COCO: the splendor of authenticity

COCO

Pixar movies are known for their exquisite animation.  Pixar movies soar when they have excellent stories (the Toy Story trilogy).  Coco, Pixar’s moving and authentic dive into Mexican culture, soars.

Set in Mexico during Dia de los Muertos, the boy Miguel longs to become a musician, an avocation his family forbids because a musician ancestor once abandoned the family.  He tries to follow his passion, but becomes trapped in the world of the dead.  He must get the blessing of a dead family member to return to the living.  Just when we think we know the score, there is an unexpected plot twist.

The colors of the Mexican town in daytime perfectly capture the look and feel of Mexico.  But the scenes in nighttime and in the world of the dead, explode on the screen, and it’s hard to decide which is the most spectacular.  There’s an overhead shot of the town cemetery on the night of Dia de los Muertos, with the glow of candles from every grave.  The worlds of the living and of the dead are separated by a bridge of flowers made out of marigold petals.  And then there’s Pepita, a giant winged panther in the world of the dead.

The exploration into Mexican culture is authentic because it is so firmly anchored to the Mexican sense of family.   There are no stereotypes here, and all of the characters look far more Mexican than do many faces on Spanish-language television.  There are many inside chuckles, such as the character of Ernesto de la Cruz perfectly capturing the Mexican singing movie star of black and white films.  There is, of course, the focus on the Mexican version of Dia de los Muertos with its ofrendas and criaturas. 

COCO
Courtesy of ©2017 Disney•Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

The three main adult characters are superbly voiced by Gael Garcia Bernal, Benjamin Bratt and Alanna Ubach.  We also hear the voices of Edward James Olmos, Cheech Marin and Luis Valdez.  The only decidedly non-Latino voice talent is John Ratzenberger, who has still voiced a character in every Pixar film.

Emotionally moving, culturally authentic and visually stunning, Coco is splendid in every way.  Coco is the best Pixar film in years and one of the best movies of the year.

FINDING DORY: not a Must See, but still OK to watch 20 times with your kids

FINDING DORY
FINDING DORY

Finding Dory, the latest animated Pixar film, is built on characters from Finding Nemo. The memory-challenged fish Dory (Ellen DeGeneris) goes on a quest, aided by Nemo’s Dad Marlon (Albert Brooks).  Pixar is exceptional for bringing depth of story to animated films, and the story here just isn’t up to snuff.  It’s that tired trope about finding one’s parents, augmented with a nice message about acknowledging and overcoming one’s disabilities.

The cleverest part of Finding Dory is the new octopus character of Hank (voiced by Ed O’Neill of Modern Family).  Hank is able to help Dory with his ability to change his coloring for camouflage, to fit through and into virtually  every opening and to clasp objects in his tentacles.  That allows for Dory to get thru a lot more plot devices and supplies lots of comic situations.

There’s also a very funny running joke involving Sigourney Weaver and another one with three sea lions on a rock.  The dialogue and voicework are very good.

The animation in Finding Dory is high quality, but it’s not the Great Leap Forward animation that sometimes thrills us at Pixar films.  The bottom line on Finding Dory is that it may not be a Must See, but it won’t be painful to sit thru twenty times with your small kids .

However, one of joys of Pixar is that they precede their features with short films, many of which (For the Birds, La Luna, The Blue Umbrella, Lava) are at least as good as the features. The short shown with Finding Dory is Piper, a tale about a young seabird’s first lesson in finding food in the surf. The animation in Piper is just exquisite; watch for the grains of sand, the feathers and down on the little bird and the above- and below-the-surf shots. Piper’s story is sweet, uplifting and funny and worth watching on its own.

INSIDE OUT: smart but not gripping

INSIDE OUT
INSIDE OUT

I’m a huge Pixar admirer, and I usually walk out of a Pixar movie THRILLED.  That didn’t happen with Inside Out, a smart and entertaining movie, but one that got more attention from my head than my heart.

Inside Out is the story of a well-adjusted girl named Riley, who is yanked out of her comfort zone when her Dad’s job suddenly takes the family to San Francisco.  The story is told from the perspective of her emotions, five characters (Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust) who command her behavior from a Head-Quarters (get it?).   In watching what happens to Riley, kids in the audience get to understand how emotions are okay and how  even sadness is normal; that’s all fine, but, as The Wife reminded me, Inside Out, along with Pixar’s recent Up and Wall-E, is a little preachy.

As one would expect, the animation and the voice acting are top-rate.  Where writers-directors Pete Dockter and Ronaldo Del Carmen really excel, however, is in imagining and then depicting the mechanisms of human thinking and feeling: the Emotions, Islands of Personality, Core Memories, the Train of Thought and the Subconscious.  It’s very smart and original stuff.

The sad parts are very pronounced and, in my opinion, too slow and deeply sad.   As someone scarred by the death of Bambi’s mother,  I was distracted by worrying about the little kids in the theater.  That being said, I accompanied eight-year-old twins and a ten-year-old to Inside Out.  The eight-year-olds were engrossed, and afterwards didn’t mention being too scared or too sad.  The ten-year-old grunted apprehensively a few times during the movie, but afterwards resolutely denied that it was ever too scary.  So there.  But, still, it was too sad for ME in places.

None of the children at the screening got fidgety, despite there being far less than usual of the slapstick humor that kids favor.   Most of the humor seemed adult-centered, evoking lots of knowing chuckles from the grown-ups.  The end credits – with dog, and then cat, emotions – are hilarious.

