美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'Coco,' Pixar Finds Joyous Life — In Death

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ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Pixar's animators seem willing to go anywhere in pursuit of fresh enchantment¹. They plunged² to the ocean's depths in "Finding Nemo," levitated³ with helium balloons in "Up" and entered a child's mind in "Inside Out." Now in the movie "Coco," they're visiting the afterlife. Critic Bob Mondello suspects audiences will be dying to go along.

BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE⁴: Twelve-year-old Miguel lives with his shoemaking family in a Mexican village, his days happy except for one thing. His family has been music-free for three generations. His grandmother allows no blowing into soda⁵ bottles...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "COCO")

RENEE VICTOR: (As Abuelita) No music.

MONDELLO: ...No listening to passing car radios...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "COCO")

VICTOR: (As Abuelita) No music.

MONDELLO: ...No singing with strolling players.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "COCO")

VICTOR: (As Abuelita) No music.

ANTHONY GONZALEZ: (As Miguel) I think we're the only family in Mexico who hates music.

MONDELLO: Miguel knows why. Years ago, his musical great-great-grandfather grabbed his guitar and left, never to return. On Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, when it's said the deceased return to visit their families, no one so much as mentions great-great-granddad, which means Miguel gets a bit of a shock when he strums a guitar in a cemetery⁶ on that day and finds himself and his street puppy transported to the land of the dead.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "COCO")

GONZALEZ: (As Miguel) You've got to stay with me, boy. We don't know where...

MONDELLO: It's the most eye-popping and lively afterlife you can imagine with streets paved in fluorescent⁷ flower petals⁸ and skeletons doing production numbers about dancing papaya seeds. The plot arguably has more complications and psychedelic spirit critters than it really needs, but you can't blame Pixar's animators for splurging on images when the point of everything they do is family.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "COCO")

GONZALEZ: (As Miguel) This isn't a dream then. You're all really out there.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: (As character) You thought we weren't.

GONZALEZ: (As Miguel) Oh, I don't know. I thought it might have been one of those made-up things that adults tell kids, like vitamins.

MONDELLO: Coco, I should mention, is Miguel's great-grandmother, the child of that musical great-great-grandfather who never came back. She anchors the film, as you'd expect a matriarch to do, and she also figures in a moment that will reduce audiences to tears as surely as did that story in "Up" about the grumpy, old man losing his wife. In both cases, the tears are joyous⁹ about memories that can unite families and even transcend¹⁰ death. Though "Coco" strikes plenty of comedic kid-flick poses, it's no accident that its big song is...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "COCO")

GONZALEZ: (As Miguel, singing) Remember me. Don't let...

MONDELLO: Also no accident - its plot centers on Mexico's Day of the Dead. The final credits end with a note that Dia de los Muertos is a tradition rooted in the lore¹¹ of indigenous¹² peoples. To learn more, says a legend on the screen, visit your local library. I bet a lot of folks will right after they call their grandmothers. I'm Bob Mondello.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "COCO")

GONZALEZ: (As Miguel, singing) Thought I have to travel far, remember me. Each time your hear a sad guitar, know that I'm with you the only way that I can be. Until you're in my arms again, remember me.