Pixar doesn't just follow in The Book of Life's footsteps. Despite sharing a nearly identical array of stylistic visual choices and featuring the cultural holiday of Dia de los Muertos as a core element of it's storytelling, Coco places the emphasis on themes of family and a love of music as opposed to the love story that can be found in the aforementioned, Guillermo del Toro produced animated film. It goes to far deeper and more impressive places as a result. The use of Mexican heritage allows a lot of fresh scenarios to pop up in the story and can introduce viewers to lifestyles they don't often get to see represented onscreen. It sets a new high bar for animation quality. The amount of detail in things like wrinkled faces is incredible. Things can carry a sense of photorealism that is only hampered by the cartoonish character design. The celebration and use of music only add to the Book of Life comparisons, but the songs themselves are well-done. The thing that built Pixar's respected reputation and kept them relevant in the face of a brief low period was their ability to make emotionally poignant experiences with enough depth to please viewers of all ages and great senses of humor, among other aspects. Coco is another example of that capacity. It's one of their more heartbreaking and heartwarming films in quite sometime. The humor is a little lacking though. Feels like not too many jokes made their way into the film. It allows more room for the plot though so I can't complain too much. It's not among the computer-animation studio's funniest movies, but it is one of their most meaningful. While an all around remarkable film, there are some issues with Coco that prevent it from standing at the top of Pixar's portfolio. The movie suffers from a big case of predictability. I knew what the big twist was and how things would end some time before the reveals were made. This removes some of the effectiveness from the film, but ultimately can't defeat it's heart. This is still a very powerful viewing. So while more originality would have been preferred, Coco is still an enjoyable film that comes highly recommended.