The following is a guest post by Aldo Gomez.

Last week on Sunday, March 4, the Disney Pixar animated film Coco won the Oscar for best animated film and had it been any other year, I would be the cynical critic talking about how the animated category is never taken seriously and Disney will take that Oscar home 9 times out of 10, but not this time. Coco means something different and is more powerful than the average Disney/Pixar movie and wholeheartedly deserves the award and praise it has received. And while I would love to write a 20-page thesis on this, I will only be writing about how this film affected me in a way no other film has.

I need to be transparent in writing this piece. I am a Mexican American, brought to the United States more than 20 years ago by my parents and separated from my extended family and friends, so to say that Coco hits specially home to me is an understatement.

Coco is a film about a young boy named Miguel, a child within a family that has banned all forms of music from their household, but he believes that music is in his blood and that this stems from his great-great-grandfather who left his family for a music career. In order to prove this, Miguel ends up in the Land of the Dead, meets his ancestors, and tries to return to the land of living, but things don’t go exactly to plan.

As a youth, I didn’t think that I was ever at a loss for Hispanic role models, George Lopez was a successful comedian in the United States and before him was Erik Estrada in the TV series “CHiPs”, but as I kept watching the silver screen, I began to realize that a lot of the Hispanic roles were typically gangsters, otherwise known as cholos, and comedic side characters.

There were odd exceptions like most of Edward James Olmos’ parts and Ritchie Valens, I guess. Mexico had its own golden and silver age of cinema so it never felt like there was a need for Mexican actors to cross over to Hollywood, but the late 2000’s proved otherwise as actors like Eugenio Derbez and Kate del Castillo started releasing independent films in the United States, those were movies about being illegal immigrants and the struggles related to leaving your family behind and while I relate to those stories, there wasn’t much wide appeal.

Enter the 2014 film produced by (now academy award winner) Guillermo del Toro, Book of Life. Written and directed by a Mexican but having a sterilized view of Mexican culture as well as its largely white and American cast felt less than genuine. During that time, we also had Mexican directors Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro G. Iñarritu not only being recognized, but also winning Best Director Oscars. Even then, their achievements strayed from Mexican culture; the message was clear and it was that Mexican culture couldn’t sell.

Then the 2016 elections happened and the narrative for Mexicans changed when Donald Trump became president. To keep it as apolitical and succinct as possible, all that needs to be said is that Mexican immigrants were labeled in very unkind terms. Disney had already canceled their announced Jack and the Beanstalk project and it seemed like the recently announced Coco could also be on the chopping block. Thankfully, that didn’t happen.

Coco is set on the eve of the Day of the Dead and starts out in the beaten streets of a small Mexican village telling the backstory with cutouts on bright colorful papers hung up in the streets. This is the moment I knew that this film was what I had been missing. Those paper cutouts are the same ones that my family and I had spent hours cutting out a few weeks earlier as we had prepared our own altar for our family. The music in Coco wasn’t just Mexican inspired, it was actual traditional Mexican music and characters like Ernesto de la Cruz were fictional analogues to real musicians like Pedro Infante.

The cast of the film is primarily Hispanic with actors from Mexican cinema and soap operas and Hollywood actors alike, but that’s only the English version of the film. In my local theaters I saw Spanish language screenings of the film and that cast doesn’t include just Mexican voice actors but Mexican A-list actors and musicians as well, which is highly uncommon.

The culture was never the butt of the joke in the film, gangs and crime were not the focus of the film, and there were plenty of references to Mexican golden age cinema in the film.

I laughed, cried, and gasped as I saw the film, which has a bit of a predictable story, but my culture was presented in one of the most earnest and respectful manners that I had ever witnessed on the big screen. The Day of the Dead was shown for what it really is and not as a Mexican Halloween, even if the film did leave out the more somber Day of the Innocents and the big loud parades of the day celebrations.

Coco proved that in a time where Mexican immigrants are being labeled as rapists and murderers, when youths are threatened to be separated from their home and family, that Mexican culture and its people belong in the United States and they belong in Hollywood. Watching Coco, for me, is probably what many other people felt when they watched Black Panther on the big screen. These films and their representation is important to a lot of people in the U.S. and in the world and Disney/Pixar are showing that they are wanted.

COCO (9 out of 10) Directed by Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina; Written by Lee Unkrich, Jason Katz, Matthew Aldrich, and Adrian Molina; Starring Anthony Gonzalez, GAel Garcia Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Alanna ubach, Renee Victor, Jaime Camil, Alfonso Arau, and Herbert Siguenza; Rated PG ; Running time 109 minutes; In wide release November 27.

Lee Unkrich, director of Toy Story 3, brings his long in development story about a young would-be musician named Miguel whose family has forbidden him to become a musician. He travels to the Land of the Dead on Dia de los Muertos in order to gain the blessing of his ancestors to pursue his musical aspirations. Naturally, things get more complicated.

