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PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Coco (Michael Giacchino/Germaine Franco/Various)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you're ready to reprogram the order of Coco's
songs and score on album to recreate the film's narrative for one of the
most engagingly heartfelt, ethnically spirited soundtracks in a long
while.
Avoid it... if genuinely researched and expertly executed Mexican mariachi music is a recipe for insanity in your books, Michael Giacchino and Germaine Franco rarely straying from total ethnic saturation in this wild experience.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Coco: (Michael Giacchino/Germaine Franco/Various)
With so much derivative regurgitation and unoriginal ideas emanating
from big studios, the 2017 animated movie Coco is an incredibly
fresh and entertaining diversion. Like Moana, it beautifully
explores a culture not rooted in traditional fables of anglo-royal
heritage, offering a glimpse at a world not seen before in mainstream
animation. It's a spectacular film that illuminates Mexican culture
while exploring notions of belonging and acceptance within one's own
family. The Disney/Pixar release lovingly conveys the Mexican holiday,
Day of the Dead, careful to accurately depict the unique event and the
mythos involved with the afterlife. An ill-advised attempt to name the
film "Dia de los Muertos" was met with strong protests upon Disney's
predictable motions to trademark that phrase, and the studio quickly
acquiesced to name the film Coco after the matriarch of the
family at its heart. Her great-grandson is the main character, the
12-year-old Miguel struggling to come to grips with a life in his
family's shoemaking business when his instincts tell him to follow his
passion for music, a career that ended tragically for Coco's father and
has haunted the family ever since. The sheer enthusiasm of Miguel is the
soul of Coco, and it is his journey that defines the music for
the picture. While this movie is not technically a musical, per se, it
may as well be. Several songs performed as source applications in the
story contribute to a narrative supported in between by a score penned
by Pixar veteran composer Michael Giacchino. Authenticity to Mexico in
the music was one of the greatest concerns of the production, and to
ensure that the score and songs adhered to proper cultural
sensibilities, the filmmakers tasked Germaine Franco with researching
the right instrumental and tonal sound over many months. Franco, aside
from being a regular orchestrator for John Powell, is the first Latina
to successfully ascend in Hollywood's composing world, and she
eventually coined most of the songs heard in Coco, whether
adapted from traditional sources of simply taking inspiration from them
for new ones. She then served as an advisor and orchestrator for
Giacchino, for whom the project was also a personal passion.
Giacchino and Franco worked tirelessly to assemble the proper instrumentation, rhythms, and inflection of performance for both the original songs and the score, and their efforts pay off with immensely authentic results. A bit suspiciously, songwriters Kristin Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez of Frozen fame were hired to provide one new lead song, and they get top billing on the soundtrack even though they clearly do not deserve such recognition. Their "Remember Me" song is certainly excellent, and it exudes enough of the same Mexican character to fit with the rest of the production, this despite some clear Broadway characteristics as required by the initial stage performance of the song on screen. Note that most of the songs in the film feature some kind of influence from stage action, so be prepared for abrupt endings and performance diversions to account for action on screen. It's nice, actually, that the production chose not to re-record most of the songs and instead provide them, sound effects included as appropriate, in their original form on album. The suave, self-absorbed Ernesto de la Cruz performance of "Remember Me," deliciously conveyed by Benjamin Bratt, for instance, ends with the sound of a giant bell falling upon and killing the singer. Likewise, "The World es Mi Familia" by young singer Anthony Gonzalez as Miguel concludes with a splash as the character falls mid-verse into a swimming pool. The voice of Gonzalez is a joy in the film; so often children's source vocals are obnoxiously amateurish, but here they are a bit unrefined but delightfully accomplished and crystal clear without sounding outwardly auto-tuned. His dual-language performance in "Un Poco Loco" is arguably a highlight of the film, the boy's duet with his father (unbeknownst to both), Hector, a rousing moment of victory. Likewise, the adaptation of "La Llorona," switches to Spanish for superb theatrical effect, the scene punctuated for film music enthusiasts by an animated version of a dead Giacchino as conductor for this on-screen orchestra. Gonzalez closes out the film with a brightly optimistic song by Franco, "Proud Corazon," that tests the young singer's voice as he expresses an accelerating joy for his reunited family. While "Remember Me" will receive the most recognition because of its heartbreaking duet between Miguel and Coco over solo guitar and the standard, relatively inoffensive pop variation over the end credits, "Proud Corazon" is the pinnacle of the sung music in Coco. While most soundtracks benefit from having their songs and score split apart on their albums, Coco is an exception for those ready to reprogram the album's split presentation. One of the other disappointments about the music for Coco is the