Pull on your seatbelts and buckle up kids. Were’ going on an emotional rollercoaster.
I have been waiting for the newest Disney-Pixar film CoCo for months, and I finally got to see it this Friday. To say that I was excited would be a complete understatement of my current emotional state. I grabbed some of my best friends and headed straight for my second home Britton Plaza Theater (I have not been paid to mention this theater), or as my friends and I call it, the $5 theater. Not only was I crazy excited to see this movie, I was also excited for the short that was meant to play before it, Olaf’s Frozen Adventure! I absolutely adore Frozen and could not wait to get more of one of my favorite characters.
But my friends, the devil works.
Many people who had seen the film before, with the short included, had been very unhappy. Evidently, the short film wasn’t short at all; it was twenty whole minutes long before the actual movie started. Audience members reportedly found the short out of place and generally annoying. These grievances lead to Disney, one of the strongest and most influential media companies in the world, to make a change.
We went to the theater and were told that Coco was no longer showing this week (yes, you read that correctly). Disney had instructed theaters to stop playing the original version of Coco, with the Frozen short. The theater employees explained to us that they, along with other theaters in town, had not been given the kit for this new version. Apparently, this meant that no movie theater in town would be showing this film, or at least that was what we were told.
To say I was devastated would be a complete understatement of my current state.
My faith in humanity plummeted. Who could be upset watching Olaf for twenty minutes? I must have whined (maybe cried) just enough, because the owner of the theatre began to look for ways to play it for us and the few families that had also arrived. Eight anxious college students sat down on the lobby floor praying that we could somehow see this movie. After a half hour, even I had begun to give up hope.
But Not today, Satan.
Our prayers were in fact answered. I am still not sure how, but at 8:35 on December 8, 2017, we were let into theater number 6 to see Disney-Pixar’s Coco, and what we experienced was well worth the wait.
Coco was a masterpiece. Dare I say it was even better than Moana? The entire film was about family and showcased how beautiful Mexican culture is. It was so refreshing to see a Disney movie set in a real country that was neither European nor the United States of America. This does not happen nearly as often as it should. It was clear that Disney had thoroughly researched this culture and wanted to present it in the best way possible. In a time where the President of our nation has insulted and belittled those from Mexico by proposing to build a wall around them, and suggesting that many of the people who come from there are “bad hombres”, Disney deciding to positively portray this culture so strong is something that I truly admire. The main character of the story, Miguel is trying to find himself amongst his family members, who do truly love him, but unknowingly smother and overwhelm him. This is a problem that everyone can in some way relate to. He struggles with being in a family that doesn’t support who he truly is. Miguel needs to make sense of the song inside him, and this movie makes beautiful music by pulling on the strings of our hearts.
The entire picture envelopes you in vibrant colors and passionate animation that takes the story to an entirely new level. The visuals are so breathtaking that not seeing this film on the big screen is doing oneself a big disservice. Although I do believe that the beginning of the film could have been smoother, after the first fifteen minutes the story is beyond perfect. This tale is intelligently written, engaging, and packs several unforeseen twists, even for an avid film fanatic such as myself.
This film review would not be complete without mentioning the film’s powerful soundtrack. The music in this movie is absolutely phenomenal. I cannot express how much I loved each and every one of the songs. They were so fun and so full of meaning. Disney has again outdone themselves in giving audience members something new to make them cry, laugh, and feel. I am prepared to watch this movie again and again. I won’t stop until I know every single Spanish word in every single song. I do really wish they hadn’t taken away the Frozen short, and so poorly handled redistributing an updated version, but in the end, what these studios delivered was more than I could have hoped for.