THE ANALYSIS OF MOVIE “COCO”

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Submitted for getting assessment

Introduction to Literature

Arranged by GROUP 5:

Hesti Kurniasih – J1A020018

Tegar Purwa Suminta – J1A020019

Tania Davina Pinkan – J1A020020

Tyas Niken Palupi – J1A020021

ENGLISH LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF HUMANITIES

UNIVERSITAS JENDERAL SOEDIRMAN

2021
 Introduction

Theme is one of the most important things when analyze a film. Through theme, we can
see how the producer want to expand the plot of his/her film. From theme also, entire of the film
can reach by viewer. Plot is a series of stories in a movie. Staton (2007) says that plot is a
sequence of events in a story, each event is only connected with cause and effect, one event
caused by another event. Character is a person in a novel, play, or movie. “Character is a person
in a story of a play” stated by Duffy and Petit (1953: 24). Characterization is the representation
of persons (or other beings or creatures) in narrative and dramatic works. Jones, (1968: 84) states
Characterization is the depicting of clear images of a person.

Setting is the time, place and also contained the atmosphere in the movie. It usually
introduced during the exposition (beginning) of the story, along with the characters. The setting
may also include the environment of the story, which can be made up of the physical location,
climate, weather, or social and cultural surroundings. Setting gives context to the characters’
actions in a story line. It can also create the mood (how the reader or viewer feels). The time of
day, time of year, and ages of the characters will also affect how they act and what they say.

Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of
filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film which
increasingly involves the use of digital technology. As we are analyzing an animated 3D movie
this film has a lots of editing sequence as every frame was edited either by an animator or the
quality control check team.

Those things are important things when analyzing a movie, so in this paper, the
researchers are going to analyze about the theme, plot and characterization, setting, and editing
of movie titled Coco. Coco is a 2017 American computer-animated fantasy film produced by
Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Based on an original idea by Lee
Unkrich, it is directed by him and his co-directed Adrian Molina.
 Discussion

1. Theme
 The Death
The main theme in coco film is death. As film that has dedication for education of
children, this film explores about living after death with something fun. We can’t see the
horror tragedy which usually appear in the film with death theme. We just view a good
life after death and a happy life there. This animation seems to be suitable for children
that has a curious character about death. So, they don’t fear to know about death. The
following statement could tell more information about this.
COCO has the effect of letting the audience touch their heart. Chinese
people are afraid to talk about death, and children's death education is
even more lacking. After the release of COCO, almost everyone agrees
that if you want to provide a story for children to face death, it is difficult
to find another animated film which is more lively, interesting and moving
than COCO. (Liu, 2020)
 Family
The second theme is family. In this film, Miguel as the main character has family that
very love him and protect him. Not just in a real life, but also after he across the death
world, he has a family that very love him. Although his family broken because of
misunderstanding in the past. Finally, they can love again each other and promise to
always make family as the first priority. The theme family contains many other themes
just like love, affection, kindness and seems to be the first theme if the death is doesn’t
appear. From the same journal, it’s explained clearly.
Although the Day of the Dead is a story clue, Pixar who is good at
storytelling would not to use an animated film to discuss the serious topic
of life and death in a solemnity. Death is only one of the plots. All the
warm elements of the human world contained in the story: dreams, family,
memories, adventures, love, affection, these universal feelings display
successively in the film, let audience follow the characters of the film
happy together, sad together, experience the joy of success together, and
 participate in the gathering of loved ones across life and death. [ CITATION
Yan20 \l 1033 ]
 Dreams
“Seizing your moment” is a statement from Ernesto de la Cruz which make Miguel trust
about his dream. Even, he contrasts his family and chooses to attend a festival music in
the night when the family that has died return to home. He is very sad because his family
doesn’t support his dream to be a musician and decide to attach his dream with sing in the
plaza. Although, he lost in the land after death.

