The Book of Life (REVIEW)

I went to see The Book of Life purely because Ron Perlman has been talking about it A LOT on Facebook and Twitter for the past few weeks. With a cast boasting Perlman, Zoe Saldana, Christina Applegate and Danny Trejo and production by Guillermo del Toro, I felt it was definitely worth a watch.

I was expecting a pretty standard kid’s film and I was pleasantly surprised.

The plot is simple. A group of children are on a school trip to a museum where a tour guide tells them the story of the Book of Life. The story is of two young boys who both love the same young girl. On the Day of the Dead, two gods (La Muerte, who reigns over the Land of the Remembered, and Xibalba, who rules the Land of the Forgotten) bet on who will marry the girl. They each give their chosen boy their blessing and then watch the story unfold.

The story is well told and interesting enough to keep you watching, but what really sets this movie apart from the rest and makes it truly glorious is the attention to detail by Director, Jorge Gutierrez. The art work is out of this world. It's so beautiful that while you're watching you feel like you're reading an intricately illustrated book. The characters both alive and dead are fantastically designed and really brought to life by the animation.

Value is added to the incredibly vivid art by the gorgeous music. The soundtrack is something I would actually buy on CD. There's a mix of beautiful covers (most notably Creep by Radiohead) and original songs written for the movie by Gustavo Santaolalla and Paul Williams. Lead actor, Diego Luna, isn't a half bad singer either!

The movie also serves as a wonderful tribute to Mexican culture. Educational and entertaining! I knew nothing about the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead and now I'm on an enlightening Wikipedia journey. Although I recognised the art of the dead faces I had no idea they were called sugar skulls - an excellent name for something so delicate and pretty, and a lovely way to represent the dead.

An all round great movie. Definitely not just for children!