Coco Review
Aspiring musician Miguel, confronted with his family’s ancestral ban on music, enters the Land of the Dead to find his great-great-grandfather, a legendary singer.
Why did I come to this movie again?
Expectations are key in almost every experience. The first preview I saw for Coco didn’t do anything for me. I remember thinking, “that looks weird, I think I’ll pass.” So when the movie came out last year, I ignored it. That is until I started to hear great things about it. Glowing reviews. Grown men admitting to crying in the theater. After enough reports along these lines my hubby and I decided to give it a try. So my expectations were somewhere in the middle. My own were low, but hopeful, considering how many personal friends had loved the show.
4 out of 5 (not 5 out of 5, because the initial preview had turned me off so bad)
Characters
So I know that this is a computer animated show, but holy cow, that little Miguel was adorable. His little heart longed to be a musician, and man did I feel for the kid. The surrounding characters were solid.
4 out of 5
Did I care what happened?
I did care what happened. Even though the plot was predictable (I guessed all of the “twists”) I was on the edge of my seat near the end. One of the themes is being forgotten. I think every person alive has that fear, that after they die, no one is going to remember or care that they existed. This movie hit on that hard. Thus the crying.
5 out of 5
Plot Holes
No giant holes. Like I said, basically predictable, but I did not care.
5 out of 5
How many times did I yawn?
None. No yawning for me. The husband did try to doze off right after the midpoint of the show, but other than that, it was good.
4 out of 5
Cool Factor
If you haven’t seen the show, and have the chance to see it in the theater still, go see it. The visuals were stunning. I admit to knowing nothing about the Day of the Dead, so it was fun to see a glimpse (however accurate or not) into a different culture and how they remember those that came before them.
5 out of 5
The End
Uh, I cried. I’d been warned it was a crying movie, and I still cried. My husband cried. The teenage girl next to me cried. I was so emotionally invested in what was going on by the end that it swept me away. Loved it.
5 out of 5
Overall Enjoyment
I wanted to clap at the end of this film. That doesn’t happen very often. My hubby and I went to dinner afterward, and we talked about the film the whole time. Of course my writer brain chomped down and started to digest it, and I decided that while I’m getting better as a storyteller, I have a ways to go before I could pull anything like that off. I think anything that makes me want to be better in some way gets full marks!
5 out of 5
Score =37
That’s a Black Belt!
Did you see Coco? What did you think of it?
