Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The Book of Life
Despite dwelling on death and
its aftermath, The Book of Life is an astonishingly upbeat and vibrant animated movie. What it lacks in wit (almost nothing), it makes up for with heart and energy. Director and co-writer Jorge R. Gutierrez (who’s partially responsible for the TV series El Tigre: The Ad
ventures of Manny Rivera) may be calling upon his Mexican roots for this story, but he has also created something that can easily delight all of the globe.
The Book of Life itself is a love story, and it’s likewise made with an affection that’s easy to return. It’s loaded with endearing characters, breathtaking visuals and a seemingly endless amount of imagination.
Gutierrez and co-writer Douglas Langdale (who has worked on everything from Darkwing Duck to a Scooby Doo reboot) start off a little mundanely, but that’s because the words that are coming viewers’ way take a little acclimation.
The film begins with a bus full of bored potential delinquents being let out for yet another museum tour. But as we quickly
can tell, the confident guide Mary Beth (voiced by Christina Applegate) has a tale for the youngsters that will keep them entertained and teach them some important lessons on Mexican culture at the same time.
She breaks out a box of wooden toys to illustrate a romantic rivalry between two young men over Maria ( Zoe Saldana), the bright, lovely daughter of the town’s police chief. Joaquin (Channing Tatum) is sometimes so busy trying to live up to the heroic legacy of his late bandit avenging father that he some- times forgets to show Maria some basic courtesies.
Manolo ( Diego Luna) has inherited the agility and strength of his father, Carlos (Hector Elizondo), but like Maria, he doesn’t think it’s right to kill bulls. This makes him possibly the world’s least popular matador. Actually, Manolo would rather sing in a mariachi band.
The three end up as pawns in a bet between the rulers of the underworld. La Muerte (Kate del Castillo), who rules the Land of the Remembered, wagers Xibalba (Ron Perlman), the boss of the Land of the Forgotten, that Maria will eventually marry Manolo. La Muerte is wise, but Xibalba is prone to cheating and could upset the supernatural bal- ance of the world if he wins the right to rule both kingdoms.
The supernatural stakes and the theme of the Day of the Dead (Nov. 2, to be exact) give Gutierrez an excuse to carpet bomb his viewers with torrents of color and creativity. Because Manolo and Joaquin’s tale is illustrated by toys, we still see them with wooden skins and metal joints like their symbols back in the museum. This gives the film a consistently distinctive look.
It doesn’t hurt that Gutierrez uses 3-D with a remarkable amount of subtlety and finesse. Ironically, because of the almost byzantine level of detail in each frame, a small TV or a tablet simply won’t do justice to the film.
Similarly, the storyline is loaded with so many characters and plot twists that a casual viewer will probably get lost. That said, there are so many intriguing personalities and situations that one feels like thanking Gutierrez for his excess. Who else would effectively cast Ice Cube as a wry magical candle maker and get away with it.
Like fellow Mexicans Guillermo del Toro (one of this film’s producers) and Alfonso Cuaron, Gutierrez has arrived on the scene to teach the rest of Hollywood how they can make the kind of terrific films that used to be their specialty. Perhaps more movies would do better to look to Mexico instead of Hasbro for inspiration.