After those meh comments, I need to draw attention to Lava, the Pixar animated short that precedes the feature.  It’s seven minutes of cinema magic by filmmaker James Ford Murphy.  It’s a musical love story between two Hawaiian volcanoes.  The volcanoes are named Uku and Lele, and the message is a simple and sentimental one (“I Lava You”), but Lava isn’t the least bit corny.  The story is told through song – just two voices accompanied by ukulele – by Hawaiian musicians Kuana Torres Kehele and Napua Greig.   For sheer beauty, it’s up there with the recording of Over the Rainbow by the late Israel Kamakawiwo’ole.  I’m pretty jaded, but anyone too cynical to enjoy Lava should re-examine himself. Loved it.

The Congress: I liked the first part

Robin Wright in THE CONGRESS
Robin Wright in THE CONGRESS

The Congress is really two movies – a live action fable and an animated sci fi story.  In the opening part, Robin Wright plays an actress in her mid-forties named Robin Wright who followed a star-making performance in The Princess Bride with a series of disastrous career choices driven by her own bad instincts and her need to care for her special needs son.  That son is now 13, her daughter is 17 and they are living in a hangar at a Mojave Desert airfield.  Her agent (Harvey Keitel) approached with a deal from a smarmy studio exec (Danny Huston).  That deal is a Faustian one – she will get a one-time payment in return for having herself scanned so her the studio can use her image in 100% CGI movies; if she accepts the offer, she cannot ever act again – on-screen or in the flesh.

I liked this first part, which is a smart exploration of the issues of art vs. commerce, the ethical limits of using CGI in filmmaking and the rights of individuals over use of their images.  The set-up is very well done, the desert airfield is cool and Wright, Keitel, Huston and the kid actors deliver fine performances.

Then the story takes the Robin Wright character – twenty years later – into an alternative universe for animated characters who have had their humanity scanned away.  She embarks on a desperate search to find out what has happened to her son and whether her daughter is now leading a revolt.  This animated half of The Congress is visually arresting and shows off the talent of writer-director Ari Folman, who made the superb animated film Waltz with Bashir (about Folman’s fellow Israeli army veterans in the invasion of Lebanon).  At this time, I lost interest in the tale.  Now  I’m not a big sci fi fan, though, and someone who DOES appreciate the genre might well enjoy it.  The visuals do sparkle.

The Congress is available streaming on iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

Frozen: doesn’t leave you cold

by guest bloggers The Wife and Niece #1

We went to Frozen, to see how the film would stand up against other Holiday movies as well as other classic Disney movies. This heartwarming motion picture holds its own by taking a new spin on the Disney love story, reminding us that love comes in forms other than romantic.

The uniqueness of Frozen‘s story focuses on sisterly love.  While, like most other Disney movies, it does have a good dose of romance, the relationship between the sisters in Frozen  is very refreshing.

Frozen also stands out among the Disney movies through its music. The odd, tribal intro didn’t work for us, but the majority of the score does a good job bringing classic Disney show tunes into the modern-day musical.

Overall, the movie is a great balance between modern and classic Disney. While new twists on music and a refreshing tale of love keep this story from being your boring old animated film, the characters and plot give viewers the mix of adult and kid humor expected of Disney.  This is the perfect multi-generational movie for this Holiday season.  For those who feel like splurging, it may be worth seeing in 3D.  So warm up this winter, and go see Frozen.

[Note from The Movie Gourmet:  I really appreciate The Wife and Niece #1 seeing and commenting on Frozen, because it’s an important film that I just am not going to get to (I tend to skip musicals).  I’ve read several rave reviews of Frozen by mainstream critics (Frozen has a solid MetaCritic rating of 74) that predict that Frozen will win the Best Animated Feature Oscar and that see its potential Broadway spin-off as a sure-fire hit. But – at the end of the day – what makes a good movie is ALWAYS a good story, and it was very perceptive of The Wife and Niece #1, apart from other reviews I’ve read, to point out the sister-sister theme that sets Frozen apart.]

Brave: girl power and Pixar quality

Brave is Pixar’s much anticipated fable of a Scottish princess.  Pixar is a brand name that represents excellence in animated movies, and Brave continues the tradition.

As we have come to expect, the animation is magnificent.  The heroine is a girl with an exuberant tangle of unruly red curls, and it’s difficult not to enjoy her wild head of hair in every scene.

The other Pixar trademark is depth of story.  Other studios can make a girl power story with mother-daughter conflict, but Pixar brings more to the table here, with themes of making immature mistakes and then growing up and taking responsibility.

Brave‘s story isn’t as deep – and Brave isn’t as good – as those of Toy Story, WALL-E and Up, but even mid-level Pixar is better than movies from Disney, DreamWorks or other animation studios.   Adults will enjoy Brave, and it’s a must see for kids.

3D or not to 3D?  I was satisfied with the 2D and would definitely recommend against paying the premium for 3D.

 

Pirates! Band of Misfits: merely amusing

I’ve always loved the good-hearted and wry Aardman Studio films like Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run.  Aardman’s Pirates! Band of Misfits doesn’t quite match up to Aardman’s past work.  The claymation is exquisite and the jokes are smart, but the overall effect is merely amusing and guffaw-free.  Silly pirate stereotypes should have been much richer fodder for the writers.

I saw this in 3D, but I wouldn’t pay the 3D premium if I were taking a bunch of kids to see it.