I went in expecting absolutely nothing and came out mildly enjoying it. I'll just get a few things out of the way before I reach my verdict. As a rompy heart-felt Pixar movie, it works at hitting all the notes. Take your family to see it, you'll all enjoy it. If you're of Mexican heritage, I'm sure you will absolutely love the movie, I think that much is clear. I don't think anyone's shocked when the box office for this is the highest in all Mexico history. I've had a long, personal, and almost battered-house-wife-type relationship with Disney. That corporation has done so much shit in the past decade that has infuriated me to the point of boycotting any of their media, including the popular theme parks. But now that I have a MoviePass, I have no excuse to not see every movie that comes out into theaters, so I figured I'd waste a few hours to form my own opinion. Ignoring the infuriating Frozen short that plays before-hand, Coco excels at tugging the heart strings, while simultaneously adding nothing unique or original to Pixar's line-up. I know, according to premiere critics, every story-line that is possible has been done already, but it strikes me that Pixar doesn't really try to hide their formula. I think the biggest sin Coco commits is how blatant it is when it uses these cliches. The young boy who wants more out of life, but his family refuses to let him cliche, the villain is revealed to the world via hidden camera cliche, the stranger protagonist meets turns out to be family-related cliche, and so on, and so on. Some may not mind these tropes, and I'm totally okay with it. Ignoring the tiresome and eye-rolling story patterns, Coco does manage to shine through and give us a couple of great little moments, muddled in the predictable story. The twist reveal and flashbacks towards the end of the second act are the most interesting, to say the least, and will give people flashbacks to Jessie's backstory from Toy Story 2. It's the one aspect of the movie that really makes it stick out, as well as the nicely-done final ten minutes. I won't spoil what these are, but they're good sequences. They're what raise my recommendation for Coco from below-average to it's worth seeing in theaters. It's not something I'd rush out to see, but there's no harm in going to see it.
Review by filmtoasterVIP 3BlockedParent2020-03-03T01:09:16Z
I went in expecting absolutely nothing and came out mildly enjoying it. I'll just get a few things out of the way before I reach my verdict. As a rompy heart-felt Pixar movie, it works at hitting all the notes. Take your family to see it, you'll all enjoy it. If you're of Mexican heritage, I'm sure you will absolutely love the movie, I think that much is clear. I don't think anyone's shocked when the box office for this is the highest in all Mexico history. I've had a long, personal, and almost battered-house-wife-type relationship with Disney. That corporation has done so much shit in the past decade that has infuriated me to the point of boycotting any of their media, including the popular theme parks. But now that I have a MoviePass, I have no excuse to not see every movie that comes out into theaters, so I figured I'd waste a few hours to form my own opinion. Ignoring the infuriating Frozen short that plays before-hand, Coco excels at tugging the heart strings, while simultaneously adding nothing unique or original to Pixar's line-up. I know, according to premiere critics, every story-line that is possible has been done already, but it strikes me that Pixar doesn't really try to hide their formula. I think the biggest sin Coco commits is how blatant it is when it uses these cliches. The young boy who wants more out of life, but his family refuses to let him cliche, the villain is revealed to the world via hidden camera cliche, the stranger protagonist meets turns out to be family-related cliche, and so on, and so on. Some may not mind these tropes, and I'm totally okay with it. Ignoring the tiresome and eye-rolling story patterns, Coco does manage to shine through and give us a couple of great little moments, muddled in the predictable story. The twist reveal and flashbacks towards the end of the second act are the most interesting, to say the least, and will give people flashbacks to Jessie's backstory from Toy Story 2. It's the one aspect of the movie that really makes it stick out, as well as the nicely-done final ten minutes. I won't spoil what these are, but they're good sequences. They're what raise my recommendation for Coco from below-average to it's worth seeing in theaters. It's not something I'd rush out to see, but there's no harm in going to see it.