The Book Of Life Review

Guillermo Del Toro has lent his name to a vast amount of projects since he became a household name with the Hellboy features and Pans Labyrinth. Since the second Hellboy, he's only directed one feature (last years beautifully exciting Pacific Rim), but has produced several more than that. His most recent endeavor as a producer is The Book Of Life, an animated feature from Reel FX and director Jorge R. Gutierrez. Gutierrez makes his debut as a director of a feature length film with this production, his previous defining work being the Nickelodeon program El Tigre.

That show was brought to life with Flash animation, and though The Book of Life is rendered in computer generated imagery, Gutierrez takes a cue from Genndy Tartakovsky (the director of Hotel Transylvania who also had worked extensivley in Flash animation) and brings many of the quirks of that art style to the medium of CGI. Such quirks, like exaggerated character designs and extremely frantic movements are on prominent display in the feature. Interestingly, while certain sequences of the film take a cue from the characters movements and act in a chaotic manner, it's interesting to note that the beginning portion of the film is marked by languid pacing. It's not terrible at all, and it remains watchable, but the film spends so much time explaining things (mainly by way of a framing device involving a tour guide voiced by Christina Applegate) that it does become a dull viewing expeirence.

Not only could some of the beautiful visuals of the film tell way much storytelling wise more than the ham-fisted dialogue, but much of what's explained still remains underwhelming. We spend so much of the start of the feature focusing on two boys, Manolo (voiced as an adult by Diego Luna) and Joaquin (voiced as an adult by noted Hispanic actor Channing Tatum), competing for the love of Maria (voiced as an adult by Zoe Saldana). It's obviously a traditional storytelling trope of "two guys in love with the same girl", that's cool, but we don't really get a reason for why they like her, or get much insight into the personality of the three characters. The set-up at least manages to make extensive use of Ron Perlman as Xibalba, an antagonistic spirit whose easily the best animated character of the film. Soon, we flash forward to the trios adulthood, where Manolo and Joaquin have distinctive personalities, and sadly Maria remains as dull as she was a kid. Despite all the events that occur in the film, she just doesn't become that compelling, a problem when the romance between her and Manolo is the crux of the film.

But if it sounds like the films a messy escapade at this point, let me tell you this; once we enter The Land Of The Remembered, the film becomes a much, much more coherent and entertaining picture. There's not only a specific story in this environment, but the place is overflowing with visual invention, with gorgeous colors dancing across the screen in a splendid style. Maybe I'm just a big o'l softie, but I also like the idea of meeting loved ones that have since passed on, a task that the Land Of The Remembered makes easy. Scenes with Monolo reuniting with his deceased relatives are really well handled, as are other action packed sequences where he travels to the Land of The Forgotten.

From that point on, the film becomes much more successful, with the characters becoming so much more involving and several poignant moments being wonderful executed, such as maybe the best sequence in the film where Monolo fights all the bulls his family of bullfighters have slayed over the years. Although the rest of the film still can't resist tossing in a manic final battle scene that's pretty much just noise, and still can't find anything interesting for Maria to do (what a waste of a talented actress, and apparently singer, Zoe Saldana), Those flaws remain glaring in The Book of Life, but it does have the courtesy to have good voice acting from the likes of Perlman, Ice Cube and Channing Tatum and eye-catching animation to balance out the proceedings.