In case you couldn't tell from the posters or trailers, The Book of Life looks incredible. Its visual design is some of the most intricate I've ever seen in animation, and it dazzles for most of its ninety-something-minute run. The characters, costumes, and decorations are so beautifully crafted that I constantly wanted to reach out and touch them -- and I didn't even see it in 3D!
Unfortunately, not much else in the film compares to its visuals. It's just a predictable, rehashed Orpheus tale of hetero romantic competition, lost love (in an idealized female figure), and brave heroism (in two idealized male figures). While I liked the film's bias in favor of the more artistic man in the love triangle (voiced by Diego Luna), each of the three leads is so heavily clichéd that they don't win over my sympathies. Channing Tatum voices the more athletic man with exceptional humor and intelligence that saves his character from utter ruin, and Zoe Saldana voices the lead woman with spunk and charm. The real character gems in this film are in its three deities: La Muerte (Kate del Castillo), Xibalba (Ron Perlman), and the Candle Maker (Ice Cube). Their performances are fine, their design is out of this world, and frankly I had more interest in their characters than in the humans.
The film's great visuals are sacrificed, sadly, by speedy pace and frantic editing. Rather than using long shots (in which, people seem to forget, a lot can happen, especially when everything on-screen is animated!), first-time director Jorge Gutierrez uses quick shots overloaded with kinetic energy and colors in which we can barely recognize what we see, let alone appreciate it. I think the film would have been better served had he allowed the stunning animation and vibrant atmosphere to envelop us on its own, rather than shoving the material at us and then pushing us along with it.
I expect that Gutierrez and his team hurried the shots to match the quick pace of the film. For a journey that spans three worlds (the land of the living, the Land of the Remembered, and the Land of the Forgotten), the film moves at breakneck speed, presumably to keep younger children totally engaged for an hour and a half. A lot of the comedy -- like the visuals -- was wasted on me, because it is both too quick and too simple. Many moments felt like they came from cheap animated television shows due to the silly nature of the humor and the awkward expressions or movements of the characters.
My final reaction to the film is one of mild disappointment. An animated feature film to celebrate the Day of the Dead seemed like such a fresh idea and a great opportunity for children (especially amidst the immigration debates of our country right now) to understand and appreciate the beauty in non-white-American cultures. While The Book of Life may yet accomplish that, I worry that the film misrepresents the culture and holiday it depicts by making the material so modern and, well, white; it subtly reinforces cultural appropriation, and I'm not sure its messages of tolerance or education are strong enough to overcome that. A few times characters break out into song, but they sing contemporary songs and use modern American vernacular, which completely shatters any fantastic illusion provided by the visuals. Finally, the last two minutes of the film are probably its best, as the three deities share lessons for us all which are really important. But I wasn't convinced by them because they felt tacked on and superficial; if you're going to put a concise, explicit moral at the end of your movie, the rest of the film needs to work hard enough to sell it. I'm not sure this one did.
IMDb: The Book of Life
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