Coco Review

The design is the reason to see it. The Land of the Dead is a vertical city of stacked lights running past the horizon, crossed by a bridge of marigold petals, and the studio animates skeletons whose bones separate and reassemble as a running physical joke. The research shows. The ofrendas, the photographs, the rule that you are gone once nobody remembers you, all of it is handled with specificity rather than costume. Anthony Gonzalez sings his own numbers as Miguel.

Michael Giacchino's score works the guitar hard, and Remember Me is reprised in three registers, ending as a lullaby sung to a woman who has forgotten nearly everything. That last scene with Coco is the most effective thing the studio has done in a decade. The plot is the ordinary part. Ernesto de la Cruz as a hidden villain is a twist this studio has run several times already, and the middle act leans on chases while the emotional material sits right there waiting. The final fifteen minutes make the case anyway.