Coco was a worldwide blockbuster and won 2 Academy Awards. But if that wasn’t enough, the film also made a Mike cry and figured out the after life. We highlight all of its animation innovations and breakdown another principle in Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling.

What is a Pixar Re-Watch Episode? - 1:37

NON-SPOILER SECTION

Cast and Crew - 3:55

How Pixar Got Here - 7:34

Production Nuggets - 15:15

Movie Specs - 19:25

Plot Premises/Expectations - 23:15

Production Values:

Sight - 26:31

Sound - 32:33

Performances - 34:35

Final Non-spoiler Thoughts - 36:23

Spoiler Warning - 38:37

SPOILER-FILLED SECTION

Pixar’s 22 Rules of Screenwriting No. 15 - 39:50

Issues and Lowlights - 43:55

Scenes of Heartbreak + Heart Warming- 47:59

Happy Pills + Highlights - 54:35

Dante’s Peak(s and Valleys) - 59:35

Special Words of Wisdom - 1:01:56

Coming Next From MMO/Our Socials/Your Homework - 1:03:22

There’s a lot to love about Pixar’s Coco. As always, we give it the full MMO movie review treatment, beginning with a non-spoiler segment that highlights everything we learned about the making of the film, including, yes, some controversy. We have fun chatting about how the production team took another dream field trip, and we also describe how Pixar built new technologies to handle the animation innovations necessary to bring Dia De Los Muertos to life. They also made a bunch of changes to the original script that unlocked the movie’s full potential.

Then in spoilers, we breakdown the 15th rule of Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling before we talk about all the incredible moments that broke our hearts and still managed to make us so happy. Yes, there are some worst scenes, and we have a weighty discussion on how to build a plot around such a willful young protagonist who risks his life for his music.

Speaking of that music, we reviewed the 2017/18 Best Original Song Category in its own episode last summer, and we’ll add that show to our current playlist. The song “Remember Me” has its own arc in the script, and we breakdown it’s brilliant usage once more.

The production backstory also surprised us, and we cover several controversies whirling around the film’s release that would have derailed a lesser movie. But luckily, the great far outweight the good & the bad, and we gush about a so many triumphs of Pixar storytelling throughout the show.

Stay tuned for the rest of our Pixar Rewatch series. We’ll likely cover Toy Story 2 next, and then we plan to FINALLY, dive into the Cars trilogy. But up next, we are reviewing the second film in our Tarantino rewatch as we change gears to analyze Pulp Fiction. We’re certainly trying to be versatile as a film appreciation podcast these days. So we hope you enjoy that variety and take these rides with us.

As always, let us know what you thought of Coco and do share your stories. We’re at MMandOscar on Twitter, and we are on Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, and Gmail. You can subscribe / rate / review / like / share / & listen to us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Google Play, Tune In, Spotify, and just about wherever you listen to podcasts. When reality sucks, keep watching movies with us. We’re Mike, Mike, & Oscar!