2. Plot and Characterization

 Plot:
Miguel was a 12 years old boy from Santa Cecilia, Mexico, who have a dream to
become a musician, but his family forbids his dream very much. Miguel has a great-
great-grandmother named Imelda who was married to a man who left her and their
daughter Coco to pursue his career in music, but Coco’s father turns out never returned to
his family, so Imelda ban everything related to music from her family’s life and starting a
shoes making business. Miguel lives with all his family who are all shoemakers. Because
of her age, Coco suffers from memory loss.
Miguel secretly adore a very famous musician named Ernesto de la Cruz, so he
practices his guitar skills to reach his dream. On the day of the dead, Miguel accidentally
ruin the picture frame of a photo of Coco with Imelda and her father (the face of his
father torn off) Miguel think that his great-great grandfather was Ernesto de la Cruz,
because in the photo, his great-great grandfather holding Ernesto’s famous guitar, so
Miguel ignores his family forbids and decide to join the talent show. Miguel breaking
into Ernesto’s museum, and takes Ernesto’s guitar for use it in the show, but when he
plays it, he become invisible to everyone. However, he can interact with a spirit. He
meets all his family members who have been died.
Miguel find out that he is cursed for stealing from the dead (Ernesto’s guitar) and
he must come back to the Land of the Living before sunrise, or he will die. To prevent
that things, Miguel must receive a blessing from his family members. Imelda offers
Miguel a blessing, but with a condition that Miguel has to end his dream to become a
 musician, so Miguel refuses Imelda offers and decide to have Ernesto blessing (because
he thought that Ernesto is his family too)
He meets Hector, who declare that he knows Ernesto, Hector offering help to
Miguel to meet Ernesto, in return, Miguel has to take Hector’s photo with him to the
Land of Living, so Hector can visit his daughter, before she forgets him. Hector help
Miguel to enter a talent competition that the winner can meet Ernesto, but when Miguel
does his performance, his family tracks him down, so Miguel runaway and sneaks into
Ernesto’s mansion. In the mansion, Miguel finally meet Ernesto, and Miguel tell him that
he is his great-great-grandson. Then, come Hector, but Hector encounter them, again
plead to Miguel to take his photo to the Land of Living. Ernesto and Hector have an
argument and Miguel find out that Hector was actually his great-great-grandfather and
Ernesto was murdered Hector. Ernesto robbed his guitar and songs after poisoning
Hector, and he becomes famous. To protect his image, Ernesto take the photo and has his
security to throw Miguel and Hector into a hole.
Imelda and his family finally rescue Miguel and Hector, Hector and Imelda
slowly reconcile. Ernesto’s crimes are finally exposed to the audience. Despite the chaos,
however, Miguel loses the photo, as the sun rise, Coco’s memories are fading, so Imelda
and Hector blessing Miguel, so he can come back to home. Miguel sing “remember me”
a song that Hector made for Coco, Coco remember and sing along with Miguel. Coco
said that she still having the torn-off piece of the family photo with Hector’s face, then
Coco tell her family member stories about her life back then with Hector, to saving
Hector existence in the Land of Dead. At the end of the movie, Coco die because of her
age, and Miguel’s family finally understand, and let Miguel to reach his dream to become
a musician.
 Characterization:
 Miguel Rivera: Miguel is the protagonist of the movie, he is a 12 years old boy
with tan skin, black hair, and a dimple on only one side. Miguel adore Ernesto de
la Cruz so much and has a dream to become a musician like Ernesto de la Cruz,
but his family forbid his dream, so Miguel wants to show to his family that he can
reach his dream. He does everything to reach his dream.
  Ernesto de la Cruz: Ernesto is the antagonist of the movie. He was Miguel
Rivera’s idol, who was a famous singer, musician, and actor in his entire life. He
was a former best friend of Hector Rivera. At first, Miguel thought Ernesto was
his great-great grandfather, but it turned out that Ernesto was the murderer of
Hector (Miguel’s great-great- grandfather).
 Hector Rivera: Hector Rivera was Imelda’s husband, Miguel’s great-great
grandfather and Coco’s father. He was a former best friend and music partner of
Ernesto de la Cruz, but unfortunately, his best friend, Ernesto kill him and stole
all of his songs and become so famous. He need help from Miguel to put his
photo on the altar so he can be remembered, He also help Miguel to escape from
the Land of the Dead.
 Imelda Rivera: Imelda was Miguel’s great-great grandmother, Hector’s wife and
Coco’s mother. She run a shoe making business. She banned her family from
everything related to music because she thought her husband, which is a musician
left their family, but the truth is Miguel being murdered by Ernesto. At the end
Imelda knowing the truth that Hector was being murdered and she appears to have
fully accepted music back into her family life.
 Mama coco: Coco was Miguel’s great grandmother, Imelda and Hector’s
daughter. Because of her age, she suffers from memory loss. She is a warm-
hearted, supportive, and kind grandmother When she was a child, her father
would play and sing several songs with her. She kept hector’s photo that was torn
off years ago, because of that, Hector able to stay alive in the Land of the Dead.
At the end of the movie, Coco died because of her age.