lack of direct melodic crossover between songs and score. There is a bit of this in the Ernesto song, "Much Needed Advice," but otherwise Giacchino applies the same Franco instrumental and performance spirit into his own set of themes for the score. That spirit of Mexico is genuinely authentic in the work, avoiding stereotypes by supplying a balance between expected mariachi-styled performances on acoustic guitars, trumpets, and violins and pan pipes, ethnic woodwinds, accordion, and marimbas backed by a full orchestra. The large symphonic portions are concentrated around Giacchino's suspense and thriller moments, with the majority of cues existing on solely the Mexican elements. Certainly, listeners with little tolerance for mariachi music will find much of Coco to be tedious, especially as Giacchino turns the music totally zany with Danny Elfman vibes for outward humor or chase sequences. The mystical aspects of the story are represented by the pan pipes and whistles, as heard immediately in "Will He Shoemaker?" and in "Miguel's Got an Axe to Find" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls," and these passages are outright gorgeous. The fullest merging of Mexican performance elements, backed by the marimbas and the orchestra, highlights the score in "Crossing the Marigold Bridge," an immensely impactful cue to accompany the starting beauty of the setting. The spunky companion to this cue is the subsequent "Dept. of Family Reunions," which offers a humorously rhythmic take on the same general idea. Elsewhere, a jazzy atmosphere recognizable to Giacchino's other animated film scores encroaches, "Fiesta con De La Cruz" exuding the composer's own hip musical leanings. Be prepared for mariachi explosions of volume in cues like "Plaza De La Cruz" and "Fiesta Espectacular," the latter offering a stronger role for tuba in the mix. As the film's story takes a rather dour turn in its third act, Giacchino responds in "A Blessing and a Fessing," "Somos Familia," and "Cave Dwelling on the Past" with the score's understated suspense material involving the newly evil Ernesto character. While this material isn't particularly exciting, note some excellent spacing of elements in the soundscape within "A Blessing and a Fessing." By "The Show Must Go On" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls," the outright action of "Grabbing a Photo Opportunity" turns to striking horror. While Giacchino maintains that there is a wealth of thematic cohesion in Coco, it's likely that most listeners will only catch one major theme in his contribution. The Rivera family theme is prevalent throughout the work, heard on guitar at 0:22 in "Will He Shoemaker?" and reprised in its most engaging forms in "Miguel's Got an Axe to Find," "Crossing the Marigold Bridge," and "Taking Sides." As the situation involving Miguel's true family connections (Hector, in particular) clarify later in the story, the theme represents an ever-growing set of characters, and it explodes in "Reunion Familiar de Rivera" before swinging to depression in "A Family Dysfunction." The film closes with the idea exploring several redemptive variations in "One Year Later" and "Coco - Dia de los Muertos Suite." Its use in "Adios Chicharron" is intriguing in that it doesn't seem to connect to the Rivera family at that point in the film, but death whistle employed in the cue is lovely; the cue does end with a singular theme of note for the Edward James Olmos character. Outside of the seemingly omnipresent Rivera identity, Giacchino struggles to achieve melodic consistency. The only obvious secondary theme exists for the winged, cat-like alebrije, Pepita, that is used to track Miguel throughout the film. Its heroic theme first explodes at 2:38 in "The Skeleton Key to Escape" and saves the day at the outset of "For Whom the Bell Tolls." There is reportedly a theme for Hector that is separate from the Rivera family identity, but the character's backstory scenes, aside from establishing "Remember Me" as the song for him rather than Ernesto, is sadly devoid of any distinguishing theme. Ultimately, it's the many authentically lovely performances of the Rivera family theme that prevail in the end, and given how thoroughly the melody is exercised in a variety of emotional settings, casual listeners may simply latch onto the instrumentation and general spirit of the whole to define Coco. There are moments when Giacchino Mickey Mouses his way to tedium ("It's All Relative" and "Grabbing a Photo Opportunity" are tough, the latter a sudden infusion of pure Danny Elfman/Pee Wee style into the equation at the start), but these are thankfully few. On album, be aware that three cues (the continuing Ernesto horror strikes and later suspense in "Cave Dwelling on the Past," a pivotal suspense moment in "The Show Must Go On," and a wild chase in "A Run for the Ages") are available via download but missing from the primary CD album. Most of these seven minutes could have fit on the product, so their omission is a shame. Aside from these quibbles and the unfortunately lack of melodic connection between score and songs, Coco is an excellent musical with a satisfyingly authentic Mexican heart and outstanding performances throughout. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
Disney CD Album:
Total Time: 72:07
Disney Download Album: Total Time: 78:37
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes lyrics for all the songs and a list of performers but no
extra information about the score or film.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Coco are Copyright © 2017, Walt Disney Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 12/30/17 (and not updated significantly since). |
