FACULTY OF COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA

STUDIES

( MC110 )

INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION THEORY

( COM 158 )

TITLE :

MOVIE CRITIQUE ASSIGNMENT

PREPARED BY :

NUR SYAHIRAH BINTI ROSLAN

( 2019209968 )

LECTURER :

MISS NURUL SABRINA BINTI MASRI

INTRODUCTION

Communication is commonly used in our daily lives. It refers to the process of sending,

receiving, giving, distribute or even exchanging information from one person to another

person. It is a relational process of creating and interpreting messages that elicit a respons.

Meanwhile, theory means a set of systematic, informed hunches about the way things work

[CITATION EmG191 \t \l 17417 ]. Communication are divided into two types, intrapersonal

communication and interpersonal communication. Intrapersonal communication is a process

which you communicates within yourselves about something. For example, you monologue

within yourself when you saw someone with bad look or behavior. Meanwhile an

interpersonal communication is a process which you communicate between two or more

person about that certain topic. For example, you meet your friends in class and you had a

talk with them and that is called interpersonal communication. In this movie critique, I would

like to discuss and explain about interpersonal communication.

Based on the movie that I have watched, Coco (2017), I found that this movie involves a lot

of interpersonal communication. This graphic animation movie is a story about a young boy

named Miguel who comes from a big family in rural area of Mexico that had to buried his

ultimate passion in music that strongly forbided by his family due to their old family history.

Miguel inspires the legendary Ernesto de La Cruz a lot but he had passed away. Miguel is a

grandson of Abuelita and a great-great-grandson of Imelda. Imelda married to a man and they

had a daughter which are called Mama Coco. Imelda’s husband had left her and her daughter

because of his passion towards music and he never returned back to them. After her husband

left them, she started to be a shoemaker. Imelda forbids her family to involve in any thing
that related to music. Miguel’s family did not know his passion towards music as if they

know, he will be scolded by them especially his grandmother, Abuelita. Imelda’s shoe

business are getting bigger when the person in the family is getting increased.

Imelda has passed away a long year before Miguel was born but his family still telling about

her story on every Dia de los Muertos which means The Day of The Dead. Miguel was too

closed with Mama Coco as he always talk about anything with her. Mama Coco are too old

and she cannot remember things well. Abuelita really hates music and whenever a group of

people passes by their house while singing, she will close the windows and will not even

allow music crosses by or getting in their house. Miguel are not supposed to love music but

he had followed the steps of Ernesto de la Cruz. Ernesto de la Cruz is just a normal person

from Santa Cecilia but people easily get attracted to him when he play music or sing. He also

starred in movies and make many incredible songs. Ernesto de la Cruz died because he was

crushed by a giant bell during her perfomance.

Miguel felt that he and de la Cruz are connected. Miguel went out from his house to go to

Mariachi Plaza to polish people’s shoes and suddenly he met a man. The man showed Miguel

the music competition for Dia de Muertos for that night and he said that if Miguel wants to be

like Ernesto de la Cruz, he should have courage in order to achieve his dream. The man then

gave Miguel a guitar to see Miguel’s talent in music. But all of a sudden, Miguel’s

grandmother, Abuelita came to him and shouted his name. Miguel was shock. Abuelita

scolded the man as she thought that he wanted to bring Miguel to involve in music and she

asked Miguel to go home.

Miguel went home and he said to his family that he might be going back to the plaza to sign

up for the competition. But, his parents and Abuelita did not allow him to do so. Abuelita said

that he is not going anywhere because that night is Dia de los Muertos and she gave Miguel

flowers to put in the ofrenda room. Dia de la Muertos which means Day of the Dead is a

celebrated holiday for Mexican to gather with their families and friends to pray and

remembering their family members or closed contacts that have died. The day involves

spiritual ceremony. Ofrenda room is where they put the photos of the person that have died so

that they can come over visiting them. If they did not put their photos, the persons cannot

come.

In the ofrenda room, Abuelita said that she did not want Miguel to end up like Mama Coco’s

father who is Imelda’s husband and he deserves to be forgotten. His great-grandmother,

Mama Coco accidentally heard their conversation and she thought that her father had came

home. Miguel then went above his house and fix his great-great-grandfather’s guitar and

suddenly Dante came over. Miguel was very shocked. Dante is a street dog which he always

pet it. When he finished fixing the guitar, he played it like Ernesto de la Cruz did. He decided

that he will go to the competition no matter what happened. While he is going to the plaza, he

saw his family and Abuelita are setting up their house for the Dia de los Muertos. Miguel ran

as fast as he could and arrived in the ofrenda room.

