Spoilers!I can't properly review this movie without spoiling pretty much all of it.
The book of life is an animated movie about a wager between La Muerte the ruler of the remembered and Xibalba ruler of the forgotten (basically rulers of heaven and hell if you want to get down to it), on one day of the dead celebration they make a wager of who a young girl named Maria will chose to fall in love with and marry the insecure musical Manolo or the good intention if a little arrogant war hero Joaquin. La Muerte watches over Manolo where as Xibalba watches over Joaquin (including giving him a medallion that lets him never die or get hurt.) However Maria seems to be leaning more towards Manolo then Joaquin so Xibalba cheats and kills Manolo who know with the help of his dead relatives must reclaim his life in order to get back to the love of his life.
I was really looking forward to this movie when it was coming out.
First off let me get to the good. This is a really funny movie but what I love about it as opposed to a lot of other animated movies or live-action movies is that the comedy does not get into the way of or interrupt the emotional serious moments of the film and they don't feel jarring, they feel very genuine and it's never too much. My favorite character in this movie also has to be Joaquin while he is an ass unlike others movie where they make that the only character trait the rival has Joaquin is very three-dimensional as while he truly loves Maria he doesn't want to marry her if she doesn't love him back, he just wants her to be happy and the relationship with Manalo is very genuine and heartfelt and he doesn't hate Manalo and is there for him always as a friend should.
This is easily one of the most visually beautiful and unique movies I've ever seen. The vibrant color choice really pops and the puppet like design for the characters are really interesting. It's very fluid and smooth and is just so pretty to look at. In fact a lot of the face designs reminded me of one of my favorite shows as a kid El Tigre (look it up it's really good) and when I looked it up the man who directed this movie, Jorge Guetierrez, created the show El Tigre. You can also see that the same people who made El Tigre made this film because like this film El Tigre was about choosing your own destiny and the power of free choice. Sadly though while the film is fun and pretty I would rather watch El Tigre than watch this film anytime soon.
It seems that most of the bad films I watch nowadays seem to have really bad script problems. First off let me get to the other characters, where as Joaquin is a nice change of pace for rivals in other movies the other characters are very one-dimensional. Manalo are main character is very much like his puppet design, very wooden, there's not much their really except for a really good singing voice and I couldn't really root for him because he wasn't that interesting. Maria the love interest while a lot of fun doesn't really have a lot to her either as a character and is really just the feminist girl archetype. Manalo and Maria also don't have that much chemistry either, they do end up together in the film but you don't buy until the credits start rolling and the film is over. They don't even talk in the film to each other when they are adults, they sing with each other about how much they love each other but they don't have a real conversation to make you buy that they are in love with each other, rather just the concept of being in love.
In fact I thought she had more chemistry with Joaquin because at least they have a conversation with each other and he seems to love her for who she is as a person. Wouldn't have it been more interesting if while all that stuff about in the land of the dead with Manolo was happening Maria and Joaquin got to know each other better and eventually fell genuinely in love with each other. With the whole film about letting go of someone dead or alive and that you move on no matter what. That's kind of dark I know but it would have been interesting to see an animated movie tackle that.
Most of the other characters are one-dimensional, La Muerte and Xibalba are a lot of fun but we don't really know them and I wish we did because they seem really interesting with cool designs but they are kind of just there. Most of the voice acting is pretty good except for Ice Cube as the candle maker (basically god), he is so jarring in this film whenever he opened his mouth I wanted to groan and slit my throat. This film is very racially sensitive which is awesome and I like the mostly Hispanic cast which is even better but Ice Cube voicing a character with the candle makers design felt kind of uncomfortable. If you see the movie you'll know what I mean when he shows up.
Another problem with the movie it follows a pretty predictable story path when it has an interesting concept. Which is sad because you can pretty much guess the ending of this movie without even blinking. Nothing new happens, nothing interesting happens when you have a film about deities messing with human lives, that should be interesting.That's probably the worst part of the movie is a lot of potential is wasted, if they had hired different screenwriters this would probably have been good.
This film coming off of that point is very bloated, by that I mean this movie has four different GOOD movies in it that are all basically bull-fighting for attention creating this bloody mess that could have been avoided. I have a feeling the script for this movie was rewritten a lot because it feels like five different movies are happening at once. Their's of course the love triangle part of the movie but also a story about how Manolo wants to be a guitar player rather than a bull fighter (I can't spell the politically correct term for bull fighter), Manolo being afraid to be himself and a plot about Joaquin and an infamous bandit. All these plots could stand as a movie on it's own but put together they don't mesh that well because with how this movie is structure it's very jarring and unlike the animation doesn't flow well together.
The main theme these all share however is the idea of free choice as opposed to destiny. Yet I think it doesn't really work that well. What made the freedom versus destiny story work in El Tigre is the main character Manny Rivera (who is way more interesting that Manolo) always had free choice as an option, while he did have his dad and grandpa forcing him to choose it was always up to Manny to decide what to do, in this movie because you bring in gods into the movie one of whom has been manipulating one of the main characters free choice is kind of void. Not many of the characters have free choice really in this film either. Sure in the third act they say Manolo can make up his own destiny but it's so rushed through and never discussed. The pace in this movie is also a big problem which factors into the rushing of Manolo being able to make his own choice.
I give this film a 5/10- I can watch this film for entertainment and visual value but it's just so bad and so disappointing considering how hyped I was from this film.
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