The Book of Life is told like a fairy-tale about the Day of the Dead festival held on November 2nd in Mexico. It incorporates an interesting story line involving the fight of two best friends, Manolo and Juaquin, for their  childhood-love, Maria. Two gods            from different spectrums of the underworld, the Land of the Remembered and the Land of the Forgotten, place bets on who will win Maria’s hand in marriage with the winner ruling the Land of the Remembered.

The animation is done by a relatively new animation studio, Reel FX, and is a beautiful style of animation that is vibrant, intricate and detailed. The movie is divided into two segments, the past (the story) and present day. Everyone in the past story line are Hispanic which is very uncommon in animation and movies, with a diverse voice talent. Guillermo Del Torro, the writer of this movie, has been trying to get this movie made for 15 years. Del Torro was told the story wasn’t “universal” and that kids couldn’t relate to it. Finally, Reel FX took it in, and with the help from 20th Century Fox, turned it into a success. Del Torro put in a slight “haahaa!” moment at the opening scene of the moving declaring Mexico as the center of the universe, and noting with the present day kids that children of all ages and race enjoy the story.

I recommend this movie for anyone with appreciation for beautiful animation, enjoys reminiscence of storybooks, and for anyone wanting to support an underexplored area of animation with more character diversity. The only downfalls of this movie are the elementary poop and pee jokes, which, for a PG rated movie, I should expect. The other thing that really doesn’t work for me is the integration of current popular music into the story. I think they are trying to go for a Shrek-like feeling, but as this movie is mainly set in the deep past when people fought bulls for a living, I really don’t think Manolo busting out Mumford and Sons on his guitar fit the movie style, animation, or historical accuracy very well. The songs chosen for this movie are really hit-and-miss with me, but was overall not too horrible. Del Torro explained that he put them in the movie because in Mexico you serenade someone without a song that you wrote specifically, but still. I rate this movie a solid 9/10.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Life_(2014_film)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2014/10/17/pop-songs-are-an-integral-part-of-the-book-of-life/

http://collider.com/jorge-gutierrez-guillermo-del-toro-the-book-of-life-interview/

Guillermo Del Torro’s Twitter Account