The Book of Life

Premiered October 17, 2014.

In the small Mexican town of San Angel, three childhood best friends musically inclined Manolo, free spirited Maria and aspiring hero Joaquin have adventures and get into mischief on the Day of the Dead.  There are also the stirrings of a love triangle as Joaquin and Manolo compete for Maria's attention. 

They are observed by two gods La Muerte (Kate del Castillo), who rules the Land of the Remembered and Xibalba (Ron Perlman), ruler of the Land of the Forgotten.  

The two supernatural beings decide to make a wager over which of the two young men will eventually marry Maria.  La Muerte backs the kind-hearted Manolo, while Xibalba prefers the bold Joaquin.  If Manolo wins Maria's hand,  Xibalba agrees to stop interfering in the lives of mortals, but if she marries Joaquin, La Muerte will have to swap realms with Xibalba.    Xibalba decides to cheat a bit and secretly provides Joaquin the Medal of Everlasting Life which grants invincibility to its owner. 

After an incident where the children cause mayhem by freeing animals destined for slaughter,  Maria's father General Posada (Carlos Alazraqui) decides to send her to Spain to be educated.   

Several years pass and Joaquin (Channing Tatum) has grown up to become a military hero (with aid from Xibalba's gift).  

Meanwhile Manolo (Diego Luna) has trained to follow in his family tradition and become a bullfighter.  He would much rather follow his musical aspirations, but his father Carlos (Hector Elizondo) disapproves.  

Maria (Zoe Saldana) has returned from Spain a well educated and accomplished young woman. She arrives back in San Angel just in time to see Manolo's first bullfight.  Manolo defeats the bull, but refuses to kill it, infuriating his father and impressing Maria.    

However, Maria's father pressures her to marry Joaquin in order to ensure that San Angel is protected from the bandit Chakal (Dan Navarro).   

Both Manolo and Joaquin compete for Maria's affections, but it seems that she and Manolo are destined to be together.  

As the young couple profess their love (on the Day of the Dead),  Xibalba - not wanting to lose his bet - sends a  two headed snake to bite Maria, apparently killing her!  

Manolo is devastated by Maria's apparent death and allows Xibalba's snake to bite him twice, in the belief that he will be reunited with his love in death.   

Manolo finds himself in the Land of the Remembered where he is reunited with his deceased mother and many other relatives but Maria is nowhere to be found!    

They travel to La Muerte's palace, but encounter Xibalba - who smugly explains that he won the bet with La Muerte and reveals that Maria did NOT die from the snake bite (she was only bitten once, but Manolo was bitten twice).      

Manolo must journey through multiple realms where he encounters the Candle Maker (Ice Cube) and La Muerte.  In order to have a chance at being restored to life, he will have to face Xibalba's trickery as well as his greatest fears.  

Back in the mortal world, Maria and Joaquin are about to be married when the ceremony is interrupted by the Bandit Chakal and his thugs.  Chakal is seeking the Medal of Everlasting Life for himself and is willing to destroy the whole town to get it. 

Will Manolo succeed in his quest through the afterlife?  Will the citizens of San Angel save their town from destruction?   Will La Muerte learn of Xibalba's interference with their bet?   

RigbyMel says: 

Being a big fan of animation and of movies having to do with holidays,  I went to see The Book of Life in first run with my esteemed co-blogger.   We enjoyed it then and continue to enjoy it. 

The movie serves as a lovely way to teach children -- and adults -- about the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration.   

The idea of teaching and learning also manifests in the film's framing device which involves a museum docent (voiced by Christina Applegate) telling the story to some mildly delinquent kids who are on a field trip. 

The movie also happens to be quite visually stunning with a saturated color palate and nods to Mexican folk art and Dia de los Muertos imagery. 

The characters are stylized to look like wooden puppets and a few even bear a resemblance to Picasso's cubist paintings.  

I also quite like that the female characters are strong and capable and there to push the action along rather than just needing to be rescued all the time.   Maria is fiercely independent, an animal rights activist, and skilled at both word and sword play.   La Muerte is a badass anthropomorphic personification of death and her wager is most definitely an inciting incident. 

My only real complaint involves the interpolation of pop songs into the early 20th century setting of the main story, which I found a bit irritating.    That being said,  yay for Diego Luna doing his own singing in the film.   

Overall, The Book of Life tells an engaging story and works well as a gateway to learning more about the Day of the Dead as well as aspects of Mexican culture in general.   It's worth watching if you are a fan of holiday films and gorgeous animation. 

RigbyMel's rating: 

.5

3.5 sugar skulls 

The Halloween Tree

As today (November 1st) is the Day of the Dead, a time for remembering those who have passed away, we would like to remember great American writer Ray Bradbury (who died on June 5, 2012) with a review of a special that was based on one of his stories.

Premiered October 30, 1993

Wally, Ralph, Tom and Jenny in their costumes

Four kids in a small mid-western town meet up on Halloween.  Each is dressed as a Halloween archetype: Tom Skelton is dressed as a skeleton, Jenny as a witch, Ralph as a mummy and Wally as a (Quasimodo-esque) monster.  They plan to meet up with their friend Tom "Pip" Pipkin -- " Pipkin who could yell louder, sing better, and eat more popcorn. Pip, the greatest boy who ever lived."  Pip's favorite holiday is Halloween, so they are shocked when he doesn't meet up with them at the appointed time.

