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Coco (Pixar)

firefossil

firefossil

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Saw the latest Pixar movie, and damn was it a doozy. I can't recall the last time a movie had this kind of emotional effect on me. It was also beautiful and funny, with strong characters and plot. I'd strongly recommend that everyone see it. Anyone else see it? I was surprised to see no thread for it over a week after release. Oh and also there is a 21 minute Frozen short at the beginning, which neatly explained why Coco's listed runtime was so long (1 hour 51 minutes).
 
Coco was a lot of fun. Speaking as someone who is not Mexican / Latino / Hispanic and knows very little about the culture I was expecting to be a little confused. I was very pleased with how they managed to explain everything plot relevant in ways that helped maintain suspension of disbelief. Have to explain X? Well isn't it good that there's a child getting the explanation from their parents?

That said it was also a great story for plot and character reasons. Almost every character was memorable. Even the background characters that only appear in a few places were well done. The antagonist wasn't exactly a nice character but they were handled very well. The story was also amazing. It touched on family, loss, love, and how people can be wrong about the people they love. That last one leads to a very heartwarming set of scenes where forgiveness and joy are included.

I strongly recommend this film to anyone looking for a Pixar / Disney fix.
 
Absolutely stupendous. Easily one of Pixar's best. A charming story, beautiful visuals, and fantastic music make for an amazing cinematic experience. It's one of the best movies I've seen all year, and this is a years I've seen a lot of movies. While I've never been to Mexico beyond a few tourist spots, and I speak no Spanish, I am Latino and I find it quite refreshing to see a prominently Latino cast in a major Hollywood release.

Quick poll, does this count as Pixar's first musical? Music is heavily featured, drives the plot (both in general and specific songs), and has major musical set-pieces, but all the songs are diagetic.
 
Good God this movie ... at the end of movie I don't think there was a single dry eye in the theater.

I can't even articulate how much I adored this film as a Mexican American and how much it meant to me to be able to watch it with my family.

Also, the music was excellent. I was extremely pleased the songs were very deliberately Mexican, rather than some forgettable generic Disney music.

I rather like Miguel's (the real life artist) version of Remember Me that they play during the end credits.



Poco Loco was a fuckton of fun for me though.

The imagery of the Land of the Dead was so goddamn stunning. Like the flower petal bridge and the Alebrijes and everything ...

Has anyone heard about the censors supposedly letting Coco through unedited because of how much it touched them? Dunno how true that is, but I certainly appreciate that Coco has become a huge hit in China.
 
Teocraso said:
Has anyone heard about the censors supposedly letting Coco through unedited because of how much it touched them? Dunno how true that is, but I certainly appreciate that Coco has become a huge hit in China.
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Considering that honouring one's ancestors is one of the most important facet of Chinese culture, that the Qingming Festival is a rather similar equivalent of Día de Muertos, that it deals with balancing personal aspirations and familial duties (another theme that should resonate with the Chinese audience), it was a guaranteed hit thematically speaking.

It wasn't tailor made for a Chinese audience, but it might as well have been. And while I haven't seen the movie yet, the values it promotes are afaik extremely compatible with the values the PRC promotes. As a hypothetical censor, I'd love to show the Chinese public an obviously foreign film whose values resonate so much with Chinese values.
 
Just saw it. Amazing, just amazing. Beautiful visuals, emotionally touching, great music, seemed culturally respectful (well, at least enough that somebody unfamiliar with the subject matter couldn't spot any blatant American actors or concepts). The theater I saw it in even had removed the Frozen short.

I gotta say though, part of it broke my suspension of disbelief.

Namely, that in only one year the letters could be publicized, dated, argued over, and become popular enough for tour groups coming by there rather than at the statue is already a thing. That strikes me as a bit more of a four or five year thing before the new public perception would really sink in.

Also that Miguel would let them put up a photo of Coco as an old lady rather than in her prime when everybody he saw in the afterlife looked exactly the same age as their photo, but that's grounded in assumption and it's probably actually a case of "how they're remembered", although it raises the question of why everybody else was remembered young.


The twist also seemed a bit telegraphed, but that's less the movie's problem and more me getting too Doylist Analyst for my own good and getting suspicious about relative amounts of screentime.
 
Zap Rowsdower said:
The twist also seemed a bit telegraphed, but that's less the movie's problem and more me getting too Doylist Analyst for my own good and getting suspicious about relative amounts of screentime.
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Going to be honest, this is the thing that stood out the most to me. Well, that, and how visually similar a lot of the Day of the Dead elements were to The Book of Life, another animated kid's movie centered around Dias Des los Muertos. Coco is a better story and tighter thematically, but the plot was so incredibly by the numbers that I had real difficulty enjoying the movie. I did like the message and the animation (the second one can practically be taken for granted, given that this is Pixar), but everything about Ernesto, Hector, and the fatherhood thing was so painfully obvious and immersion breaking that I couldn't enjoy it. Ernesto being evil was likely the moment they introduced him (becoming certain when Hector showed up), Hector being his real father was certain the second that they devoted a full scene to his introduction and then he started helping Miguel, and it all just felt so stilted and unrealistic. The biggest thing that hurt my first watch, though, was that I really did not like Miguel as he was introduced in the movie. His character grows over the course of the movie into someone that I was able to root for, but in his early scenes, blech.

