Rating: 10/10

Dia de los Muertos. Day of the Dead. It’s a traditional holiday the originates from Mexican culture. It’s about remembering the ancestors that came before and celebrating their past lives. There’s music, dancing and food. It’s all about the importance family, and the new Pixar film “Coco” goes head on with this theme.

“Coco” is an animated movie that tells the tale of a young mexican boy, Miguel, who wants to be a famous musician one day. However, his family has banned the idea of music from their household. He runs away to his favorite musician’s grave on The Day of the Dead to see if he can find the answer to his problems only to be transported to the wild, whimsical Land Of The Dead inhabited by those who have passed.

This film is a marvelous spectacle. Each frame of the movie kept me engaged throughout the entire movie. It’s a beautiful, bright, colorful, emotional fiesta that produces a sweet, delicious story.

The story is amazing. It was, however, a bit cliche. I saw most of the plot twists coming from a mile away, but they worked with the overall direction of the film. There were a few twists that were a bit unexpecting, but overall Pixar knows how to tell a rich, strong, sophisticated story that will entertain both kids and adults. It didn’t lack depth, and it gave the audience relatable and lovable characters. The screenwriter Adrian Molina is a gift from God himself. Pixar made the right decision to stick with him since he has worked on other films with the company before.

There were a few shocking moments that I never thought Pixar would’ve ever gone through with. I won’t give anything away, but the moments deal with the concept of death and family. This really is the big message of this movie: “You may not forgive, but you must never forget.” The movie uses this to it’s advantage in a very tasteful way. They didn’t glorify the idea of death, but at the same time they didn’t say death was an all too horrible thing to happen to someone; especially a family member.

Every time Disney/Pixar releases a new animated film, they up their animation game. I have never seen such glorious animation since I first saw “Mulan.” From the Land of the Living to the Land of the Dead every single detail did not go unnoticed. Miguel’s family was so realistic. His great grandmother had so many wrinkles to the point where it seemed like an elderly actress was on the movie screen. The buildings, the ground, the trees, the candle lit graveyards and everything was just so gorgeous.

However, the animation and design for the land of the dead was probably the most impressive thing to exist in animated cinema. Each skeleton had it’s own unique, individual look. They really fit with the rest of their world due to the colorful outfits, hair and makeup. Their world was just as colorful. All of the buildings were very exotically designed. They had such a fun, celebratory feel to them that it just drew you in.

Another important thing that was crucial to the design was handled perfectly: Mexican culture. “Coco” displays such an accurate, faithful representation of Mexican culture. It’s very comforting knowing that Hollywood is still trying to branch out to other countries with their films. This film has already made so much money in Mexico which makes sense. This film was about a boy in Mexico and it accurately shows what Mexican culture looks like.

Going into this film, I honestly was not expecting to adore this movie; I was honestly expecting to watch another cash grab, sob story Pixar continues to make. I was expecting to hate this movie to my very core, but they really won me over with “Coco.” It’s a movie that is not forgettable; it’s memorable.