The kids look for Pip but can't find him

They think it must be Pip playing a Halloween trick on them, so they go to his house and find that there are no Halloween decorations out and that Pipkin is being loaded into an ambulance.  Pip left his friends a note saying he has appendicitis and asks them to start Halloween without him. He says he'll catch up to them.

Pip being loaded into the ambulance

Worried about their friend and unwilling to start the Halloween fun without him, the kids decide to run to the hospital, taking a short cut through the forest.  Suddenly, they see Pip running in front of them through the ravine.  Again, they wonder if Pip is playing some sort of Halloween prank.  Wally thinks he can see right through Pip, but the others brush this suggestion off as impossible.  The kids chase after Pipkin and stumble on a creepy, old mansion at the edge of the woods.

 Since this seems to be where Pip has been leading them, the children knock on the door which opens by itself and they are suddenly sucked into the interior of the house.   There they meet the mysterious Mr. Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud (Leonard Nimoy).

Moundshroud is disappointed that the children don't know the symbolic significance of their costumes or why Halloween is even celebrated.

Ghostly Pip startles Wally

 Pip's spirit is then seen running through the house and climbing up an amazing gnarled old tree that is decorated with jack o'lanterns.

The Halloween Tree

 Pip seizes a jack o'lantern that bears a striking resemblance to himself and flies away with it.   Mr. Moundshroud is upset at the theft of his "property" and sets off to track Pipkin down.   Tom and the others ask to be allowed to accompany him and help their friend.   Moundshroud initially refuses because of the kids' lack of knowledge about Halloween, but relents.  He says they'll make a game of it and hopefully solve three mysteries by the end of the night -- bringing Pip back, learning about why their costumes are significant and exploring the origins of Halloween.

The October Kite

Moundshroud creates an October kite with the help of the four children using old circus posters from the side of a dilapidated barn (the children serve as the kite's tail) and they begin a magical journey that spans 4,000 years in pursuit of Pipkin's wandering spirit.

As they travel to Halloweens past,  they learn about the origins of the holiday and their costumes.

Spirits of Ancient Egypt

They visit ancient Egypt and learn about mummification and celebrations for the dead there.

They witness rituals of Celtic Druids and learn of the origins of witches in old England.

Moundshroud helps build Notre Dame

 They travel to the unfinished Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris (and finish it themselves in minutes, with a little magical assistance from Moundshroud) and learn of the use of monstrous gargoyles to ward off evil.

The kids riding on gargoyles

 Finally, they wend their way to Mexico where they learn of the Day of the Dead celebrations there featuring sugar skulls and overcoming the fear of death.

Do the children catch up with Pip and rescue his wandering spirit?  Will Moundshroud get his jack o'lantern back?  Will the three mysteries of the evening be solved?   You'll have to watch this special to find out!

RigbyMel says:

This special is based upon Bradbury's 1972 fantasy novel for kids, also called The Halloween Tree and Ray Bradbury himself wrote the screenplay and serves as narrator.   In my estimation, this is a huge plus for this special, and evidently it was a plus for Emmy voters as well as this feature length adaptation won the Emmy for "Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program" in 1994.

Although the Halloween history aspect of the special (and the book) is a little bit compressed and simplified, the story does serve as a good introduction to the subject for kids.   Moreover, the imagery of the narration is amazing (as one might expect from Ray Bradbury) -- Moundshroud's house is described as looking "as if it had been cut out of black marble with so many chimneys the roof seemed a vast cemetery" and the imagery accompanying it is note perfect.

Sometimes celebrity voice appearances in cartoons can be distracting,  but Leonard Nimoy does a fine character voice as Moundshroud.

As a person who loves Halloween and history and language,  I found this special (and the book upon which it is based) to be quite a lot of fun.    

RigbyMel's rating:
3 and 1/2 Jack O'Lanterns

J.A. Morris says:
A very good adaptation of a great children's book.  I'm in general agreement with RigbyMel about this special.  I'll second what she said about Nimoy.  He does a great job here, he never sounds like Spock.

 If I have any problems with The Halloween Tree, it's that the characters aren't very defined.  Like the costumes they wear, Tom, Wally, Jenny and Ralph are sort of archetypes.  And considering that the special was made in the 1990s, it would have been nice to see a little more diversity in the cast.  In the book, all the characters are boys, so at least they added Jenny to the mix.  But the special somewhat makes up for that with the explorations of other cultures.

Trick or treaters.

 The Halloween Tree was recently released on dvd as part of the Warner Archive Collection.  So in order to see it, you may have to buy it.  So I recommend you read the book first to decide if you want to get the dvd. 

Jenny jumps a hedge in her witch costume.

This special is recommended and its release on dvd serves as a nice tribute to a fantastic author. 

J.A. Morris' rating:

3 and 1/2 Jack O'Lanterns