Hipsy's View: Pixar's Coco

I know this review is long overdue; Pixar's Coco has been out for almost a whole year (it came out in theatres November 2017 in the United States). But I didn't see this film until a few months ago. To be honest, I was a little skeptical;  I didn't want to watch a film that would be dishonest to my heritage (don't let my light skin and red hair fool you). But when I watched this wonderful film, I was happy it kept true to Mexican culture. Heads up, this is your spoiler alert warning, as I am about to get into details of the film (The centered and underlined paragraphs will be the plot and spoiler of the film; if you want to avert the spoilers and skip to my review of the movie, avoid the underlined plot).

Coco is a story located in Mexico, that is centered around the Mexican holiday Días de los Muertos. It is about a young boy named Miguel and his journey through the Land of the Dead to find an ancestor that caused his family to forbid music, which he is very passionate about. Through a picture that belonged to his Bisabuela (great-grandmother) Coco, he believes that his Tatara Abuelo (great-great-grandfather) that caused his family's hatred for music was a popular musician named Ernesto De La Cruz. Through his journey in the Land of the Dead, along with his dog Dante and a deceased man named Héctor (who is on his own mission to try to reach the land of the living in order for his descendant to remember him), Miguel travels to find de la Cruz and along the way learns the true meaning of la familia (family).

In further detail, the name of the movie focuses on Miguel's bisabuela. Coco is at a deteriorating age where she is slowly forgetting things so, and through Miguel's journey he completes two tasks, one of them unknowingly: he searches for his the tatara abuelo to learn the truth and gain his blessing to return to the Land of the Living and to help his bisabuela remember her father.

To break it down, Miguel Rivera is in a family that are shoemakers; this profession was taken up by his Bisabuela Coco’s mother Imelda after Coco's father had left the family to pursue a career in music. When Coco's father never returned or kept in contact, Imelda was heartbroken and angry, so she forbade music or anything related to it in the household. In order to provide for her daughter, she became a shoemaker. When her daughter became married, she taught the rest of her family to make shoes and one rule was kept as more people came into the family: no music. Three generations go by, and Rivera Shoes is a successful business to this day and the no-music policy is still strong... until Miguel decides to play music in the Annual Festival Talent Show on Días de los Muertos.

Miguel always wanted to play music, he even made a guitar and would secretly play it in the family's attic. This guitar is similar-looking to his idol’s guitar, Ernesto de la Cruz. It is learned that de la Cruz was a musician and was crushed by a bell in 1942. After chasing his adopted dog Dante away from the family ofrenda (an altar that holds the family pictures and offerings in the household), Miguel obtains a picture of his tatara abuela Imelda holding a young Coco and standing next to a man with his face torn off; the man is holding de la Cruz's guitar. Therefore, Miguel believes the famous musician to be his ancestor. When is family forbids him to play in the talent show and his abuela breaks his guitar, Miguel goes to de la Cruz’s mausoleum in the local cemetery. By stealing from the dead, Miguel becomes cursed and is transported, in a sense, to the Land of the Dead. The only beings that can see him are skeletal beings and his dog ( this is an important thing in Mexican culture because Dante is a Xoloitzcuintli, or Xolo, which is a dog that has connections to the spirit world). The fact that Miguel had his tatara abuela’s photo with him made it where she could not return to the land of the living to visit her family because her picture was not on the ofrenda. So the rest of Miguel's skeletal family takes him to Imelda. It is then learned that the only way Miguel can return to the Land of the Living is if a family relative can give him a blessing (which is in the form of an Aztec marigold petal) to return; Imelda agrees to do this but in return, Miguel must never pursue music again. Being resistant to not wanting to give up music, Miguel runs away and begins the journey to find de la Cruz to get his blessing to go home. The problem is he does not know where he is located. By chance, Miguel meets a man named Héctor, who used to play with de la Cruz. Héctor agrees to help Miguel if in return Miguel could take his photo of himself when he was alive to his descendant; it is learned later that if the picture is not taken back to the Living and put on an ofrenda, Héctor could face the final death (this happens when there is no one left in the Living to remember the Dead, and so they drift into the nothingness).

