Okay - so unexpectedly saw Coco last night. I will have some unpopular opinions, I'm sure, and that's okay - this is the place to have our own rationally stated opinions, right? Sorry if I hurt anybody's feelings, I'm definitely always open to hearing other's opinions here.
If I had liked it well enough, I was planning to see it again next Tuesday. I did not like it enough.
First of all, I thought the Frozen "short" beforehand was WAAAAAY too long and involved to be a short, preview, trailer, anything of that sort. The person I was with (who didn't know anything about Frozen, or Coco beforehand, so had no preconceived notions or prejudices) kept asking me "Is this the movie - I thought you told me the movie was about the Day of the Dead, and skeletons and stuff, and all I see is winter time stuff". He also stated several times he was confused about what was going on, because while there was a LOT of storyline and details, there were also quite a few "references" to Frozen, which he had not seen. (Like the gloves in the Christmas box - he had no idea what those were for/what the meaning was). As you all probably know, I thought Frozen was just "meh", and I am at the gagging point with the oversaturation, but I tried to put those feelings aside as much as I could. I did like some of the songs, or snatches of songs, in this, thought Olaf and Sven were cute, but again - it went on WAAAAY to long, so started annoying me, instead of keeping me lightly entertained before the main feature.
Coco itself - it was okay, but for me - was not a "must see again, must tell others abut it". I felt about this the same way I did about Frozen, basically,. I did think they story and culture were thoroughly and thoughtfully portrayed - WAY overly portrayed, again, IMHO. Felt like I was being beaten over the head with it after awhile, started getting annoyed, and saying internally "I get it, I GOT it - let's MOVE ON!". I thought the animation was incredible, especially the faces, and the lit up town was BEAUTIFUL - I actually said that I'd love a print like that. My friend basically felt the same way I did, was annoyed it dragged on so long, and said he would have taken a nap if he knew it would aimlessly drag on so long. He actually told me he wished we hadn't spent the expensive money on the movie, and didn't even feel it was worth a RedBox rental. Have to agree on the movie itself, I wouldn't have felt as "ripped off" if I had gotten it RedBox. I will say in closing it did teach me about the meaning/importance of flowers (especially marigolds, apparently) in the celebrations, and what an ofrenda is, didn't know that either. Since I love learning about other cultures, and beliefs, I am grateful for that.
Just my ha'penny's worth of opinion.