Movie Review: 'Coco'

It’s hard for me to look at a Pixar movie as just another movie. The computer animation company has built such a remarkable run of quality work that it feels like something more than just a string of hit cartoons. Pixar movies combine heart, humor, pathos and great art unlike any other company on the planet. Toy Story, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, and the like aren’t just any other kids movie, they are highly regarded works of art.

So it pains me to report that Pixar’s latest effort Coco is just another animated movie. Don’t misunderstand, it’s better than your average animated movie and certainly aspires toward the works of art that came before it in the Pixar canon, it just comes up a little short of the Pixar standard. With a pat story and flat characters, Coco has some lovely moments but never soars the way Pixar classics have soared before. Yes, I’m complaining because Coco is great but not brilliant.

Coco stars the voice of Anthony Gonzalez as Miguel, the curious son of a family that has banned music from their hearts and homes for decades. Too bad for Miguel then that he was born with an undying song in his heart. When he isn’t shining shoes for his family shoe business, Miguel is dreaming in music and longing for the moment he can take up a guitar and play for an excited audience. His chance arrives during a celebration of the Dia De los Muertes, the Day of the Dead, a legendary celebration when it is believed the spirits of the dead can, for one night, return to the world of the living.

A competition is to be held for musicians in the town square and all Miguel needs is a guitar so that he may jump on stage and celebrate his love of music. Unfortunately, before he can head for the square, his secret is uncovered by his imperious grandmother who winds up destroying his guitar. It seems that the family has been banned from listening to or playing music since Miguel’s great-great grandfather left behind his wife and daughter, Miguel's great grandmother, Coco, to play music in nightclubs.

Unsatisfied with his grandmothers admonitions against music, Miguel runs off into the night and makes a discovery, the great-great grandfather whose face was torn from a family photo years ago may be the famous singing legend Ernesto De La Cruz (Benjamin Bratt) whose famed guitar hangs in a building in town square. Unfortunately, when Miguel attempts to borrow the legendary guitar, a curse transfers him to the land of the dead where he will remain unless one of his late family members will return him to life.

There is a great deal more plot to unpack but I’ve already been going on for a while. The thing about the plot of Coco is that as dense as it is, it’s highly predictable and familiar. Much of the plot turns on a very obvious bit of misunderstanding regarding the identity of Miguel’s great great grandfather. Is it De la Cruz or a shabby beggar named Hector (Gael Garcia Bernal) who claims that he used to write music with De la Cruz and may be the secret to De La Cruz’s success.

If you try you can guess where that plot is headed and really, pretty much everything that happens in Coco happens as part of a very specific and overly familiar formula. Usually when we talk about a Pixar movie plot we spend time talking about the clever and funny ways that Pixar creators subvert expectations. Coco sadly, adheres to every expected twist and turn of a coming of age story while dressed up in the history and culture of Mexico.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to see Pixar indulge respectfully in the lives of characters who aren’t typical of the animation genre but a stock plot is a stock plot regardless of the ethnicity of the characters. There is little to no invention to the characters other than their ethnicity and the unique look of the skeleton characters which reflects the art of Mexico related to the Day of the Dead. Coco was crafted with a very strict adherence to the expected beats of a familiar plot dressed up in elaborate and beautiful animation and, for me, that’s just not Pixar enough.

With that said, of course I like Coco, I just don’t love it. If Sony Pictures Animation or Blue Sky had released Coco, Coco would likely rank among the best work of either of those companies, but as a Pixar movie it falls a little short. The characters are nice in terms of their cultural representation but they are oddly lifeless and function only due to the contrivance of the stock plot. The story of Coco holds no surprises and since the movie has few laughs there isn’t anything to make up for the dull familiarity.

This is not the movie’s fault. It’s a solid, beautifully animated film. The fault is mine for holding Pixar to a rather impossible standard. Pixar movies, for me, have transcended the animation genre into something so much greater. The mix of humor, heart, smarts and brilliant animation has created a remarkably high bar of quality. When I hear the name Pixar I expect more than just a stock plot and beautiful animation. They are a victim of their own reputation in my mind. Making a good movie like Coco almost feels like a negative when you place it next to the ridiculously high standards of past Pixar efforts.

I do recommend Coco but not with the kind of vociferousness I have past Pixar movies. Coco opened in theaters nationwide just before Thanksgiving.