"The Book of Life" is a colourful, slightly macabre animated story that draws from Mexican culture and aesthetic style. Told as a story-within-a-story, this is a straight-up fairy tale that sees the protagonist go on a traditional heroic quest, with visits to the underworld, battles with raging beasts, and overcoming family expectations.
For a film that has significant events that take place in the underworld, this seems like a weird title.
Originally the film was called "Day of the Dead," which, frankly, is much more in keeping with the film's style. While granting that there are entire swaths of the audience that would be caught, um, dead taking their children to a film of that title, from both a narrative and aesthetic point of view it's a much more apt title.
What's with Mexicans and all this death stuff?
That seemingly offensive question is a rhetorical question that the film explicitly raises, and it even comes up with a pretty plausible answer. The film's mythology draws upon very ancient practices in Mexico, where the departed are remembered by the survivors, and the lowest circle of the underworld is reserved not for the most evil, but for those forgotten. To have family that remembers those lost is thus all the more key, and this notion of continuity and familial lineage is an integral part of the story.
There are also trickster elements that remind of European myths, all with a slightly more macabre bent. Xibalba, the ruler of the Land of the Forgotten, is paired against La Meurte, the gaunt figure with the large, candle-bearing hat who rules over the Land of the Remembered. It's a playful bet between the two, using central characters as part of their moral machinations, that echoes the majority of Greek and Roman myths where humans become mere playthings for bored, sometimes venal gods.
The film is the feature-direction debut by Jorge Gutierrez, an animator and production designer who made a celebrated short called "Carmello" way back in 2000. One of the guiding artists of the film is producer Guillermo del Toro, another Mexican native who's renowned for his adoration of fables and proclivity for bringing the right amount of darkness even to so-called kids' stories.
The voice talent is a mix of both Anglo and Latin performers, from Diego Luna and Kate del Castillo to Channing Tatum, Zoe Saldana, Christina Applegate, Ice Cube and (del Toro lucky charm) Ron Perlman. Even opera singer Placido Domingo plays on the skeletons, and a slew of famous and not-so-famous character actors round out the large cast.
How's the music?
Strange. It's a mix of hits from the likes of Mumford and Sons and Radiohead redone in a kind of Mariachi-light style, along with a few new tunes by Gustavo Santaolalla. Early reports had the legendary Paul Williams co-writing some of the tracks, but online those credits seem not to have paid off (it's said on Williams' official site that he's gone off to write for a stage adaptation of del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth," so we'll see how that plays out).
The original songs do feel a bit dull, and lack the musicality of that other singing skeleton in a Holiday-themed film, Disney's "Nightmare Before Christmas."
So, is the film any good?
Well, the audience seemed to enjoy it, despite the many swings in tone that the film takes. I expect some to balk at the parts they see as "too scary" for their young'uns, but the film is clever enough to attenuate these elements with appropriate pauses.
I think there's a bunch to admire, including the unique boxy look of the animation and the attention to detail, but the swings in story and flatness of the pop culture riffs (along with a slew of fart jokes) made it seem like it was trying too hard to hit too many audiences. It's hard to hit that sweet spot, where a kid's film can feel like it has real moments of jeopardy to sate an adult audience without terrifying the younger viewers, and I'm not quite sure the film pulled it off.
For a relatively short movie, its running time felt overly long, and its archetypal structure didn't help, as the truly unexpected very rarely occurred. We can applaud the ambition and unique look of the animation, and it's clear there's a passion to the story and the presentation that comes through on screen. In the end, this isn't a film for everyone, and while some may thoroughly enjoy the narrative that "The Book of Life" unspools, I'm betting there are others that also feel it's a bit of a missed opportunity to get the quirky tone and deeply classical tale just right.
"The Book of Life" is now playing in theatres.
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