Book of Life.
While the story fumbled in execution in some areas it was overall better.
It's more visually impressive and goes beyond with the character designs. The story is better suited for an adult character vs a child character because a kid doesn't have to worry about feeding themselves and having a commendable career. Manolo was at a point where he couldn't live in childish fantasies anymore and his dad didn't want him to end up as the same man-children losers his mariachi friends were. Not when he has a real potential to uphold the family legacy and receive the torch. Manolo's dad was never screaming at his face, just disappointed. I even appreciated the covers because Mariachi bands are essentially cover bands.
In Coco, Miguel's family was too hyperbolic about "hating music" and arguably abusive over it. It just made the whole thing less believable because he's still at the stage of "who really cares? He's a kid, maybe once he's 15 his family can start bugging him about getting a job to help support his family until then eh." Along side with tired Pixar cliches, nothing about it held my interest or made me care. It just depressed me more about how uncreative Pixar has become these years.