Abuelita and Miguel’s parents came to see him to tell that he will be joining the Rivera on

making shoes and said that they are willing to guide him. Miguel pulled over Dante as it was

eating the food on the table. A frame on the ofrenda room had fallen into the floor and broke

into pieces. Miguel took the photo and found a folded piece of it which De la Cruz’s guitar.
Miguel asked Mama Coco whether Ernesto de la Cruz is actually her father or not and Mama

Coco keep saying “Papa!”. This made Miguel more believe that De la Cruz is his great-great-

grandfather. Miguel called his father and tell him that he had knew who is his great-great-

grandfather was and said that he is going to be a musician. Abuelita and the family scolded

Miguel when he showed them the folded piece of photo. None of the family allow him to be a

musician eventhough he asked them to listen to him playing guitar. Abuelita was really angry

and she hit the guitar onto the floor. Miguel yelled at them and said that he did not want to be

in the family.

After the argument with his family on that night, he ran away from his house and went to the

plaza. He arrived at the plaza and wanted to sign up for the competition but unfortunately he

did not have guitar. He tried to find and borrow someone’s guitar at the plaza as musicians

got to bring their own instruments. He suddenly had an idea to take the original guitar of

Ernesto de la Cruz in a secured room. He broke into that room by breaking the window. He

took the guitar and all of a sudden, he heard the security guard came finding the missing

guitar. A man came into the room asking if anyone was there or not. Miguel was very afraid

as the man could easily passed through him. Miguel ran to his parents but they could not see

him.

Miguel had fallen into a hole and someone came to help him. Miguel was schocked once

again because the person that helped him was a skeleton. He then realized that he was in a

cemetery. He hid behind a stone and Dante came. Miguel asked Dante whether he can see

him or not and he can be seen by Dante. Miguel then ran again and bumped to another

skeleton. It called his name and said that they are Miguel’s family. Miguel remember that
they are actually his dead relatives who are, Tia Rosita, Papa Julio, Tia Victoria, Tio Oscar

and Tio Felipe. Tio Oscar and Tio Felipe said that Mama Imelda are stuck on the other side

of The Land of the Dead. Miguel followed them to meet Mama Imelda and he was speechless

to see such a beautiful place where there were real alebrijes, the spirit creatures.

At the Land of the Dead, Miguel met Mama Imelda who got stucked there because Miguel

took her photo off the ofrenda. When someone took a dead person’s photo from the ofrenda,

it means that the family have forgotten them so they cannot go or cannot exit from the other

side of The Land of the Dead. Miguel then were asked by Mama Imelda and the entire family

there to go back to his house and put the photo back on the ofrenda. But, while Mama Imelda

are giving her blessing to Miguel, he mentioned that Miguel cannot play music anymore. At

first, he refused but then he agreed to do it.

Miguel was back into The Land of the Living and he was at the place where he found the

Ernesto de la Cruz’s guitar. He took back the guitar but then he found himself back into The

Land of the Dead and Mama Imelda was really angry to him. Miguel asked for Papa Julio’s

blessing but Papa Julio refused to do so. Miguel was very disappointed. Tia Rosita, Tia

Victoria, Tio Oscar and Tio Felipe advised him to listen to Mama Imelda but he ran away

with Dante from the family to get a musician’s blessing.

Miguel then arrived at one place where he heard a conversation between a man and a

policemen. Hector, the man who asked the policemen to help him cross the bridge to meet De

la Cruz, said he was very closed to De la Cruz way back then. He promised to the policemen

that he will get a front seat of De la Cruz’s Sunrise show. Miguel chased after the man and
asked for assurance if he really knew De la Cruz. He asked help from Hector to make it easier

for him to met his great-great-grandfather. Hector agreed to help him but he have to help

Hector too and both of them agreed. From there, Miguel started his journey with Hector and

Dante to meet Ernesto de la Cruz.

INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION IN THIS MOVIE

Based on the movie, Coco, directed by Adrian Molina, there are scenes which interpersonal

communication like symbolic interaction theory and expectancy violation theory involves.

Symbolic interaction theory or known as symbolic interactionism is the ongoing use of

language and gestures in anticipation of how the other will react; a conversation [CITATION

EmG19 \t \l 17417 ].

Miguel’s dream to be a musician was not known by his family because it was against the

tradition of the family until he have his own hidden fort. This situation can clearly be seen in

communication theory that Miguel wanted his personal space as he was too scared if his

family found out his dream to be a musician. According to Burgoon, personal space is

unseen, constant, and the size of space that someone needs to distance himself from others.

The conflicts will come up when the personal space was indirectly disturbed and will damage

the relationship and communication. Miguel also threw his apron to show the symbolic

interaction towards the rebel of his family tradition. This phase are named as clear gestures,

body language, and eye contact that shows the sign of rebellious. In this case, if a perception

and expectation towards something was reformed, it will cause a disruption in

communication. It happened in this movie where Miguel’s personal space was violated when

his family found out his dreams to be a musician and this caused Miguel to run away from the

house.

The scenes that I found related to the 1st principle is first, when Miguel is on his way to the

plaza, he responded to the people who said “Hola!” to him. In another scene, which Miguel

was at the plaza shining a musician’s shoe, the musician told him the story of Ernesto de la

Cruz career and it inspires Miguel so much and he wanted to be like his idol, De la Cruz.

Next, Imelda refused to accept Hector when they met for the first time since they died but
when she knew that Coco had became forgetful, she then finally accepted Hector and

reconciled. These scenes shows the examples of 1st principle of symbolic interactionism as

people acts towards conversations between persons.

