TDR RATING 7.5/10
An underestimated animation that came out last year, The
Book of Life is beautiful and vibrant. If you have any small children, this is definitely
a miserable Sunday afternoon movie that will bring a bit of sunshine back into
your living room. It’s got some great re-workings of some chart hits like
Mumford and Son’s I Will Wait and Radiohead’s Creep paired with some classic
pieces from operas such as Carmen. With Guillermo del Toro taking a seat as a producer
on the project and Jorge R. Guttiérrez at the helm as director and writer. The
Book of Life has an inspiring artistic style, Guttiérrez has a fantastic eye
for imagery with the Day of the Dead influencing the artistry. It’s not just
the art that is impressive, the plot wonderfully addresses ideas of life, love,
death and the afterlife. It’s a brilliantly refreshing animated movie, maybe that’s
why it wasn't so successful on its world wide release in comparison to other
films with a similar target audience since it ranks number 59 on IMDb's 2014 profit list. It’s just frustrating that TNMT and Rio 2 were above it on the list.
Needless to say The Book of Life still has the star power of Zoe Saldana,
Channing Tatum, Diego Luna, Ron Perlman, Christina Applegate, Ice Cube and of
course a cameo by Danny Trejo all absolutely on point, with a few hammy accent
moments from Tatum. Guttiérrez and del Toro make a great team in animated
movies, I hope they venture out together again soon.
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