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THE BOOK OF LIFE (review)

By Elizabeth Robbins
Produced by Aaron Berger, Brad Booker, 
Guillermo del Toro, Carina Schulze
Written by Jorge Gutierrez, Doug Langdale
Directed by Jorge Gutierrez
Starring Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana, Channing Tatum, 
Christina Applegate, Ice Cube, Ron Perlman, 
Cheech Marin, Héctor Elizondo, Plácido Domingo

I love animated movies. Traditional hand-animated, digital, stop motion; American or Anime, it doesn’t matter. I am definitely in the club that believes that animation isn’t just for kids, and some of the best story-telling today can be found in this cinematic medium.

The Book of Life was a delightful surprise.

I was expecting a cheap knock-off of Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas. What I got was a beautiful, colorful tale about love, family, and friendship. Mexican-born, director and writer Jorge R. Gutierrez crafts funny and touching story pulling from Mexican folklore, Greek mythology, and Hollywood comedy.

The Book of Life is the story of three childhood friends; the kind-hearted Manolo, the dashing Joaquin, and the headstrong Maria. Each struggling to live up to their families’ expectations. In addition, the two young boys compete for Maria’s affections.

Their plight has not gone unnoticed. La Muerte, the ruler of the Land of the Remembered and Xibalba, ruler of the Land of the Forgotten have taken an interest in the children’s drama. The Gods have made a wager on which boy will succeed in winning Maria’s heart.

Each chooses one of the boys to be their champion. Maria is sent away to school, and many years pass before the three amigos are reunited and the Gods see which of their Champions will win.

The Book of Life is filled with bold colors and rich design, setting it apart from your standard Disney/ Dreamworks film. The voice cast lends a great deal of humor and genuine sentiment to their roles that I found the almost all the characters endearing.

Diego Luna (Elysium) as Manolo is earnest and sweet, the perfect underdog in the lover’s competition. Maria (Zoe Saldana, Guardians of the Galaxy) is an excellent role model for young girls, not content to let the boys save her, but able to hold her own with the best of them. Channing Tatum (Magic Mike) is perfect as the conceited swashbuckler. The supporting cast is filled with some of my favorite character actors, namely Cheech Marin and Danny Trejo, and a cameo from the great Plácido Domingo. Rounding out the cast is a turn from Ice Cube as the Candlemaker, the neutral supernatural being who keeps the netherworlds in balance.

Having sat down for the viewing with a theater full of kids on a Saturday morning, I was worried that such a character driven piece about love and friendship would not hold the target audience’s attention. I was wrong. The kids who came to the viewing loved it. The film is just the right mix of action and humor to carry the story.

The only part of the film I felt lacking was the music. The score, written by Argentinian Gustavo Santaolalla (who won Oscars for scoring Babel and Brokeback Mountain), was wonderful and full of echoes of the color and warmth of Mexico. What didn’t work for me was the some-what Latin versions of American pop music. Although presented as a selling point in most of the promotional materials, I found the pop musical numbers distracting, and pulled me out of the film each time.

 In a film that took many risks with artistic direction and with heartfelt writing, it felt like the insertion of songs like “I Will Wait” by Mumford & Sons and “Creep” by Radiohead were a play to make the film more marketable to a non-Latino audience. I found myself wishing that Santaolalla had written original compositions for the musical numbers, or had picked current latin pop. Such care was taken with the rest of the film, and presented as a slice of Mexican culture, it would have been better to have actual Mexican music.

Pop songs aside, which probably only make up 12 mins of the film, The Book of Life is a fun and entertaining animated film that challenges the aesthetic of general animation, carving out it’s own place for movie goers.

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