Coco (2017) ****

Source: Imdb

I finally got around to watching this heart-warming animation about a boy finding is family in the land of the dead, and I was pleasantly surprised. The story was astonishingly original and though some twists were fairly obvious, most of it managed to sneak up on me. For most of the time, I had no idea where this was going, and that’s a very rare thing these days. That made the ending all the more touching. Also, I felt that the script showed some genuine respect and appreciation for Mexican tradition, and managed to represent it as a glimpse into a different culture, while also dealing with the difficult subject of death as a part of life. The characters were good. I particularly loved Dante the dog. Anthony Gonzalez as Miguel did a fantastic job with his voice-acting.

The quality of animations was excellent, offering a visual feast of textures and details. Some elements of it really did look photo-realistic, and the lighting was awesome. The rigging of the characters also worked out great. As this film is in huge part about music, it is puzzling that the score did not stand out more to me. Sure, the soundtrack was good, but nothing special. Then again, that might be because I’m not a huge fan of this type of Spanish guitar music.

Anyway, for displaying heart and genuine creativity, a great story and beautiful visuals this film deserves 4/5.

Coco on Imdb