The Book of Life (October 17, 2014)

This film, co-produced by 20th Century Fox Animation and Reel FX Creative Studios, tells the story of a bullfighter who, on the Day of the Dead, embarks on an afterlife adventure to fulfill the expectations of his family and friends. The animation style of this film is fabulous. I love that the studio took a creative risk and in doing so created a memorable looking film. The main plot is framed as a true story told by a museum tour guide to a group of unruly children which provides for some humorous outbursts and observations. In fact, the whole film is genuinely funny, causing me to laugh out loud on numerous occasions. The beginning first sets up the bet which started the whole adventure off. La Muerte, ruler of the Land of the Remembered, and Xibalba, ruler of the Land of the Forgotten, after seeing two young boys, Manolo Sanchez and Joaquin Mondragon Jr. competing for the affections of a young girl, strike a wager: if María marries Manolo, Xibalba will no longer interfere in mortal affairs, but if she marries Joaquín, La Muerte and Xibalba will swap realms. However, Xibalba cheats by giving Joaquín his Medal of Everlasting Life, which grants the wearer invincibility. Next, the film establishes the personalities of the three main protagonists, Manolo, Maria, and Joaquin. Manolo is a kindhearted young man who comes from a long line of bullfighter and thus shoulders the expectations of his family to become one himself. He wishes to break free of this destiny. He does not want to kill; all he wants is to be able to be himself. A lover and a musician and a son who makes his family proud. This is very clique (he truly follows in the footsteps of Ferdinand the bull!) but it is handled in a way that it works beautifully. Maria is a headstrong and fiercely independent woman who refuses to be a mere trophy in her childhood friends’ competition without feeling resentment towards them. She even takes a snake bite for Manolo as well as fighting side by side with both him and Joaquin. Joaquin starts out as a hotshot and arrogant man, the result of similar familiar pressures to live up to his father, a town hero. He actually did live up to these expectations through cheating, using the medal of immortality. But his current pompous and self-righteous attitude is really just a front, hiding a heart of gold and determination to do what is right. He is the most refreshing character of the bunch, for he is not really a villain or antagonist. He truly does love Maria, but he wants to win her hand fairly; he wants her to love him back and refuses to force her into an unwanted relationship. All the voice actors do a great job with standouts being Diego Luna and Channing Tatum as Manolo and Joaquin, respectively. The songs are adaptations of popular tunes which work surprisingly well. The afterlife adventure is actually only about half of the runtime, but it feels so much shorter (the whole movie goes by way to quickly for my liking). Overall, The Book of Life is a fabulous film, telling the age-old tale of finding the courage to write your own story instead of following the path set out for you. This is told in front of the backdrop of the Day of the Dead which gives it a unique flavor and life, but it does not depend on that setting. I wish the holiday was a bit more ingrained in the film but the style, characters, voice acting, and music all make up for this flaw. The movie was largely overlooked during its original release, a wrong that should be righted now. It was later overshadowed by the Pixar film Coco, released in 2017, but this film is original in its own right sharing few similarities with the aforementioned film though, I believe, it surpasses Pixar’s effort.

Final Rating: 9.5/10