3. Setting
 Geographical setting: The movie take place in Mexico and we can see the city and its
culture become inspiration for this movie. There are 5 places based on Mexico city such
as:
 Santa Cecilia: From the beginning of this movie, we can see that Miguel and his
family live in the fictional village named is Santa Cecilia. Actually, there is a real
 village name is Santa Fe de la Laguna which is the key inspiration for Coco’s
fictional village.
 Plaza: Many wonderful festivals and celebrations take place here throughout the
year, and Day of the Dead is no exception. It inspired by Tzintzuntzan city which
is a cultural center rich with the heritage of the Purépechan people.
 Patzcuaro: In this movie, Patzcuaro is the place to celebrate Day of the Death.
Pátzcuaro and the surrounding lake area have one of the best-known Day of the
Dead celebrations in Mexico.
 Guanajuato: When Miguel is transported to the Land of the Dead during the
movie, he arrives to a place very much in the spirit of Guanajuato, a beautiful
historical city. Where we can see the monument for fictional singer Ernesto de la
Cruz.
 Teotihuacán: In the Land of the Death, we can see a building like pyramid which
is inspired by the ancient City of Teotihuacán, just outside Mexico City, is home
to the famous ruins of several pre-Hispanic pyramids.
 Physical setting or time: In this movie, we can see the setting of the time is daylight and
night. When we are in Santa Cecilia (Miguel's village), almost the scene of Coco's movie
set on daylight and after Miguel arrived in the Land of the Death, this place takes us into
the dark of night because this land is a place for spirits after death.
 Atmosphere: There is various atmosphere in this movie, the beginning of the movie start
with tense atmosphere when Miguel's Family refused him to play music and sing like his
great-grandfather (Ernesto de la Cruz) and it make him run away from his family because
his ambitions to be like his great-great grandfather. The scene continue when Miguel's
met Ernesto de la Cruz in the land of the death, the atmosphere become more tense
because Miguel's finally knew that Ernesto isn't his great-grandfather like what he
thought before and Ernesto was a bad guy because he poisoned Hector who is the real
great-great grandfather of Miguel just to stole his music book and make himself famous
by admire and sing some music from that book.
In the end of the story, we can feel the happiness of Miguel because he can sing a
song from his great-grandfather (Hector) to his grandmother (Mama Coco) and makes her
to remember about Hector who is Mama Coco father, because it will save Hector live in
 the land of the death and also Miguel can tell everyone based on the letter from Mama
Coco which proves that Ernesto de la Cruz doesn't deserve the flattery because the real
musician who wrote those music and should be famous was his great- grandfather,
Hector.

