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Join Telegram ChannelCoco will be broadcast this Monday evening on W9, which is already preparing for Halloween.
CocoPixar's 19th animated film co-directed by Adrian Molina And Lee Unkricharrives on television. “For me, the best Pixars are the ones that make the audience feel all kinds of emotions, explained this one to us when it was released at the end of 2017. They are funny, exciting, very intense, sometimes a little scary, and in the end they are filled with emotion, they make the spectators feel something strong. I find that these days, it's getting lost. We can be entertained by a film, have a lot of fun in front of the screen, but we don't really think about it again once we leave the theater. We want to make films that leave a mark, that stay with you, that offer you a mirror and make you think about your own life, your relationship with family.”
From this point of view, Coco is indeed a successful Pixar: we will think about it long after the session, so powerful is its message about tradition and the importance of honoring the memory of one's ancestors. Unfortunately, emotion is not everything: Coco is also paradoxically an animated film that is uneven in its construction, which leaves a strange impression of déjà vu. Explanations.
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Warning, this review contains minor spoilers
As is often the case with Pixar, the opening of Coco is splendid: it summarizes the life of the family of the young hero, Miguel, with the help of “picado paper”these colorful paper cutouts which are displayed in friezes in Mexican cities during the Day of the Dead. We learn that in his home, music has been banned from generation to generation, ever since one of his ancestors left his wife and daughter to pursue a career as a guitarist, but never returned home. Miguel's family makes a living making shoes, and whether he likes it or not, the little boy will have to follow that path.
The beginning of the film then presents in a slightly too telephonic way the dream of the boy, who has only one passion in life: the guitar. He is determined to follow in the footsteps of his idol, the famous Ernesto de la Cruz, even if it means accidentally falling into the world of the dead by stealing his favorite instrument. Once on the other side, the film gains in originality and dynamism. Visually, already the world of the dead is beautiful, filled with colors and very expressive skeletons which, thanks to a well-thought-out design, will not frighten children. The comic situations follow one another, and so do the good story ideas: the customs office for the dead and its photo system is an effective way of broaching the subject of the disappearance of a loved one with the youngest; the bridge connecting the living and their ancestors is an element simple enough to be immediately understood. This then allows the writers to go quite far in their concept, for example by showing how a dead person completely disappears when his descendants forget him.
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“To all our ancestors who supported and inspired us”
Throughout the plot, these themes of memory and disappearance are incredibly rich and always handled in a mature manner. The subject of tradition and its multiple meanings (family, oral, cultural, etc.), intelligently develops the following moral: we must not take for granted all the family stories that have been told to us, even if they was “for our own good”. The main characters are deeper than they first appear, including Hector, “sidekick” fun of the hero who turns out to be one of the studio's most endearing characters. Finally, if the film is overall less funny than other Pixar films, it contains a few offbeat lines and scenes.
The limits of the “Pixar formula”
Coco nevertheless suffers from a certain lack of originality by not managing to detach itself from the “Pixar formula”or even “Disney formula”. Even if they are often interesting, we find many elements already developed in other animated films from the studio. The frantic race to leave the world of the dead resembles those of Finding Nemo Or Toy Story 3the importance given to the experiences lived by older people obviously evokes Up therethe power of memories was already at the heart of Vice versa (if you cried in front of Bing Bong, you may be very moved by Coco), the functioning of the customs of the world of the dead and part of the outcome are borrowed from Monsters and co.… The villain is a captivating case on this point, because if he is formally well constructed (his motivations are terrible), he is very reminiscent of evil beings from Disney, in particular the manipulator Scar. Another element already present in The Lion Kingeven if it's a detail, the look of the dog Dante seems inspired by that of a hyena with his hanging tongue and his clumsy side. The most annoying thing on this point is undoubtedly the music. The soundtrack is generally punctuated brilliantly by Michael Giacchinobut among his songs (yes, in the plural, like in a Disney), the piece “Remember Me”http://www.premiere.fr/”Ne m'oubli pas”, written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez And Robert Lopezthe lyricists of The Snow Queenis the most formatted/banal, even though it is truly at the heart of the plot.
Ironically, by delivering its first original film in two years (Coco comes out between Cars 3 And The Incredibles 2), Pixar offers a film as moving and uneven as… The Finding Dory (2016). This sequence ofAndrew Stanton took the opposite view of the original by offering a profound reflection on the illness of the little blue fish, but it was sometimes to the detriment of a fluid construction. We feel a bit the same thing in front Cocosometimes shaky due to wanting to stick to the studio's specifications, but which ultimately aspires to be a beautiful film about memory, traditions and transmission.
Trailer for Coco :
Yes, Coco is good for children