The Book of Life (2014)

• Year: 2014
• Released: 17 Oct 2014
• Country: United States
• Adwords: 3 wins & 29 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2262227/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/The_Book_of_Life
• Available in: 3D, 720p, 1080p
• Language: English, Spanish
• MPA Rating: PG
• Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
• Runtime: 95 min
• Writer: Jorge R. Gutiérrez, Doug Langdale
• Director: Jorge R. Gutiérrez
• Cast: Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana, Channing Tatum
• Keywords: love triangle, mexico, afterlife, latinx lead, day of the dead,

	7.2/10
	67/100
	83% – Critics
	77% – Audience

The Book of Life Storyline

While visiting a museum, a group of five troubled youth, on detention, are won over by their tour guide, Mary Beth. Part of what wins them over is the story she tells from the Book of Life, which contains all the stories of the world, both true and made-up. The story she tells centers on the Day of the Dead in San Angel, Mexico – the center of the universe – of three childhood best friends, strong-willed María Posada, Joaquín Mondragon Jr., who likes to show he’s a man by sporting a fake mustache without truly knowing what it means to be a man, and guitar-playing Manolo Sánchez, the offspring of the town’s general, a deceased military hero and a bullfighter respectively. Even at this age, both Joaquín and Manolo are in love with María, each knowing he would like eventually to marry her. They are separated when María’s father sends her to Europe for school to learn to be a lady. By the time María returns to San Angel as a young woman, Joaquín has become a military hero like his father, and Manolo has become a bullfighter like all his Sánchez ancestors, male and female. While Manolo showed his aptitude for bullfighting at a young age, his heart still remains music, singing and playing his guitar, and not with bullfighting. Each still pines for María as his wife. What they are unaware of is that two leaders of the afterlife, estranged wife and husband, La Muerte, ruler of the Land of the Remembered, and Xibalba, ruler of the Land of the Forgotten, long ago made a wager on which of the two will marry María, the outcome which will have a profound effect not only on María, Joaquín and Manolo’s joint lives, but the course of San Angel, which is constantly under threat by evil Chakal, and the world. What La Muerte is further unaware of is that Xibalba is taking underhanded measures to win, which also affects María, Joaquín and Manolo’s live and possible deaths.

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The Book of Life Movie Reviews

Amazingly uneven.

When “The Book of Life” began, I was really enthralled by its creative art style. After all, there are so many CGI films out these days that it’s great to see one that looks so different and bold. There also were a few scenes that simply blew me away with the grand look–such as when the film went to the Kingdom of the Dead. In this sense, “The Book of Life” is clearly a gorgeous film. I also really appreciated the character designs. Imagine if you look traditional Mexican articulated wooden sculptures for Day of the Dead and you make many of the characters look like living versions of these statues–that is what most of the characters looked like in this movie. I loved this and felt that the animators and artists were by far the biggest stars of the film and I could see this film being nominated for technical awards because of this.

Unfortunately, apart from the artistry, there wasn’t a lot I loved about the film. The story had great parts–but too often the characters were poorly developed, clichéd and one-dimensional. Also the soundtrack was simply bizarre. There were just too many singing interludes and the range of genres was so broad that it just left me baffled. Imagine…the film uses some traditional Latin tunes but also had some songs written by Paul Williams (“The Apology Song” was actually quite good I must say), “Do You Think I’m Sexy” (by Rod Stewart) and a very adult tune originally by Radiohead (the song “Creep”,-which includes a line about someone being so ‘f—ing special’, although fortunately the song ended just before this line)! Who chose these tunes?! Overall, the film looked great but otherwise left me very, very flat. Not terrible but with such artistry it’s hard to imagine the rest of it being so sub-par. It’s sad, as I really did want to see a Mexican storyline and it was nice to see so many Latin-American voice actors (though Channing Tatum and Ice Cube seemed like odd additions to the rest of the cast). Flawed but interesting.

UPDATE: Since seeing “The Book of LIfe”, I saw “Coco” and was simply blown away. “Coco” proves you can make a great CGI film with Mexican characters and, more importantly, heart.

Does a great job transporting you to other worlds

One of the best animated films of 2014 along with The Lego Movie and How to Train Your Dragon 2 and much better than the trailer suggested it to be. It’s not perfect but it is very good not only as an animated film but as a film in general and it is great for children and adults alike. The best thing about The Book of Life is the animation, which is never less than outstanding and even spellbinding at its best, consisting of vivid warm colours, smooth imaginatively done background art and beautifully drawn character designs that look real. The brilliantly colourful and psychedelic imagery of Land of the Forgotten and the character designs of the two supernatural lead characters are particularly well done, the whole film is a stunner to look at and has so much depth and rich detail. The music is good and fits well, the score is robust and authentically orchestrated and the songs are a lot of fun- in the cinema you have difficulty resisting the temptation to sing along and tap your feet-, are catchy and of many moods. If there was any complaint about the soundtrack, it’s that I wish there was more of a Mexican vibe to it. The script was sharp and funny, even managing to liven the darker elements a little without jarring or being over-reliant on postmodern gags, it has a good flow and is always easy to understand. The story isn’t perfect but is a winner overall. does it have clichés? Of course it does. Does it handle them well? Yes. It does have its overstuffed and contrived spots but it’s warm-hearted, entertaining from the get go right up to the last second and you always feel like you’re being immersed in all these different worlds in the film, which aside from the animation was what was the most remarkable thing about The Book of Life. There’s also some good, relevant messaging that makes its point but in a subtle way rather than preachy. The characters are engaging and most of the voice acting is great, especially from Christina Applegate, Zoe Saldana(both playing with endearing sass and spunk), Kate del Castillo and Ron Perlman. The only exceptions for me were Channing Tatum whose line delivery was awkward at times and Ice Cube who felt and sounded out of place, sounding like he was playing himself rather than the character he was voicing. All in all, hugely entertaining and visually wondrous, a very good film animated and otherwise and definitely recommended. 8/10 Bethany Cox

interesting visually but movie lacks tension

Museum guide Mary Beth takes a group of rambunctious children on a secret tour of the Mexican afterlife. Underneath the town of San Angel, La Muerte is the good ruler of the Land of the Remembered, and Xibalba is the mischievous ruler of the Land of the Forgotten. The waxy Candle Maker keeps everything in balance. La Muerte and Xibalba make a bet at the Day of the Dead festival. La Muerte bets that Manolo will marry María and Xibalba takes Joaquín in the bet. Xibalba cheats by giving Joaquin his Medal of Everlasting Life. María is sent away to Spain after freeing the pigs from slaughter. Manolo gives her one of the pigs as a present. He is pushed into the family business of bull fighter but he refuses to kill. Maria falls in love with him. Meanwhile Joaquín has become an invincible fighter against bandits due to his Medal.

I don’t know how much input producer Guillermo del Toro contributed into this project. Director Jorge Gutierrez comes from more of a visual arts background. It’s his full length directorial debut. I like the unique colorful look of the movie. It’s always nice to have something different. The story does lack tension. The three human leads don’t stand out enough. Joaquin needs to be more evil. La Muerte and Xibalba are actually the most fascinating characters. The story and the characters need a few more passes with the word processor.