Coco- the sweetest of films.

Coco- the sweetest of films.

It almost seems the unlikeliest and improbable of all names for a movie. I know. It does sound a more suitable vehicle for a film about a circus clown  but  then it would hardly be as compelling a subject for the silver screen. Can you imagine for instance the likes of Tom Hanks or Brad Pitt extolling the virtues of a late night, soothing hot drink before you drop off to sleep? Don't forget to add plenty of milk.

But Coco, now showing at some, if not all cinemas around the world, was just the best fun you can ever hope for in a film of any description or genre. It was admittedly very sweet, cute, simple and warmly endearing. It had its very own happy ever after, fairy tale finish, the most touching of stories and the most enchanting and quite unbelievable of characters. In fact it was so good and pleasant that for those who like their movies soppy and sentimental it was neither too long nor so short that even if you'd wanted it to finish much earlier than the allotted time you'd have probably been extremely disappointed and wanting more.

Coco was a classic cartoon cum animation film designed for children and families but acceptable for an adult audience if you were inclined to watch this most loveliest of films. It was one of those films which reminded you why your parents once took you to the movies for the first time. I was introduced to the cinema screen at a very tender age with the stunning Jungle Book and Bambi but now found myself transported back to those times with a film that briefly stirred childhood memories.

Coco was about a Mexican family whose great grand father figure and patriarch Ernesto De La Cruz had once left thousands of female hearts fluttering with his magical guitar. De La Cruz had appeared at all of those atmospheric concert venues with the kind of guitar playing that reduced the ladies to a quivering wreck. Then one day it all came crashing to an end when a huge bell fell on top of him, killing him instantly. But hold on, I did say that this film had the happiest ending and indeed it did.

Cue Ernesto's great great grandson Miguel, a butter wouldn't melt in his mouth angelic child whose only dream is to follow in the gold encrusted footsteps of dear Ernesto. Miguel must have idolised Ernesto for most of his life because as the story strongly makes clear, Miguel was determined to go to all lengths to make sure that one day he too would be acclaimed as one of the finest guitarists of all time.

Miguel promptly escaped the clutches of his family at the youngest of all ages and ran away as far as he possibly could if only to prove that he too could be just as good and talented as Ernesto. Sadly, our story now takes a slightly unfortunate twist which it invariably does in these heartwarming and tear stained children's films. It was time to take out the box of tissues because this was time to sigh with a beating heart and sniffle away incessantly. Don't you just love a weepie?

On his travels away from his doting family Miguel, for whatever reason, comes into  contact with a skeleton. Now this is where Coco begins to assume a completely different character. Now we are confronted with skeletons. Not ordinary skeletons but hundreds and thousands of skeletons, families of skeletons, communities of skeletons, skeletons with rattling bones, skeletons with wide, staring eyes, skeletons with a sense of humour, skeletons who cracked jokes, skeletons who could be sad and melancholy while simultaneously jumping up and down with delight in the next.

Yes folks Coco was all about skeletons, skeletons with strange mannerisms and skeletons with lopsided grins which probably implied that they were either being sarcastic or just plain funny. Poor little Miguel had now adopted the appearance of a skeleton when all he wanted to do was just play the guitar as confidently and competently as his great great grandpa Ernesto.

Now it was that Coco took us somewhat mysteriously into a world of skeleton families, skeleton brothers and sisters and skeletons who really shouldn't have been allowed out of their cupboard. But then they thought in retrospect that their roles in this film had been richly deserved and fully merited. Besides who else would a Hollywood director have turned to when they were looking for the lead roles in a children's movie? Simple! A skeleton. Who else? If only they'd have thought of it.

Miguel had now been lost in a world of crazy looking skeletons, with eyes that popped out and bodies that crumbled into disintegration when leaping off what looked like a rock. We were then taken on one of those technicolour journeys that for all the world looked like a cross between the Wizard of Oz and the Beatles Yellow Submarine. In fact there were so many colours on the screen that you had to stop for a minute in case you were imagining it all. It was a riotous collision of colours clashing and competing with each other for attention. You thought you'd suddenly come into possession of your childhood kaleidoscope only to find that this was a brilliant kids animation movie.

What had started as an ordinary childhood ambition to become a famous guitarist had now degenerated into some weird multi coloured dreamscape that became stranger by the minute. Suddenly Miguel arrives at the shrine of the great guitarist Ernesto and having snatched a loose guitar hanging on the wall, immediately enters a world of familiar figures Miguel thought he'd seen now appearing as those wretched skeletons yet again. There can be no getting away from those skeletons. Now the skeletons were spooky ghosts who had almost come back to haunt poor little Miguel.

But after an almost an eternity of supposedly frightening and hair raising moments, Miguel eventually lands up back in the safe bosom of his family because you knew this would happen. The torn photo of Ernesto at the beginning of the film had now been replaced by a much younger figure, a much more handsome matinee idol with a well trimmed moustache. By now Miguel is so emotionally exhausted and distraught by events around him that when he does get back to where he was at the start of the film your sympathies are in a state of some turmoil.

Finally we do get to cheer Miguel because once he finds another guitar at the shrine of the great Ernesto, he now plays his guitar softly to his wonderfully old grandmother now seemingly fast asleep in her rocking chair. By now you simply can't help but sigh deeply. The great grandmother's face of course is so lined that you'd be forgiven for thinking that several maps of the world had become firmly printed on her face.

Perhaps the most amusing moments throughout Coco were the mariachi guitarists from deepest Mexico who hummed, strummed their guitars and melodiously chanted their mariachi songs from the heart. Coco has to be seen because maybe all films should be essentially gentle and inoffensive. The film is based on the premise that if you should never dismiss the feelgood properties of your average, every day skeleton. Coco is a direct throwback to my formative introduction to the 1960s version of Jungle Book and Bambi. Rest assured folks Coco is not the circus clown  nor is it a late night, soothing hot drink before you drop off to sleep.

Perhaps the truth is that childhood movies should be made compulsory for both children and adults alike because at heart they're never aggressive, they're never obscene and above all they can never be accused of being nasty or violent which is the way it should be surely. There were no thrilling car chases, bloodthirsty gun battles, murders of the most barbaric nature and there was nothing designed to send your children to bed with nightmares.

In a sense Coco didn't insult your intelligence, had nothing that could be accurately described as repulsive and shocking but simply a spoonful of joy and escapism to make you feel that maybe the world isn't such a bad place after all. So if you've got a spare an hour and half you could do worse than the sweetest cup of Coco.