The Book Of Life Review
The Book of Life opens on a museum where some children are on a field-trip and their guide takes them to a special section where she shows them The Book of Life, which has "every story ever written". She tells them about the "Mexican Day of the Dead" and a story that goes with it. She uses wooden toys to tell the tale.
This story takes place in a town named San Angel where there are three young children Manolo (Emil-Bastien Bouffard) a spirited, kind hearted child that loves music, Jaquin (Elias Garza) a very forward, righteous kid with adventure in his heart and ambitions of a mustache and Maria (Genesis Ochoa) a girl that is just as brave and high spirited as the boys, even more-so. They are all friends but Manolo and Jaquin are both in-love with Maria. Their playing does not go unnoticed however, they are observed by the Gods of the afterlife.
La Muerte (Kate del Castillo) ruler of the Land of the Remembered where the dead exist in a place of constant festivals and is made from candy and everything sweet. And Xibalba (Ron Perlman) of the Land of the Forgotten, who is made of tar and all other unpleasant things, his realm is where the dead are forgotten and wander in a world of grey and cold. I really enjoyed these two characters, first of all they have great designs, secondly they're married and have been for centuries so they work-off each-other really well, they get annoyed with each-other but still know that deep down there's just love.
Time passes and Manolo (Diego Luna) becomes an adult bull-fighter by the influence of his father (Hector Elizondo) and grandmother (Grey DeLisle) and Jaquin (Chaning Tatum) a renowned pendekar and Maria (Zoe Saldana) a fully grown, even more spirited woman.
The soundtrack for the movie is something unique. A lot of the songs are covers, but they are covers of the song keeping within the theme of the movie. So they can insert a recent song but it fits with the feel and tone of the story. I also think it will help in not dragging the movie down in being current and therefore dated.
Being that this is a movie that deals with death and what comes after I don't think people will be able to help drawing comparisons with Tim Burtons The Corpse Bride. Producer, Guillermo Del Toro brings a different feel with its focus on Latino culture, also his uncanny ability for adding well drawn (though a little cliche) characters and a very likeable mood.
The movie really stands out with its visuals, there isn't another movie out there that looks like this, with is use of C.G.I. for creating wooden dolls as characters or having environments that are packed with such a wide range of colors from pink's to yellow's and greens. A really smart touch was to have the men's beards be an extra layer of bark.
I question who will really appreciate this movie. Its a colorful animated movie yes, but the theme of death may be something that will either confuse or even scare the children. I can tell you that I did laugh but I feel the movie will have trouble finding a specific audience.
Though the story and characters are something that can be found in other animated movies the visuals and good nature of it is enough to distinguish it.
Rating: 3 stars out of 4
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