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Coco Review

What I  liked: The skeletons. They were fun They were fashionable. Even when they had some assembly required they didn't seem to mind very much. They were also remarkably dexterous for not having any muscles or connective tissue, but they do have hair. And eyebrows, which is some cases is illegal. Also for not having lungs or diaphrams, they are pretty remarkable singers. The songs were all lots of fun and stick in your head. And the bonus flexibility that detachable limbs provides them, the skeletons also have pretty great dance numbers to go with their songs. The spirit animals. I have seen Alebrija in fairs and museums seeing them on the big screen in all their neon fully animated glory was great. Some skeletons have better spirit animals than others, The great great grandmother has an awesome winged jaguar. Others are ... less impressive. Frida kahlo made some very...um... artistic appearances. Like my reaction to most art installations I agree with the sentiment that it was too obvious. I liked the family, they were busy and bustling and happy. Despite their disagreement over a rather extreme absolute ban on music and some excessive and highly effective shoe fwapping, they clearly love and care for eachother. Enough to start twelve year old Miguel on his shoe making career with his very own unwanted leather apron. I like that the spirit bridge is made entirely of flower petals and although it is completely composed of petals and lacks all forms of foundational support, it is remarkably sturdy. And even though it is all very slippery flower petals and there is lots of running, no one goes careening over the edge to the inevitable drop of doom.

What I didn't: The dog. It is an unspoken Disney rule that every main character must have a useless, ugly, animal side kick. And much like Moana, this iteration is particularly annoying. At least this presumably loveable street dog is occasionally helpful, but mostly you think "that dog should really have a rabies shot before anyone pets him." The TSA like skeleton body scanners. It heralds a dark dystopian future when the government can run facial recognition on your skull and find any picture of you around the world. Not only that but there is an immediate read out of the people responsible for placing the picture and their location. Just try and tell me this technology is not going to feature in an upcoming spy movie. For being the powerful mastermind of a great shoe empire, the grandma has quite flimsy shoes. Her marketing branch sbould look into that. The whole troup of dancers should have been arrested for illegal eyebrow use.

Who should watch this? It's a great Pixar movie but probably not for young kids. The skeletons are friendly but still skeletons and the kid is slowly turning into a skeleton as time runs out to escape the land of the dead. It could be a little scary.

Would I watch it again? Yes! I'm excited for it to come out on DVD!
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