I remember when I first heard about Coco being made: my family and I were beyond excited. As a Mexican-American, I personally never saw good representation of my culture in American media. Growing up, the only Hispanics/Latinos I would see in movies or tv shows were the negative stereotypes. In recent years, however, there has been better representation of my culture (i.e. The Book of Life and Elena of Avalor). In this article I’m going to give 2 main reasons on why you should see Coco in theaters!
1. It’s not a knock-off of The Book of Life
I’ve heard this criticism far too many times for it to be okay. Yes, both movies have to do with Día de los Muertos, the Mexican holiday that honors the death of loved ones, and both main characters have a love for music that their family doesn’t want them to pursue. But that’s about all the similarities that there are! The two movies have two different plots: one that is a love story that focuses on confronting your fears and another that focuses on the importance of family.
Aesthetically speaking both movies use bright colors and Mexican culture, but that’s what you should expect when both movies are using the same culture and holiday in their film. I just don’t understand why there are several Christmas movies with similar plots and no one gives them any criticism on that, but there are two movies on Día de los Muertos and critics attack them for being too similar.
2. It accurately portrays Mexican culture
I’ve heard some people say that they don’t believe that Coco accurately represents Mexico, but I don’t find that to be true. As I watched the movie with my nephew and older sister, I noticed similarities to the part of Mexico I know, and I never once thought “oh that’s not right.”
For starters, Coco intertwines Disney/Pixar music perfectly with Spanish music which surprised me because Disney/Pixar music is so distinct! I expected some superficial version of the music that I’m used to. But within the first seconds my eyes were already tearing up because Disney played a mariachi version of their usual intro. Coco did this throughout the movie by showing the variety of Spanish music from norteño to banda to mariachi and many more.
Another thing that Coco did right in Mexican culture was how it represented the holiday of Día de los Muertos. That it is a celebration of life for both adults and children. They had details in the ofrendas and they used cempazuchitl flowers, also known as marigolds.
But, by far, my favorite thing in the English version of Coco was how they used Spanglish, a mixture of English and Spanish. I use Spanglish a lot in my everyday language and seeing it on the big screen was something I loved! Even if you don’t speak Spanish, the movie makes it so that you can get a hint of what Spanish slang is.
In short, you should see Coco because it’s an all around great movie. Regardless if you’re Mexican or not, this movie will introduce you to a culture and a special holiday.