An opus of critique.
You raise some very significant points about the (im)moral of the story: Don't be independent.
Perhaps a good companion study to Coco is the movie Family Life (Loach, 1971), which also depicts a vulnerable, creative child, being rendered subservient by a family system locked into trauma repetition.
I also double-down on my suspicions that Coco was an allegory for the ousting of John-I-demand-a-hug-Lasseter from Pixar. The character of Ernesto de la Cruz seems to bear one pixel too many in common with the disgraced Lasseter.
In this reading of the film: Coco's repression is the stifled creativity of the Pixar animation studio team; Coco's family is entrenched managerial structures; and Ernesto de la Cruz is Lasseter himself — the patriarchal figurehead they never needed: Deceitful and entitled.
Coco then, for all its faults, is both exorcism and artwork. A metaphorical sage, its smoke billowing about the corridors of Pixar, clearing the air for a new epoch of consensual hugs. I also look forward to the much-improved storytelling that will be possible at Pixar, now the animators don't feel under threat of casual molestation by the obligatory office-patriarch.
Pixar have had their Dia De Los Muertos.
Now they must rise again and "get the job done".
Thank you for that compliment.
Family Life is certainly a good reference work, yes.
I feel hopeful that they have already broken out of their Lassetercuffs and will produce another ★★★★★ film presently.
🙏🏼