Secondly, one of the scenes that involves in these two theories are when Miguel was at the

plaza and shining a musician’s shoes, he started to tell Miguel about Ernesto de la Cruz. The

musician give his guitar and encourage Miguel to play it. Miguel remembered De la Cruz

tagline, “Seize your moment”. He then felt that he supposed to not hid his passion towards

music. He took the guitar but suddenly Abuelita came scolded the man and she yelled

Miguel’s name. Miguel was shock that he accidentally thrown the guitar. Abuelita warned the

musician to not be closed to Miguel again. She asked Miguel to return to home. When they

are home, Miguel told his family that he wanted to join the talent competition at Mariachi

Plaza. None of his family allowed him to do so and they were very angry to Miguel. They did

not want him to be a musician just because of the family history of his great-great-

grandfather. For me, this scene involve a symbolic interaction theory because the perception

of his family changed just because an incident of his great-great-grandfather. Only because of

his great-great-grandfather left Mama Imelda and his daughter due to continue his career in

music, the whole entire family hated him and the music too. The family had make rules for

not getting involve in any thing that related to music as they hate music so much. But, things

go the other way round for the villagers as they love music so much. Music was just like their

souls. Miguel was raised and guided by his family not to love music but when he became

bigger and older, he found that his passion towards music became stronger and deeper.
Thirdly, another scenes that involves symbolic interaction theory was stucked in The Land of

the Death. He was stucked there because he wanted to stole De la Cruz’s guitar and when he

managed to steal the guitar, he saw many skeletons and it scared him. Miguel also met his

dead relatives and they wanted to help Miguel to back to The Land of the Living. They can

send him back home using a marigold petal including Mama Imelda’s blessing as this was

their tradition. The people used to believe that it can remove the curse. This scene shows that

the theory involved is because they followed the tradition that existed since they were at The

Land of the Dead.

There are scenes where Miguel found Ernesto de la Cruz at his show. They spend their time

together and Miguel said that he was his great-great-grandson. When De la Cruz wanted to

give Miguel the blessings to return to The Land of the Living, Hector came and wanted to

give Miguel his photo to put on the ofrenda so that he can cross the bridge. Hector then said

that Ernesto de la Cruz had stole his songs and watched a video which De la Cruz had

poisoned Hector and when he woke up, he realize that he is dead. Hector stated that it is not

De la Cruz who wrote the songs but Hector wrote it. I think this scenes suits with the

symbolic interaction theory because in the beginning, he thought that Ernesto was his great-

great-great-grandfather. This is due to the scene where he found the photo of his great-great-

grandfather on the ofrenda which the face of him was torn out and he was holding the same

guitar that Ernesto de la Cruz had. But his expectation and assumptions changed due to the

situation when he heard all those things that Hector was the actual person who wrote the

songs.
Next, the scene when Miguel was scolded by Abuelita and the family because he saw a

folded piece of photo of his great-great-grandfather on the ofrenda was best represents the

theory of expectancy violation theory. Miguel said that he wanted to participate the talent

competition that would be held at Mariachi Plaza on that night. But, Abuelita stopped him to

do so. She saw the folded piece of photo. His parents told him to follow what Abuelita said

but he insisted to join the competition. Abuelita became more angry towards Miguel and she

hit the guitar onto the floor until it was broke into pieces. Miguel yelled at her and said that

did not want to be in that family. This shows that Abuelita’s expectation was violated because

Miguel insisted to be a musician and gets negative reaction from Miguel.

The second part of this movie discussed a lot of the source of meaning. When Miguel entered

The Land of the Dead, he started to learn the real definition of real life. He started to panic,

curious and at the same time scared. These feelings kept running in his mind. There are some

ideas that was highlighted in this movie and that is people are still pursuit the fame

eventhough they were in The Land of the Dead. This is far beyond the Mexican traditions.

This was the expectation of Miguel that finally can be fulfill in The Land of the Dead. Also,

in this movie, Miguel started to believe and expected that Ernesto de la Cruz who is a most

popular artiste in his town, is his great-great-grandfather. This situation happened because of

characterization and classification of himself. This story was told by himself based on the

story that has been told by his grandmother. This assumptions consists the theory that humans

processed the informations based on contexts, relationship, and communicator characteristics.

Miguel’s expectation turned out wrong when Hector is actually his great-great-grandfather

who always has been told by Mama Coco. His big family was definitely have traditions that

the job that related to shoes are a hereditary business and has been refined since Miguel was a

child.
Lastly, Miguel was disappointed with his family especially his grandmother, Abuelita

because they did not allow him to be a musician. Abuelita destroyed Miguel’s guitar by

hitting it to the ground. Miguel’s family was very shocked and upset when they found out his

dreams. After the intense situation, Miguel ran away from his home few hours before the Dia

de los Muertos began and he went to the plaza to participate in the talent competition. This

situation can be called as violation valence as it considers to be either positive or negative

value assigned to breach of expectations, regardless of the violator.

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