing is excellent and none of the surprises feel contrived. This is my second time watching Coco and I enjoyed seeing how they built up to the reveals. This is Pixar’s best movie thematically. The subversion of “seize your moment” is brilliantly executed. It starts out like a typical “follow your dreams” kids’ movie but it completely turns that on its head when Ernesto is revealed to be a villain who hurt a lot of people on his road to success. I also appreciated that both Miguel and his family had growth in their relationships with each other. This movie is so layered thematically, I could write a whole pint just about that.

Characters: 10/10 | Miguel is a character I was 100% invested in. He had motivations I cared about and I was rooting for him to succeed. The characters make this movie engaging. Héctor and Imelda are both flawed and sympathetic, and Ernesto is everything a good villain should be.

Acting: 10/10 | Singing and acting are on point!

Music: 10/10 | This soundtrack slaps.

Final score: 10/10 | Easily the best Pixar movie of the decade. A lot of other Pixar movies have very noticeable problems or bad implications (even my beloved Finding Nemo), but I didn’t find that in this movie. It’s a great story with strong themes and so much artistry put into the telling.

Maddy

Aesthetic: 9/10 | Animation: 9/10 | Story: 8/10 | Characters: 8/10 | Acting: 9/10 | Music: 10/10

Wiping the tears from my eyes as I try and find the words for this review. Even on second watch for this project, I cannot help but lose it during “Remember Me” (and honestly the movie as a whole, but yeah).

Pixar’s inconsistency of the 2010s, in retrospect, is so fascinating. For the amount of mediocre films Pixar released for money, just to get it out there, or to show off their CGI, you get movies like Coco. Ones that let Pixar’s storytelling powers shine in beautiful colors, as well as the environments.

It, to me, doesn’t feel like a Pixar movie of the 2010s. It doesn’t feel fully tied down to the trends of the time, besides a twist villain but it actually works here so it’s fine! This is Pixar’s last big hurrah for now: a movie crafted out of love, given the full ability to spread its wings to tell an emotionally engaging story about death, family, and the process of moving on.

Movies are a powerful medium that can do anything and impact so many. The existence of Coco should not be forgotten. Its praises should be spoken and its achievements should be studied. While not the best (nor my favorite) Pixar film, it is the Pixar film I have felt the most emotion for, and that’s the power of 24 moving drawings per second. Mwah!

Final score: 53/60 or 8/10

David

Aesthetic: My only ding here is that the Land of the Dead is so monotone, but that’s because the bounds of the film require it to be shown at night. Nothing really to be done about that from the perspective of the animators.

Animation: Gorgeous as always. I feel like even between Inside Out and this, you see leaps and bounds in the fluidity of the characters, and it’s a touch that I really like in this case. Pixar knows how to make magic look…well, magical.

Story: This one’s pretty great. I don’t think it hit me quite like I wanted to, but it’s far from a miss—beautifully crafted and woven together in so many ways.

Characters: Miguel is a little too on the ball for his age, I think, but like…that’s basically the only gripe I have. Damn. They do a great job making Ernesto reasonable in that it’s not a hamfisted nor particularly stupid arc that he has—something that I’ve definitely felt in other movies.

Acting: Solid all the way through.

Music: I’m not huge on the style of music—personal preference—but damn. It’s very evident, at the least, that this soundtrack is remarkably well thought-out.

Final score: 9/10 | It’s extremely good. As much as it doesn’t necessarily hit a lot of my personal notes, I think it’s one of the peaks of Pixar’s craft up to this point.

Final notes

Director Lee Unkrich based the main real-world town in the film on Santa Fe de la Laguna, a town of about 5,000 in the Mexican state of Michoacán. Santa Fe de la Laguna is primarily inhabited by the Purépecha people and its main industry is pottery.

While researching for Coco in and around Santa Fe de la Laguna, the film’s producers met María de la Salud Ramírez Caballero, a local woman who at the time was about 100 years old. She became their direct inspiration for Mamá Coco.

She was never credited for this, much to the dismay of her and her community, as well as several Mexican media outlets. Despite many calls for Disney-Pixar to recognize Salud’s contributions to Coco, the studio has yet to do so.

It may very well be too late. Salud died on October 16, 2022, at the age of 109.

Numbers next to each film are each reviewer’s overall rating out of 10.

Next up: Incredibles 2

1. It has since been overtaken several times, most recently by The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

2. Up and Inside Out debuted at Cannes, Toy Story 3 debuted at Taormina in Italy, Monsters University debuted in London, and The Good Dinosaur debuted in Paris (poor Paris).