Cococo
2017 · 7m · Costa Rica
Directed by Julian Gallese
Genres: animation, fantasy, surrealism
Tones: contemplative, surreal, whimsical
A young boy wakes up and decides to adopt a new pet for his collection at a town fair — a spellbinding hand-drawn animation that fuses familiar cartoon imagery with surreal dream logic.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Cococo is competent whimsy that knows exactly what it is—which is precisely the problem. The surrealism here feels inherited rather than discovered, dream logic by checklist, and I kept waiting for the film to break its own rules and surprise me.
Gallese demonstrates formal control over the hand-drawn form, layering cartoon convention with genuine atmospheric unease in ways that recall the best of experimental animation—there's a lineage here, carefully tended.
The decision to let the animation *breathe*—long held frames where nothing happens but the texture of the drawing itself becomes the subject—is what transforms this from cute premise into something that lingers; it's restraint as the radical choice.
Reviews
Julian Gallese is a Costa Rican animator whose films unfold in surprising and understated ways. His films entertain the surreal, fusing together familiar settings with dream scenarios and taking simple premises in unexpected and fantastical directions.