Review of The Book of Life (2014) by Mloy X — 13 Feb 2016

Sasha (voiced by Kennedy Peil): [gasp] "No!... Maria died?".

Sanjay (voiced by Ishan Sharma): "That can't be right.".

Luka (a.k.a. Goth Kid, voiced by Trey Bumpass): "What kind of story is this? We're just kids!".

This was kind of cute, a little lengthy and the plot overly complicated for a kids' flick but there were some adorable moments about it. The characters were likeable and I'm glad Maria was no damsel; I love La Muerte and Xibalba too (especially Xibalba being voiced by Ron Pearlman). Overall the conclusion was mostly satifying, it feels like Manolo's solution was a bit of a cop out but he stayed true to his belief and I guess that's really the point- standing by his principles especially when everyone else is telling him to do the opposite. I supposed that's a good lesson. The animation was uniquely interesting and fluid, probably one of the better animated films I've seen in a long time. The voice-acting was also fairly good; so overall, not a bad film to watch.