In my opinion, this was just an OK movie. Parts of it worked, parts of it didn't. The main area where the movie excelled was in the character personalities and design. There were a lot of unique characters in this film and they were intricately and beautifully detailed, definitely something different than what I am used to seeing in animation. The scenery was great too - that first shot where you get to see the Land of the Remembered is simply stunning. However, the over-arching plot is quite predictable, despite that there are a few surprises along the way. But the biggest issue with this movie is that the pacing is rather off. It was one of those movies where the beginning is great, but then it slowly begins to fall apart as it reaches the end. I loved the beginning because the viewer finds himself slowly being immersed into the characters and their world, as things are revealed bit by bit. But the movie's defining moment (when Manolo is whisked away into the Land of the Remembered) comes into the scene a tad too late. Because of this, we don't get to see a whole lot about this new, awesome world. Yes, we get to see it in all of its glory briefly, but we really never become fully acquainted with it, and before we know it, Manolo is back up above in the Land of the Living. (I mean, let's face it -- the Land of the Remembered is the coolest part of the movie. Why can't we spend more time down there?) From then on, it seems as though the filmmakers suddenly realize that they're running short on time and so they try to wrap it up as quickly as possible. And when that happens, there's a lot of choppiness. Character development happens too quickly, broken relationships are restored too easily, and overly-used and exhausted lines abound such as: "You...risked your life...(dramatic pause)...to save me?"
Out of ten stars, I'd rank The Book of Life A-L-L-L-L-L-L the way down here: 5/10
I also didn't like the timing in the later parts of the movie, when I was watching it; but later, thinking about it, I thought it was ok. It gave us a taste of the two worlds of the dead, and I thought it wrapped up the movie sufficiently. However, I thought the fight scene at the end was dumb. It was fun, but it wasn't as interesting or original as the rest of the movie.
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