Coco - 2 nominations

Animated Feature, Lee Unkrich and Darla K. Anderson
Original Song, "Remember Me," Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez

What. A Beautiful. Movie.

Coco is the story of Dia de los Muertos and the legend of this special holiday that remembers the dead. A Mexican legend tells us that there are three deaths for all people - the day they cease to breathe, the day they are buried, and the day they are forgotten by the last member of the family who honors their memories.  On this single day of the dead, families set up "ofertas" with photographs of family members who are gone, and items that those people loved.  I heard an interview with the film makers, and they used the example that sometimes you'll see a bottle of soda that was their ancestor's favorite, or a kind of food that they particularly loved.

Miguel is part of a shoe-making family (what could possibly be wrong with that???), but he dreams of becoming a musician.  Sadly, and for reasons unknown to him, music is not even allowed in his family.  He is a talented singer and guitar player, but there is family history with an unnamed musician breaking the heart of an ancestor, and therefore it has been banned.  For complicated reasons, he decides to go to the land of the dead, which will allow him to pursue his goals.  If he can get the blessing of an ancestor, nobody in the land of the living will oppose his pursuit.  While there, he meets some crazy characters (starting at the Office of Family Reunification - it seems the one thing to survive the living is bureaucracy) and his long passed ancestors help him on his journey.  Some serious revelations about things that transpired in life are brought to light, and wrongs are made right both in the land of the dead and the living.

Remember Me, the Oscar nominated song from this story (brought to you by EGOTs Kirsten and Robert Lopez) is brilliant - it can be sung as a fast paced cantina style "to all the girls whose hearts I've broken" kind of song, or, it can be sung as a ballad to a child whose father must travel a lot and so he wants her to think fondly of him while he is gone.  There are sung versions of this song during the film that actually made me cry.  The nominated songs this year are all marvelous, and I would say this one is a serious contender.

SEE THIS MOVIE.  You will love it.  I did.