Coco (2017)

There's a moment in Coco where a song called "Remember Me" reveals its full meaning, and if you're not at least a little bit wrecked by it, I genuinely don't know what to tell you. I wasn't expecting to cry at a Pixar film about Día de los Muertos. And then I cried more than once. That's Pixar doing what Pixar does best, luring you in with colour and music and warmth, and then absolutely flooring you when your guard is down.

This is Pixar at its heartfelt best. No qualifier needed. It sits comfortably alongside the studio's finest work, and if you want my benchmark for that, Toy Story 3 is the film I keep coming back to when I think about animated films that earn their emotional punches rather than just manufacturing them. Coco earns every single one of them.

The story follows a young boy with a passion for music who finds himself, through a chain of events I won't spoil, crossing over into the Land of the Dead on Día de los Muertos. What unfolds is a celebration of family, memory, and what it means to be remembered, wrapped in one of the most visually inventive worlds Pixar has ever put on screen. The Land of the Dead is extraordinary. Towering, glowing, impossibly colourful. It's the kind of world-building that makes you want to pause every frame and just look at it. The detail is staggering, and the colour palette is so rich and confident that it practically radiates off the screen.

The music is, as you'd hope and expect, wonderful throughout. It's woven into the bones of the story rather than dropped in as set dressing. "Remember Me" in particular does something clever and quietly devastating: it transforms across the film, changing in context and meaning until its final appearance hits you somewhere you weren't prepared for. I'm being deliberately vague because if you haven't seen this film, you deserve to experience that moment fresh.

What I appreciate most about Coco is how genuinely it engages with Mexican culture. This isn't a postcard version of a culture, a thin aesthetic layer slapped over a generic story. The film wears its cultural heart on its sleeve with real affection and specificity. The traditions feel lived-in. The family dynamics feel real. It's a culturally rich gem, and that richness makes the emotional stakes feel all the more grounded.

Because yes, this is a film about death. About what happens when we're forgotten. About the bonds between generations, and the weight of family expectations, and the things we inherit from people we never even met. It's heavy material, handled with extraordinary lightness and care. Kids will love the adventure and the colour and the music. Adults will quietly fall apart. That's the deal, and it's a good deal.

If I'm being fair, the plot mechanics in the middle stretch are fairly familiar as Pixar structures go, and anyone who's seen a few of these films will likely clock where things are heading before they arrive. But the execution is so warm, so beautifully rendered, and so genuinely moving that it doesn't really matter. You're not watching it for the twists. You're watching it because it makes you feel something real about the people you love and the people you've lost.

Four stars. Great for kids, devastating for adults. And I mean that as the highest compliment.

Rating: ★★★★  | Year: 2017  | Watched: 2025-04-06

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Lee Unkrich: Toy Story 3 (2010)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More family: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Wonder (2017) · Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anastasia (1997)
More animation: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)