Review of The Book of Life (2014) by Jose Gabriel S — 21 Feb 2015

The book of life is the latest of the many CG childrenâ??s films released a dime a day. After Reel FX Creative Studios lame attempt at Free Birds last year they decided to take another swing at it this time focusing on Jorge Gutierrezâ??s vision on a filmed based around the Mexican tradition of the day of the dead. Taking this interesting approach the film surprisingly delivers a very unique and original storyline of 2 men fighting for the love of their life while 2 gods of the underworld La Muerte and Xibalba place a bet on whichever men win so either god can take over of the underworld. It does keep you invested enough to see were all of this is going to turn out but the story does unfortunately becomes a bit formulaic halfway through. Which was really a shame considering its great setup. Like you know for a fact that the humble good hearted one is going to keep the girl while the ego induced general is going to have to learn his lesson. Still though they actually managed to handle these characters very well for the most part to avoid them being too much of a stereotype to a point where you find them annoying. I did appreciate how they established Manolo and Juaquin as good friends working for what they wanted rather than bitter rivals who wanted nothing else but to take either one down. It makes you relate to them in some way. But of course they had to throw in a bit of forced conflict with them in some scenes and at times they made Juaquin look more of a stereotype than he wasnâ??t. I felt that despite what it was trying to say with its message of selflessness, forgiveness and love the emotional core wasnâ??t as strong as it could have been. And I just couldnâ??t help but get a bit upset by how much potential the story could have had. Mostly because the story feels the need to focus too much on its jokes and referential humour topped off with its pop songs that may have been results of the producers influence. Now I guess this was done so the film so it could cater to its younger target demographic and while it works it also sacrifices some of the storyâ??s substance. I just wish that they could have focused better on their emotional and dramatic moments and refined them.

Another seemingly piece of evidence of this problem could be the films sense of pace. Most of Manolos adventure in the underworlds are the highlight of the film but also the most abrupt. He visits all of these different realms and faces incredible and dangerous challenges but the film seems to be on fast forward apparently that we immediately move to the next world and we forget everything we just saw. We donâ??t get enough time to let it all sink in. Which is a shame because these locations are greatly detailed and it would have been nice to get a better sense of their identity. Sure we saw the land of the remembered, awesome colors, parties, great!! Oh but now were leaving it and heading to a crater with a giant. Oh and now we cut back to the real world. And then we go to another world of waxed candles and so on and so forth. I think when it comes to animated films the directors are more concerned on showing off everything they got but I would have preferred a steadier pace to appreciate what we were given. When it comes to diverse worlds in an animated film I think of wreck it Ralph with most of them coming from different video games and their contrasting genres. In that film they handled their worldâ??s moderately to give them a purpose and enough time to understand how they worked based on their own rules. For example Ralphâ??s world was square and 8-bit throwback, Heroes duty was a dark and dangerous sci-fi FPS and sugar rush was like a Mario kart stage except inhabitable. I can safely say that I remember more about all of those worlds more than I did with Book of Life. Thatâ??s not to say that the worlds themselves werenâ??t boring though which leads me to my next point. The art design. My goodness, while this film may lack a more complete story it makes it up with its fantastic design. CG films nowadays have had relatively decent visuals and designs most of them based on either fairy tales or 21st century settings with the occasional supernatural or Gothic theme. Book of life however because of its Hispanic influence in the celebration of the day of the dead brings us an unusual unique and amazing eye candy of this culture. If itâ??s not the diverse use of colors then itâ??s the detailed designs of these characters. Each one of those on their own would make a great painting with no backgrounds. The ideas that were poured in to each of these creatures are exceptional. I mean thereâ??s little patterns like crosses, skulls and hearts all representing the cultural heritage of Mexico hidden within each frame. Iâ??d probably have to re-watch it because Iâ??m pretty sure I missed a lot of things. That being said Book of Life art design has to be most ambitious design Iâ??ve seen for any animated movie to date. Youâ??ll never see anything like it before and itâ??s a perfect example of what CG can do when pushed with great artistic minds. The fact of the matter as the great Brad Bird once put it CGI while innovative can give you decent results with not much creativity. That being said this film was rather refreshing amidst the clutter of simplified ideas in the industry (including the Lego movie, that one also did have a great art design and animation with its Lego motif and style to look more like a stop motion animated film.).

In the end Book of lifeâ??s with its creative art design, animation and ideas was a nice watch. The story however could have definitely used more refining and more focus on what it was trying to do given its ambitious and interesting setup. That being said Iâ??m a really picky person when it comes to my movies and if the story isnâ??t substantial or complete enough then thereâ??s not much the positives of this film will do to for a purchase. Donâ??t expect much from watching, just sit back and enjoy it while it lasts.