The 272nd review overall!
I was playing GTA online today and some dick bag kept killing me. He was about 100 levels higher than me and I don’t know, using weapons and cars I don’t have to constantly kill me is pretty awesome I guess. Not wanting to give him the satisfaction, I stayed in the lobby and managed to snipe him once, but still died like 16 times. Thankfully my stubbornness paid off, because someone 100 levels higher than him came by and wiped the floor with him, it was glorious. So much so the little piss ant went into passive mode to stop the thrashing. That man is the hero we need right now. Anyways, after Dear got off work we all watched...
Coco (2017). Netflix.
For those of you who are new to this, I also do horror-adjacent, and have done plenty of kid’s movies, (Coraline is a personal favorite). I don’t feel like I should have to put that disclaimer on there because the movie takes place during Día de Muertos and it’s chock full of ghosts and skeletons. With that said, it’s fantastic. I know, I know, it’s Pixar so that pretty much goes without saying, but this is a wonderful one hour and 45 minutes.
A family is preparing for the Day of the Dead, and they hate, HATE music. The great, great grandfather ran out on the family to become a musician. Since then the family took up shoe-making and they built a small empire but they absolutely banned music, like they’re dead serious, if there are musicians outside the matriarch chases them away by bashing them with shoes. The youngest in the family, Miguel, feels the shoe calling and feels like an outsider because he loves music. He’s fascinated with a late local musician/legend and learns to play by studying his old tapes. Through some shenanigans I don’t want to get into because it’s spoilery, he ends up in the Land of the Dead.
There’s actually a whole lot of stuff to explain for this movie but I don’t want to spend too much time on it, so let me give you some thoughts; first off, it’s great. The animation is wonderful, the characters are well written and fun and the story is very engaging. At no points during my watch did my attention wander. Well, I take that back, President Baby was tired and all of a sudden very angry, so we had to stop it a few times to calm him down. He doesn’t really get into TV except for “Jeopardy” but there were a few times where he’d stop what he was doing and stare at the TV.
Seeing as how this is Pixar it’s going to tug at your heart strings, and good Lord does it ever. To properly explain just exactly what I mean, this movie has some themes and elements that are banned in China. Reportedly, the Chinese censor board members were so touched by this movie they allowed it through. If you’ve been following the news lately you may have noticed that China isn’t the most free-wheeling place in the world. Hell, it even has the NBA and it’s biggest stars shaking in their boots.
I’m going to be honest, I spent a lot of time watching this movie with watery eyes, fighting to keep the dam from overflowing. It’s just so good and so touching you really root for all these characters. It’s not quite perfect though, it did suffer from the same problem that Frozen did. There is no antagonist for the most part so they just slap a heel turn in there and you have a half-assed big bad. I mean, it’s not the worst baddie, but it’s kinda weird to see him go through his change so fast. That’s just a minor nit in an otherwise spectacular movie. If you have kids, don’t have kids, if you’re an adult, teenager or child there’s something for everyone in this movie and I highly recommend it.
9.5 Dr. Chainsaws!
Post Script Becca loved it too. I’d ask her to give a rating but I don’t want to wake her. She did give me a stern warning about what would happen if I didn’t like it. Maybe I’ll ask her tomorrow so I can edit in how many clowns she gives it.