What could be wrong with a film where the entire premise is about remembering and honoring your family?
As it turns out, quite a few things.
I recently attended an early screening of the movie "Coco", and I did quite enjoy the film. The music was interesting and catchy and well sung, the animation was incredible, and seeing it in 3D was spectacular. The characters are adorable, silly, cute, touching, and full of a depth you wouldn't think possible in an animated film. There are some extremely funny lines, too, as well as touching moments that bring tears to your eyes.
Then what, you might be wondering, is so bad about this film? The answer is a little bit complicated. I don't want to give any major spoilers for the film, but I feel like parents need to be well informed before taking their kids to see this movie, so they can either explain some things to their kids beforehand, or maybe not even show the film to their children at all. So read on at your own risk; these aren't full blown spoilers, but they will take some of the surprise out of the film.
SOME SPOILERS AHEAD!
Moving past the familial relationships, the first interesting thing to note with this film was one of my minor issues. Showing a family broken apart by a man who was selfish and only wanted to pursue his music career. This is something that happens all the time in modern families, and so many kids can probably relate to this. It was a modern touch I wasn't expecting. We don't really focus a lot on this relationship, because it happened so many generations back. Miguel's mom and dad are shown to be very happy together, and expecting a baby in the movie. It's important to remember this point, because I will come back to it later on.
Miguel idolizes Ernesto de la Cruz, a famous musician who plays guitar and sings (the guy in white in the very first picture). One of Ernesto's motto's is to seize your moment, and that's what Miguel does. He breaks into Ernesto's tomb/mausoleum and takes his famous guitar so he can enter a music competition and show his family music is good. In doing so, he is cursed and turns into a ghost of
Miguel goes on an adventure with his deceased family and other random characters from the after life (see right). There are several scenes of drinking shots in the movie. I was actually really shocked to see this much drinking in a movie since Pinocchio. Yes, many parents drink, but often they won't do it in front of their kids or they have explained that drinking is for adults. The casual way in which they pour alcohol was a little off putting. We've talked about drinking with my kids, so they understand it's something children don't do. But do I want them emulating this? Pouring "shots" of apple juice and treating it like normal? Alcoholism is a serious issue all around the world, and I think approaching drinking with a casual attitude like this will only help contribute to the problem. There are 3-4 drinking scenes, 1 or 2 of which are much more obvious than a couple of the others.
I feel like this next issue is more of a pet peeve, but it still bothers me. Why do all Disney movies, in particular Pixar, insist on having that "rude" moment? Where the kid yells how he doesn't need you, and name calls his friends idiots or says they are dumb or says he hates them. I find that children
The below spoiler will really come close to spoiling the movie. I won't name character names, but it might make the movie less enjoyable if you like to be surprised.
MAJOR SPOILER BELOW!!
One of the biggest issues and most shocking to me is this major spoiler. About halfway to three-quarters through the movie, you realize the entire plot is actually about murder. And it's not glossed over. We realize that the reason Miguel's great-great-grandfather left his family and never returned was because he was murdered while pursuing this music career. Miguel confronts the murderer, they talk about how Miguel's great great grandfather was murdered, and they even show in a flash back more drinking because this is how the poison that murders his grandfather is delivered.
When the great great grandmother realizes this is why the great great grandfather never returned home, she says something else that surprised me: "I can still never forgive you". It was honestly quite surprising that Disney executives would seem to actively encourage someone to not forgive. As adults, I think we can understand there are instances in life where forgiveness is either impossible, or will only come after years of help, if it ever comes at all. I was taught growing up that we should always try to forgive people. In a world full of people trying to do bad things, holding grudges is usually not something promoted as politically correct, yet this movie seems to approve of just that.
Now, some of you might think this is all an over reaction, that I'm trying to shelter children and hide them from the real world. You might even bring up how in many, MANY other Disney movies, death and even murder are evident. Scar kills Mufasa, for example, or Mother Gothel tries to murder Flynn Rider to keep him from Rapunzel. I think a major difference is that these characters are clearly set up as bad guys from the beginning, and that their murder was not premeditated. The murder of the great great grandfather was an opportunistic murder that almost seems premeditated in nature. I mean, how does the bad guy just happen to have poison sitting around to pour a drink and murder his business partner? The murder is also described often in the movie as just that: a murder.
In other instances of deaths and killings, we often don't see the actual death happen. Bambi's mom is shot, or so we assume, as we only see her run off and then hear the loud bang of a gun. When Mufasa falls, we don't see the act of him dying; we see the before, and the after. In Coco, we see the great great grandfather drink the poison and then fall to the ground. We know he was poisoned, and the business partner looks pleased with himself. He eventually does get his just end, but it almost seems comical in nature, and not really like it brought justice to the one he murdered many years ago.
So what's my point; does this mean that no children should ever watch Disney movies again? My main hope in writing this review is that parents will go informed into movies, even movies only rated PG like Coco is. If you talk to your child beforehand and let them know what is acceptable and what is not, I think kids can easily handle stuff like murder and drinking and hate. We have talked to our kids and let them know, for example, that while Nemo might say he hates his dad (after the boat scene at the drop off) we are never allowed to say "I hate you" to anyone in our family. We can hate our peas and broccoli, but we don't hate people. It bothers me that some people might let their kids go see movies like this and the child will see
someone being murdered because they didn't want their business partner to leave the relationship. It bothers me that a child might think, even for an instant, that murder is okay, because they needed to "seize their moment" like the characters do in the movie. Be honest, how many of you parents or relatives or friends have said to a kid in your life, hey Jimmy, you know murder is wrong, right? Most of the kids who are being taken to movies probably have not had someone in their family murdered, so the topic usually doesn't come up.
Maybe this was the intent all along of Disney and Pixar. Maybe they want parents to discuss murder and killing with their children, since it happens all too often in the real world. Maybe they were hoping that talking to kids about murder earlier on in their lives will inspire them to want to change the world around them for the better. It's hard to say why a character needed to be murdered in a Disney movie in such an obvious way, but it happened. As adult figures in the lives of youth around us, it's our job to make sure kids understand, to the best of their ability, why things happen and explain what is wrong or right to them. Don't let executives at film studios educate your children about the world. Talk to your kids, and talk often. Most importantly, listen.
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