10 Amazing Animated Film Soundtracks From The Last 10 Years
3. Coco
A beautiful celebration of Mexican culture, full of life and vitality despite the film's focus on death, music plays an enormous part in the film Coco, and its soundtrack doesn't forget that for a second.
The soundtrack does an amazing job presenting Mexican culture in its sound and the way main character Miguel wants to emulate Ernesto de la Cruz, whose theatrical opening Remember Me (sung by Benjamin Bratt) reflects his own personality as a showman, hiding the real meaning of the music underneath. Later, when the true origins of the song are revealed, it becomes a gentler, infinitely more emotional lullaby for a beloved daughter (as sung by Gael García Bernal as Héctor), showing the duality and depth of what is essentially the same song.
Other songs within the film are no slouch either, including the wonderfully cheery Un Poco Loco, sung by Miguel (played by Anthony Gonzales) and Héctor, or the chillingly beautiful La Llorona, performed by Alanna Ubach as Mamá Imelda.
The way the music builds the beautiful world of the dead as well as the living is remarkable, and this love letter to music and Mexican culture and the memory of the dearly departed is always worth revisiting.