Coco (2017)

Jack loved it and it's growing on me as I stream the soundtrack. A tween Mexican boy, who's a guitarist/singer despite his family's prohibition, crosses over to the land of the dead to find his ancestors and lift the ban. This colorful musical has been nominated with a few wins for animated feature and best song in various places. Here's my running awards list.

Twelve year old Anthony Gonzalez (now working on two live action features) supplies the speaking and singing voice of our hero Miguel, Gael García Bernal (last blogged for Neruda) is his dead buddy Hector, and Benjamin Bratt (most recently in these pages for The Infiltrator) is Miguel's musical idol Ernesto de la Cruz. I also recognized the voice of Miguel's father, by Jaime Camil who stars as Rogelio in 75 episodes of the telenovela Jane the Virgin (I've seen every one). There are many other cast members, including cameos by Edward James Olmos (last blogged for Go for Sisters) as Chicharrón (one of the dead) and comedian Cheech Marin (some of his best work includes Up in Smoke (1978), Born in East L.A. (1987), Tin Cup (1996), and 20 episodes of Judging Amy) as a corrections officer.

Co-director Lee Unkrich co-directed Toy Story 2 and solo directed Toy Story 3, on which Coco-co-director Adrian Molina worked as a storyboard artist. The script was written by Molina and Matthew Aldrich (one other feature ten years ago) from a story by the preceding three plus Jason Katz (new to me).

Our theatrical screening was preceded by a short clip with the directors and one producer thanking us for seeing it in a theatre. Apparently there had been a 22 minute short, Olaf's Frozen Adventure, originally screening before Coco every time, but viewers in Mexico (where it was released before the US) complained and then viewers here walked out, thinking they were in the wrong room. The list of trivia items goes on and on but it's pretty interesting.

Composer Michael Giacchino (most recently in these pages for Spider-Man: Homecoming) (he's an American with an Italian name) provides plenty of Mexican mood music, accessible from the latter part of this spotify playlist. The nominated song, Remember Me by Kristen Anderson Lopez and Robert Lopez (they won an Oscar for Let It Go from Frozen) (the short film Olaf's Frozen Adventure is based on a character from Frozen) is performed several times by several people. One reviewer predicts Remember Me will win the Oscar for Best Song, but I'm rooting for This Is Me from The Greatest Showman. Another musical note: at the beginning of the movie, the Disney theme, When You Wish Upon a Star, is played Mariachi style.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and reviewers are strumming along with Jack, averaging 97 and 95%, respectively. It's still playing in these parts after ten weeks, but if you want to watch it at home (and if you're saving it for your kids, it's rated PG due to some deaths shown on screen), it will begin streaming on February 13 and available to buy a disc on the 27th.