Reviews WesternAnimation / Coco

Coco succeeded where Up fell flat.

As a lifelong watcher of Pixar films, I've gotten to see how they've grown, decayed, and transformed. And Coco has proved that they're able to make up for past mistakes.

While I'm not actively comparing two films, Coco does share many similarities to Up, namely an ambitious protagonist, a journey to a new world, and a surprise villain who serves as a Shadow Archetype of the hero. The biggest difference is the complete lack of monochrome storytelling in Coco and all the important characters being developed in somewhat equal measure.

I could just be saying this because I went into the film knowing only that it was a Pixar film and nothing else, (and highly encourage others to do so) but Coco shows that you can remake a less-than-optimal film if you know what you did wrong and correct for it. Up was by no means a horrible film; it just didn't have the kind of complexity that Pixar is known for.