Coco

Pixar’s releases can often feel like they crest a cultural wave.

Toy Story set the benchmark for animation in the nineties and kickstarted its renaissance. The Incredibles predated the superhero boon and still stands as one of its best examples and Inside Out was a pioneering look at emotions and personality.

Coco is the next to feel particularly prescient in the current climate.

A treatise on death, family and remembrance deeply rooted in Mexican tradition and style and voiced, with the exception of the ever-present John Ratzenberger, by a Mexican cast.

It’s not outright revolutionary but feels like a poignant topic and a unifying statement in Trump’s administration. Despite its subtle political relevancy though it’s, classically, a charming, beautiful articulation of family values.

In short, Miguel loves music but it’s banned in his household because of his great-grandfather running away to pursue his dreams of becoming a professional musician.

With Miguel threatening to head down the same path he is transported to the Land of the Dead on Mexico’s Dia de los Muertos. He must return to the living world and, in the course of doing so, finds out more about his ancestry and learns the requisite family lessons.

Like Inside Out, it’s such a simple idea but presented in such a nuanced, beautiful way.

The animation is glorious and the colour dazzling. They’ve skewed more towards realism in the early scenes before exploding into fantasy in the Land of the Dead sequences.

It touches on dark themes for a Pixar film and leans more heavily on a mature, adult script. There’s less innocuous action scenes and more gradual reveals and plot twists.

It makes for another fantastic notch on Pixar’s burgeoning belt. Another must-see.

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