Mixture of Thoughts

This movie was pretty unique, I thought, and I wondered how much of that uniqueness came from the Mexican culture. I looked it up, and though I kept hearing about "full of Mexican folklore" and stuff, I really couldn't find much folklore; only the Day of the Dead celebration. So, I guess the rest of the stuff about the land of the remembered/ forgotten was all made up for the film?

The Day of the Dead artwork is there, though. The way that the deceased were all decorated and painted up like Day of the Dead decorations was pretty cool.

I loved the two god characters. Some may say their relationship was unrealistic and moved too fast, but I was convinced. I mean, the Greek gods were always back and forth like that in their relationships, so I just enjoyed it as a fairytaleish aspect. I also enjoyed the fact that film was a tale being orally told to some children.

Note about characters: It was nice that both of Maria's suitors were good guys. Yeah, Joaquin had his selfish moment of not wanting to share bread with Xibalba, and sometimes he was stupid, and he used a magic medal to boost his popularity; but he really was a good guy. He was always brave, even before he got the medal. Frankly, if you intended to be a soldier when you grew up, wouldn't you accept a medal that kept you from harm? That's just smart. The only problem he wanted people to think it was his skill that protected him, instead of a medal.
   Joaquin really did love Maria with a sacrificial love, and he usually treated Manolo right, except for the point when he and Manolo were about to fight. I was kind of annoyed that it was so obvious and set in stone that Manolo was going to win the girl. The only reason she liked him better was because he played guitar.