The Book of Life springs from a clear love of Mexican culture. Producer Guillermo del Toro and director Jorge Gutierrez both hail from Mexico, and they seem determined to create something uniquely Mexican in flavor. And visually, that is exactly what they delivered. The movie presents a stunning, one-of-a-kind aesthetic that builds off elements of Mexican myth and legend. But it also appears to be informed by more conventional storytelling practices, the type that doesn’t entirely trust kids to pay attention. And so the film ends up delivering a barrage of visual information that remains beautiful, but is probably too frantic and hurried for its own good.
La Muerte (Kate del Castillo) who rules over the joyous Land of the Remembered, makes a wager with Xibalba (Ron Perlman), who rules over the miserable Land of the Forgotten. Their wager involves the romantic destinies of best friends Manolo (Diego Luna) and Joaquin (Channing Tatum), who both pine for the beautiful Maria (Zoe Saldana). La Muerte believes that Maria will choose the sensitive and artistic Manolo over the heroic Joaquin, and when it turns out that she might be right, Xibalba decides to cheat. He tricks Manolo into heading into the land of the dead, and there, Manolo must fight his way back out to be reunited with his love.
This movie frames this story with sequences of the events being narrated to a group of precocious children on a museum visit. This framing device represents the strange paradox at the heart of this film. It certainly seems to trust its target audience enough to treat them with a story that tackles death and other heavier themes. But it doesn't trust them enough to just embrace the story as it is. The framing sequences seem to be mostly there to spell out the lessons of the story, and presumably to provide a less alien backdrop.
It's all very unnecessary. The movie would work just as well without these sequences. The story itself is quite lovely, taking a few unconventional turns that elevate it from the average animated feature. It is a bit overstuffed, however, and the film is forced to rush through many of its moments just to get to the next thing. But the good really shines through the mess, the story's main characters admirably written to go beyond the simple templates of kid-oriented fiction.
The film's look is clearly its greatest strength. The movie is bursting with lovely detail, all of it just stunning to behold. The visuals are so great that one wishes that the film would slow down more often, just so we can let the beauty of the design sink in. The vocal cast is more than capable of bringing these characters to life. The best of the leads is probably Channing Tatum, who provides some appealing shading to a character that could have come off as more of a villain. Zoe Saldana and Diego Luna play their more straightforward characters with equally impressive range.
The Book of Life is overstuffed and frantic, but its charms are formidable. One could at the very least appreciate how different it looks from every other animated picture, how much texture is embedded in every frame. The film is really beautiful; it's just that it's a little bit misguided in its quest to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. It's too afraid of losing the kids, of boring them with unfamiliar elements and moments of stillness. This film needed to give itself a little bit of room to just breathe, although even in its rush it produces something rather remarkable.
My Rating:
