My Thoughts on Pixar's Coco

My sister and I saw Coco yesterday, and wow I'm still thinking about it. It's visually stunning, vibrant, lively, and dynamic, with extraordinary detail. There are lots of surprises and the plot moves quickly, but everything makes sense. The film centers a lovely intergenerational, matriarchal dynamic in a gorgeous tribute to family.

I'm so impressed by how Pixar tackled what can be a very dark theme (death) with joy, love, and incredible lightness. I read On Living by Kerry Egan last week, and it had a similar theme on how reconceptualizing death can teach us how to live life more fully. The representation of older people and those with dementia was also wonderful because these stories never seem to make it to kids' movies on the big screen. The scenes with Miguel and his great grandmother Coco were the ones that made me tear up. I also loved how the movie highlighted the power of music and memories in improving the quality of life for individuals with dementia, which is a burgeoning field of research in geriatrics that I've been involved in for a few years now.

Coco makes a compelling argument for bringing more "diverse" stories to the forefront and including artists from varied backgrounds, not just because of diversity quotas or affirmative action but because it creates stunning art. Coco featured incredible representation without any of the lazy stereotypes, cultural insensitivity, or tokenism pitfalls that could have plagued it. Coco makes the whole sensitivity vs censorship debate seem moot. 

The one critique I have about the movie is about the extremes we saw in the Land of the Dead. The world was meticulous and stunning, with the old-fashioned train station, the futuristic aerial trams, the houseboats, the lush city squares... But the mansion of de la Cruz was dizzyingly grand while others lived in much humbler homes. We didn't see any homeless characters I think, could some have been there? I've always assumed the inequities created in our world by capitalism and classes and all of the other -isms would fade in the afterlife, but Coco didn't quite meet that vision. I know the artists wanted to create a gorgeous world that made death seem less scary, but I would have been interested in an additional challenge- to radically envision a world without disparities or socially constructed divisions, what would such a place even look like? It's hard to imagine.

I usually don't enjoy watch movies a second time, but I know there's so much I missed in Coco so I would love to see it again. I would recommend this movie to literally everyone. There's something for everyone!

xoxo, 
Juhi