Guillermo Del Toro is known mostly for his takes on the grotesque. With the Book of Life, Del Toro taps into his Mexican heritage to tell an engaging, family friendly tale. The Book of Life uses the Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) to weave a tapestry of color and pathos. And American pop songs, for some reason.
On the Dia de Muertos, spirits of the dead intermingle with the living. On that day, La Muerte (Kate del Castillo), who runs the Land of the Remembered, and Xibalba (Ron Pearlman), ruler of the Land of the Forgotten, come to the real world and intermingle with humans. As former lovers, they have a bitter sentiment towards each other, so they decide to make a wager on the blooming love triangle between Joaquin (Channing Tatum), Manolo (Diego Luna), and Maria (Zoe Saldana). Xibalba picks Joaquin as the winner of Maria’s heart to attempt to rule the Land of the Remembered, and La Muerte picks Manolo to keep Xibalba from interacting with humans again.
The Book of Life is pure visual splendor. The characters all have a Pinocchio like appearance, using the wooden dolls in the museum (which starts the story) and bringing them to life, inherently giving them a bit of magic. Del Toro finds ways to make the dark/grotesque receive some sympathy. In the Book of Life, Xibalba and La Muerte could appear scary, but the ornate, colorful nature of their costumes distract younger audience members from the scary qualities. Death is inherently fearful, but the Land of the Remembered is a joyous colorful place. The more the people in the real world speak of you, the more elevated your standing in the Land of the Remembered, as if death gave you a chance to encounter the ones you lost one more time. This helps comfort kids in the audience while giving them a lot of fun things to see, not an easy feat to pull off.
By aiming for the younger demo, The Book of Life strips down the story into simple, easily digestible parts. Give credit to writer/director Jorge Gutierrez for giving each of the main characters good qualities, blurring the lines of good and evil. Xibalba could easily have been an angry demon, but The Book of Life paints him as a frustrated, sad soul. Manolo and Maria are supposed to end up together (it’s pretty easy to see), but Maria doesn’t let a man define her; she gathers the troops for the final battle and rallies the town. Joaquin could have been the proud manly man, but there’s enough intuition in him to paint him as more than a bumbling idiot. However, the background characters mostly appear for comic relief and don’t have enough distinguishable traits. Most unfortunately, there is a theme of non-violence infused in the story, only to be undercut by a final physical altercation with a one-note bad guy, usurping all the hard work the story put in. The Book of Life is a mixed bag, but it’s simple enough for kids to follow along with what is happening.
The Book of Life is a cute spin on the fairy tale with an overdue look at Mexican culture. The themes of standing up for what you believe in, love, family, and death are ubiquitous and strong lessons for kids to observe, with heaps of color and joy throughout. But seriously, why so many American pop songs? Mariachi bands are fun, and I’m certain Selena’s songs would be just as strong for the story as Biz Markie.