Halfway through the journey, Héctor discovers that Miguel's family is looking for him. When he confronts Miguel and tries to return him to his family, Miguel resists and continues his journey without him. When Miguel finds de la Cruz, he tells him of his origin and Ernesto accepts him as his descendant. Unbeknownst to Miguel, Héctor followed him. When confronting de la Cruz, Héctor and Miguel notice a scene that is being played on repeat in de la Cruz’s home from a movie he was in when he was alive; in the scene, the main character spits out poison he was offered to him by a trusted friend. It turns out that this is what actually happened between Héctor and Ernesto; through a memory shown, it is learned that de la Cruz poisoned Héctor and stole his music when Héctor decided to return to his family. To protect his reputation and ensure that the truth was not found, de la Cruz has Héctor and Miguel thrown in a cenote pit. Here, Miguel learns that de la Cruz's famous song Remember Me was originally Héctor's lullaby that he would sing to Coco, his daughter; it is revealed that Héctor is Miguel's tatara abuelo. As Miguel and Héctor profess their joy to be each other's family to the heavens above (up towards the hole of the pit), Dante and the family alebrije (a spirit guide and protector), which is being ridden by Imelda, appear and rescue them both. Though still bitter towards Héctor, Imelda helps him and Miguel, along with the rest of the deceased Rivera family, retrieve the photo that de la Cruz took from Miguel. And doing this, the truth is exposed of de la Cruz’s villainy and why Héctor never came back to his family. But this came at a cost; while exposing the truth of de la Cruz, Héctor's picture was lost. At the same time, Héctor starts to weaken; it means he is being slowly forgotten. Before the sun begins to rise, both Imelda and Héctor gives Miguel their blessing to return to the Land of the Living with no conditions; together, Miguel's ancestors lifted his curse and removed the no-music policy. Once reaching the Land of the Living, Miguel takes de la Cruz’s -- actually Héctor’s -- guitar, rushes home to his bisabuela Coco and sings to her Hector’s lullaby in order to remember him. he was successful, and Coco gives Miguel the part of the picture that was torn, the last picture of Héctor.

In the end, the truth about Ernesto Dela Cruz was learned in the Land of the Living, Héctor was recognized for his music and was given back the rights to his creations, and Héctor's picture was put back on the ofrenda so he could visit his family in the Land of the Living. As Miguel tells his baby sister the reason for the ofrenda, is Abuela puts up Coco's picture; it is revealed that Coco is reunited with her father in the Land of the Dead as they come to visit on Días de los Muertos. 

As stated before, I was hesitant at first to watch this film because I didn't want to watch something that would disrespect my family heritage and play it off as some fun holiday that was like Halloween. You wouldn't believe how many times I had to tell people that Días de los Muertos was not like Halloween and I lived in a Hispanic community! But after watching it, I was amazed at how beautiful and true the storyline was to the holiday and the culture. It respectful and --as one of the creators had said they wanted it to be -- a love story to Mexico and Mexican culture. Also, to admit, I learned a few more things that I was not taught about Días de los Muertos, such as the alebrijes and the final death. This film is very bright and passionate and is a fantastic piece of work. I also enjoyed the little cameos of famous celebrities within the movie, such as the Luchador wrestler El Santo and particularly one unibrowed painter known throughout the world (Frida!). And, of course, it would not be a Pixar movie without references and easter eggs connected to their other films; let me know which ones you spotted ;). Let's just say it's easily noticeable that I enjoyed this film and am content on how closely represented the true meaning of Mexican culture and heritage.

Expect a few more movie reviews to come soon; I have at least two I need to publish soon. Also, I have a few book reviews to do, so they will also be posted soon. Until then, please let me know what you think about this review (and my other ones) by leaving me comments, and please let me know if there is anything you would like me to review. Thank you all for reading Hipsy's Review.