'Coco' Review
‘Coco’ Review – 9/10
I personally don’t think there is anything wrong with this film and it has easily become one of my favourite Disney Pixar Movies. Not only is it an entertaining film but also so educational, as it teaches us all about the Mexican tradition of ‘Dia de Los Muertos’ – the Day of the Dead, which so many people dress up as but have no idea the story and motive for all of it, so hopefully this film could eliminate the cultural appropriation of Mexican traditions and turn it in to cultural appreciation.
The colours and the movement of the film were really amazing and just gave it such a fun aspect. I learnt that ‘Dia de Los Muertos’ has many traditions depending on the family’s religion or even where they live in Mexico, and that Coco tries to incorporate many different aspects of ‘Dia de Los Muertos’ so that it doesn’t just follow one tradition. It has been reported that many Mexican adored the film and felt very well represented, so good job on Disney for the extensive research.
There are many references within the film about the Mexican culture, such as the village in which Miguel (voiced by Anthony Gonzalez) lives in, it is said to be an accurate depiction of Mexico. The dog, Dante is meant to be a national dog of Mexico, so this shows that Disney really did try to incorporate Mexico into this film. The appearance of Frida Kahlo (voiced by Natalia Cordova-Buckley) made me internally scream with joy, the many references to Luche Libre wrestles and Mariachi bands were great to see. This just emphasizes that this film wasn’t just to entertain the audience, but teach them all about a culture and how wonderful it can be to discover new things.
The only reason I didn’t give it a 10 was because I felt that the music wasn’t as emotional or as moving as it could have been. I compared it a little to Moana, in terms of the music and felt that they could’ve gone a bit more out there and made something amazing. It would have been better if they had at least one whole song in Spanish, I know that the majority of the people that are watching it don’t understand Spanish, but subtitles would’ve worked. I also know that subtitles would be difficult for children but maybe it would incentives them to learn Spanish to be able to sing the song, which would’ve been great.
Nevertheless, I'm not saying that the music was bad, it was wonderful. I loved the continuous references to Spanish music, and the similarities it had with Mexican traditional music.
Coco as I have said throughout this whole review is full of culture and joyful music and exaggerated colours making it an amazing film and I’m so happy that Disney is now looking to become more diverse, allowing us to see other cultures around the world in such an exciting way. I really do hope they continue the good work. Maybe in the near future even decide to always do films inspired on cultures around the world!
Signed, S
