"Coco" review

In and amongst the madness that is xmas shopping and school holidays, both of which can twist the soles of our rubber jandals, many of us look forward to what little respite our friends at Pixar and Disney can give, to cool tensions and in many cases, save us from using our jandals as frisbees to be thrown at peoples faces.

Luckily enough, there is a decent crop of animated movies it the local cinema to keep us all in check this holiday season. From not so raging bulls to young witches on broom sticks, it’s a good time to be that good Dad, Uncle or Aunty, and take the kids to the movies.

Leading the animated assault this year is Coco (queue music...I’m in love with the coco), a story about a young boy (Miguel), whose quest to become a famous musician goes against the wishes of a long line of relatives who are hell bent on keeping him in the family shoe making business. If this was a Samoan story, this film would end here. My Aunties especially had jedi like powers when it came to persuading my cousins to fall in line. It begins with the Jedi stare, and ends with a flying jandal or t.v remote control to the face. And while the two situations are completely different, there is an uncanny degree of familiarity in much of Miguel’s story.

And like all good stories, this one is a ripper of a yarn. A hero goes on a big journey only to be met by obsticle after obsticle. Sort of similar to Mc Donalds Grey Lynn drive through, takes you have the night to move the 20 meters to the check out window. Then you discover they gave you half cold fries just as you exit.

Thankfully Coco is a lot more easier to digest. In this case Miguel goes to the land of the dead in search of his great great grand father, a famous musician to seek his blessing and follow in his footsteps. The story magic that takes place in that space is truly incredible, visually stunning but again strangely familiar.

And lets not forget the music score for the movie. All original and like Moana, there will be a few songs that linger around your house hold for weeks to come, if there was one disappointment it’s probably here where some of these songs could have been in Spanish. But one bad banana doesn’t a bad cake make. And while movies like Coco are meant to be a 1 hour 20mins escape from the real world (which it does in spades) it uses the back drop of it’s setting to make social commentry on our world we know today.

The messages are cleverly hidden in front of our eyes, and like an onion this movie is layered. It’s vibrant and a joy to watch. And true to it’s onion like nature, there are times when you will cry. But mostly you will remember a time when you were young, and had dreams of becoming something that you are not today. You will question yourself “what if”...... “what if I followed my dreams, I could have been a manager at Ministry of Pacific Island affairs by now instead of being a corporate high flier earning hundreds of thousands of dollars every year”

Two messages you will take away from this theatrical hibiscus... firstly, It’s ok to chase your dreams, and secondly, forgiveness is one of the great virtues we all have to learn.

Go and see this, take some tissues and have a good laugh. And don’t forget to use your movie ettiquette – If you put your feet on the back of someones seat, you are probably going to get the Jedi look, before you feel a jandal on your face. Actually you might not even get the look.

8/10 taros from me.

Check out the trailer, here.