Why So Blu?

Coco (4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray Review)

Disney Pixar’s Coco may have kinda faded from conversation with a lot of the Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Jumanji and The Greatest Showman box office triumphs. But, just before those three films dominated, Coco was quite a phenomenon and powerhouse itself.  Coco opened to fantastic reviews and almost made three quarters of a billion dollars in its worldwide run. Quite an achievement. This fresh, emotion and charming family drama is making its way to Disney’s slowly growing 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray collection. I’ll have to admit, when I saw it in theaters, throughout the thing I was getting giddy at the prospect of how the HDR was gonna look on the 4K UHD disc. Well, now we can see when it releases on February 27th.

Film 

Miguel dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol Ernesto de la Cruz—despite his family’s baffling generations-old ban on music. Desperate to prove his talent, Miguel finds himself in the stunning and colorful Land of the Dead following a mysterious chain of events. Along the way, he meets charming trickster Héctor, and together, they set off on an extraordinary journey to unlock the real story behind Miguel’s family history.

Coco packs a powerful and cultural whallop. There is a lot more to this film than you’d really ever expect. Overall, its probably going to land as one of Pixar’s all time best and one could probably even argue THE best. Its full of visual splendor, good music, charm and even some mystery and suspense as well. While its heavily steeped in Mexican culture, the themes and familial love and ideals are a universal language.

From a visual standpoint, this thing is gorgeous. And yeah, I know The Book Of Life is a movie that exists and came out a few years ago. That doesn’t make Coco any less wonderful or beautiful to look at. You can have more than one and they probably both are quite different in their own ways. If we are allowed to have multiple zombie films, multiple super hero films, multiple romantic comedies…then this is just fine. The look of the city is a mixture of different eras, from the train station to the town square. The colors in the film radiate as well. The animation is also so grand that the clothes look amazing to the touch.

In an odd turn of events in 2017, we had one film in each of the last three months of the year that dealt in the same sort of genial thematics.  Coco stands with Blade Runner 2049 and Star Wars: The Last Jedi in being protagonist journey’s with the desire to have your familial heritage secretly be that of some royal lineage. All three then learn that their hopefuls aren’t who they were expecting and that the reality of every one of them is quite young and different. And that they don’t need that sort of affirmation to be somebody and make something of their lives for themselves. All three perfectly fit their stories and have fantastic resolve.

Coco is a charming, heartwarming, musical and delicious tale of family, letting go and being yourself. Its steeped in some outstanding visuals as well as great vocal talent and musical bliss. The animation on this one is quite impressive as well.  Like many of the Pixar brethren before it, may Coco be able to carry the same sort of legacy and live on just like that of the Toy Stories, Incredibles and Nemos.

Video 

Encoding: HEVC / H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Layers: BD-66

Clarity/Detail: Coco is a 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray title I couldn’t wait to see once I left the theater. It had all the makings of what a great animated film could have on the format. And Disney’s release does  not disappoint. Its crips and quite sharp with a very real and natural look to everything, even though the animation style is of the fantastical. Colors are both natural and then bursting in the Land of the Dead. Details on the animation are so good that you know what they feel like if they actually existed. This is a lovely picture and the best animated film I’ve seen on the format.

Depth:  Coco has a wonderful three dimensional zest to it, providing excellent depth of field between foreground and background imagery. Objects, especially close up, look touchable and lifelike. Movements are smooth and are produced quite naturally.

Black Levels: Blacks are deep and natural, maintaining a every detail and being well saturated throughout. No crushing witnessed in this viewing.

Color Reproduction: What a rich, beautiful display Coco presents. The Land of the Dead looks gorgeous with all its 4K HDR beauty. Colors are glowing and popping all over the place with greens, purples, oranges and more. Candle light and lights from buildings look lovely too. Whites on the skeletons are also impressive with great saturation.

