We move on to an intriguing film about Mexican culture, this is the Book of Life.
The movie begins as a Tour Guide explains to some detention students the origins of the Book of Life and how it functions in Mexican culture, claiming that it tells every story in the world. This particular story comes from the town of San Angel.
The story of San Angel begins at the Day of the Dead festival where the spirt realms are ruled by La Muerte who controls the Land of the Remembered and Xibalba who controls the Land of the Forgotten are granted more freedom within the mortal realm, upon seeing two friends, Manolo and Joaquin compete over a girl named Maria, the two gods hold a wager to see who would marry Maria in the future with leadership over the realms at stake.
Xibalba not wanting to lose, gives Joaquin the Medal of Everlasting Life that grants him invincibility; during an incident caused by Maria releasing a stampede of pigs, Joaquin and Manolo display talents that their respective Parents/Guardians see potential in, at the same time Maria is sent to Europe to train as a refined young lady.
Over the years Joaquin becomes the new town hero while Manolo is torn between bullfighting and singing. When Maria returns she learned how to be more independent and denounces her potential matches at first but starts warming up to Manolo. Still not willing to lose, Xibalba tricks Manolo into killing himself to win the bet which succeeds but comes back to haunt him as La Muerte gets pissed off about the whole cheating deal, it is then revealed by the Candle Maker (Which at this point I'm guessing is god in this story) that Manolo wasn't meant to die and Manolo does a great test of courage to return to life, meanwhile Joaquin is stuck defending the town against the actual villain Chakal, a notorious Bandit who seeks Joaquin's medal, upon returning, Manolo helps win the battle against Chakal and all is back to normal in San Angel.
This has two sides to it, the great stuff and the terrible stuff.
The Great Stuff
1. The art style is beautiful and really gives a great artistic view of the world in this movie, both the living and non living.
2. The romance and emotional moments are really touching and really gives a feel about how this festival is celebrated.
3. La Muerte is the best animated character in recent years.
4. Pretty good comedy moments.
The Terrible Stuff
1. The so called actual villain is dreadful.
2. The story feels disjointed when you realize that Xibalba was not meant to be the villain.
3. The pig was unnecessary.
4. Maria, oh god Maria, I can tell when characterization is forced and it's obvious with Maria, if this was meant to be a "strong" female character then Maria isn't it, strength in a character needs to be earned by that character and having Maria know Kung Fu was dumb, I applaud that she doesn't fall into the obvious damsel trap but revoke it when you realize that she could've defeated Chakal without Manolo and Joaquin's help.
So yeah overall I'm torn as to whether I like this movie or not, for it's emotion, art and culture, yes, for it's story and handful of bad characters, no.
I'd still say give it a try, especially if you enjoy Mexican Culture because the actual Day of the Dead Festival is really something to behold.