4. Editing
 Camera Angle
The widescreen composition is very well done, because they put lots of character in the
same frame together and the majority of the film use a head to toe camera angle or from
waist up to their head. This angle usage is very fitting for this movie as it gives the
information about the characters body language clearly and not showing any brick-like
movement like that was found on a cheap animated movie. As a matter of fact the budget
for this movie is 200 million dollar, which is a lot but it is not unusual for the creator of
the movie is the famous “Disney Pixar”. But it is not always emphasize on the character
it also focus on the object sometime as shown where the highlight of the screen was the
De La Cruz’s guitar and it’s photo it was used to make the audience focus on it and give
some feeling toward the object. As for the panoramic view of The land of The Dead
giving the effect of a joy and wonders for the mexican tradition. The direction make we
feel the interaction between the characters and their environments.
 Animation and Effect
The animation is fluid and the rendering texture is very high quality wise this was shown
in the clothes of the characters, we can see that it’s not just a plain polygon with no
fibbers on it. Pixar is known for their details on the clothes the water animation and the
fluid and natural movement of the character. The physics is contradicting in some scene
where it’s like cartoon but at some scenario as the guitar destroying scene the physic of
the guitar that thrown into the ground is very real life alike motion, the object has weight
in it and no just plain going to the bottom motion on some cheap animation movies. And
the transition between scenes is considered smooth as it constantly changes between
dialogues and help us focus on the dialogue without much needing the heavy
concentration to focus on the which part to watch. It also uses zoom in and zoom out
effect also to focus on the significant part of the story. The juxtaposition between what
 object in front and what object behind the front object is shown quite a lot. The lighting
are very colorful when it’s in the normal shenanigans but when the key part of the film
begin to start like when the plot twist part at the end the scene turns into a dark despair
like situation and when in the other land of the dead for the forgotten dead people are
quite the same as the plot twist part.
 Casting
The cast for the film are befitting with their role. When they speak, it has the Mexican
accent that we have much heard on TV and other pop cultures substances. But at some
point the accent is gone and the breathing sound when they were running or walk is not
realistic enough because the sounded like not running at all the only sound that indicates
they were running is by gaping a lot but it doesn’t feels natural. But because this is an
animated 3D movie the voice actor part is not that significant they only need to have the
correct emotion into their intonation of their speech.

Conclusion

The movie Coco is about a young boy in Mexico whose family is preparing for Día de
Muertos. Coco is a great and powerful movie to everyone especially kids to increase their
knowledge about Mexico city and their culture. This movie also contain some lesson or moral
values that we can learn. The message about strong family ties in this film is conveyed
beautifully and touches everyone's heart. The main conflict of this Coco movie is that Miguel's
dream to become a musician is crushed, because his family is very against it because they hate
music. But Miguel still tries to convince his family to reach his dream to becoming a musician.
From Miguel we learned, don't give up when something not gets in the way of your step towards
your dream, just prove that you really can. In this film also, we can take a moral lesson to
remembers our families member who have died, like in scene from this movie when someone
remembers and displays photos of deceased family members, they can return to meet their
families at the Dia de los Muertos celebration. While those who die and forgotten, their spirits
will go to real death. And in the end, Ernesto kills his friend Hector and steals all his songs. And
everyone knows that Ernesto is no longer loved by many people. From this movie, we can learn
that something which achieved not in a good way, then the result will also not be good.

References:

Liu, Y. (2020). Narrative Strategy of Death Theme in Animated Films Under Children's
Cognitive Perspective . Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities
Research, volume 416, 304.

Liu, Y. (2020). Narrative Strategy of Death Theme in Animated Films Under Children's
Cognitive Perspective . Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities
Research, volume 416, 306.
Retrieved from DIsney Fandom: https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Coco_characters
Latif, M. M. (2016). AN ANALYSIS OF CHARACTERIZATION OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS
IN 'THE SOCIAL NETWORK' MOVIE SCRIPT, 7.
Nasir, C., Samad, I. A., Jannah, T. M., & Sharudin, E. S. (2019). AN ANALYSIS OF MORAL
VALUES IN THE MOVIE “COCO”, 23.