Flesh Tones: N/A

Noise/Artifacts: Clean

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, English 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus, Spanish 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus, French 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus, English 5.1 Dolby Digital, English 2.0 Dolby Digital, English 2.0 Descriptive Audio

Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

Dynamics: Coco’s Atmos mix is one of precision and is well placed. It never goes overboard and is one that has a lot of focus. The mix is a balanced blend with good, layered depth with the effects, vocals and score in the film. One thing different from other Atmos mixes is this one starts out a little lower, so you’ll need to bump up the volume from your default settings initially.

Height: Ceiling speakers are utilized with precision. Flying creatures, a ladder descending down and an above rail car zooming by are some of the individual highlights here. There are also plenty of ambient influence the above channels have.

Low Frequency Extension: Musical numbers and individual instruments are given a bump, large wings flapping, the score, roaring, loud landings as well as some other moments give a good charge to the subwoofer in this mix.

Surround Sound Presentation: Like the height channels, the other surrounds are precise. Many of the rear and side channel contributions aside from ambiance assist in motion. Traveling and placement are key elements that are done with great pinpoint accuracy.

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are crisp and clear, singing vocals sounds seamless and natural in transition from dialogue.

Extras 

Coco comes with the 2-Disc Blu-ray edition and a digital copy of the film. Bonus features are found on the Blu-ray edition and digital copy edition.

Blu-ray Disc 1

Audio Commentary

• By Director Lee Unkrich, Co-Director Adrian Molina and Producer Darla K. Anderson.

Welcome to the Fiesta (HD, 2:16) – This one focuses on a long single test shot for the film that tries to throw in the kitchen sink and show everything they could as a first pass on everything with the Land of the Dead.

Mi Familia (HD, 10:00) – This goes over the process of creating the family dynamic and many of the creators digging through a lot of deep personal experiences and putting them to the film.

Dante (HD, 6:14) – The crew discusses their love of the Mexican breed of Xoloitzcuintli dogs that Dante was based on.

How to Draw a Skeleton (HD, 3:18) – Teaches how to draw a simple skeleton.

Blu-ray Disc 2

A Thousand Pictures a Day (HD, 20:03) – The crew of Coco visits Mexico during the Day of the Dead festivities and visits many different people and places that are reflected in the film in some sort of fashion.

The Music of Coco (HD, 13:12) – This little mini doc focuses on the importance and music that really drives and tells the story of the film.

Land of Our Ancestors (HD, 6:19) – This featurette focuses on creating the Land of the Dead and pulling from different historical inspirations for the architecture used in the film.

Fashion Through the Ages (HD, 8:39) – Coco covers a variety of different eras and here we go through the costuming design and process for the film.

The Real Guitar (HD, 3:08) – We see the guitar in the film go through its animated creation to someone making a real life version of it.

Paths to Pixar: Coco (HD, 11:44) – The crew shares personal stories that impacted the film.

How to Make Papel Picado (HD, 2:19) – Pixar artist Ana Ramírez González teaches us how to  traditionally make papel picado and opening the door to doing your own approach.

You Got The Part! (HD, 2:12) – Anthony Gonzalez was originally brought on as a temporary performer for the voice of Miguel. This is a video of him being informed that he actually got the part.

Deleted Scenes with Introductions (HD, 33:07)

Trailers & Promos

• Feeling: United States Trailer #1 (HD, 2:12)
• Dante’s Lunch: Web Exclusive (HD, 1:56)
• Destiny: Mexico Trailer (HD, 2:34)
• Journey: Brazil Trailer (HD, 2:01)
• Belong: Australia Trailer (HD, 2:13)
• Un Poco Coco: Promo (HD, 3:05)

Summary 

Coco is a fantastic original film from Disney Pixar, showing that they can still craft from the ground up and knock it out of the park. This 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray has a lovely picture with a terrific Atmos track to boot. Extras also come and are plentiful. In my eyes, this is the best looking 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray for a fully animated feature that we have seen so far.