The Book Of Life

I feel like a traitor for not liking The Book Of Life, but, for a movie trying to be so sophisticated and cosmopolitan, why are we subject to two poop jokes in the first five minutes?

In this animated feature, Diego Luna provides the voice of Manolo – a goodhearted young man who wants to sing, while his father wants him to take up the family occupation of bullfighting. The beautiful, rebellious and animal loving Maria (Zoe Saldana) has always supported him, but Manolo’s affection for her is challenged when two otherworldly beings make a bet.

La Muerta (Kate del Castillo) and Xibalba (Ron Perlman) each have a different idea about who Maria will marry. La Muerta believes it is true love between the young lady and Manolo, while Xibalba thinks Maria will fall for the more traditional and ruggedly handsome Joaquin (Channing Tatum).

Of course, Xibalba cannot be counted on to play fair, and he sends Manolo into the Land of the Remembered, where our hero must battle his greatest fears to re-emerge and win Maria’s love before it is too late. Writer/director Jorge Gutierrez and co-writer Douglas Langdale are trying to cram too much stuff into The Book Of Life. It’s complicated. Was this supposed to be a telenovela?

It’s a fantastic looking movie, but Gutierrez and Langdale are too ambitious as they try to tackle the mythology of The Day Of The Dead, a love triangle, a story about being true to yourself, lots of stuff about relying on your family, father and son relationships, father and daughter relationships, son and mother relationships, a local bandit, plenty of reminders that Maria is a modern woman, some comic relief and even more than I can type here. It never stops!

Yet, instead of getting too deep into any one idea or plot in the movie, Gutierrez and Langdale just plow forward with each new revelation coming in rapid fire fashion, which makes it feel like The Book Of Life has the momentum of a runaway freight train. It’s like they want to toss in another wrinkle every few minutes because they can’t make us care about the last one or give it any depth or meaning.

Maybe the people who showed such great detail to the look of the movie should have been tasked with paying attention to the story. Each character looks like a cool wooden figure marionette. The colors splash off the screen. The Book Of Life looks like a world you want to jump into feet first, which is what got you interested in seeing the movie in the first place.

Plus, Tatum does everything he can to save the movie by making Joaquin into a hilarious, dimwitted meathead. He adds a needed levity that isn’t forced.

The Book Of Life might need to be as long as War And Peace to deal with all of the plots.

The Book Of Life is rated PG for mild action, rude humor, some thematic elements and brief scary images.