The Book of Life (2014) Revisit: Celebrating a Visually-Striking Day of the Dead Tale
Copyright © 20th Century Fox, Reel FX Animation Studios
Title: The Book of Life (2014)
Director: Jorge R. Gutierrez
Release Date: October 17, 2014
Even though Halloween is coming close, this is a film that would be a pretty similar thing. A week ago, the movie celebrated its 10-year anniversary, and people would still remember it to this day. Today's movie is called The Book of Life, an animated film about the Day of the Dead as well as Reel FX's first movie! Released back on October 17 of 2014, the movie became a straight-up box office success as it grossed $100 million against a $50 million budget. Additionally, critics and audiences praised it, leading to its Golden Globe nomination for the Best Animated Film award. Seven years later, a similar film, Coco, was released on November 22 of 2017, and people saw the striking similarities between the two movies based on the same concept. As Reel FX utilizes its gorgeous animation and meaningful fairy tale, The Book of Life is a wonderful story that introduces kids to the Day of the Dead.
Summary
In San Angel of Mexico, two childhood friends, Manolo (Diego Luna) and Joaquin (Channing Tatum), fight over who would be the love of Maria (Zoë Saldana). When they grow up separately, they all go through different paths, as Maria gets sent to Europe to become a lady, Joaquin became part of the military, and Manolo became a bullfighter. As they are still stuck in the love triangle, they must figure it out through a wager to determine whether Manolo or Joaquin will be her husband.
Reasons
Going to the top of the pyramid, The Book of Life magically excelled with its tragic story, deep messages, and top-notch animation. By the looks of it, you can already tell that this is going to be a sad but heartwarming love story. The story writing team did it so well with the love-triangle plot that kids can follow. It also gets dark at times which is also done so well. Being embedded in the plot, the messages are enough to make one smile a lot. Its main message is to be your true unique self which, although did become an overused message, was handled well in a situation of getting a partner. There are some other messages like living your good life and doing what is right, both of which may be simple but are still deep. The final one of the top batch is the animation. First, it goes from the usual animation when it takes place in the present world. When it tells the story of Manolo, it takes the style up to an eleven, especially how it chose to keep the wooden look for the visualization. It shows how Reel FX nailed it so hard on animation as it still does today.
A few other skills that The Book of Life has studied are the charming songs, likable characters, and flowing execution. It is no surprise that this movie happens to be a musical. Most of the songs are covers in a Spanish style, with the best being originally-written songs that fit with the narrative. Some examples are "I Love You Too Much" and "The Apology Song", both by Diego Luna, for the lovely instrumental and vocals. Moving on, the characters are likable and simple enough to fit in the fairy tale-structured narrative that the writers wanted it to be like. Manolo Sanchez is a likable protagonist all throughout the movie for his interesting character arc. There are also some other good characters, like María Posada and Joaquin, as well as the movie's fictional versions of Xibalba and La Muerte, who are based on Gods from Mexican mythology, and the movie seemed to do well with how they are written individually. Last off, the execution is also well done in order to make everyone enjoy it. This may be a fairy tale kind of story but there are adult elements put in the mix. That way, adults can savor how the writers handled with a love-triangle in animated form.
Albeit it is a wonderful tale, The Book of Life does have some flaws which are the predictability, distracting style, and subtle continuity errors. It is supposed to be a love story and that is not a bad thing. However, people can guess what is going to happen next to the character fates and twists that turn the story around. Next, the stylistic choices for the animation can be a little distracting, even though the animation is already gorgeous. Sometimes, the wooden art style can be a little too beautiful to look at as well as some effects put into the situations of the characters. Luckily, this is not much of the main focus. Finally, there are some continuity errors that are not so noticeable. Be lucky that they are just in the animation, not in the actual story. One example is how Manolo's swords disappearing and reappearing again. Honestly, these are more likely labeled as goofs.
Conclusion
As Halloween and the Day of the Dead are coming close, The Book of Life is a visually-striking journey that tells about a tragic love triangle. To any of those people who say that Coco is a ripoff of this movie, both of them are equally as beautiful; the former is about love and flaws, while the latter is about family and music. Going back to this movie, the animation shows that Reel FX did have a good beginning after all. Its beautiful structure can get kids and adults to enjoy the story and execution set on the Day of the Dead. Give this a look if you would like to see something both artistic and interesting.
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