The Book of Life Review

The Book of Life absolutely surprised me. This animated film follows the classic tale of two friends who both compete for the love a beautiful women while dealing with moments of courage, failure, and trying to live up to life's expectations. The animation, the music, the colors, the characters…everything was Beautiful. The film's pace is incredibly fast, energetic, and really really fun. The film's atmosphere consistently changes reflecting the emotion of each and every scene from bright, beautiful, and bold colors during the happy moments to a cold, dark, and colorless atmosphere during the sad moments. The music adapts many familiar songs with a bit more of a Hispanic touch. The characters are very fun and very memorable, especially Diego Luna as the character Manolo, the man trying to win the heart of the lovely Maria, voiced by Zoe Saldana. Speaking of Maria, I appreciated that the film actually doesn't make her a stereotypical "damsel in distress" character but instead makes her a independent, skilled fighter, and strong-willed character. Channing Tatum plays the other lead as the courageous Joaquin, although (despite still providing a decently fun performance) I feel the main reason he was casted in this movie was to bring more people to theater seats. The character animations are very unique as they are digitally composed with a puppet-esque aesthetic and each and every one of the specific character designs are easily distinguishable from each other. While the movie consistently strives for humor as much as heart, I didn't find myself always laughing at the jokes. With that being said, I couldn't stop smiling through out the entire film. This is definitely the surprise movie of the year for me currently. Children will absolutely adore this film and will immediately be immersed in the wonderful character designs and fast-paced story that will keep kids with attention disabilities completely engaged in the film. The film also has multiple themes of finding the courage to be yourself, showing respect to the female figures in your life, and the importance of family and friendships. Personally, I believe The Book of Life gives The Lego Movie a run for it's money, though it likely won't make nearly as much, which is a shame. There need to be more children films like this coming to theaters. The Book of Life is a visually stunning film that will grab your attention from start to finish with it's incredibly fun story and uniquely wonderful characters.