"The Book of Life" (2014) REVIEW

I had neutral feelings walking into the movie for two reasons: 1. The marketing really wanted people to know that Guillermo Del Toro produced the movie, which tells me nothing because he produces a ton of movies. He's great with visual effects, though. 2. It's from the same animators as Free Birds, which is an awful movie. However, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and Soul Eater showed me that just because it's the same animators doesn't mean the story is of equal quality.

Ever since they were kids, best friends Manolo and Joaquin have always competed for Maria's heart. After Maria returns years later from her studies, Joaquin has been named protector of Mexico and Manolo has grown up to become a lover of music, but forced by his father to go into bullfighting. Torn between fulfilling the family tradition or to follow his heart, Manolo makes a decision that incidentally leads him to his death. Having been cheated from living his life, Manolo goes on a journey get his life back, but first he must face his greatest fear.

I should probably start off by saying that this movie's strongest point is the animation, though it takes a while to get used to. The art style is interesting, the characters being wooden puppets and the backgrounds vivid and alive. The color tone chosen for each scene are very well done, changing from vibrant to bleak perfectly to match the mood of the scene. Simply put, this is one of the most artistic animated movies out there.

Now for the story and its execution. It's better than Free Birds and The Nut Job when it comes to animated kids movies, but don't expect another How to Train Your Dragon 2. The first third of the movie is slow and awkward, trying not to rush into things to be nice with the audience but drags a bit longer than necessary. However, it picks up after that and all is well. The voice acting is great and the positioning of viewpoints are astounding. Although, as good as the action sequences are, I felt there were clips missing or the viewpoint off target a bit, leaving me a bit confused where people were in the scene.

Even with these faults, I still enjoyed my time watching this movie more than I thought I would. Keep it up, Reel FX, and make sure to get the good scripts!

3/5 Stars

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