Bryan: As with any Pixar film, there are two warnings you should always heed and Coco is no exception: don’t wear eye-makeup if you’re so inclined, and bring tissues. This film, like most films that come from Disney’s Pixar studio, brings an emotional, essential, and universal truth to the storytelling that crosses all cultures and audiences in order to deliver something magical.

Adam: Yes, you will definitely want to bring along some tissues as Coco will tug at your heartstrings and lead to a few tears of both pain and joy. Now that said, it’s nowhere near as moving as the likes of Inside Out and Bing Bong, but there’s enough here to stir emotions and move the heart. If anything, by the time I got done, it definitely made me want to talk to my family and check up on them to see how they have been doing, so make sure to take your parents and siblings with you to go see it.

Bryan: The film is truly wondrous and so original and authentic in its concept that it’s hard to find touchstones in other media that might have informed it. Obviously, it’s dripping in the Pixar formula but parts of it feel very old Disney. The musician that Miguel seeks out in the afterlife, Ernesto de la Cruz, feels almost like Guy Williams had been bred with Vicente Fernandez. We’re even treated to old black and white films from his past that remind us visually of these eras of old Disney filmmaking.

Adam: Pixar outdoes themselves once again with one of the most beautiful movies they’ve ever made. The Land of the Dead is bursting with light, color and character, and even from what has been shown in the trailers cannot compare to the experience of seeing this on the big screen. Oh, and make sure to see it in 2D. I can’t think of viewing it with what are essentially sunglasses to see it in 3D as that would greatly affect just how beautiful and colorful this film is.

Bryan: The structure of the film really does feel Pixar, which makes it almost predictable in some ways. But I can’t tell if it’s because the movie is really predictable, or I’ve just seen enough to know where the twists and turns are coming. And even when seeing a character or situation appear and say to myself, “Oh, this is the situation there,” and have it turn out to be true, there were still enough twists and turns that I couldn’t predict.

Adam: It is predictable, but then the enjoyment of Coco is the journey and not so much the destination. Yes, we’ve seen this type of story before, and certain beats have been repeated so many times, especially in Disney films, that anyone familiar with them can guess exactly when and how certain scenes will play out in order to move the plot along. But this pales in comparison to the world that has been built for Miguel to explore as well as the intriguing and fun characters who inhabit it. That said there was a pretty fun plot twist towards the end that had a genuinely surprising reveal that made the film even that much more interesting as well as making the theme of love and family even stronger.

A feast for the ears and the eyes and the soul

Bryan: The visuals of the film are rich and vibrant. The lighting is nothing short of breathtaking. In an early scene, Miguel is locked up in an attic, watching old VHS tapes of his hero’s movies. The glow of the TV, the cracks in the roof allowing sunlight, and the candles of his shrine all combine into a hazy, ethereal light on Miguel as he strums his homemade guitar. The way it all blends together is truly something. And that’s just one scene. There are scenes lit by fireworks, others lit by moonlight. But the true feast of the eyes is in the land of the dead, where normal rules of light or architecture don’t quite apply.

Bryan: This film has excellent screenwriting on display from the very beginning. And when the plot threads all tie together, they do so in a way that is ultimately tearful and satisfying. It evokes the gamut of emotions we deal with as humans surrounding death and grief. But it does it in a way that’s sweet. Though I think it’s difficult to advocate the idea of an afterlife, I think more children’s fare should deal with the idea of confronting death and not thinking of it as the end as long as we’re in the memory of those we leave behind. Kids need things that help them process those emotions, and Coco feels like the perfect vehicle for that.

Adam: The Book of Life handled Dia de los Muertos a few years back, and as entertaining as it was, Pixar really nails the look and feel of the holiday while still respecting the culture and people that surround it. It was truly refreshing to see a movie about Mexican people and their heritage voiced by actual Latino actors. For as much as we’ve dealt with white-washing roles even in movies from just a few months ago a la Ghost in the Shell, it was a wise choice to allow these actors to accurately portray their culture. And yes, there is a lot of Spanish spoken throughout the movie with no subtitles. This might make certain parts a little hard for kids who have never taken a Spanish class to understand, but it’s all pretty easy to figure out as the characters emote what their saying so beautifully that it doesn’t even matter so much that they’re speaking a different language.

Bryan: This film was a delight. It was colorful and full of soul. It was a feast for the ears and the eyes and the soul. Despite a few quirks of predictability, this is one of Pixar’s finest and earns a full 9 of 10 from me.

Adam: Coco is fantastic and easily the best animated movie of the year. Pixar once again proves that they are on the top of their game when it comes to the art they regularly produce, and Coco ranks up there with some of the best they’ve ever done. Grab your family and go see this as soon as you can. And if they can’t go with you, you’ll want to give them a call as soon as you get out to tell them you love them. 9 out of 10

9 out of 10