It's still a pretty good movie about family values, but I don't seem to find the same joy in it that other people have.
 
Seeing the trailer didn't really make me want to go and see it, but given how well-liked the movie seemed to be I gave it a try.
And oh boy was I right to do so.
 
I just watched this movie, and there were several points where I was just sobbing. Very touching movie, definitely a Pixar masterpiece.
 
That nearly killed me, I cried so much. Loved it.

edit: also, I watched it in Spanish and I might have missed some of the jokes, but it was worth it. Really cool that they've been playing it in theaters.
 
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Teocraso said:
Has anyone heard about the censors supposedly letting Coco through unedited because of how much it touched them? Dunno how true that is, but I certainly appreciate that Coco has become a huge hit in China.
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About that:
China's film censorship bureau surprised practically everyone recently when it authorized Pixar's newest animated feature, Coco, to release in Chinese theaters. As everyone who deals with or is affected by China's movie industry knows, ghosts are strictly verboten in movies that appear on China's movie screens, TV broadcasts, and internet videos. It's right there in paragraph 4 of the censorship guidelines published the powerful State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television (SAPPRFT) in 2008:
(4) Showing contents of murder, violence, terror, ghosts and the supernatural; ...
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Because belief in ghosts, spirits, and superstitions (like religion) could undermine faith in the party, they are strictly banned.

The censors have applied paragraph 4's prohibition against ghosts to virtually eliminate spirits and supernatural elements from Chinese films, and to ban such foreign movies as Frankenstein ("superstitious," "strange," and "unscientific"), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ("swarming with ghosts"), Crimson Peak ("ghosts and supernatural elements") and Ghostbusters.

And yet Coco, which is even more "swarming" with ghosts than Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, somehow, inexplicably, sailed through the censorship review without even a single cut being required. How could this happen, many asked (including myself), when the censors have been so consistently, adamantly opposed to allowing ghosts to appear on screen in Chinese movie theaters?
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China has a strict "no undead" rule, to the point that it usually results in the movie simply being banned, not merely censored, and they are generally merciless in enforcing it. Coco was released without a single cut. Its since made almost as much money in China as it had in the USA.

That said such is in part due to Coco giving a disappointing box office performance, only Cars 3 and The Good Dinosaur delivered worse ones, and worldwide helps a little but not much. I don't get why. Coco was definitely Pixar at its A-game, one of their finest movies. Why didn't people see it?
 
firefossil said:
About that:

China has a strict "no undead" rule, to the point that it usually results in the movie simply being banned, not merely censored, and they are generally merciless in enforcing it. Coco was released without a single cut. Its since made almost as much money in China as it had in the USA.

That said such is in part due to Coco giving a disappointing box office performance, only Cars 3 and The Good Dinosaur delivered worse ones, and worldwide helps a little but not much. I don't get why. Coco was definitely Pixar at its A-game, one of their finest movies. Why didn't people see it?
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I feel like we kinda all know why it might not have done so well... but it's also possible it was just a crowded release time, competing w Thor Ragnarok and now TLJ? (Also, Ferdinand)
 
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUA;LSKDJF;ALSKDJF;LASDFKJ

Saw it with sister last night. Cried pretty hard ("you were openly sobbing"-my sister), ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT.

I felt EMOTIONALLY CLEANSED after that. WHOLE NEW ME, BODY IS A TEMPLE, etc.

Man, the city of the dead was gorgeous-one of the greatest reveals of a location I've seen, period.
 
The Laurent said:
Incidentally, having just watched Coco it absolutely fucked me up.
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I know right? I only just managed to get in to see it during one of the last days it was in theatres, no regrets about that...coincidentally I watched it for the first time on Canada's Family Day. I just fell in love with the songs for this movie. <3
 

‘Coco 2’ Set For 2029 Release In Theaters

The Pixar sequel will reunite 'Coco' director Lee Unkrichn and co-director Adrian Molina.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
Speaking at Disney's Annual Shareholder Meeting, [Disney CEO Bob] Iger announced the title, Coco 2, and said the film is still in early stages of development. The theatrical release is set for 2029.

The sequel will bring back members of the creative team from the original film, including director Lee Unkrichn and co-director Adrian Molina. Mark Nielsen (Toy Story 4, Inside Out 2) will produce.

...

Disney is also planning a Coco ride-through attraction, which is slated to come to Disney California Adventure.
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What? This is nothing new for Pixar. 14 years between the Incredibles movies, 12 between Monsters, 13 between Nemo and Dory... They all pre-date the 20th Century Fox purchase too.
 
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