Coco

A young Mexican boy (voiced by Anthony Gonzalez) longs to be a musician, even though his music-hating family wants him to be a shoemaker. When a bizarre event transports him to the Land of the Dead, he goes in search of a deceased singer (Benjamin Bratt) who he’s sure is his own long-lost ancestor. The usual Pixar polish makes the movie vividly colorful, exquisitely textured and gorgeous to behold, but it keeps being dragged down by its shortcomings: an uninvolving story (by Jason Katz, Matthew Aldrich and directors Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina) and characters who are dull, uninteresting and bordering on ethnic caricatures. Also, for a movie supposedly about music, the songs (by Kristen Anderson-Lopez) are too bubble-gum-bland to stay with you; they’re practically unnoticeable even as you listen. J.L.