"The Book of Life" PG
This animated feature from Reel Studios Animation tries for the same territory as that in Tim Burton stuff, and succeeds.
In the present, a tour guide leads a group of children into a secret room in a museum to show them the book of life, a magical storybook where all of the stories of the world are kept. Some stories are true and some not.
The story she tells is that of San Angel, a village in Mexico during the 1800s possibly, where there there is an evil cabal of bandits threatening the town, and two young boys who pine for a young girl.
Each Day of the Dead, the village celebrates the festival to honor those who died. Two mysterious figures of the underworld wager that they can control one of the boys, and convince them to either marry the girl someday, or not.
The two creatures seem to be a cross between Greek and Spanish tragedies, and also from old Mayan.
The male demon (Xuibalba) convinces one of the boys to take a mysterious amulet that grants him the power to never be hurt, while the female angel creature (La Meurta) tries to impart something to the other.
Ten years later, the boy who took the gem returns a hero (Jaquim) and the boy who becomes a bull fighting guitarist becomes kind of a loser (Manalo). The loser is the true hero, so the audience, mostly children, is drawn to the character.
The evil male demon it turned out loves the angelis creature but they have a love and hate thing, and when he senses the wager will be destroyed when the girl (Maria) falls for the singer, he tricks the tyoung man and he is killed, sending him to the underworld where he must form an alliance with the dead to get back to his lady love somehow.
Although similar to other creepy underworld and land of the living tales, and cartoons, it takes a twist on the classics and melds them together into a modern myth that seems to have classical undertones.
It is not a rip off of Corpse Bride or Nightmare Before Christmas, or Paranorman, or BoxTrolls.
The only thing that becomes annoying is the pop culture references in some scenes. The songs are modern but done with accents. The jokes about fast food and sexism seem kind of out of place, but because it's a fable, perhaps the modern tour guide is adding them.
The funniest lines concern the center of the world, the land of the remembered, and the bizarre candle man played by Ice Cube, and the kinky relationship the two underworld rulers seem to have for each other. Little children may be a little scared and ask a lot of questions. It seems geared for actually those over 13, but it's still PG.
It's a good movie to see in theaters and to rent or own later, to amuse your children on Halloween for a while.
Review by Adam Browne
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