Pixar has long been one of my go-to treats for the holidays. Their films have been touching, moving and presented in a way that provides a message good for society as well as the desired audience. Some films have touched on very difficult subject matter, and yet, they stay family friendly enough that you never feel as though kids won’t be entertained.
CoCo follows a few Pixar films that, at my most charitable, I can only call “passing”. CoCo, though, is a return to some of the things I love about Pixar most, and the timing of this film could not have been better.
Pixar’s CoCo isn’t just a great film, it also breaks ground for Hollywood productions.
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Hollywood studios regularly make movies that cost $100 million and up. If it’s about pirates or wizards, execs will hand over as much as $300 million to producers. Films about Latinos typically fall on the other end of the spectrum with budgets under a million and a handful of features that cost up to $50 million. Never has a story that features an all-Latino cast surpassed eight figures in its production budget, until Pixar’s Coco.
Vanessa Erazo continues:
As a Mexican-Salvadoran-American who grew up on a steady diet of Hollywood Anglo films and the “Hispanic Hollywood” movies of the eighties (La Bamba, Born in East LA, Stand and Deliver), there may never be a more important production than Pixar’s Coco.
Think about it. In decades of Hollywood films, CoCo comes at a time where one side of our political culture would like to tell you all of the terrible things about the rest of the world; to bash immigrants and denigrate people as ‘other’, and Pixar’s film instead invests heavily in a family film that displays a whole lot of heart.
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Coco es una carta de amor a México, a su gente y su cultura, que incluye desde la música hasta el cine, con apariciones sorpresas de iconos de la talla de Cantinflas, El Santo, María Félix y Frida Kahlo. Y también es un tributo a las abuelas, mexicanas y de cualquier otro rincón del mundo, pero si usted tiene una del país azteca –como este servidor– el final lo tocará de manera especial.
Translated:
Coco is a love letter to Mexico, its people and its culture, which includes everything from music to movies, with surprise appearances by icons such as Cantinflas, El Santo, María Félix and Frida Kahlo. And it is also a tribute to the grandmothers, Mexicans and from any other corner of the world, but if you have one from the Aztec country - like this server - the end will play it in a special way.
It is easy, at times, to look at the way in which we treat each other and feel terrible about the state of the world. I encourage everyone, at some point, to take a break, get some rest, recharge your batteries.
Because we don’t really do spoilers here, I just wanted to add one more note. This is a very complex Pixar film. The final act will certainly have your younger kids laughing. The older you are, though, I expect you may take it very differently. This is one of the first films I’ve seen deal with issues of existential angst, purpose, duty, family, the loss of ourselves, aging, and death in such a profound and direct way. The final sequences, which are the reason for the film’s name, culminates in one of the most emotionally satisfying and difficult moments in any film I can remember. If you’ve had a loss in your family in your adult years, this film may hit you like a ton of bricks in the final segment, but even if it has been a long time, or if you have aging family members, bring Kleenex. You will cry.
Strong recommend for Pixar’s CoCo.